The Kansas City Cellarmasters 2020 Wine Classic is in the books. I'm starting to figure out what judges like and what performs well in a wine competition. It's not always the wine we prefer to drink in the evening.
Let's start with the bad. Just one. Blackberry. Again. I took careful steps to avoid loss of color and to sweeten this 2017 Blackberry more, but it wasn't enough. "Unbalanced, needs more sugar." "Grassy, no blackberry" was strange to see when truly the only thing that is in this wine is blackberries. "Diesel flavor finish." 9.33. I give up. Blackberry pie anyone?
The rest of my wines at least medaled. Granted, they are pretty generous with medals but this is my best performance to date. The 2017 Zinfandel earned 14.5, good for bronze. Two comments about it being tart. "Overall nice wine."
The 2018 Grenache Rosé got a bronze with 13.67. There was only one comment, "On the thin side." Apparently it was solid if unspectacular, according to these judges. I'm ok with solid.
The Chardonel from 2018 is in my opinion one of my best wines to date. Alas, in competition it was good only for 13.83, bronze. "Notes of melon, flint, citrus, butter." "Crisp, flinty, minerally, apples." Yes, I like this reviewer! "Thin body" "thin, medium finish" from the others.
My 2018 Traminette earned a bronze with 13.5. "Notes of spice, floral." "Low tannins." One sheet with no comments. At least it wasn't thin.
I sent in the 2017 Blueberry which, at that time, I made with some Merlot concentrate. Got one comment that "flavors did not blend well." "Not much blueberry flavor" contrasted with another reviewer, "Fruit forward with Merlot influence." Overall, 15.33 was good for a silver medal.
As an offshoot of the 2017 elderberry, I made a port. To us, this is a delicious dessert drink. I don't have much left actually, but went ahead and sent two bottles in the Fortified/Dessert Wine category. "Nice flavor." "Nice after dinner drink." and then literally two reviewers wrote "Nice dessert wine!" The port earned a silver with 15.50.
I've been fooling around with the 2017 Pear wine for a long time. It was made in two parts, neither went dry, one got some H2S, and, well, it just took a lot of tweaking. All of this for some 7 gallons of wine which to me tastes uncomfortably like apples. I still haven't brought myself to bottle all of it. Well maybe I should, because the judges liked it. "Nice bouquet." "Pleasant" "Very nice, couldn't find much to complain about." "Tastes young." "I think that this will mature into a fine wine." 16.5, silver.
The 2017 Vignoles came from our friend Bill down the road. He couldn't get the mechanical harvester in to pic the grapes so called us. We had to scramble a little bit. It's not my favorite, because to me it's a brassy, tart, in-your-face sort of wine. But the judges really liked it. "Very nice!" "Nice color." "Nice finish." "Nice wine." 17.0. Finally, gold!
