Wine judging basics: how are wines assessed in competitions?

At first glance wine judging is simple: the judge decides whether they like the wine and gives it a score. In reality it is more methodical, because a medal won at a competition often helps determine a wine’s fate, and many buyers choose by medal. This summary presents the most important basics.

Who can be a good judge?

Above all, it takes practice. Someone starts by just tasting, later begins to organise wine types and their characteristics, and finally evaluates consciously, by criteria. Expertise alone is not enough, though: concentration is also needed, and it is impaired by tiredness, a heavy, fatty, spicy breakfast, a cold or any illness that leaves you run down.

The perception threshold of each person is different too: some people sense alcohol better, others residual sugar or acids. That is why several judges assess the same wine in competitions, and the average of the scores gives a roughly objective result. Roughly, because it happens that two panels give the same wine different scores.

Conditions for judging

• Glass: at official tastings, the standard stemmed, tulip-shaped glass approved by the OIV may be used.
• Equipment: a scoring sheet, a thermometer (or a temperature-controlled wine cooler), and a decanter for older wines that need airing.
• Room: airy, spacious and well lit.
• On the table: water for rinsing the glass and the mouth, and bread or a bread roll. According to the source, cheese and oily nuts mask taste perception and apple pushes the sensation towards acidity, so these should be avoided.

What temperature should the wine be?

The values recommended by the source:

In what order are the wines served?

The order is set by the type of wine, its vintage, its alcohol, sugar and acid content, and the intensity of its aroma. In general, sparkling wines come first, then white wines from light to full-bodied, rosés, red wines from light to heavy, wines aged under a film of yeast and dessert wines, and finally spiced, wormwood wines.

Judging methods

Triangle test (three-glass test). The judges receive two identical samples and one slightly different one (for example, minimal acid has been added to one), and must find the odd one out. The test is used to filter out a judge who is not in form that day; their scores are not taken into account.

20-point scoring. Colour (up to 2 points for white wine, 4 for red), clarity (up to 2), aroma (up to 4), and taste, flavour and overall impression (up to 12 points for white wine, 10 for red).

100-point scoring. More detailed: ten criteria are scored, including appearance and clarity, colour, the cleanness, intensity and quality of aroma and flavour, length and overall impression. Points are given on a five-step scale for each criterion. The greatest weight lies on flavour quality (up to 22 points) and aroma quality (up to 16 points).

Profile analysis. An additional method at larger competitions: the perceptible components of the wine (for example acid and aromas) and their intensity are rated in percentages, the result is shown on a spider diagram and attached to the scoring sheet. This makes it visible at a glance how two wines differ from each other.

How do we describe wine?

A description revolves around four aspects: appearance, aroma, taste and overall effect. Some common terms:

Precise wording matters because it is the only way to tell wines apart: if we write “good wine” about everything, nothing can be learned from it. It is worth reading wine descriptions and keeping your own tasting notes.

Source

Wine judging basics, pincefalvak.hu: http://www.pincefalvak.hu/tema/232-borbiralat. This article is a condensed summary of the source page’s content, written in our own words.