Some interesting wines from Cal State Fair

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had volunteered at the California State Fair Home Winemakers Competition.
There were a lot of interesting wines entered in the competition. Since I am also a (1st year beginner) student of the AWS Wine Judge Certification Program, I wanted to post some of the wines we saw during the competition to introduce to my fellow students some of the wines they may encounter.

Here is only a partial list of the many entries: the Year, the Grape/Fruit, the Award, and the Score

2010 Pineapple Gold 94
2010 White Peach Gold 94
2010 Purple Tomatill Sherry Gold 94
2010 Cherry Gold 94
2010 Pineapple Silver 92
2010 Purple Tomatillo Silver 90
2010 Navel Orange Silver 90
2009 Red Heirloom Tomato Silver 89
2010 CabSauv, Berries Silver 89
2009 Yellow Heirloom Tomato Bronze 87
2010 Green Bell Pepper Bronze 87

2009 Lemon Gold 94
2010 Boysenberry Silver 89
2010 Ruby Red Grapefruit Bronze 85

2010 Petit Verdot Double Gold 99 Best of Show Red. Best of California

2010 LaFirein, Neiluccio, Primitivo Double Gold 98 Best of California,
(Neiluccio is a known variety, Primitivo is the same as Zinfandel, we think LaFirein may be Lagrein)

2010 Apple Double Gold 99

2008 Black Raspberry, Passion Fruit Double Gold 98 Best of Show Sweet,

2010 Red Raspberry Gold 94
2008 Golden Raspberry Gold 94
2010 Pinot Gris, Mango Gold 94
2010 Elephant Heart Plum Silver 93

2010 Watermelon Silver 93
2010 Strawberry Silver 91
2010 Peach Silver 89
2010 Blueberry Honorable Mention 81
2009 Honey Mead Honorable Mention 81

2010 Apple Port Double Gold 98

Plus some more common but perhaps less than broadly known ......

2010 Blackberry Port Silver 91
2009 Touriga Nacional Silver 90

2010 Apple Juice Fortified with Apple Brandy Silver 89
2010 Unfortified Pinot Noir & Brandy Bronze 86

2009 Aglianico Silver 90
2006 Corvina Silver 90
2007 Muscat Canelli Silver 90
2009 Marionberry Silver 90
2010 Viognier Silver 90
2010 Rousanne Silver 89
2010 Olallieberry Silver 88

2009 Tannat Gold 94
2008 Marzemeino Silver 91
2010 Piquepoul Blanc Silver 89

2010 Arneis Silver 90

I supported the panel of Judges that had the Arneis. One member knew that it was from Piedmont. For the rest of us it was a mostly unknown. We had one of the Chief judges come over to give us a short ampelography on the grape and offer his opinion on the quality and tipicity of the wine. There was a general impression that it was slightly flawed. (Maybe SO2). But i thought it a good example of what a judge can run into and the difficulty required to give it a fair grade when the 'ideal' example was an unknown.

john