AN INSUFFICIENTLY SHORT EXCERPT FROM A 1997 EDITION OF
MY PRE-WEBSITE NEWSLETTER, “THE THIEF”, ABOUT AN INCIDENT AT A WINE COMPETITION
MY PRE-WEBSITE NEWSLETTER, “THE THIEF”, ABOUT AN INCIDENT AT A WINE COMPETITION
This took place at one of the (then, it's fallen on hard times) larger wine competitions in America, the New World International, where the late Jerry Mead (although he was alive at the time) had made me chairman of the panel that rated the higher priced classes of Pinot Noir. Mastermind, counterpart, and cohort, we unanimously and independently selected an outstanding example of said varietal as the best of the most expensive wines, and picked an excellent wine as the best of the second-costliest class of Pinots. These wines were then forwarded to a “super-panel” made up of the three of us, the three-member panel that tasted the two classes of cheap Pinots, and some guy from Hawaii or somewhere that turned out to be a pervert. Our job: select the Number One Pinot Noir.
We tasted the four wines, and voted as follows: first place wine, one point; second place, two points; etc. Although the outstanding wine got four of seven first-place votes, it came in second, as one of the other panel’s judges voted it last place. This judge, who was from a European country not known for viticulture (and tulips make poor wine) argued that the outstanding wine was terrible, that it would not have been considered worthy of an award in any European wine competition, blah, blah, blah. He seemed to be rather excited. As a run-off vote would have given “our” wine (I was its loudest champion, of course) the prize, this person wanted to settle the matter based upon the initial vote.
We summoned the Chief Judge, who ruled in my favor on both wine and procedure despite the fact that the stubborn Dutchman was a buddy of his. The winning wine turned out to be the 1995 Fess Parker Pinot Noir, Reserve. Later, I asked the wooden-shoed judge if wine made from Pinot Noir didn’t deserve as much or more more stylistic leeway than other wines. I said, “Look at the variation in red Burgundy.” He said, “I hate Burgundy.”
