Thou Shalt Judge
The Ventura County Fair Wine Competition
By Michael Cervin 08/02/2007
The Ventura County Fair has been around for 13 decades, (by contrast I've been around only four) however, 2007 marked the inaugural commercial wine competition.
Most county fairs in California have a commercial wine competition and home winemaker competition as part of their agricultural products division, but Ventura has lagged in this respect.
As a wine writer and wine judge, I've been invited to the California Mid-Sate Fair, Santa Barbara, Amador and El Dorado county fairs and the Chardonnay Shootout in San Francisco. I know we were taught as kids to not judge, but somebody's got to do it. This past Sunday, I joined several other wine judges to taste, spit and talk wine including Mark Storer, a local wine writer and certified sommelier, and Therese Keating, a sales rep for Southern Wine & Spirits, one of the largest wine distributors in California. \"I love encouraging winemakers and showing the market how much wonderful wine is out there,\" Storer said. Keating, who lives in L.A., loves the \"friendliness of Ventura\" and sees the judging as a way to hone her tasting skills.
Everyone thinks judging wine is easy. One of the last competitions I judged at, I tasted 130 wines in one day. If you don't know what you're doing, you burn out fast. Plus, you need to be fair to each wine and give it the attention it deserves. Therefore, you don't actually swallow the wine. You spit it out. But you do taste it, move it around your mouth, smell it and let it permeate your taste buds. All wines are bagged, and we judges have no idea who the producer is. The wines are poured for us by a volunteer staff to ensure we stay within blind tasting parameters. Then we discuss levels of acidity, residual sugar, color, aroma, flavor and assign points to each category. The points are added and awards given out. Not all judges agree and, at times, you have to acquiesce to the majority. Occasionally you fight hard for a wine you love, just like occasionally you fight against a wine you hate.
\"Our goal is to showcase agriculture and the wine industry,\" Laurie Vanoni, the superintendent of agriculture at the fair, said. \"We hope to educate our fair guests about the wonderful wines in this region.\"
Therefore, as you wander the 60 acres of Seaside Park during the fair, take particular note of the winners in the wine competition. You’ll see them again.
Louis Lucas, owner of Lucas & Lewellen Winery, had the top wine in the competition. The Judge’s Choice represents the best wine out of all the entries, the Silver King Merlot Port.
\"I'm thrilled the port won,\" Lucas said, \"because that's only our second port.\"
Lucas now has bragging rights. The top wine of the home winemaker category was a pinot noir from Barbara Dahl. This is a young competition, but ensuing years will raise the bar to compete with other well-known counties. Heads up California, Ventura County is coming of age.
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