Thank you for the good praise! I prepared the bottles and sparkling wine for your jury at this competition. It took a lot of advance work and planning to make it all happen the way you experienced it. Sure, I'm biased in my opinion since that's what I do for a living. But such competitions are there to give the end customers, who don't necessarily have a clue about 'good wines', a buying decision. On the other hand, wine producers can present themselves to a professional audience and have their wines tasted in international comparison. In addition, the tasters should also have their fun 😄 It is clear that no Petrus or Pingus will be tasted here. But there are still so many wines and producers that you don't have on your radar yet. That's actually what makes it most exciting in a completely blind tasting. It's really good to get direct feedback from a taster for once. And it's also positive Feedback. Thank you! 🙏☺️

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for all of your hard work. In big events like this, there is a lot of work that goes behind the scenes. I like that Mundus Vini pulled you all on stage to recognize your hard work.

I never pay much attention to medals, but did enjoy learning more about the competitions and your experience.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha something tells me you aren’t normally drinking wines or price points of wines that are sent to competitions 😂

@AttorneySomm

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Ha! Always enjoy trying new wines and regions, but they are not a big component in my cellar.

Thank you for the video, Matthew! One of our problems as a producer is that our new vintages come out around March or even later, while several important competitions have sample shipping deadlines in February or earlier. So sometimes our wines are overlooked, deemed "too closed".

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhhhh yes release dates can be tough on producers for these competitions. As a consumer, I appreciate later releases

Very interesting and informative video. I never really even look at wine competition medals. I will admit that sometimes I get swayed by advertised scores when buying, especially when I'm not at one of my usual trusted stores.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhhh thanks. I think if we’re honest with ourselves, most people who purchase wine are.

Great video full of good info ! I have been for several years tasting and judge on plenty of wine competition... each of them get their own pros and cons. I always have problem like you to understand some things such a price categories often not mentionned (entry - mid - or premium) which I believe would definitely help scoring, tasting a wine... As you say we cannot let a wine at 5 euros be judged the same as a 50 euros bottle, higher you go in price the more perfect and outstanding it should be. Here in France most of these Awarded Wines will be found in supermarket... rarely or never in an independant wine shop / caviste. I also wish there was some more younger palates/tasters in this events / competitions.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I can definitely attest to your last point… in addition to more women. My panel in this was someone from Mozambique, a woman from Georgia, and me in addition to the usualy suspects so good job by Mundus Vini

Great video Dr.! Do glasses go along with the judging thing? Just curious!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Hahah no I just wore them bc I was jet lagged and my eyes were red…

I don't usually pay much attention to medals. I trust my merchant's buyers - they have hardly ever let me down. When I buy from a supermarket I usually know what I like from that particular shop, so I wait until those wines are on offer. I make two exceptions: Decanter tastings, whether competition or not, are pretty reliable; and my merchant, The Wine Society, has an annual blind tasting involving all its buyers. Their recommendations are usually pretty good, at least to my palate.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I agree, merchants are so useful and underutilized. They know their clients’ palates better than any critic would

Medals from wine competitions are great for driving sales. Some competitions are more reliable than others. Ones where the wines are given points in categories are usually more reliable than ones where points are pulled out of thin air. Larger judging panels usually give more consistent results as well. I set up and ran judging competitions for over 10 years and participated in judging for over 20. When judges have to pass a qualifying tasting, I find that the results are generally more reliable.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Niiccee very good points here. What competitions were you running?

That was a fun video and the explanation of the analysis process and award system was informative. You're correct that some are better than others due to the quality of judges and the organization. Mundus Vini, Concours Mondial are usually very reliable, the rest are much like the popular publications on wine. Medals and Scores do sell wine especially to the average wine consumer looking at a shelf full of choices.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for stopping by and glad you enjoyed it. Are u working in wine?

@eatitdrinkitluvit955

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey I'm working on setting up a consultancy, writing books, online educational course work and a review site. Also trying to finish two certifications. I think I need to scale back!

I’ve judged a large beer comp. I have opinions, but I’ll never put them in public. This was a great video. It’s true to say that these comps are consumer focussed. I never buy wine for the restaurants based on medals, and I get a bit annoyed when a bottle turns up with medal labels on.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha your answer was funny. I give the benefit of the doubt to medals on bottles from lesser-known wine countries and Aussie wines. Lesser-known countries have to find a way to get their names out there and for some reason, Aussie competition wine quality is high.

