Whenever I mention to normal people (those who aren’t in the wine business) that I often work as a judge in wine competitions, invariably I get this response: “So, you get to sit around and drink and talk about drinks?”
The answer is—Yes. But, that happens at the nearest bar after the competition.
Since 2014, I’ve been a judge at the San Francisco International Wine Competition (SFIWC), one of the U.S.’s most respected (in its 39th year) and long-standing wine competitions. I can tell you that wine competitions are hard work, though it’s likely not the kind of work that you’d imagine.
A WINE COMPETITION IS NOT A PARTY, EXACTLY
First, a definition is in order: a wine competition is not a party. It’s an event in which producers submit their wines, to be judged blind (tasters not knowing the identity of the wines), by one or more panels of judges. The judges are typically well-versed in multiple wine styles across a wide spectrum of regional, variety, price, and quality variations. Those judges might include critics, writers, buyers, sommeliers, distributors, and even wine marketers. Generally, producers pay to submit their wines (which covers storage, location, stipends, travel, and processing costs) in the hopes that they’ll win shiny medals.
Why should they—or we—collectively care about these events?
For consumers, those shiny medals help identify great-drinking wines on which they can confidently spend their hard-earned dollars. For wine insiders, an award can be essential for getting a product marketed and noticed. For the judges, there are key benefits in the exposure to both beverages and brethren.
My fellow SFIWC judge (and Director of Communications at Rodney Strong Vineyards) Christopher O’Gorman, put it this way: “Wine competitions are a valuable tool for a wine business marketing communications professional to stay current with wine trends and to network with industry gatekeepers, including media, wine educators, retailers, suppliers, and distributors.”
THE MEANING BEHIND THE MEDALS
Back to those shiny medals: they’re awarded via panel consensus based on strict criteria followed by all of the judges. From Bronze (a tasteful, fault-free wine), through Silver (outstanding), Gold (a wine showing exceptionally well during the judging), to Double Gold (wines that earn a unanimous Gold medal in a panel, and are eligible to win Best in Class and Best in Show categories).
Wines are usually tasted in large flights of ten or more, grouped in classes (usually by region or grape variety), and need to be delivered to each panel at near-perfect serving temperatures. If a fault is detected, volunteers quickly provide a repour from a new bottle (for a bit of perspective, one of my panel’s volunteers logged over eight miles on foot in less than a day and a half, just from shuttling wines to/from my table).
HIGH STAKES
With the stakes for entrants being high, judging requires focusing intensely on a single wine, debating its merits, giving it the fairest assessment that you can, and then repeating that with a high degree of professionalism about two hundred times per day for three days.
Behind the scenes, there are a bevy of “hidden” costs involved. In the case of the SFIWC, these include year-round staff to handle inventory, chase down late or missing entries, manage travel and communication around the event, look after a warehouse full of fine wine entries, and coordinate what might be the competition’s most essential asset: a small army of hardworking local volunteers, including multiple generations of adult family members.
These intrepid folk coordinate, pour and clean up the hundreds of wines tasted by each panel of judges. Just handling the stemware is a sizeable task: volunteers send hundreds of pieces through “a car wash for wine glasses” (a restaurant-grade, conveyor-belt style wash) before and after each flight of wines is served. Miraculously, only about ten glasses are damaged per day during the SFIWC.
Judges joke, argue, and enjoy professional camaraderie along the way; but the process isn’t without its challenges. O’Gorman remarked to me that, “judging 80-100 wines throughout a day presents challenges that judges have to overcome, including palate fatigue and dehydration, in order to fulfill our duty to judge each and every wine fairly, and to advocate to the consumer wines that are well-made, without flaws and worthy of their investment and enjoyment.”
Personally, I have both the dentist and oral surgery bills to support the fact that there are, indeed, real occupational hazards to this line of work. But I’d be lying if I told you that I haven’t had several pinch-me moments when realizing that I am judging great fine wines alongside some of the most admired names in the wine business. Wine judging isn’t nice work if you can get it; it’s great work if you can get it.
