By G.M. “Pooch” Pucilowski

Hi! I'm a bottle of Zinfandel from a winery in Sonoma County . About 3,800 of us were born on a beautiful fall day in October 2000. Five of my buddies and I are all packed up and ready for UPS to take us to the California State Fair Wine Competition.

We've just arrived at the fairgrounds along with hundreds of other bottles of wine and are waiting patiently to be checked in. Oh, here we go. One of the volunteers is looking us over, checking to make sure we are all related—you know, same vintage, appellation, varietal, etc. The volunteer is slapping a sticker with the number 2344 on me and my five friends. From this point on, the judges will know me only as 2344—they won't know where I was born, what winery I came from or how much I cost. (That's where the word “blind” comes from in “blind competition.”)

For the last 30 days, I've been chilling out with my friends in a 68-degree warehouse. Wait—one of my buddies has just been pulled out of the box, uncorked and poured into four glasses. These four glasses are going in front of four judges in the next room, along with 11 other Zinfandels. The judges will taste and spit out 170 to 200 wines today. They will determine whether we are good enough to go on in the competition. If we're eliminated, we'll head for home; the competition is over for us. If we're retained, we'll come back tomorrow to be tasted again by the same four judges. They'll decide if we get a gold, silver or bronze medal—or no medal at all. Whew, we made it past the first day—no elimination for us today.

It's Day 2, and another of my buddies has been presented to the judges. One judge thinks it deserves a bronze, another judges it worthy of a silver, and two others determine it should get a gold. They're discussing and retasting the wine. Guess what? The judge who wanted to give us a silver has decided to move us up to a gold! But it's not over yet. It's the end of the day, and four new judges have joined the panel. All the wines that earlier in the day got golds or double golds (this happens when all four judges give a wine a gold medal) have been brought back and tasted one more time so the judges can choose the best Zinfandel in California. (Aw, it's not us. But there's always next year.)

Day 3. Unlike other wine competitions, which typically end after the second day, the California State Fair Wine Competition goes on to a third day. In order to recognize the farmers who grew the grapes, the gold and double-gold winners are divvied up and judged by appellation (which is wine speak for region). Today, 12 judges are tasting all the best wines from Sonoma: three Chardonnays, four Zins, two Cabernet Sauvignons, four Pinot Noirs, etc.—about 30 wines in all. Seven of the 12 judges pick us as the best wine from Sonoma. Yea!

It's the end of the day, and it's time for one final tasting of the best wines from each of California's 11 regions to determine the best of show. Darn! It's not us. But to be selected as one of the top 11 wines out of 2,800 wines entered—well, a toast is in order. Salute!

Breakfast With the California State Fair Wine Judges

If you would like to see firsthand how the California State Fair Wine Competition works, here's your chance. Twelve lucky readers will be chosen by random drawing to join me at the competition on Saturday, June 19. We'll have breakfast, mingle with the judges, then stroll among the 60 working judges from all around the United States and Canada as they sip, slurp, smell and spit their way through California's best. We'll finish in the wine cellar, where you will see how the competition organizers coordinate, assign secret numbers and store more than 15,000 bottles of wine.