INSIDE the World of Wine COMPETITIONS | Behind-the-Scenes Look

What’s it like to be a judge at a wine competition? Join me for an insider’s look at the @vinopres Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Red and White Wine Session in Guanajuato, Mexico.

🥂 Can YOU Trust WINE Competitions??? https://youtu.be/Nvgrv3mAOfE?si=TtH-1CmR_rnjDjf_

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so after some crazy travel missed a few flights freak thunderstorm I finally in Leo Mexico to judge the Concord mundal red and white session there’s going to be 7,500 wines I’m on jury 3 I’m going to give you an inside look of what it’s like to be in a competition interview some of my longtime friends let’s have some fun Jeff he was the former editor at Wine Enthusiast now the wine editor at RAB report he’s also a conquer mondal veteran so why do you like this competition I I love the conquer Mundial because um I get to see people I’ve known for the last nine or 10 years it’s like a big family and what’s really cool to me is that as an American I taste and and and you as an American we taste a little bit differently than you know U French or Spanish so one of my complaints whenever I meet Italian wine makers or French wine makers is they only know Italian wine or French wine As Americans of course we know American wine from Napa but we get experience in tasting wine from all around the world do you think that consumers can really trust competitions you know absolutely and um I’ve been with the Concord like I said for almost a decade and I can’t tell you how many friends come up to me and say oh you know when I go to the wine shop and I see that little label that Gold Label or or silver label I know that it’s a good wine and that happened even before I was with the concore of course the biggest the one we are here today for R and lights [Music] so usually how competitions start you’re going to have two calibration wines a red a white everybody in the entire room tastes the same wine so you have an idea of where the scoring is where your panel is and where the whole competition is the first calibration wine for us was a Mexican sarra which I thought was pretty darn good not all competitions do this but a concore mundal they stick the same wine in same flight so they can track how good of a taster you are then you get a report at the end Conor Mel here you have a silver a gold and a grand gold medal Grand gold is going to be the best of the best and it’s going to be the rarest finished up a flight of Reds in a lot of competitions when you see the score sheets you’re going to see a lot of different factors like you’re going to score for appearance color all that kind of stuff you have to score quickly so usually I score for the medal and I don’t give individual scores to all those different characteristics CU if you do your scores will be all over the place for example if you think deserve it of a gold medal I score in the range of a gold medal in this competition 87 is the Baseline if I think it’s a better gold I want to make sure that’s it’s going to get gold like maybe give $ 8990 or a little bit more how was the flight from mova not so short 24 hours but uh with some jet lag but with some beer and wine in the airports I will pass I see Andre all around the wine circuit judging a lot why do you love judging in wine competitions because it’s a nice experience tast and blind the wine to have a experience with different colleague from all of the world to have a change of this knowledge and to test something new you’re scaring me because you’re being a little too serious yeah know I’m do the work now I don’t drink the wine do you think that people can really trust wine competitions when they see medals on the bottle concour M de brel it’s a very big competition well known all over the world yes so they should trust I actually think that the trust depends on the quality of wines and the quality of competition too so you think CMB the quality is higher than a lot of you judge a lot in than a lot of other competitions yes I judge a lot indeed I have I’m doing six or seven competition a year uh yes CMB is one of the highest quality and very nice [Music] wines and by the way this video is not sponsored I just wanted to put together because I know before I started judging in competitions I really wanted to see what the whole process looked like finish up with the first day we got the wine Puffs going on we’re all puffy and we got red teeth how was your first time at Conor Mel okay first impressions loved it super excited um I had fun like literally like had fun like this was awesome I’m also intimidated by but I asked for seconds of a couple wines and I think I was I think I was on par like I think I was correct I approach it as a consumer as a writer and as a wine maker as a wine maker there were some that I was like oh my God hot ferment like what happened there like no you can’t like that was a hot ferment not okay and then there were others that was like okay that was like as a consumer i’ drink that fine um as a writer I’d have critiques as a wine maker I’m like M CMB needs to thank the awesome person that recommended