Some weeks ago, I was invited to participate in the judging of Seattle Magazine's Washington Wine Awards. This is an annual judging by Washington wine industry professionals, including sommeliers, winemakers and wine writers. The 2013 Wine Awards will be published in the August issue of Seattle Magazine.

First of all, I would like to congratulate Seattle Magazine and the Wine Awards coordinater, Anne Nisbet,for organizing the well run wine tasting which was held on Monday, March 4th at the magazine's offices. Also, thanks to the staff and volunteers who poured 101 wines for 20 judges.

Here are my comments on the judging:

The wines were scored on a ten point system with 1 point assigned for Appearance, 3 for aroma, 4 for palate and 2 for "Judges choice," which is a subjective score component. It is similar to the University of California Davis 20 point system, except that I found ten points to be somewhat less precise. But it seemed to work well for a three hour session of working through 101 wines.

Wine judging with double blind tasting (wines poured from brown bags and all unknown to any of the tasters) always produces some expected and some surprising results. After the tasting, a list of the wines tasted was handed out. I found a few wines that I had previously reviewed that received high scores in both the Review of Washington Wines and in the tasting. They were the 2010 Avennia "Arnaut" Syrah which received 19+ points in the October issue of the Review and I scored 9.5 points in the Wine Awards judging for the Yakima Valley Syrah category and 20 points in the Red Wine of the Year. I believe the wine has gained complexity since tasting it in September. I scored the 2009 FIGGINS Red Blend 10 points in both the Walla Walla Valley Red Blend and the Red Wine of the Year categories. That wine scored 19.5 points in the August issue of the Review of Washington Wines. On the other hand, there were some wines I rated highly in the Review that did not score quite so highly in the Washington Wine Awards tasting. But my experience has been that there are always vagaries in the blind tasting process.

The tasting produced some surprises as well. My one criticism of the tasting would be the paucity of white wines. Since one of the tasting themes was Washington AVA's, there were Puget Sound Madeline Angevine and Siegreebe, and Columbia Gorge Aromatic Whites categories, but no Chardonnays or Marsannes. My top white in the White Wine of the Year category were the 2011 Efeste Evergreen Vineyard Sauvignon, a vivacious, floral white (not reviewed) with Virginie Bourge's 2010 Lullaby Viognier (reviewed December) a close runner-up. The 2009 Tildio Estate Syrah from Lake Chelan was a new discovery for me, scoring an impressive 9.5 points. It showed sultry, smoky lavender and violet aromas and thick, chewy flavors, hallmarks of a top-notch Syrah. The 2010 Fall Line Yakima Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was another winner, classically-styled and scoring 9/10 points. At $32, It scored 18.5 points in the January issue of the Review. Now, I'd give it 19 points and rate it great buy at $32.

That's it for now. Watch for the August issue of Seattle Magazine to find out what the judges picked out as the Washington Wine Awards winners.