There were 400 wines, 16 judges and a lot of grimacing at the 2nd annual Professional Wine Buyer’s Competition, organized by Lea Pierce, Lisa German and Nancy Jorgensen, (they run Wine Competition Management, which also puts on the wildly popular National Women’s Wine Competition coming up in March). The Pro Wine Buyers competition includes a collection of wine buyers, sommeliers, restaurant wine list creators, wine industry consultants and a few wine writers, including yours truly. Our job is to award medals to the worthy: to find the well-made, well-priced gems you’d be happy to recommend to your friends: the friends you want to keep.Our job was also to weed out the stinkers so they don’t end up in your wine cellar. Judging with professional wine buyers is very different from judging with wine writers, reviewers, winemakers and bloggers. A buyers job is on the line with every transaction: they want to keep their customers happy, because happy customers keep on coming back to buy wine, week after week. So they look for solid value wines that will keep their sterling reputations intact and their cash registers ringing. They want to know the prices before they judge: it matters to them, because it matters to you, the consumer. Lucky us. We tasted some really well-made wines. The Merlots in the $20 and up category were by far and away the winner of the “Most Improved Wines” award. The last time I judged this many Merlots, I was so overwhelmed by cheap oak tea bag and cherry cough medicine flavors that I swore off the swill for good. I never wanted to hear the M word again. But my faith hath been restored. Here’s a tip: if you like a really good Merlot for under $30 – what’s that? You say you’ve never had one? – well, this is it. You’ll be solidly pleased with the 2006 Chateau Ste Michelle Merlot, Canoe Ridge, from Horse Heaven Hills. This steed tastes like a $50 thrill ride, but costs only $28. That’s the kind of bang for the buck the buyers are looking for. The other Merlot my panel gave the thumbs up to was the 2006 Picazo from Livermore: deeply delicious and well-bred. Also $60…a special wine for Valentine’s day, perhaps. On my panel were two wine shop owners: Scott Walker of The Wine Shop in Healdsburg and Mendocino, CA, and Susie Sexton of the Montana Fish Company in Bozeman, MT. They insisted on knowing price points of each entry and awarded medals judiciously based on whether their customers would perceive a wine to be a value or a rip-off. Scott would taste each wine with the picture of one of his customers dancing in his head. Susie kept inventing unkind things she would do to a distributor were he to present her with one of the dreadful duds we regretted even putting in our mouths. We quickly developed an early warning system to prevent palate rot. Our lead judge, Debra Fiorentino, Sommelier, CWP and Consumer Marketing Director for Russian River Vineyards, held the line on varietal correctness, taking no prisoners when a wine lacked it. After all, that’s one of the few data points available on the label: customers need to believe a Pinot isn’t going to taste like a tormented Tempranillo. My angle was to flunk flawed wines that would give the consumer a headache, a stomach-ache, buyer’s remorse, a nasty hangover or all of the above. By not awarding at least a Bronze to any given wine, we were all collectively sending signals to the winemaker to re-examine this potential blank in their arsenal. One always wonders how a truly awful wine makes it into the bottle and out of the winery. Sorry, but lazy winemaking has no place in this competitive marketplace. Consumers are far too educated and have far too many choices. There’s a lot of really, really bad wine out there, but there’s also a lot of liquid gold. Too bad it’s so hard to find. That’s what competitions and wine reviewers are for.The sweepstakes finalists, seven double gold medal winners from the overall competition, were all amazing and worthy. The top vote-getter was an absolutely awesome 2006 Syrah from Meadowlark Vineyards, Santa Barbara County, for $27.99: a peppery, lushly powerful wine. Will someone please make a movie about Syrah? I love Syrah, and it’s been taking an unfair beating in the marketplace, owing mainly to our Aussie brethren who’ve ruined the market with their overripe, extracted Shirazy swill. Other truly fabulous bargains that bubbled to the top were the Chateau St Michelle Cabernet mentioned earlier, and the 2009 Crossroads Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, a citrus-packed, passionfruit-rich, racy acid wine for a mouthwatering $14.99. Also scoring double-golds were the 2005 Troon Old Vine Meritage from Apple Valley in Oregon ($29), and the 2006 Thumbprint Cellars Cabernet from Dry Creek ($49). Another standout double-gold winner was the 2005 Stanger Reserve Syrah from Paso Robles, $55. Hurrah, for Syrah! You can find out all the results at www.prowinebuyerscomp.infoAnd winemakers, the National Women’s Wine competition is open to all wineries: get your entries in by March 5. The Women’s Wine Challenge, a component of the competition, is open to wine made by women only. Ladies, let’s see whatcha got!!
