Steve Somermeyer, an acquaintance of mine and a good Iowa Hawkeye fan from Indianapolis, is one of the judges of the Indy International Wine Competition held each year in conjunction with the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. Steve is an interesting guy. Retired from the Lilly Corporation, he also works as a steward for the Indianapolis 500 race each year. And he also helps out at the Chateau Thomas winery just southwest of Indianapolis 25 to 30 hours a week.
Here's a picture of Steve punching down some Cabernet Saugvignon grapes (right). Each year he sends a summary of the competition to a number of people and he graciously allowed me to re-print the 2006 results on my blog. It's a very comprehensive synopsis and I've broken it into three parts. Here is the first part:
Size and Background: If one ranks wine competitions based upon total entries, the Indy International Wine Competition had 3,859 wines entered which is the highest total in the U.S. this year. That total includes over 800 amateur entries which are judged on a different basis than the commercial wines. Amateur scoring sheets are filled out in detail, including constructive comments, and are returned to the submitting amateur winemakers. To the judges this was certainly more total judging work than any other competition.
Barnyard: When the judges walked into the Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds last week, we were struck by the obvious barnyard aroma. While 'barnyard' is frequently used to describe a wine's earthiness, this was much more evident. It turns out that the previous week the pavilion had hosted, as recently as Sunday, around 1100 goats for a competition. The concrete floor had been pressure washed and ozone generators were being used to deodorize the air but we could still smell them. Once we started judging and burying our noses in each glass, one quickly forgot about it so it really was a non-issue and it became something to joke about over lunch.
Introductory Remarks
It's always been my position that any wine that wins a medal is worthwhile drinking, particularly if it's at an attractive price. This year in his remarks to the judges just before the competition began, Ret. Purdue Professor and American Airlines Wine Consultant Richard Vine, instructed us to not compromise in awarding bronze medals. If a panel of 5 judges were debating whether to award a bronze medal or decide on a "no medal" ranking, he asked us to conclude "thumbs down".
Speaking of the judges, they were winemakers, distributors, wine writers, and some just wine advocates from across the U.S. I again was privileged to participate for the 32nd year and on my panel were a local sommelier, a wine distributor, owner and winemaker of Tennessee's largest winery, Beachaven, and a wine enthusiast who used to work for a large distributor. As one panel over the two days of preliminary judging we had two great Merlot flights plus a killer Bordeaux and, to my surprise, an excellent commercial blueberry flight. As a zin lover, we had two zin flights and awarded the only zinfandel concordance gold in the competition. Our chardonnay and Cabernet flights were just OK. The majority of the judges return each year - the competition is well-organized, the camaraderie is great and it's a good way to catch up on what's happening across the industry. Dr. Vine points out with pride that almost 40% of the judges are female, easily the highest % of any major competition.
Over the 2 1/2 days of the competition, judges will generally judge about 275 wines. One simply can't swallow any of the wine - just deeply sniffing that many glasses creates enough alcohol absorption. Lots of water, bread, cheese, mild olives, and beef (which cleanses the tannin off the tongue) are consumed.
It was truly an American and international competition with 41 states and 17 countries represented. While California was easily the largest state/country participating, Chair Dick Vine commented that the largest growth in entries was international.
Enough of the background, let's get on to the winning wines and wineries. I'll start with the winning wines in each class or category. Finally I'll review some wineries which had especially strong showings and end up listing some great "value" wines, almost all under $10. Most of the wines I'll mention are available nationally - if you don't see them on the shelf, ask your retailer to get them. If you want to see the entire list of medal winners - all 3,859 of them - go to: http://www.indianawines.org/in.gov/awards/
Top Winning Wines:
The Best of Show wine was a '04 Riesling ice wine from Mission Hill Family Estate in British Columbia (retails for $79 Canadian/375 ml).
The Champion Red Wine was a '03 Martin Family Petite Sirah (retails for $36). This was the closest championship balloting among the judges. The Petite Sirah narrowly won over a '02 Cyrus Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley Vineyards ($50).
