It has been said that what distinguishes the human species from other mammals is that we are the only political animal. Our need to compete amongst ourselves also makes us fairly unique in the animal kingdom. Many human endeavours in addition to sport lend themselves very well to the competitive urge – politics, business, war, fishing, dog breeding, vegetable growing, ballroom dancing, tiddlywinks and so on. In most of these activities either an obvious outcome or the use of valid scoring protocols mean there can be clear winners and losers.

There are also human endeavours which are not so obviously suited to competition. Art, literature, and dare I say it – wine. Please note that what I am about to say is a wholly personal view.

For winemakers, good results in wine competitions can confer powerful marketing benefits. We experienced this in our early days while attempting to establish a profile. Winning medals in competitions and high scores in magazine articles really helped put us on the map. Wine competitions can also be useful for consumers who are less knowledgeable about wines by giving them some names to seek on crowded supermarket shelves. But this is where a cautionary note or two needs to be issued.

Wines can differ from each other in extremely subtle ways. So many variables come together in the growing of grapes and the making of wine that the range of aroma and flavour nuances is vast - virtually unlimited. Combine this with the fact that the appreciation of wine’s aromas and flavours is a deeply personal thing (like art and literature), then you have a situation where it is impossible to make valid, universally applicable judgements about merit.

On top of this, the conditions under which wines are judged in competitions make objectivity in evaluation impossible. Judges taste wines in “flights” comprising large numbers of samples and this goes on over many hours. During this process they are expected to be able to bring a wholly objective approach to bear on each and every wine they taste. Can you imagine being able to score the 67th wine you taste in a day in exactly the same way as the first, and to distinguish between them to the point where you can give them all a mark out of 100?

Pretence at such accuracy is a fanciful fiction. But to be fair, the bottom line for the inexperienced punter is that a wine with an award or a high score should be of a good drinkable standard.

Robin Ransom
President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.
robin@ransomwines.co.nz.

Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, October 2008

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