Has anyone else tried wine tasting at a county fair?

Every year when my wife and I attend the Los Angeles County Fair, we see that they are offering wine tastings for gold medal recipients of the Los Angeles International Wine Competition. Last year, we decided to try a tasting of five of them.

I’ve synched the video to start with our tasting. In retrospect, I was a bit too polite in my verbal tasting notes. My facial reaction doesn’t always match my words. My wife was a bit more direct in her critiques.

Glenn Levine has some county fair experience

Fried wine on a stick??

Last time I tried, we stood there 10 minutes while the only couple ahead of us carried on an inane conversation with the server, who ignored us, and we gave up and left.

Other times I’ve tried, it was frankly … let’s just say it’s not designed for folks like us here. Just not really a fit.

Some wines ‘need’ an award to help it sell. I have had more than a few customers that treat the delineation between a Gold and Double Gold more important than any Vinous or Wine Advocate score. Doesn’t matter the competition, doesn’t matter what other wines were entered. Hardware sells when you don’t have actual merit.

I think we had an American “madeira.” It was so oxidized that we politely informed the server, who had no idea what that meant, so we asked her to show it to her supervisor. She took one whiff, rolled her eyes, and poured us a different taste.

Better was the Banfi sit-down tasting, from Reunite to Poggio alle Mura and everything in between. FWIW, the wines were clean and tasty.

Well, Madeira madeira is oxidized. I’ve never had an American one though. Maybe it was just Pinot Noir that someone left on the counter too long?

[rofl.gif] I wouldn’t be surprised if someone actually tried to make that!

Here’s the closest thing I found on google images: wine-fried brie on a stick!

Lex, at least you got to taste a 100 point deep fried snickers bar !!

Oh, that deserved Triple Gold! Best Snickers Ever!!! One TN on that: don’t let it age!

In flyover country, the best drinks tend to be the fruit wines, or “cordials”.

For instance, we’ve got a lady down the road from us who makes some really fun wines from fruits such as Strawberry, Raspberry, and Cranberry.

That’s kind of similar to the experience we had this year. We were thinking, “Should we really give it another chance?” But there was just too much of a crowd. I ended up walking across the room to an open bar and just ordering a pint of beer.

I used to love going to the Orange County Fair, purchase a wine glass for $5 and taste through all the medal winners. Find a bartender you like, tip him big up front - and you can taste 20-30 wines in an hour or so - the key is finding a good “volunteer” to help you find all the wines -

Hey Thomas, is that Orange County in California or some other state?

Once judged the Indiana State Fair wine competition…

JD

Yes - “THAT” Orange County Fair. Should have been more specific.

at all our SC ag fairs, all the wines somehow have this very bordeaux-like nose…

Thanks for letting me know. I might try that one of these summers!

How about the great wines at the MN State Fair. Every year our local goofy wine writers rave about the crap we produce. I actually had a decant MN wine at a wine shop tasting but then looked closer at the bottle and the grapes were all from California.

That is too much! A bunch of my co-workers are from Minnesota. I’ll be sure to tell them this funny story.