Great video, Matthew. Love the insights into wine competitions that I haven’t seen on the other wine KZread channels. Do you get palate fatigue from tasting so many wines in a day, and how do you deal with it?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot… I have pretty good palate stamina but it varies from person to person and the day! I’ve done up to 150 wines in a day and that gets REALLY tiring…

Nice video. I'm not a regular judge (though I'd like to do it more often), but I've done it a few times here in SA. I'd say that they are a mixed bag. Like you said, it depends on the competition and what is submitted. This last one I did a few weeks ago, our panel was pretty critical of most of the wines. We only did one day together and I think we gave 2 Double Gold and maybe less than a dozen Gold out of 60 wines total? Our panel consisted of a wine writer, a winery owner, the GM of a winery (the panel lead), a distributor, and me. Technically I was not classified as "press" but that's how I should have been classified. They tried to mix up the backgrounds of the panels. Being a pretty small competition, everyone was from Texas. Mostly San Antonio or the metro area. I knew 3 of the 4 on my panel and plenty of others in the room. I've done this one before and it felt like the quality this time was lower than in the past. Glad you mentioned that many competitions break up the wines by price point (ours did). It's helpful for the judges and it keeps things on a more level playing field IMO. Though we had some crazy small ranges like $17-18 for one flight.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

17-18$???? That is a crazy small range hahahha and I hope they weren’t American wines because that would be a tough price point for quality. What was the name of the competition?

I just like to taste wines myself and do not look at the medals. There are too much different medals en competitions to trust. Liked the episode!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much… You are right in the fact that your palate is what matters the most! I have a video coming up about that

An interesting behind the scenes look at wine competitions and another great video. I think it's true what you said that the well established producers/wineries don't put their wines into these competitions as they already have a reputation and cachet. However, the flip side of the coin is also true, imho. Because to use the Judgement of Paris, as an example, there is always the off chance that some "young guns" could best a First Growth Bordeaux or a very prestigious single vineyard MGA Barolo, etc. I use these gold medals as a guide or as an indicator, it's the not the determining factor in me buying a wine, as I trust my own palate. I have recently bought a wine or two that had 90/90+ scores from a famous wine critic, but neither my wife or I enjoyed them. And yes, at the supermarket you have to research and pick your wines very carefully, but you can find some good to great wines if you know the region, producer or the vintage.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

You said all 100% true things and again, YOUR palate is most important. I have an upcoming video on this very thing. Thanks for commenting as always

I view wine competition medals as a way to establish some history behind thier brand for what that's worth. I go further and see what the market demand for thier wine has been like along with those competitions.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhhh deeeppp dive and thinking

Mixed 🙂Every so often you can discover something interesting. Like you say, depending on the competition and medal, it can also be a "safe choice". The point scores are always bogus when they get used on a bottle. 96 points often turns into 88, but assuming the price was reasonable, an 88 point wine isn't bad. I guess there are two fundamental issues. Sometimes a medal can be "the best of the worst" and other times it can simply be the wine that stood out the most. A wine that stands out doesn't mean it is one that you would like drinking in isolation.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Everything you say is 100% correct and the points that I was trying to make in the video. Excellent job!

As my tell my readers, when it comes to wine reviews, you have to experience what I like and see if that matches your palate. I have found that Wine Enthusiast magazine and I just simply don't get a long, nor do I agree with James Suckling. As for this video, keep in mind that Barefoot also carries a gold medal label on its bottle.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Very good point, everyone has to find their own palate and match with the source. I also agree and allude to your other point in the video, the reputation of the competition definitely matters and the types of wines submitted definitely influence the final results

4:23 ouch Sample 10259, what was that? Durian juice or somethin? 🤣

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Probably just an issue with white balance as inside lights can mess up images

Can you start doing videos on some of the cult wines. I’m curious to hear your take. I think it would be very interesting to do a couple blind tastings and then include something a little lesser but still good like say mondavi reserve or BV reserve as a comparison to these expensive cult wines. Please.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for trusting my palate and it is a good idea, only one little problem… Who exactly is paying for these cult wines???? 🤣😂😂🤣🤣🤣

@navarra4

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Well if you lived by me I would go in half at least

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

😮… that being said, I think you’ll like some upcoming videos…

At the end of the day, I drink wines, not labels. For me, award winning wines and expensive ones are not a "catch". I like to look left and right for less known and I am amazed what you can find... Btw, what nebiollo producers would you recommend? Like best buy ones for exaple... Thanks and keep on!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

You are right about finding lesser known gems. For Nebbiolo, look for the appellation Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC for value

@Prada488

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Thanks

Last year a Tannat from my country Bolivia won a great gold medal in the extreme wines competition, dont know if any participated this year, if you were one of the judges in 2021, you should have try it. I have tasted it, but personally it is one my least favorites of the bolivian tannats I tried so far, but maybe it is because I had it in the winery and they served us the wine at 25°C, the winery is called landsua.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhhhh niceeeee.. The last time I judged that competition was 2019, I hope to do it again soon! I haven't tasted that wine yet but hope to get to Bolivia soon.

