Well, I’m now back in my room – recovering!
What a day, so far! This morning the Judging Panel convened at 10:00 hrs in the Museo del Vino, Bullas – and got to work.
44 wines were tasted in a four hour period, with a 30 minute break. Each judge marked the wines and their scores were collected throughout proceedings, fed into a computer and collated. The results – in other words the medal winners will be announced this evening at the Grand Gala Dinner in a top quality restaurant in a nearby town, and the medals will be presented!
It’s been an honour to be a part of it all – in fact the only foreigner on the tasting panel which included winemakers, writers critics and esteemed and famous media personalities.
We’ve just finished an excellent lunch, luckily for me at the same Casa Rural where I’m staying, courtesy of the Consejo Regulador, DO Bullas. I think 8 courses, or was it nine(?) were presented and each was accompanied with at least one different wine, often two or more.
And the quality of the wines? Well, I often wonder if I’m being harsh when awarding points and therefore ultimately medals, or not. Am I operating as if I was on the IWSC (International Wine & Spirits Competition – the oldest in the world and one of the most prestigious) Spanish Panel (which I will be, next month) and applying their strict interpretation of what is, and what isn’t, quality, when it comes to wine? And if so, is this the correct way to go about judging local wines?
Well, yes, I think it is correct to apply the same quality control rules. If a wine entered for the IWSC wins a medal, you can be sure that it deserves it! Can we say the same about all other competitions, well no – frankly. So when I judged the DO Bullas wines I applied the same stringent tests.
I found just 2 gold medal winners, a few more silvers, perhaps a few more bronzes, quite a few ‘nearly wines’ and a couple of poor or perhaps faulty wines.
I’ll be interested to see how my colleagues rated the wines tonight at the celebratory dinner where I’ll see if more Golds were given etc.
More tomorrow – again, when I’ve recovered!