The Champion Rose/Blush was a '05 White Zinfandel from Harlow Ridge Winery (retails for $8.99 - link not available). Harlow Ridge is a new label, replacing Napa Ridge after a long losing court battle over the use of the appellation Napa, by Bronco and Fred Franzia. Fred, through Bronco, is the creator of Two-Buck Chuck, the Charles Shaw label sold through Trader Joe's.
The top White Wine was a '06 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Sileni Cellars which retails for $14. It was an easy championship winner over the other white wine candidates.
The top Sparkling was Pommery's '98 Millesime Grand Cru Champagne from France.
The top Dessert Wine was Seppelt non-vintage Traffor Tawny Port from Australia made from shiraz and grenache and it retails for a piddling $12.
So for the 6 winners of the American Airlines Silver Eagles as best commercial wines, two came from California, two from Australia, one from France and the grand champion came from British Columbia - Truly an international competition.
Top Wines by Varietal:
Chardonnay: #1 selling varietal in U.S. and it seemed that all 18 panels of judges had 2 or more flights of chardonnay to judge over the first 2 days of the competition. We awarded 5 concordance golds (when all 5 judges individually decide on a gold medal), 16 golds, 81 silvers and 91 bronzes. Chateau St. Jean's '04 Sonoma County was selected as best-of-class. The other concordance golds (CG) went to: '04 Four Emus from Australia, Kendall-Jackson '04 Estate Grand Reserve, Michael-David's '05 Seven Heavenly Chards, and '05 Three Thieves (an unoaked Chard in a 1-liter screwcap jug for about $8!).
Gold medals went to French wineries: Mommessin '04 Macom - Villages Old Vines and Antonin Rodet's '04 Pouilly-Fuisse. Australia's Evans and Tate '05 Margaret River and Pepper Tree Wines '04 Reserve Orange Region. New York was represented by Chateau LaFayette Reneau '03 Finger Lakes SE Seneca Lake. Michigan had Chateau Chantal '05 Select Harvest. Gold went to California via: NV Barefoot Cellars, Canyon Road '04, Chateau Souverain '04 Sonoma County, DeLoach Vineyards '04 Russian River Valley, Meridian '05 Santa Barbara County, Papio '05 (with the monkey on the label), Rodney Strong Vineyards '04 Sonoma County, Twin Fin '04, Wente Vineyards '04 Vineyard Selection, and William Hill Estate '04 Napa Valley.
Sauvignon Blanc: Two concordance golds were awarded - The best white from New Zealand's Sileni Cellar Selections and Duo, a '05 from Casablanca Valley in Chile. Three of the 5 gold medals also went to New Zealand: '05 Grove Mill, '04 The Jibe Marlborough, and Villa Maria '06 Private Bin. Another gold went to Chile's Montes '06 Limited Selection. V. Sattui's '05 Suzanne's Vineyard Napa Valley won the other gold medal.
Merlot: Again a large entry list from around the world with 6 concordance golds awarded. There were 12 golds, 62 silvers and 72 bronzes won in this popular class. Concordance golds were led by best-in-class Trecini Cellars, '04 Vincini Vineyard Russian River Valley. Other California concordance golds were won by Kendall-Jackson's '03 Estate Grand Reserve, Chateau Souverain '02 Alexander Valley, and '03 Dancing Bull. Carmen's '04 Reserve from Chile won a CG and Isreal's Noah & Hevron Heights '01 Pardess Reserve also won a CG.
Gold medals were won by numerous California wineries: Beringer '03 Founders Estate, '04 Black Mountain, Clos du Bois '03 Alexander Valley Reserve, '04 Don Sol Winery, Fetzer Vineyards '04 Valley Oaks, Mirassou '04, Rutherford Vintners '03 Napa Valley, Turning Leaf '04, and White Crane Winery '04 Perpendicular Reserve. Italy's Bella Sera '04 Delle Venezie and Washington's Columbia Crest '03 Grand Estates also won gold medals.
Coming up in Part 2 - Steve Somermeyer gives us the results of the Cabernet, Zinfadel, Pinot and other categories.
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