What wines are eligible to be considered in the Judgment of Davis?
White wines must be 100% chardonnay, and red wines must be more than 50% cabernet sauvignon. Labels and vintages must be currently available from wineries, importers, or distributors. Wines from any region in the world that meet these basic criteria are eligible for the Judgment of Davis.
Who are the judges?
Judges include some of the world’s top winemakers, Masters of Wine, wine critics, sommeliers, and wine scholars. The partial list of confirmed judges currently includes Joe Czerwinski (Wine Advocate), Karen MacNeil (The Wine Bible), Clive Pursehouse (Decanter), and Liz Thach MW (Wine Market Council).
What ranking system will be used to judge the wines, and what results will be reported?
Wines will be rated on a 100-point scale. Beyond reporting simple averages, medians, standard deviations, and other ordinary summary statistics, a team of economists and statisticians from Harvard, Princeton, and UC Davis will also examine the results in depth and report on a variety of interesting statistics such as which wines were most divisive versus most consistent among judges, and how the opinions of invited expert judges differed from the opinions of the non-expert ticketed general public in the audience.
How does the Judgment of Davis intersect or interact with the original 1976 Judgment of Paris?
We will compare the results of the Judgment of Davis with the Judgment of Paris and report on those results in Symposium session 2.5, on Wednesday afternoon, May 20, the last session of the Vine to Mind Symposium. Judges from the Judgment of Davis will also have the option to participate in that session, which will discuss both Judgments, their differences and similarities, and implications for the future of the wine industry and wine criticism.
How can I submit my wine to the Judgment of Davis competition?
Information on submitting wine is available at the Submissions page.
How can I attend the Judgment of Davis?
A limited number of tickets is being made available to the general public. For more information, see the Tickets page.