PA Sommelier Judgment picks Gruner, Albarino and Merlot Reserve as top wines

A Merlot Reserve, Albarino and Gruner Veltliner were selected as the best wines entered in the fourth annual PA Sommelier Judgment, which took place Oct. 26.

Almost two dozen mostly Philly-area sommeliers gathered for two rounds of blind tastings that included more than 100 entries.

Penns Woods Winery’s 2016 Merlot Reserve was named the best red, one of a number of high-quality dry red varietals and blends that the Chaddsford, Delaware County winery produces. Stony Run Winery’s 2018 Albarino was named best white with a vinifera that has been rapidly increasing its following across the mid-Atlantic, especially in Maryland. Stony Run is located in Kempton, Berks County, with a tasting room in Breinigsville, Lehigh Valley.

The nationally recognized Gruner Veltliner from Galen Glen Winery in Andreas, Schuylkill County, was named best in state. The first winery to plant the grape east of the Rocky Mountains, it has become year over year one of the state’s top wines and has been lauded nationally and overseas.

Round one judging criteria focused on varietal correctness (appearance, bouquet, taste, and finish), which was rated numerically. The top-scoring wines moved on to round two and were judged on a 1-10 scale based on the overall impression of the wine.

Scott Zoccolillo, the wine director for Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Center City Philadelphia, once again organized this event. He credits Anthony Vietri at Va La Vineyards in Chester County for getting him to realize how much good wine was being made across the state, giving him a bottle of his rosato as a wedding gift. “It really opened my eyes to what the local wineries had to offer,” Zoccolillo said.

Years later, in 2014, he would organize the “Judgment of Pennsylvania,” a wine event modeled after the famous Judgment of Paris tasting from 1976 that first gave California wines international credibility. He matched dry reds and whites from several California and Pennsylvania wineries in a blind tasting. Pennsylvania wines fared well that day.

The PA Sommelier Judgment is an outgrowth of that event.

There are four in-state competitions these days, including the Farm Show and Pa. Wine Association events, in addition to this one and Wine Excellence that the Pennsylvania Wine Society puts. The 18th edition of the latter took place in January.