San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition – Wine Judging Demystified

We are pround to announce that just recently at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Windsor Vineyards was awarded a grand total of 14 medals!

As one of the most-award winning wineries in the country for the past several years, we’ve had many customers ask us a few questions.  What exactly the medals mean? Who are the judges? How does the judging process work? In this post, we are going to try to remove some of the mystique behind wine competitions and give you a better understanding of what it all means.

Who’s on the Judging Panels?

Photo © Michelle Baker, licensed to About.com

Judging panels are typically made up of a variety of wine experts. They range from winemakers and retailers to sommeliers and wine writers. They are people who eat, breathe, live and drink wine and have a vast body of knowledge about wines and winemaking.

The Judging Process

Wine competition panels consist of three to five judges who evaluate 100 – 120 wines per day, over the course of 3-4 days. Wines are tasted within categories or classes (such as “Cabernet Sauvignon over $25”). Judges know the category they are tasting, but not any of the individual wines. All the tastings are done “blind”.

The judges taste each category and cast their vote, awarding wines with Gold, Silver, Bronze or no medal. If a wine receives a unanimous Gold medal vote from the panel it is awarded a Double Gold. Judges then re-taste the Double Gold Medal winners, (or sometimes, Gold and Silver medal winners as well, depending on the number of winners to chose from) to determine the Best of Class winner for each category.

Photo © Michelle Baker, licensed to About.com

As the last step, the Best of Class winners then go on to compete in the Best of Show or Sweepstakes round where one red, one white and depending on the competition, one sparkling are awarded the best of the best.

A complete list of all the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition award winners is available at the Chronicle’s website. And for a list of Windsor’s winners, you can browse our website or ask your Personal Wine Consultant about the many medal winners Windsor Vineyards offers.

And, if you haven’t noticed before, the top three awards a wine has won are listed on the back of every Windsor Vineyards wine label!