[question] Question submitted by Mark Westlake My main interest in drinking wine is the pleasure I receive from putting the wine into my mouth, as opposed to looking at it or smelling it. Is there a wine show or method of evaluation that places more emphasis on the taste aspect than does the judging rules of the Royal Melbourne Wine Show which allow for only 10 of the available 20 points? In other words, a wine can have a wonderul appearance and nose with a fairly ordinary flavour and still win a gong! Secondly, one of the most important aspects for me is the length and follow through and the amount of time I continue to enjoy the flavour in the back of my throat after swallowing. How can wine judges possibly evaluate this crucial aspect of a wine if they don’t swallow it, or is it simply a matter of no importance in the final score? [/question] [answer] To answer the first part of your question, show judges really don’t use the simple 3:7:10 process when evaluating wine. When people are taught at Australian winemaking school how to score wine out of 20 points, they are indeed taught to base their score out of 20 on the maximum of 3 for colour, 7 for nose and 10 for palate. This is drilled in with some level of discipline at the early stages. Once an individual becomes more experienced at scoring, you find that instead of adding up component scores in this fashion, the aim becomes to determine whether or not a wine is of medal standard, and what medal that then might be. In Australian wine shows, a wine that scores 15.5 out of 20 received a bronze medal, while those that score 17.0 or 18.5 score silver and gold medals respectively. So, when tasting a wine, the judge’s thought process might go like this: the wine is quite good, in that it displays a good expression of varietal character, is technically sound and has good length of flavour. It is easily of bronze medal standard, but lacks a particular element of finesse that might make it worthy of a silver. However it is significantly better than average, so perhaps it might rate a high bronze medal, which would equate to 16.5 out of 20. If a wine is significantly deficient in appearance, ie with a cloudy haze or suspension, advanced ageing or browning, or else an exceptionally dull or flat appearance, it would be considered by any judge of any reputable wine show to be faulty and should therefore not be awarded any level of medal. Some wines with attractive bright appearances and fresh aromas do win medals despite the fact that their palates are indeed deficient. I am not in general a stout defender of the wine show systems of any country, since in my opinion they make far too many very significant mistakes. Wine shows tend to identify show wines, ie those that stand out the most on the day, which may or may not reflect on their overall quality. The second part of your question is simple to answer. Drinking, or swallowing a wine has no effect whatsoever on the perception of length or persistence. Your flavour receptors are in and around your mouth, not down your throat or in your stomach! Expectorating (or spitting out) a wine actually runs it over the acid receptors along the sides of your tongue and enhances the wine’s freshness and finish. Give it a try if you don’t believe me! [/answer]
