Notes on judging criteria:

The judging criteria are straightforward: 1st, basic soundness. No major flaws such as: apparent volatile acid, bretannomyces, oxidation, etc. As we never know which wines will come to the judge's table we do not have established categories. We know that 95% of the wines will be red and usually very young. Each wine is judged on it's own merits.

Yes we judge in flights, but we will not rank the wines and automatically award ribbons unless the wines have merit. In 2002, for instance, the judges found more firsts and seconds than previous years but could not award many thirds. The best of show white wine, a gewurztraminer, stood alone in it's varietal class. It was outstanding. So although we had no other gewurztraminers to compare it with, it was a truly great wine.