you right you this crazy guy from Denmark was my panel chair at the Ros competition a few months ago he’s like a big YouTube star in Denmark I got to ask you what do I need to do to improve you got to give me tips I I think you’re doing great uh continue what you do yeah maybe you’ll be a chairman one day maybe maybe fingers crossed what do I got to do to become a chairman do I got to kiss some butts I I don’t know you try it how was the first time in Mexico and tasting here it was great you know always need to get together and find each other I think we did that and we had an amazing tasting I’m pumped to open those white burgundies later me as well me as well I judge about six to seven competitions a year and I tend to find that judges are usually consistent when it comes to Fresh white wines but red wines it’s all over the place because some people like Oak some people like acidity some people like things like volatile aity some people like things like Bret the thing that gives you the stinky armpit or the kind of the horse settle leather feel it’s all about preference and that’s why there’s a lot of judges in theory everything’s supposed to even out since ktie is a wine maker they judge a lot differently than writers media consumers especially when it comes to fault like Brett many people don’t like Brad but sometimes I like and sometimes I find in Georgian wines for me it’s very nice it’s a typical for red wines yes it’s when you produce in Oak and aging Oak it’s normal but more people cannot understand B one ah so you’re okay with it but in competitions you score winds down with Brett because you think people won’t like it yes of course for for me it’s not to an reason to write a low score because sometimes it’s really the time oh okay so you learn things about friends all the time the city of Guana was approved as a UNESCO world heritage City in 1988 it’s as colorful as it is beautiful usually during wine competitions there are side trips to Wine regions or meals with producers because of my misf flight I wasn’t able to attend the trip through Wine Country on the first day but with a city like this I’m not [Music] complaining we end the day with a Gala dinner and performances that run well into the night [Music] my good Venetian friend see you all over the place first of all why you follow me all around the world well just because I’m having fun we’re always on trips together do you prefer going to The Vineyards tasting when like we’re on press trips or do you like doing competitions better well let’s say that I would prefer better to be in the vineyard and to the competition in the vineard I would say it’s the best play what do you like about the competition so far at concal versus other on it’s always interesting most first of all because you know you have all these judges coming from all around the world which means that you meet a lot of people you have fun and the in in the private moments and at the same time it’s very focused in the tasting moment I just met Rafael I bet you’re the youngest person here which is great because the line world needs younger people so how how was your first day here oh it’s been so great um I feel so lucky to be here um I love that I get to represent my generation and bring in new conversations into the mix I think it’s super great that we’re here in Mexico what was the most stressful and the hardest thing about judging for the first time I think well I got for my second flight some heavy Reds so I think preparing myself for what’s to come is a good little tip of ADV or piece of advice for myself next time I think it’s just the pace of everything the spread of everything that you’re tasting I mean we had some regions that were you know completely new to the wine world the fact that you get to see a very wide range even within a Country flight is really cool start of the second day what I like about Concor mondal right after the tasting session is over you get all the wines with the scores and what you gave flight of Georgian wines a KD on the panel compa which I was just at last week a fero deaso really good score home of the ancient Roman wine feran the last flight was Frac for Bordeaux you here on the channel I scream about the value that fronsac gives right Bank of Bordeaux based on more G FR and there were some excellent [Music] [Applause] wines those of you that follow the channel know that I love Mexican wines I actually lived in Baja California for 3 months and since we’re in Mexico and Lis is a distributor of Mexican wines I want you to tell me how has Mexican wine changed because it’s been a long time since I’ve been there Mexico has a short history in in wine but it has been growing a lot so at the beginning there were just three main regions that were manufactur producing wine now we have almost 17 and the consumption the per capita consumption in Mexico of wine has been growing in the last 10 years from 25 milliliters to 1.2 L but there are many good projects with very good quality uh that are have been competing worldwide like in this in this contest and gaining a lot of uh rewards and all that so so it’s it’s a challenging but growing Market in Mexico