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!
Showing posts with label wine classic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine classic. Show all posts
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Better Today than Yesterday, Better Tomorrow than Today
This week the results came in for the Kansas City Cellarmasters Wine 2018 Classic. I entered 9 wines this year - only $10 entry fee, and I really wanted some feedback on all of of my 2016 wines. Also, some folks say these wine competitions are a bit random, so more entries gives a better shot at a medal.
In the past I've medaled at about a 50% rate. I guess I'm getting better, because this year I medaled with 7 of the 9 entries. I won second in class in two categories, worth $40 in gift certificates at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking. Hopefully I can put that toward grapes! In no particular order...
Syrah/Elderberry blend, a 50/50 blend, not surprisingly scored just out of medal range at 12.67. Judges felt that the elderberry overpowers this wine and I completely agree. You have to close your eyes and pretend you are drinking a fruity elderberry.
Syrah/elder/blackberry, 70/15/15 blend, scored better at 13.83 for a bronze. Still probably too much elderberry, and some judges felt it could use some sugar. This need for more residual sugar shows up a lot in my feedback, and I'm beginning to think this is just a personal preference we have for drier wines. These dry wines suffer in competition due to the Pepsi Paradox. I've put at least one bottle away for long term aging, I think this wine will age well.
The 2016 passion fruit wine was interesting because we opened a bottle at Christmas (fulfilling a vow to open one bottle of each wine just before the submission date, just for quality control purposes). I thought it was excellent. Beth and Lisa noted an off odor of funk or onions which, try as I might, I couldn't pick up. Well the judges missed it too, and this wine came in at 15.33, my highest score, worth a silver medal.
Blueberry rosé scored just in medal range at 13.00, but that score was worth second in the category, so was enough for one of the $20 gift certificates. I'm not particularly proud of this wine - I bottled it early, but missed on the acid. So I dumped it back into the carboy, treated it with KHCO3, then rebottled. It was better, but I thought the KHCO3 left it a little out of balance. The judges thought it was still too acidic with too little blueberry. Fair enough. I recognized the mistakes I made and adjusted with the 2017 version of this wine.
The wine with perhaps the greatest discrepancy between comments and score was the 2016 elderberry. I got three judging sheets back, and the final comments from each were, "Nice balanced fruity wine," "Nice overall wine for its age," and "Very nice wine." So I would have expected a little better than 13.67, bronze medal range. Elderberry tends to age well. I am going to start holding some of these wines for year or two before sending them in.
Chambourcin scored 14.3, worth a bronze. There weren't too many negative comments here either, with one judge noting this wine should age well. I agree. Thank you, Bill Books, for these grapes.
I think the judges at this competition just don't like dry blackberry wine. Seems there is an expectation that blackberry will always be sweet. I went to great lengths to assure that my 2016 blackberry did not suffer from the fatal flaws of the 2015 blackberry. I still only managed a score of 11.67. Comments included "too tart" and "needs some sugar." One judge noted "little blackberry aroma." There is literally nothing but blackberry in this wine. Short of spiking it with flavoring or blackberry brandy, there is no way to cram in more blackberry. Next year I may pull off a 1/2 gallon and sweeten it to 2% RS, just for this competition.
In contrast, everyone lines up behind the 2016 blueberry. This wine scored a silver medal with 15.17. We did bench trials for back-sweetening and wound up using 40g/gal. Comments included another "too tart" along with "needs more blueberry." I made some tweaks to my blueberry this year that might help in this regard.
Finally, the 2016 pinot grigio. This was a California juice bucket. This wine scored 15.17 as well, worth a silver medal and second in the white vinifera category. I've detected intermittently a very slight off odor - one of the four judges picked this up as well. They all liked it well enough however.
In the past I've medaled at about a 50% rate. I guess I'm getting better, because this year I medaled with 7 of the 9 entries. I won second in class in two categories, worth $40 in gift certificates at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking. Hopefully I can put that toward grapes! In no particular order...
Syrah/Elderberry blend, a 50/50 blend, not surprisingly scored just out of medal range at 12.67. Judges felt that the elderberry overpowers this wine and I completely agree. You have to close your eyes and pretend you are drinking a fruity elderberry.
Syrah/elder/blackberry, 70/15/15 blend, scored better at 13.83 for a bronze. Still probably too much elderberry, and some judges felt it could use some sugar. This need for more residual sugar shows up a lot in my feedback, and I'm beginning to think this is just a personal preference we have for drier wines. These dry wines suffer in competition due to the Pepsi Paradox. I've put at least one bottle away for long term aging, I think this wine will age well.
