The Challenge of India Wine Challenge
Once the medal was decided, the jurors were not allowed to change their vote and the papers were handed over to Robert.
There was no limit set for the percentage of Gold, Silver or Bronze medals or the seal of approval earned by wines and each was decided on its own merit.
Selection of Top Wines
All the gold winning wines in London were flown to India for re-tasting-but only to determine the top wine. Their Gold status would not change. If a Gold winner was rated only silver or bronze from the Indian panel, it maintained its Gold but if it won a Gold in the hands of panelists again, it was entitled to be short-listed for the top wine award. All the fresh gold winning wines in India were allowed to enter the final round of the Top wine selection.
After the wines were short-listed, the panel was asked to select top 4 wines each and give points at 4 to his first choice, 3 for the second, down to 2 and 1. The wine having the maximum points was declared the Top wine in its category. 'Although we announce the winner later in other competitions, I chose to show the bottle to the panel and announced the result under promise of secrecy to the panelists, so that there would be no suspicions raised later,' said Robert.
In the Indian category, there were no Gold winners, which was not surprising. The only silver winner (Sula Sauvignon Blanc) was declared the Top Indian White Wine. All the red Bronze winners were pitted against each other through the individual point system and the one getting the maximum was declared the Top Red wine.
Since there were no large numbers of wines, sub-categories were not considered. Besides, price was no consideration in the judging process.
Too many Medals
Since there was no upper limit on the medals, about 140 wines out of 350 ended up with medals. Though the Golds were pretty close to the international standard of around 5%, the total number at 40% does seem to be on the higher side.
Most international competitions set the limit of 30-35%. (Personally-I believe the number should even be scaled down to 25% to make the medals carry more weight and value).
Judges are but human
Consistency of the marking system by the judges could be a cause of concern for some. Personal choices and preferences do tend to interfere unless the judges have maturity due to sufficient international experience. Though the difference of opinion is sorted out because of the democratic process involved, one panel could be harsher than the other. In other words, one panel could award a bronze while the other would give the same wine Silver.
If the top wine in a competition were to be the first to be tasted, it might get a lower score while an ordinary wine may get higher score in other competition. Similarly the palates of judges can be victims of palate exhaustion and the panel could become lenient or tighter in their marking, later during the day. Of course, the Chairman had warned the judges about the fallacy but the human instincts could still affect their judging capability.
This inherent weakness is applicable to all international competitions and as they say in golf, it is the luck of draw.
A Case for Indian wines
The Indian wines were tasted together as a group. But the standard was kept more or less same as the other foreign wines. The results- with no Gold and bare Silver bear it out.
However, in a rather unique gesture, Robert had promised the Indian producers a summary report based on the comments from judges and his own tasting notes to help them analyse why a particular label was not found medal-worthy, at no cost.
India Wine Challenge- Second Edition
Despite doubts expressed by a few, most of the importers and producers who stayed on the sidelines this year are very satisfied with the event and have already declared their intent to enter next year. As Robert Joseph openly admits it, 'such wine competitions are never perfect. If you win medals in other competitions, and not this one, something could be wrong with our judging procedure. If you start winning in most other competitions, you don't need to enter anymore. Till you discover either way, you should enter to get the proper professional feedback to improve quality.
The First edition of India Wine Challenge has been a creditable and credible competition with a lot of transparency and professionalism, thanks to Robert Joseph.
If you have any better ideas for venue, judges and
style of competition, do share with us and our readers.
Subhash Arora