the ones we’ve tasted have been pretty good and I remember the Mexican the better ones were bigger Bolder and sometimes weird Blends like zinfindel C Tempo is it still the case is that still happening yeah still happens because Mexico the thing is there are a lot of let’s say wineries but there’s not a lot of grape owners so you will find very different mixes because sometimes the the the wineries or the manufacturers buy what they can get are you happy with the quality how’s how it’s improving depends on the region you live in incanada and all that it’s long history as as well as Paras that is well the oldest region that we have but we have many new regions like the one that we are right now in Guan those new regions are still in this working process with very short AG H let’s say plants that are still needing to grow I’m with literally I’m not exaggerating one of the best pallets I’ve ever tasted with you’ve been at conquor mondal for a long time why do you like to keep coming back to this competition well uh at first because they travel a year for another place so I love to travel and it’s very good uh second because of my friends I have really good friends here atel and then the third place because of the wines because of the evaluation do you think that the jury really makes a difference in terms of how the wines are scored and what medals they’re getting well yes we are 350 members you never know it’s a bit tricky that um what kind of jury members do you have so and and one t table you can have a very nice jury it means that in the end you will have some uh really good points but very he is but in other case it can be complicated never in my life have I had a flight in a competition where everyone got a gold metal so I’m looking forward to seeing what it is I do think it’s Kean but we’ll see okay no it’s rioa overall the quality was outstanding a lot of good producers G Roha great value for money the side trip on day two starts with a local Village tour complete with the refreshments it’s lunchtime but I’m distracted I’m going to stop judging wine and just judge Mojitos from now on a flout stuffed with hibiscus guacamole and dried [Music] beef we’re having a blast in our ated by a local performance but I’m stuck on the pablano sauce the music is good but the pablano sauce oh my God so good sweet spicy oh my God after dessert I’m offered a treat from an Italian judge smoking tusin cigars in Mexico after judging a flight of Romanian wines I might add so worldly I’m not joking that was one of the best press trip competition little side trips in a long [Music] time third final day little tired I’m with my good friend Alise in Italy of all places but she works for a distributor so it’s a unique angle I think tasting when you’re in these groups tasting with analogist Distributors and writers media is a little bit different do you feel like you taste a little bit differently than everybody else or you notice I try to be um as thorough as possible I do have somier training so I feel that I taste in the way that I was taught but everybody’s a little bit different in their tasting and everyone has different viewpoints depending on where they come from uh who they talk to and who is actually drinking the wine this is your first year concore mondal how do you like it the wines that we have judged in the competition have been of really very good quality you’re one of the most helpful people to me ever in the wine industry but you’ve never recommended me with this for this competition why not you never asked that’s the reason probably you don’t judge that much anymore cuz you’re busy with business stuff but you still come here every year why why is that well Concor Mondial give me opportunity to travel around the world and to experience uh wine regions of the world uh that’s unique opportunity actually I travel a lot without this competition but still this competition brings me in in the regions which I never visited before so it’s openminded open eyes uh for wine for wine lover or wine expertise me we would like to show you next destination ofp CER of the Chinese England and the construction of the C is sh that the so this Concor mundal is a traveling competition next Edition is in ncia in China probably the premier wine growing region in China hope to see you there [Music] well third day was exciting because I we found out that the next Conor M’s in China my last flight I thought it was Chilean carire and what do you know it was Chinese Cabernet saon but I gave some good scores Concor Mel is usually European Centric but I at least have an American here with me Jamie yes are we going to take over China I think we’re going to I think uh China look out here we go usually in these competitions there are very few Americans do you feel like you taste a little bit differently than other Europeans um I think sometimes Americans are used to bigger wines um and used to maybe um a little more fruit quality so I think that can be a difference but I think uh I mean my panel we were we were really pretty spoton we kind of all had the same same taste this year so yeah it was it was great see you in ninia I’m ready China here we come