In This Issue:

Lots of stuff about the upcoming Festival in this issue. Our friends in London have produced three pages of information, including a list of seminars and a sign-up form, which we include on pages 5 and 6; and a Registration form on the back page, so that you don’t have to choose between sending in a seminar form or a registration form.

The issue also has the traditional “Chief Judge’s Corner” by Peter Pigeon, and President Dan Ostler’s column, as well as a discussion, pro and con, on including as a medal category the idea of “Wine Taster of the Year”. Please consider these well-reasoned arguments and instruct your club rep how you wish to vote at the next Annual General Meeting.

We also note inside with great sadness the passing of Fran Arthur, wife of the indomitable “Buzz” Arthur and matriarch of the Arthur Clan. Wine.Art has been very good to us over the years, and I am sure that members will wish to remember, in their prayers, Buzz, John, Linda and Michael in their time of personal tragedy.

On a brighter note, Ottawa is coming along well for the year 2000. The hotel has been booked, a sufficiency of wine is fermenting thanks to the great generosity of Wine.Art and Kamil Juices, and a source of souvenir INAO-standard wine glasses has been identified (some clubs have expressed an interest in piggy-backing on this order, which can be arranged; these 24% lead crystal, tasting glasses work out - at current exchange rates - to about $3 each.) winemaking equipment has created a vast potential for many great amateur wines. However, there are simply too many bad wines being produced by people who truly want to do better.

We winemakers are a technically oriented group. So much so, that we believe that if we have the right equipment, we will automatically make good wine. Most winemakers avoid a basic truth - the most important winemaking tool is the skill of critical tasting, recognizing the correct balance of a wine’s components and wine faults. The common avoidance strategy has winemakers saying that they simply can’t taste well. The truth is that we all have the ability to taste, but few people take time to build that essential skill.

I test many judges and potential judges. Every person who sits a taste test more than once, improves their score. Every time! Clearly, trained tasters make better wines. Have you noticed the number of judges that win many winemakirig medals each year? If AWO sees within its role assisting members in better winemaking, then creating an incentive to improve tasting skill is essential. We are a club based organization so it is only fitting that club championship points be used to encourage otherwise disinterested members in building their basic tasting skills. With no incentive, we judges will continue to hear from winemakers who think the only criteria for rating a wine is simply that a judge “likes” that particular flavor or style of wine. Ignorance is not going to produce better wine.

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