In article >, Mark Lipton >
writes:

>Pennsylvania champaign manufacturer submitted one of his
>> sparkling wines to a local award show. He won a bronze medal. He then
>> submitted the same sparkling wine to an international competition in Paris.
>> He won best of show. . Either the PA judges made a mistake or the French
>> judges made a mistake, or there isnt much difference between a 70 and a 90
>> rating. Examples like this are common
>
>All this means is that the judges in Paris liked it better than the ones in
>PA did. So
>what? It'd be a dull world if we all had identical tastes, and the wines I
>like would
>be more in demand than they already are.

Mark, I pretty much agree with all of your points in this thread, so won't add.
But I'd also like to point out a few things re competitions, points, etc.:
1) Depending on the sample size (a winery might furnish one or two bottles to a
competition, or many more to one with many judges) there can be significant
variation due to factors like heat, TCA contamination below most people's
threshhold, etc. The bottle in Paris might not have tasted like the one in PA.
2) There are few things that I pay LESS attention to as far as wine than
medals. If I see a winery touting it's medals, I yawn. [By the way, this is not
intended as an insult to judges, as I know there are a few like BFSON who post
here] But the knowledge that a particular group liked a particular wine without
knowing who was on the panel, what other wines were in the competition, format,
etc. is pretty useless in buying decisions. A quick google shows that the
French Creek Winery's "Champagne" (don't get me started) was one of the gold
medal winners at the Viniales Internationales Wine Competition. But w/o knowing
who is on that panel, what other wines it was up against, etc. I don't feel
compelled to order any PA wine.
3) In many cases my experience is that many local competitions are based on the
wine that has the least flaws model, rather than rewarding points for
particularly distinctive wines.
Dale

Dale Williams
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