Innaugural VWC Competition

[medpretzel]

Fantastic comments, Zeb.

Information, Knowledge, Inspiration, Advice, Demonstrations, Enthusiasm etc etc etc

is exactly what the virtual wine circle CAN do.... We need "descriptors" like these (and sometimes maybe some guidance, since this is new) to make it the 24/7 wine circle that a lot of us needs.

We were thinking of commercial wine appreciation, but only in conjunction to assess our homebrews better. What does "green" mean? What does "Fruity" mean? Are you tasting to your abilities? Once you have some descriptors in place (which DOES take place by general tasting with a wine that everyone can access), I think it might be easier to assess others' wines, in a wine-swap, for example.

The virtual wine circle is, in my opinion (others may feel free to differ), a non-snobbery wine circle that just enjoys a good home brew. We've got a lot of judges on board, a few newbies (hoping for more), and a desire to get a group together that just enjoys homebrew.

I, for one, only have a very few people I give my wines to. I only get their (positive) response...... But is it only that? Am I making good wine? I often ask myself. I'm a little timid to enter in wine competitions, for the fear that I will be "found out."

But this, I can assure you, is anything but a snobbery effort.

It's a trial at a first-ever online wine circle.

[medpretzel]

To get some descriptors, I thought I'd add a UC-Davis (University of California, Davis Campus) tasting sheet.

has some great guides to taste your wine.

[lockwood1956]

We intend to put together all sorts of tutorials (video possibly) to aid in educating your palate, and guides to making better wines, as well as presentations on extracting juice from fruit, must preparation, in fact all things wine making and drinking!


watch this space.....and keep your ideas coming

[Zebedee]

Well........



thats the plan

Ah....

But is it a cunning plan Baldrick ?

[Duffbeer]

Can we have a bouncy castle ?

[medpretzel]

Zeb,

Just saw your signature line.


Statistics are everything!!! (Ask Rich_S!)

M.

[medpretzel]

Righty-ho...

Why to join a wine circle:

I'll start, since I lived 5+ years without one.

1. A great way of interacting with people who love their hobby.
2. Getting feedback of non-partial people!
3. Not feeling threatened by a "higher body" of judges
4. But getting judge-feedback when you'd like.
5. Learning about wines in a structured way.
6. Meeting new people.





M.

[Richard S]

Can we have a bouncy castle ?

A virtual bouncy castle hmmmm.........

Statistics are everything!!! (Ask Rich_S!)

You started it but yes stats are interesting.

[lockwood1956]

Righty-ho...

Why to join a wine circle:

I'll start, since I lived 5+ years without one.

1. A great way of interacting with people who love their hobby.
2. Getting feedback of non-partial people!
3. Not feeling threatened by a "higher body" of judges
4. But getting judge-feedback when you'd like.
5. Learning about wines in a structured way.
6. Meeting new people.





M.

Ditto all of that......


and if you join a really active circle, you get talks on making better wine, educating your palate etc etc etc


the virtual wine circle will have all of these.

Working on a tasting/evaluation sheet for virtual wine circle and for wine swaps, that will (hopefully) help to build extra descriptors into your vocabulary and to aid evaluation of wines.
it will be loosely based on the UCDavis sheet, but will include more descriptors and aids to evaluation

regards
bob

[lockwood1956]

OK........


thoughts on first competition...


we were thinking that we could host the first VWC competition during the Pontefract open show.

We could have a dry white class, evaluated along the normal UK comp lines.

Then a class where you simply sent in your wines, and they were judged against a set criteria....probably based on the UCDavis scoring system, and the wines were awarded bronze, silver and gold awards.

I have spent a little time looking at the UCDavis marking system, and believe we could modify it for use in the wine swap. Currently the system mark out of 20 points, I think we need more of a range, and so will work on perhaps a system scoring out of 50 or 100 points, and will design a marking sheet that helps everyone mark wines more effectively, and build up your wine descriptors, and evaluation skills. I will add descriptors and guide to point scoring.


Your thoughts everyone?

[medpretzel]

Sounds great. I think an online reply would be great for all those who've entered.