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Article published Aug 5, 2006

Sticking their noses in it - Judges sniff out winners at Lodi's Wine & Roses

LODI - Dave Dart held up the glass, studied the garnet-colored wine's appearance and brought it to his nose. He inhaled deeply, put the glass to his lips and took a taste before spitting it out. And that was a wine he liked. Dart, the winemaker at Lodi's d'Art winery, and 32 other wine judges repeated that process about 50 times Friday at the Wine & Roses Hotel and Restaurant, where entries in the California State Fair's home winemaking competition were scored. The judges tasted 520 wines made by amateurs throughout the state, many of them from northern San Joaquin County, where vineyards cover the region. Zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon, two red wine varieties grown in abundance in the Lodi area, accounted for more than a quarter of the entries.

Dart joined Roseville's Randy Cunningham and San Diego's John Hicks in judging cabernet sauvignon entries that were identified only by a numbered sticker on each glass.
They scored four wines at a time, then compared notes and, in some cases, re-evaluated their first impressions. Judges spit out the wine into paper cups so they only absorb a small amount of alcohol and avoid getting drunk. Wine No. 1,482 was bottled too early, said Dart, who felt it still was worthy of a bronze medal. Hicks dismissed it entirely, while Cunningham was an admirer, ranking it an easy silver medal winner.
"There is good depth of fruit," Cunningham told Dart and Hicks, saying the wine was getting better the longer it sat in the glass. "I'm going to ask you guys to retaste this one. I'm getting a lot of the classic French vanilla." Dart tasted the wine again. "Actually, it's one of the most full-bodied wines we've had," Dart said. "I was at a bronze-plus, but I would go to a silver." Hicks was willing to raise his score to a bronze, which was enough to earn No. 1,482 a silver medal.
Dart said the competition is valuable for amateurs whether or not they get high marks. "Most of the home winemakers are not after the medals," said Dart, who made wine at home for five years before opening his winery. "They're really after the feedback. Your friends will all tell you they're great wines." The tips ranged from "rack off yeast sooner" to eliminate a disagreeable flavor to "drink now," an indication the wine wouldn't be drinkable much longer. A roving panel of wine experts helped the judges with their scoring. The six-member group included Brad Alderson, general manager of the Woodbridge Winery, and Ed Moody, winemaking director for Bronco Wine, one of the country's largest wine companies.

"If you're a home winemaker, you might not know any experts," said G.M. "Pooch" Pucilowski, the competition coordinator who also manages the fair's commercial-wine contest. "We're the experts. We'll judge it, tell you what you did wrong so you can make it better next time."

Two amateur winemaking clubs, the Lodi Area Vintners Association and the Amador Winemakers Association, organized entries, poured tastes for the judges and entered the initial scores into a database.
From there, the top-scoring varietals were judged in a best-of-class round, with the leading red, white and other wines judged for best of show. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 31 in Sacramento.

The State Fair did not judge amateur wines last year because of a dispute with a Sacramento winemaking club that had previously coordinated the tasting. The Lodi and Amador clubs stepped in, with Wine & Roses offering its facilities at no charge. The State Fair has agreed to hold the 2007 and 2008 competitions there as well, according to hotelier Russ Munson.