Judging wine competitions

I've judged scores of major wine competitions over a couple of decades, and it's been an interesting experience.  In the first couple of years, I was quite gratified to learn that my opinions and tastes seemed to be in line with those judges I thought the most knowledgeable, generally but not exclusively other winemakers.  A consensus judging, where the judges compare scores and notes with each other before awarding medals as a panel, is certainly more interesting on a personal level, though it's painful when a judge is clearly out of his depth, or hammered from swallowing.  (The latter is less common.)  I recently judged on a panel with three other winemakers at a competition where the individual scores are taken into the back room and averaged, rather than allowing the judges to reach their own consensus.  The awards given to the individual wines judged by the panel can be requested by writing the class and number of the wine and giving the administrators the information on a special sheet of paper.  I was just mailed the results: of the three Souzaos and two Tannats I scored as gold medals, only one wine won a gold; there were three bronzes and one goose egg.  Peculiar, but as we were supposed to sit there like four dummies in a row, sipping spitting and scribbling, I'll never know what my amiable peers were thinking.

Vine density, cluster height, and quality

In the course of being dragged around Paso Robles by some out-of-town wine tourists, I visited a rather new, very well financed and designed winery that had recently planted a hillside vineyard with relatively high density and low stakes and wires.  I'd previously thought that high density and low trellising were an interesting way to increase acreage yield and ripeness in very expensive, cool climate areas: Burgundy, Willamette PN, and extreme coastal California (region zero, so to speak).  But even west Paso property ain't that expensive, and these weren't Burgundian varietals - it seems to me a great way to spend a pile of money, and cook grapes.

Zeppelin Winery offerings

Ladies, gentlemen and fruit flies; friends, family, fans, and stalkers, here is a list of current and near-future Zeppelin Winery swill . . . no, this does not include Red Zeppelin Winery wines, for which you should email me at StillmanB@aol.com, as the shopping cart for those wines is Still Under Construction (and not by me).

2011 Zeppelin Dry Rose, Paso Robles (aka Pink Zeppelin) 70% Grenache Noir, 20% Syrah, 10% Other Rhone Varietals. 57% Gill Vineyard, under 1 ton/acre, 43% Hall Ranch.
$180/12 plus shipping

2011 Chateau d'Abalone Grenache Blanc, Paso Robles. Dry, not sweetened like a certain well-known Santa Barbara wine. 20% Viognier. 100% Hall Ranch, avg 2 tons/acre.
$180/12 plus shipping

2010 Zeppelin Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles. 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Petite Sirah. My first Cabernet in three years, bigger but less tannic than its predecessor. To be released soon, though not April 1 as you would suspect me of some amateur prank. Kind of expensive, though not horridly so.

Under the Influence

This is how Meth Leppard songs are played: under the influence of Black Zeppelin.

Love the blur.

Photo by Nathan Appel, of lead guitarist and songwriter Rudy Castellanos.

Our Spokesmodels

The emergence, and partial release, of the latest Black Zeppelin wines, was more than enough unreason to arrange a photo shoot and recording just around the corner from the Zeppelin Wine Hangar, at Mordor Studios - a location about to be undisclosed. Behold our spokesmodels, the fine gentlemen of the greatest rock and roll band you will ever hang out in the parking lot with . . .

Oh wait, wrong picture. I meant these guys!

DEATH RACE 2012

Photographic evidence of last week's Southwestern trek: Luke attempting to get wi-fi near Moab. (Just kidding, he did a daily self-portrait from his computer with different backgrounds).

In Telluride, with Supergirl.

An objective evaluation of the new Pink Zeppelin.

Minions and bouncer agree, it's the best pink swill ever!