The 2016 passion fruit wine was interesting because we opened a bottle at Christmas (fulfilling a vow to open one bottle of each wine just before the submission date, just for quality control purposes). I thought it was excellent. Beth and Lisa noted an off odor of funk or onions which, try as I might, I couldn't pick up. Well the judges missed it too, and this wine came in at 15.33, my highest score, worth a silver medal.
Blueberry rosé scored just in medal range at 13.00, but that score was worth second in the category, so was enough for one of the $20 gift certificates. I'm not particularly proud of this wine - I bottled it early, but missed on the acid. So I dumped it back into the carboy, treated it with KHCO3, then rebottled. It was better, but I thought the KHCO3 left it a little out of balance. The judges thought it was still too acidic with too little blueberry. Fair enough. I recognized the mistakes I made and adjusted with the 2017 version of this wine.
The wine with perhaps the greatest discrepancy between comments and score was the 2016 elderberry. I got three judging sheets back, and the final comments from each were, "Nice balanced fruity wine," "Nice overall wine for its age," and "Very nice wine." So I would have expected a little better than 13.67, bronze medal range. Elderberry tends to age well. I am going to start holding some of these wines for year or two before sending them in.
Chambourcin scored 14.3, worth a bronze. There weren't too many negative comments here either, with one judge noting this wine should age well. I agree. Thank you, Bill Books, for these grapes.
I think the judges at this competition just don't like dry blackberry wine. Seems there is an expectation that blackberry will always be sweet. I went to great lengths to assure that my 2016 blackberry did not suffer from the fatal flaws of the 2015 blackberry. I still only managed a score of 11.67. Comments included "too tart" and "needs some sugar." One judge noted "little blackberry aroma." There is literally nothing but blackberry in this wine. Short of spiking it with flavoring or blackberry brandy, there is no way to cram in more blackberry. Next year I may pull off a 1/2 gallon and sweeten it to 2% RS, just for this competition.
In contrast, everyone lines up behind the 2016 blueberry. This wine scored a silver medal with 15.17. We did bench trials for back-sweetening and wound up using 40g/gal. Comments included another "too tart" along with "needs more blueberry." I made some tweaks to my blueberry this year that might help in this regard.
Finally, the 2016 pinot grigio. This was a California juice bucket. This wine scored 15.17 as well, worth a silver medal and second in the white vinifera category. I've detected intermittently a very slight off odor - one of the four judges picked this up as well. They all liked it well enough however.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Next Steps
This year I entered 6 wines in the Greater Kansas City Cellarmasters Wine Classic. We earned 3 medals: Silver for Lychee Wine, and bronze for 2015 Elderberry Rosé and Lemongrass Mint. Two others didn't medal but earned nice comments. But I learned that I must open and sample every wine before sending, as the blackberry had gone bad. I hadn't tried it in the months since bottling, and while it wasn't great at bottling, it is awful now. It oxidized and developed the geranium smell. Fortunately, there were only two remaining bottles, and now nobody can be considered at risk from this wine any longer.
I'm conducting an elderberry wine experiment. I have three 1 gallon batches of elderberry, the making of which is detailed elsewhere. I racked these three today and added kmeta. Lots of red fruit from the simmered solution and the pressed fruit batches, particularly cherry from the pressed fruit. The batch which was fermented on the fruit has the least aroma and is most characteristic of elderberry.
The greenhouse is still sleeping for the winter. We are eating, rather than fermenting, this year's citrus crop. The only exciting news to report is our first grapefruit harvest.
Double A Vineyards notified me that they don't have enough Norton to fill my order. Apparently this is a very popular grape right now. I was able to get another 25 vines from a place in Arkansas. If I actually receive all of the Norton I am still promised, it will fill the remainder of the available trellis space.
I'm conducting an elderberry wine experiment. I have three 1 gallon batches of elderberry, the making of which is detailed elsewhere. I racked these three today and added kmeta. Lots of red fruit from the simmered solution and the pressed fruit batches, particularly cherry from the pressed fruit. The batch which was fermented on the fruit has the least aroma and is most characteristic of elderberry.
The greenhouse is still sleeping for the winter. We are eating, rather than fermenting, this year's citrus crop. The only exciting news to report is our first grapefruit harvest.
Double A Vineyards notified me that they don't have enough Norton to fill my order. Apparently this is a very popular grape right now. I was able to get another 25 vines from a place in Arkansas. If I actually receive all of the Norton I am still promised, it will fill the remainder of the available trellis space.
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