“The San Francisco World Spirits Competition in many ways is the Super Bowl for spirits.”
To get a medal, a spirit would have to convince the majority of our group it was worthy.
Geoff Kleinman
Although I’ve tasted tons of spirits in my career, nothing could prepare me for the absolute sea of spirits that were carted out for us to taste. Looking at a table so filled with glassware that there’s hardly any room for anything else is extraordinarily intimidating, and then add to that fact that you are tasting shoulder to shoulder with some of the giants in the industry, and it creates this vibe that this event is ‘the big show’. As significant as the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is and the amazing talent that they put in the tasting room, there’s a complete lack of ego. Once the doors are closed and everyone gets down to tasting, it’s all about the spirits.
So how do you taste so many spirits? Carefully. Depending on the spirit category, it can take hours to make your way through a large flight of spirits. Each spirit is nosed at least twice and then tasted at least twice. Our table blew through bottles of water swishing and cleaning our palates, with plates of cheeses and bread and celery to clear out the tougher spirits. As we discussed each spirit, and we talked our way through each glass in each round on each day. We evaluated spirits on distillation, nose, flavor, flavor delivery, representation in the category and overall experience. There were many levels to evaluate on and it lead to some fascinating discussions about spirits and their categories.
One of the things I really appreciated about the competition is that it is indeed a world competition. All to often in the US, we call events “World’ without including anything from outside our own borders. In the SF World Spirits Competition, we evaluated spirits from across the globe, from things you’d expect like Scotch Whisky, Irish Whiskey and French Cognac, to Japanese Shochu and Austrian Chocolate Spirit.
After tasting 142 spirits over the course of two days, the absolute best of the best from that group (which not only win double gold but get a unanimous vote to be sent on to sweepstakes from a group) get sent to the final day of Sweepstakes where all teams taste and evaluate all the winning spirits together. On that final day we tasted another 92 spirits (including some which we sent along to sweepstakes). The final day could only be described as a little slice of heaven, and from that tasting the best in class and show are awarded. After the whole event has wrapped and the winners are picked, the judges finally get to see the line up of things we tasted. Standing around the winner’s table, there were a lot of great exclamations.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition in many ways is the Super Bowl for spirits, and after having gone through the experience of it all, I do feel lucky to have played in the big game. It was an amazing experience and one I hope to repeat next year.~
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For 73 years, the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition has showcased the finest domestic and international vintages through a wine-tasting event that is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious in the United States. An esteemed panel of judges uses a blind-tasting method, maintaining the highest standards of integrity and professionalism that has remained the competition’s foundation for seven decades.
Additionally, the Competition is the platform for an extensive wine education program available to the nearly 1.5 million visitors at the annual L.A. County Fair. The Fair’s wine education center features consumer-driven classes, tastings and displays of the award-winning wines. With the L.A. International Wine & Spirits Competition committed to educating the public about wine, the Fair’s wine education program features industry experts with extensive knowledge about wine growing and selection, wine tasting as well as wine and food pairings.
Three Medals