Very important distinction needs to be made here between these corporate tastings and judging and those at regional wine shows. First everything is blind. Second there are two levels of judging - the main judges and associates. Typically associate judge scores only play a part when a wine has wide ranging scores. Third any wine that gets a few gold ratings but lower ratings from other judges is retasted and re-scored if necessary. And lastly and most critically the judges aren't judging for personal appeal. This is a big difference. The senior judge will brief a tasting panel on what he is looking for and not looking for. This is very different from these corporate tastings where you are entirely scoring based on your personal feelings about a wine. Example: the head judge may indicate they are not looking for excessive battonage in the Chardonnay class, or excess pyrazine notes in Sauvignon Blanc.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

You bring up a lot of good stuff up here. I did highlight in the video about not judging for personal appeal. It sounds like you have experience judging!

@1949cr

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey yeah been there. Associate level. In my view these regional judging are very reliable, but you have to know the criteria used in these wine shows. The best source is clearly someone whose palate you have learned over time to trust. Like yours!!!!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

🙏

I’m a wine consumer of 30 years. In that time I have never given medal labels more than a glance. I do look at ratings, but with skepticism. In ratings look for consensus. If for example I see a wine rating of 93 from Wine Enthusiast or Suckling, then I will usually get on my phone to see if it’s been rated highly by another publication. If not I’ll pass since I’ve been disappointed in those two. Costco for example gets some very affordable wines that have been marked down to the point that they are worth trying a single bottle. Often they may have some high rating from James Suckling, and rarely if ever am I impressed. I’m also buying a higher proportion of quality whites, but not Chardonnay. I appreciate them now.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

nice strategies... I agree with you that whites offer the most bang for buck. They are also the most diverse and food friendly.

These wine competitions seems more like a marketing play. I prefer to get feedback from people whose palates I trust than from many of these more obscure 'competitions' where the "standard" is all over the map.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Fair point... I have to admit, I was VERY skeptical of larger competitions before I judged at this one. The quality was surprirsingly high

I don't pay much attention to awards, however I have noticed that Decanter is fairly accurate. I think the real question here is, How much does it cost to get James Suckling to rate your wine 90+ points? My boss send me an article about AI writing wine reviews and said, "we may be out of a job soon!" I replied, "I think James Suckling is really the only one who needs to worry."

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha I know producers and importers that submit wines to Suckling and it’s free. His events are what generate money (and they are spectacular tastings I must say…)

I am an amateur wine maker who enters in Amateur wine competitions and have heard that Amateur competitions, while judged under the same criteria, are totally different. For instance, a wine maker at a local winery has told me that a Bronze in Commercial competitions means nothing whereas in an Amateur one it means much more than a participation trophy. I cant speak to that. I would think amateur competitions would be more fun as you have no idea what you will come across. The thing about wine competitions that people dont get is that it isnt a competition against each other (ie the Olympics) where only one Gold is awarded. It is a comparison against the ideal reflection of that grape/style. So 10 wines can win Gold or none might. A gold does not mean this is the best wine of all the entries, only that it fits the taster's view of what a :Chardonnay (for example) "should" taste like ideally. What I wonder is that a huge buttery/oaky Chardonnay or a clean steel-tank tasting Chardonnay? I dont like that a commercial gold can mean one thing when judged as a 10 dollar price range and mean something else when judged as a 50 + dollar price range. I am sure there are 20 dollar wines that deserve to be priced much higher but arent due to market. But their gold is the same as a true 20 dollar wine?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

You bring up some very very good points here. Viewers should take note. I agree with a lot, esp a Bronze medal in an amateur competition. I don’t know if I would want to be a judge though… While I have tasted some surprisingly good wines made by hobbyists, most of those made by the aforemention that I tasted were… less than optimal 😂

I pay much more attention to the importer than anything like competitions

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

That is a very very good strategy

@liamblake937

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey it's pretty hard to keep track of importers but here in Montreal, all of my favorite importers put their sticker on the front of the bottle at the Quebec state liquor store

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhhh that is very smart of SAQ stores

I noticed you mentioned Decanter, which chooses experts in those regions, unlike all other competitions? would you say you have enough knowledge to judge such a wide variety of wines? Matthew/?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

A lot of my friends/peers judge at Decanter and some even do both Mundus Vini & Decanter. If asked, I would accept the invitation

