image: NVWA

A quick update about wine competition judging… while I’m on the road, coincidentally, heading out to judge at the 2020 McMinnville Wine & Food Classic Wine Competition! [ Editor’s update: Unfortunately, I had to bail due to a heinous stomach bug :-( ]

My latest piece for the Napa Valley Wine Academy is now live, titled So You Want To Be a Wine Judge? (An Insider’s View of Wine Competitions), in which I discuss what happens behind the scenes at a major wine comp. (short version: a lot more than you think, and with a lot less drinking than you might at first imagine).

In this case, I use the San Fransisco International Wine Competition as a model, given that a) I’d just come off from judging at the 2019 incarnation, and b) it’s one of the best such-run events in the USA, if not globally.

It’s a read for the curious, especially the self-righteous types who think that wine comps are all bullsh*t and/or feel that they could judge/run such an event better than, say, the SFIWC or Critics Challenge staff (short version: no, you can’t).

Cheers!