Wine competition

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Please improve this article if you can. (October 2007)

A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages or bands of wine. There are two types of wine competitions, both of which use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges.

Contents

[edit] Types of wine competition

The most common form of wine competition is intended to obtain valid comparisons of wines by trained experts. The awards are given to groups of wines in various categories on the basis of the blind tasting. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colors are also sometimes used. It is not uncommon for one-third or more of the wines competing to be awarded medals. Some critical observers compare the results to "grade inflation." For example, in 2005 the International Wine Challenge received over 9,000 entries and handed out 5,628 awards. Thus, over one-half of the entries were "winners" and could advertise themselves as award-winning wines. These professional competitions tend to be organized by wineries, their trade associations, or entrepreneurs. They are popular with producers because there are many winners and the medals are useful in marketing their products.

The other form of competition is most often organized by wine lovers and is consumer-oriented. Its goal is not to help market wine but to evaluate wine quality. The judges also evaluate the wines blind. However, instead of giving numerous awards, the wines are ranked by number from high to low in each wine category, a process known as ordinal ranking. Thus, there is only one first place winner, one second place, one third place, and so on down to the lowest place. If 12 wines are evaluated, they are ranked from one to 12, although ties may occur.

The latter form of competition is often preferred by wine lovers. Producers often disassociate themselves from them because there can only be one winner in each category. Typically, there are only two categories, which are red and white wines. However, competitions of the first type often include a "Best of Class" award, producing a clear category winner among those vintages awarded a gold medal, for example the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition.[1]

[edit] Background

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Beginning in the 1960s, a number of winemakers in California aspired to create wines that could rival the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, which they so greatly admired. These wines were their standards of excellence, which they bought, drank, studied, and emulated. By the early 1970s, a number had produced wines that they believed were outstanding, but had great difficulty marketing them, even the United States. The results of some early blind competitions were discounted by the wine world.[citation needed] Although the competitions were blind, the argument was that the judges somehow knew which wines they were tasting and were biased. Another was that the quality of the French wines was reduced in transit across the ocean.

However, the results of the Judgment of Paris were not ignored. The judges ranked a California wine number one among the ten white wines, and they also ranked another two California wines among the top four white wines. They also ranked a California red wine number one among ten reds.

The results shocked the world of wine and led to the recognition that world-class wines could and were being produced outside France. This, in turn, led other New World wine makers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, and a number of other countries to believe that they, too, might be able to compete with the very best. The results also led to raised aspirations among Old World producers such as Spain,Italy and Portugal. Some critics believe that the consequence has been even higher quality in French wines and that the results of the Paris Wine Tasting have benefited consumers around the world.

Because of the reputation of top French wines, they continue to be viewed as the benchmark against which all others are judged. Consequently, all of the following competitions have included prestigious French wines.

[edit] Ordinal rank wine competitions

In the wine competitions listed below, all tasting was performed blind and all results were ranked in ordinal form -- strictly high to low -- within wine category.

Note, however, that there are critics who argue that the results of such competitions may be misleading and should not be relied upon as a measure of quality[2].

[edit] Conclusion

Arguably because of wine competitions, wine quality has improved in many countries around the world. Wine makers continue to explore new areas for vineyards, new vineyard techniques, improved technology for enhancing quality during fermentation, and better ageing methods.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  • Taber, George M. ‘’Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine’’. NY: Scribner, 2005.
  • French Wine Producers and Customers

[edit] References

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007)
  1. ^ 2007 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition
  2. ^ Orley Ashenfelter and Richard E. Quandt Analyzing a Wine Tasting Statistically