2014 Washington Wine Awards Methodology

By Seattle Mag July 17, 2014

This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Seattle Magazine.

Nominations for this year’s Washington Wine Awards were solicited via a survey of Washington wine and food professionals. The top vote-getters in the wineries, winemaker, vineyard and sommelier awards were selected as winners. The more than 100 wines receiving the most votes in the varietal categories qualified as finalists for a blind tasting, which took place on March 3, 2014, and was conducted by a panel of 20 industry professionals and scored using a 10-point system, with points awarded for the wines’ appeal in sight, smell and taste. The wine with the most points won. Winners in each variety category went on to compete for Wine of the Year, using the same 10-point system. Information in the tasting notes was taken from the tasters’ descriptions of the wines. Tasting panelists who are winemakers were excluded from voting in categories in which their wines were finalists.

Petit Verdot and sparkling-wine winners were selected at a blind tasting on March 10, 2014 from an open submission of wines, using the same methodology as described above.

Seattle magazine’s Washington Wine Awards program is produced by Yashar Shayan.

 

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