Post #2: The Friday Tasting Panel
When Steve Ledson opened the doors to his winery for the first time in 1999, he dreamt of producing a portfolio of wines from Northern California with the diversity to satisfy every palate. No small feat, an ambition as broad as this would require the harvesting, blending, and crafting of many different varietals, as well as the exploration of many different vineyards and appellations throughout the surrounding valleys. If he intended to put together such a wide-ranging collection of wines under one label, he would also need to create an effective system by which to evaluate these many wines and chart their quality. And not only chart quality, but also decide upon their release dates, project proper cellaring dates, and evaluate pricing. The first rule of the winery would be a simple one: not a single wine could be bottled or released without first passing Steve’s rigorous and continual quality tests.
Putting his vision into motion right away, Steve soon brought the winery to where it stands today: over 70 different wines produced annually, with upwards of 20 different represented varietals and blends from as many as 20 appellations throughout Northern California. Along the way he assembled his A-team to help him get there, to help execute his dream and vision, and to help him evaluate and participate in the creation of this great portfolio of wines – which they still do today – every Friday.
Meet the Friday Tasting Panel.
Each Friday morning, up on the third story of The Castle, 15 places are set with wine glasses, napkins, crackers, carafes of water, and more wine glasses (as many as can fit), along an extra-long dining table. One by one Steve’s evaluation team: comprised of long-time Ledson employees: assistant winemakers, managers, sommeliers, and tasting room staff, gather at the dining table and prepare their spreadsheets for the morning meeting. Never skipped or pushed back, Steve and the panel taste up to 5-6 wines every Friday morning. Relying on their palate, their knowledge of the wines, as well as the vineyards from which they originated, the panel provides feedback through a system Steve built at the beginning, evaluating each wine and individually marking scores and notes on his or her spreadsheet. Everyone weighs in on each wine – there are no exceptions. On many occasions, wines brought to the Friday morning tasting are actually there to be re-evaluated. Steve and the panel hold such a premium on the quality of the wines they release that for a wine to be selected for the tasting room it must score a top ranking from the majority of the 15 panel members (from Steve’s own intricate grading system) just for it to qualify.
In other words: for a wine to be poured on the tasting room floor, it must be impeccable. If Steve and the panel have tasted a wine for re-evaluation, and it falls out of favor with the panel, it is pulled immediately. Likewise, if a brand new wine scores a hit with the panel, it is quickly added. As the panel says, “Steve only wants the best, and he wants the best from every varietal.”
As wines mature in the bottle they change in complexity – some peak early, some peak late – it is not a perfect science. The panel gets together every Friday because Steve knows that he cannot judge the quality of a wine based purely on speculation, or his palate alone, or decades of practice, or even through his heritage and a bloodline of family winemaking skill. To present the customer with the best possible product, each wine needs to be rigorously and continually evaluated, because in the world of wine every bottle is forever evolving.
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