@philipquick7423

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Yeahhh am sure you would make a good judge...which region ,though, do you feel most qualified to judge, Matthew? Barolo? Perhaps? Croatia?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I am not 100% sure if they only keep panels to specific regions. At Mundus Vini I had flights all over the map, which I personally enjoyed

@philipquick7423

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Matthew, ask your friend Caroline Gilby MW, she will know the answer exactly, as she's a regular on it?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Yes a lot of my friends are regulars there. I’m open to doing it, just not super high priority for me atm. If it happens, it happens

Critics scores mean a lot less now, I've always found the competitions to be useless as a buying guide because they have been overly generous but now that has spilled over into the core wine review sources. It used to be that the go tos were, in order, Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. But now there's a lot more higher scoring wines showing up there too and there's nothing unique about them. It's devalued the worth of the system, there's too many wine critics, many of whom are overly generous and we don't even know who they are a lot of the time. It's not just Robert Parker and a couple of others presiding over everything anymore!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I agree that while overall wine quality has improved drastically in recent decades, scores have become inflated. I don’t know how to exactly feel yet on the plethora of critics as it’s nice to see differenr voices. You are right though in the fact that it’s not easy on the general consumer… Wine Enthusiast reviews have always been a joke to me

It's kind of odd that a few countries have huge amounts of 94+ wines that are reasonably priced and mediocre to decent...

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Do you mean that in a good or bad or suspicious way??

@Todd.T

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Suspicious. A lot of down under and South Americas wines seem to come with high ratings from bodies, I have never heard of. I like to find some group I agree with and use them as a baseline IF I was unsure..

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

That's the challenge in wine, finding critics we agree with personally

@Todd.T

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey That is the plan. It didn't take me too long to figure out whom I agree with. As I try other wines, I try to find critics for those types of wines and use each critics notes for the wines. I find a lot of Pinot Noir and Valpolicella a bit light. I like Paso Robles deep dark fruits and intensity. I did get some different glasses for the Pinot Noir which seems to help out and now I am exploring more. So far I am enjoying Louis Jadot Bourgogne.

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Good value too!!

what do you think of wines from israel are they in the in the testings you go to would be nice to see a video tasting wines from israel

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

You’ll find one here! kzread.info/dash/bejne/Zo2ao9upmpXddpc.html

@jackjack-qd3rg

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey yes they have great wines that is not the top they have ,would love to see more about wines from israel not many ppl know they make good wine now adays

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I was supposed to get a set of samples from Israel but they never arrived

Welcome to Germany!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Danke! I always love coming. There will be an episode on Mosel coming soon

Yoooo Valle d'Aosta ✌️ i m from Aosta Valley saint Vincent 🤗

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

buongiorno!

@guglielmo_arte_naturale

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey here Is night actually 🤣 but yes buongiornooo 🤗

@guglielmo_arte_naturale

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey do you have a Instagram Page ? I would to suggest some of the really good wines from my region 🤗

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

@drmattyh as my big account got disabled by IG 😡… I do have a pretty good grip on the region but am always open to hearing from a local

@guglielmo_arte_naturale

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey nice😁! I respect you and of course i dont doubt that you know a lot my region more then i do... But this very passed week they realead really special wines that are really interesting that i know for sure you never heard of or tasted.

Medal to me is proof thay wine is not average, for the PRICE

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

I think that can be a good guideline from competitions that you trust (just like critics you trust)

@limesinfinity6864

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Yes I think it is, but as you said in the video, some red wines get gold medals, yet they are light and elegant, average consumer might be disapointed, so medals could be realy good guideline as long as you know what you should expect from given wine(style of it) and the price. I trust Decanter, Mundus, AWC. p.s. sorry for horrible spelling 😁

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Ahhh nice, you live in Europe??

@limesinfinity6864

Жыл бұрын

@@drmatthewhorkey Yep, Serbia, been following you since the first time you have been to Serbia 😁

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

😱

I don’t generally pay attention to medals, but I admit to referring to critics and Cellar Tracker community scores (some critics more than others). Have you ever gone back days later and recasted wines you’ve judged to see how consistent you are?

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Personally for myself, yes… In competitions, I have no idea although I know some put the same wine back in flights to check the quality of their judges.

Trust but verify! Drink Matthew DRINK!

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

hahahah not when you are on the jury at a competition... Spit Matthew SPIT!

these awards always reward the most polished, soulless and easy to understand wines… bleh

@drmatthewhorkey

Жыл бұрын

Hahahahahha I think in general you are onto something. That competition in Valle d’Aosta that I mentioned in the video was anything but that. There were some soulful wines at Mundus Vini too