Judging the 2015 Virginia Governors Cup

The controversy about whether judges at wine competitions know what they’re doing is never far from my mind when I judge these days. How will the competition I’m working try to fix what seem to be serious problems, including too many wines and not enough judges? The 2015 Virginia Governors Cup took a novel approach — lots of judges, small flights of wine, and standardized score sheets. The process — as well as many of the wines — was impressive. More, after the jump:

Competition director Jay Youmans said the format, and especially the idea of more judges, was designed to get as many different palates involved as possible, on the theory that more judges bringing more perspective will mean better results. Hence, judging for the preliminary rounds took place over five two-day sessions this month, with six judges at each two-day session, different judges for every session, and no more than 50 wines each day. The best wines from the preliminary rounds will be judged by yet another group to pick the 12 best wines in the 2015 Virginia Governor’s Cup.

Compare that to many major competitions, where everything takes place over two or three days, judging panels may have only three people, and we taste at least 100 wines a day. What he didn’t want, Jay said, was for anyone to endure what he did at one California event — 170 pinot noirs in a day, and 30 in one flight.

The difference was marked. My group, which included a retailer, a winemaker, an importer, a restaurateur, and a wine educator, wasn’t rushed or overwhelmed. In addition, it was one of the best panels I’ve judged with at a regional wine event — open-minded, fair, and diverse. Plus, I wasn’t the youngest judge in the group, which was nice to see and doesn’t happen often enough. My only complaint was that we weren’t allowed to discuss the wines while we judged them, something I like because I learn a lot that way.

The biggest flights had six wines, and most were five or smaller. Then, since the score sheets were standardized, we didn’t have to waste time or effort writing convoluted tasting notes for each wine. We just circled an option — red fruit or black fruit for flavors, for example, or orange or lavender for aroma. We also gave each wine a score on the 100-point scale, which I don’t like, but which I made my peace with since I was allowed to give wines less than 80 points. Which I did.

Can this format work elsewhere? Certainly the idea of more judges, but the 2015 Virginia Governors Cup has several advantages other competitions don’t. It’s much smaller, only 400 wines compared to 4,000 or more in the biggest west coast events, and it’s state funded, so it doesn’t need to make a profit. Too many wine competitions focus too much on profit, so they cut costs with fewer judges and bigger panels.

The wines, for the most part, reflected Virginia’s continued improvement (allowing for the small sample size). There were only a couple of flights that were undrinkable, and even the chardonnay — which usually drives me crazy at regional competitions — was mostly OK. The wines reflected the state’s terroirs, and almost none of them were made in the international style that makes me wonder why they bothered.

There are still some problems with ripeness and picking the best grapes for the state’s climate and terroir, especially for the reds, but the best wines were as good as anything I’ve tasted from anywhere in the world. We did 10 cabernet francs, and I gave four gold medals, as well as two golds for the 12 Bordeaux-style red blends. And a cabernet sauvignon-based rose was delicious. Unfortunately, I won’t know what those wines are until the 12 best are announced next month.

The disclaimers: I was paid $200 for judging, and my plane fare and hotel were paid for by the competition.