Wine competition

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The most common form of wine competition is one in which awards are given to groups of wines in various winning categories on the basis of the blind tasting of wine. That is, the judges do not know the identity of the wines they are evaluating. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colors are also sometimes used. It is not uncommon for one-third or more of the wines competing to be awarded medals. Some critical observers compare the results to "grade inflation." For example, in 2005 the International Wine Challenge received over 9,000 entries and handed out 5,628 awards. Thus, over one-half of the entries were "winners" and could advertise themselves as award-winning wines.

Such competitions tend to be organized by wineries, their trade associations, or entrepreneurs. They are popular with producers because there are many winners and the medals are useful in marketing their products.

The other form of competition, of which there have been only a few, is most often organized by wine lovers and is consumer-oriented. Its goal is not to help market wine but to evaluate wine quality. The judges also evaluate the wines blind. However, instead of giving numerous awards, the wines are ranked by number from high to low in each wine category, a process known as ordinal ranking. Thus, there is only one first place winner, one second place, one third place, and so on down to the lowest place. If 12 wines are evaluated, they are ranked from one to 12, although ties may occur.

The latter form of competition is often preferred by wine lovers. Producers often disassociate themselves from them because there can only be one winner in each category. Typically, there are only two categories, which are red and white wines.

Beginning in the 1960s, a number of winemakers in California aspired to create wines that could rival the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, which they so greatly admired. These wines were their standards of excellence, which they bought, drank, studied, and emulated. By the early 1970s, a number had produced wines that they believed were outstanding, but had great difficulty marketing them, even the United States. The results of some early blind competitions were discounted and discredited by the wine world.^{[citation needed]} Although the competitions were blind, the argument was that the judges somehow knew which wines they were tasting and were biased. Another was that the quality of the French wines was reduced in transit across the ocean.

However, the results of the Judgment of Paris were not ignored. The judges ranked a California wine number one among the ten white wines, and they also ranked another two California wines among the top four white wines. They also ranked a California red wine number one among ten reds.

The results shocked the world of wine and led to the recognition that world-class wines could and were being produced outside France. This, in turn, led other New World wine makers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, and a number of other countries to believe that they, too, might be able to compete with the very best. The results also led to raised aspirations among Old World producers such as Spain,Italy and Portugal. Some critics believe that the consequence has been even higher quality in French wines and that the results of the Paris Wine Tasting have benefited consumers around the world.

Because of the reputation of top French wines, they continue to be viewed as the benchmark against which all others are judged. Consequently, all of the following competitions have included prestigious French wines.

In the wine competitions listed below, all tasting was performed blind and all results were ranked in ordinal form -- strictly high to low -- within wine category.

Note, however, that there are critics who argue that the results of such competitions may be misleading and should not be relied upon as a measure of quality^[1].

New York Wine Tasting of 1973: Fourteen experts, including France’s Alexis Lichine, ranked 23 Chardonnays from France, California, and New York State.
San Diego Wine Tasting of 1975: Eight Bordeaux and two California wines were evaluated by 28 judges.
Paris Wine Tasting of 1976: This notable wine competition is briefly described above.
San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978: The same wines earlier evaluated in the Paris competition were again judged.
Wine Olympics (1979): A French food and wine magazine organized a competition of 330 wines from 33 countries evaluated by 62 experts.
Great Chardonnay Showdown (1980): A total of 221 Chardonnays from around the world were evaluated by 25 judges.
Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981: In the Ottawa competition, experts evaluated 13 wines from France and California.
French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986: On the tenth anniversary of the Paris competition, eight judges evaluated nine of the ten red wines earlier ranked.
Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986: A different 'tenth anniversary' competition.
The World Wines Competition: An annual double blind competition established in 1991 in which the top red and white wines are separately ranked one to four by experts from six continents.
Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997: European jury tasted three vintages (1989, 1992 and 1994) of 27 Chardonnays from seven countries.
Halekulani Wine Tasting of 2000: Sixty experts evaluated 17 red wines.
Berlin Wine Tasting of 2004: Thirty-six European wine experts evaluated two vintages each of eight top wines from France, Italy, and Chile.
Ottawa Wine Tasting of 2005: Eighteen wines (six each from Bordeaux, Ontario, and British Columbia) were evaluated by 35 expert tasters and monitored by an organization responsible for marketing French wine.
St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005: Four classified growth Bordeaux wines and 12 Ontario wines were judged by 50 Canadian wine tasters.
The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary. A 30-year anniversary replication of the 1976 Paris competition.

Arguably because of wine competitions, wine quality has improved in many countries around the world. Wine makers continue to explore new areas for vineyards, new vineyard techniques, improved technology for enhancing quality during fermentation, and better ageing methods.