I'm not ready to be fitted for a robe or anything, but me likee this wine-contest-judging thing. It's a fabulous opportunity to taste what's out there, and really get a little time with it, as opposed to the often-wham-bam nature of large public and trade tastings.

The offerings at the Professional Wine Buyers Competition were almost uniformly good to very good. Our group of four judges (one of four such groups) awarded a buttload of bronze medals (criteria: could recommend for weeknight casual wine), a decent number of silvers and only a few golds.

Plus one double gold, which turned out to be the Crossroads Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, a big surprise to me since I find most New Zealand sauv blancs too grapefruity/grassy. ((I thought this wine probably was from the Loire). It retails for $15.99 or so. Golds from our group included PerryMoore Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Big Top San Francisco Bay Cabernet Franc and the Hill Family Estate Napa Sauvignon Blanc.

Unlike most competitions, we knew the price ranges -- the intent was to judge the wines in that context, not in a vacuum -- but that didn't necessarily help when the range was $20-$40. There's a lot of difference between recommending a $22 and a $38 bottle of wine; we asked our coordinator for specific prices when we couldn't decide between, say, a silver and a bronze.

The way it worked: We would taste a flight of wines, then give each wine a G for Gold, S for Silver, B for Bronze or N/A for No Award. We could go with B+ or S-, too. The hard part was having to occasionally step out of oneself and judge oaky chardonnays or extracted cabs at least somewhat for consumers' taste rather than one's own.

Our neck of the woods was well represented, btw, with yours truly and Peter Vars of Thomas Liquors in St. Paul.

At the end, we all tasted the seven double golds for a best-of-show winner, which turned out to be the Meadowlark Santa Ynez Syrah. My vote went to, of all things, a blend from Oregon, the Troon Vineyard Old Vine Meritage. After sampling 100-plus wines, it still tasted vibrant and delicious.