--In his weekly wine newsletter Vintage Experiences not long ago, Dan Berger wrote of the shorthand wine judges, writers and others who taste wine often use for common terms and phrases.

Berger, for example, uses a single capital "O" for a wine with a lot of oak. If the oak is especially heavy, he underlines the "O."

Fellow wine writer Bob Thompson resorts to a couple of gems that have been emulated through the trade - "DNPIM" for "did not put in mouth" and "CSB" for "can't see bottom," for a very dark red wine.

I have nothing so clever to add to this lexicon (which could explain this carpal tunnel syndrome), though I do use an occasional "SB," shorthand for silver bullet.

A silver-bullet wine is one for which I will go to the mat. At large wine competitions, some panels will be assigned 100 or so wines to judge. On the first day, they will consider all wines in the class, either eliminating or retaining them for more consideration the next day. Customarily, judges are given one or two "silver bullets," which they can use to bring back a wine the rest of the panel wants to reject outright.

Anyone who has judged wines for even a few years will be able to tell you of a silver-bullet wine that returned the next day to win a gold medal.
Here's my tale, from this summer's California State Fair: Wine No. 5013 was about midway through a flight of 72 zinfandels, all from the 2000 vintage. I liked its lean structure and bright, true and spicy raspberry fruitiness. The other three members of the panel didn't care for it, and voted to eliminate it from further consideration. I felt they were overlooking its charm because it was sandwiched between two much bigger, riper, sweeter zinfandels, and used my silver bullet to bring it up for reconsideration the next day.

At that time, frankly, during the first go around, I wasn't as blown away by the wine, and initially voted it a silver medal. But during our deliberations, the wine's youthful exuberance and smooth, creamy texture grew on me, as well as the new enthusiasm for the wine by the other panelists, and we ended up giving it one of our few gold medals.

Later, we learned the wine is the Perry Creek Vineyards 2000 Cellar Select Spanish Creek Ranch El Dorado Zinfandel ($24). After that experience, how could it not be my red wine of the year? Subsequent tasting of the wine reaffirmed our decision that it is one nicely balanced, typically lush Sierra foothill zinfandel. I was surprised to learn, however, that the wine carries 15.5 percent alcohol, since it doesn't taste that warm.

In contrast to the struggle for the Perry Creek zinfandel to get a medal, my white wine of the year had no trouble winning gold in virtually every competition it joined.

That would be the St. Supery Vineyards 2001 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($15). Of 12 major competitions in which it was entered, it won 10 gold medals, one silver and one bronze. That sort of consistency is just amazing, a glowing testimonial to the wine's vivacity and authority.

At the California State Fair alone, it not only won a double-gold medal (given only when judges unanimously agree at the outset that a wine warrants a gold medal) it was named the best sauvignon blanc in the state.
A smaller but equally telling 13th blind tasting involving the St. Supery was held in Sacramento in September, when the group Wine Savvy conducted a panel discussion on wine competitions.

The 42 participants tasted two flights of wine using the State Fair approach, including scoresheets. One flight was of six syrahs, the other of five sauvignon blancs.

When the votes of the sauvignon blanc flight were tallied, wine No. 1A, which turned out to be the St. Supery, won handily, gathering 23 votes. The runner-up could muster only eight.

My notes that night called the wine "grassy, fruity, very forward, feral, ripe, spicy, long," with pronounced notes of "grapefruit, pimiento, lime."
If it had been a retain/eliminate round, I would have included an "SB" in there, though I suspected it really wasn't necessary.
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About the Writer: The Bee's Mike Dunne can be reached at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com.