In Idaho vino veritas?

I spent yesterday at the Treasure Valley Wine Society's Idaho Wine Judging event. Seven judges tasted over 100 made in Idaho wines - before noon! Having eliminated 50 of the wines they then made decisions on the last 50, looking for any gold, silver or bronze worthy wines. (There were some, and the results will be revealed this coming Friday at the Wine Festival).



As one of the stewards I was kept busy all day, numbering the tasting glasses, pouring wine, serving wine to the judges, clearing glasses after tastings, etc. Lucky me, I never had to empty the spit buckets.




There were points to be kept up on and entered in a computer and many other details that had to be handled all day long. Again, luckily, not by me.



I did get to listen in occasionally to the judging and that was always interesting. The judges discussed and defended their opinions of each wine, all tasted blind of course.



One of the judges in attendance was Gary Vaynerchuk. Watch a short clip of him on the Conan O'Brian show and you'll see why I'm a fan. Here's a pic of Gary contemplating his scoring.



All in all, a very enjoyable, if very tiring, day. In my opinion, everyone did a great job!