San Francisco International Wine Competition 2016 Page 2
The French (and actually we've heard Italians, too) say "Chapeau!" as
a term of admiration and respect.
It's sort of like "Bravo!"
The literal translation of the term "chapeau" is hat.
And so we have the theme of Saturday's wine judging...the judging aspect of the
day is quite serious and professional, but we enjoy having a bit of fun to
celebrate this great weekend of wine and camaraderie.
Panel A
Joe "One Dude" Roberts, Sarah "Aquavit" Blau and
"Cowboy" Jerry Cooper
Panel B
Nadia "Vŭzlyubena"
Pavlevska, Ziggy "Rose of the Wild Bunch"
Eschliman, Anthony Biased Blue, Bob "Wilfred" Paulinski
Panel C
Mike "Wilfred" Tadich, Shelley "A-16" Lindgren, Sir Nick Ponomareff
Panel D
Charles Maraviglioso, Dana Fantastica, Drake "Gaucho" McCarthy
Panel E
Rowald "Wilfred" Hepp, Jim "The Kiwi Kowboy" Harré and Mister Riesling, Jim
Trezise
Panel F
Clarice "Frappuccino" Turner, George Thorka, Squire Robert Whitley and
Mark "The Palate" Bowery
Hugo Chandler
Panel G
Feil (That's Lief Spelled Sideways) Eriksson, Michael "The
Professor" Franz, Ian Beekeeper, Traci "Drinks" Dutton
Panel H
Joe Petragliasson, Kristina Spencer Kessler, Wilfred Wong (again!)
Panel I
Timmy SkyScrapersson, Valery "The Doc of The Bay" Uhl and Michael
"Sam Spade" Cervin
Panel J
Izzi or Ain't He (Steve Izzo), Top-Hat Fred Dame and Duke Cikota
Panel K
Michael "Zorro" Ploetz, Leslie "Lagertha" Sbrocco and Ron
"Wilfred" Wongsham
Panel L
Kevin "Wilfred" Vogt, Wendy "Yerba-Buena" Stanford, Tonya "Stagecoach
Mary" Pitts, Tim "Rollo" McDonald
Panel M
Dan "Cosmo" Berger, Kimberly "Annie Oakley" Charles, Robert
"Oktoberfest" Silverstein
Panel N
Lulu "Kadarka" McAllister, Sean "I'll Have a Beer" Ludford,
Phil "I'll Have What He's Having" Markert
Panel O
Gerald "Groucho" Weisl, Jim "Chico" McMahon and Eduardo "Harpo" Dingler
Panel P
Chris "Tyrone Power" Sawyer, Jeffery "Brünnehilde" Stivers,
Tim "Jambalaya" McNally
Panel Q
Ron "Thunderball" Brown, John "Q" Cunin, Andy
"Peanut" Perdue
As our panel wrapped up our final flight of entries, we submitted one of the
glasses to Jeffery Stivers who was at a neighboring table.
One cannot describe Mr. Stivers as "pokerfaced."
His assessment of a wine registers immediately.
At this stage we are all delighted to have made our way through a few Double
Gold medal-winning wines, a small quantity of Gold Medals, a modest amount of
Silver Medal wines and a flock of Bronze Medalists.
Our wonderful Panel O Volunteers did a great job and we made our way through 29
Flights with ease and efficiency.
ZACH FITTING--SUE CHEE--KC JONES
We typically have some brewskis in our cellar bag to celebrate
the completion of our judging work.
This year I brought Brasserie Lebbe beer, also known as "Goat Beer."
A big "Thank You" and "Bravo" to the grand crew who took
such good care of us!
After we were invited to some "taste-offs." These were
"Super Tastings" of Double Gold medal wines. The idea was to
reduce the number of entries into the Sweepstakes Tastings on Sunday
morning. Instead of having 10 Chardonnays at that tasting, we could select
the top two or three wines for the Sweepstakes.
Out in the hall we found a number of other judges had also completed their tastings.
She-Nanigans and He-Nanigans
Meanwhile, down to the business at hand.
A Super-Tasting of Double Gold Medal Cabernets
The Aftermath...
And on to Sunday Morning's Taste-Off...the Best of The Best
We were to taste through these to begin the morning of Sweepstakes Judging.
The "Brain Trust" sits at the front of the room and they were ready to
taste and evaluate.
Anthony Dias Blue and Tim McDonald
That's what one calls "Double Gold"!!!
A man on a mission...The Maverick Ron Brown
Waiting for the starting bell...
We taste through the various wines...if there are, for
example, three Sauvignon Blancs we'll taste those and pick the favorite,
eliminating two of them. The winner is, then, the Best Sauvignon Blanc of
the competition and it remains as a finalist for the "Best White Wine"
of the show award.
Andy or Tim asks the judges to vote...and you can vote as many times or for as
many wines as you like.
There's a group of volunteers at the front of the room tabulating the number of
raised hands. They discuss the number of votes they counted to confirm the
tabulation.
I believe they count Andy's and Tim's votes but once...
Wendy
Phil
Mark
Dr. Michael
Ziggy
Dana
Tonya
Nadia
Kevin
Counting the votes
After tasting sparkling wines and the various white wines, we
leave the room for the volunteers to clear the wine glasses, replace them with
clean stemware and then pour the next series of wines.
On the way out the door I saw a couple of old dawgs and a young pup...
George, Andy and Hugo-Chandler
I attempted to take some "Wilfred Wong"-styled
snapshots.
He takes photographs.
I take snapshots.
Apparently she was texting him his favorite three word phrase:
I Love Riesling.
Chris Sawyer was looking at the ten selfies he'd taken in the previous two
hours, while Jeffery Stivers was researching a local laundry place to get the
wine stains out of his lab coat.
Jeffery kept calling Chris "Tom Sawyer" which may explain why Chris
called Jeffery "Huckleberry Finn."
All Smiles.
Sandra Bullock and Jackie Chan taking a selfie.
More Selfies...and they all seem to be with Wilfred Wong, as people have
mistaken him for either Barack Obama or Tim McDonald.
Loo-zee-Anna and Jupiter
Yipes, Stripes!!!
Mister Chicago
The Bee Gees
John, Michael and Fred
Ben & Jerry
Drake
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon
"Just the facts, ma'am..."
Peter, Paul and Mary
Well, Mary with Peter and Paul.
Tango and Cash
Looks like a National League baseball team (with the pitcher warming up in the
bullpen).
Women's Lacrosse Team?
Batman & Robin
Sonny & Cher
"I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've watched
that Sommelier movie...and it's still the same ending after six
screenings."
Frodo & Sam
Say Cheese
Hair Club for Men Team Meeting
Hair Club for Women Team Meeting
Teyoncé
Leon & Jeffery taking simultaneous selfies, apparently.
Hold those hands up!
Okay, who's the joker raising both hands?
_Kirsten-Talling.jpg)
Mahala and Kirsten tally up on the other side of the room.
As all the votes were tallied, we had the "Bests of the Best."
Andy took a bow.
Nicolette Teo sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" or something along
those lines.
And the judges all rose to applaud her wonderful performance, more as the
Managing Director than as a singer.
And we thanked the amazing army of volunteers who are the backbone of the
judging.
For a list of award winning wines, CLICK
HERE.
Gerald
The 2016 San Francisco International Wine Competition is
"in the books" and another success.
We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2017.
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