Sudbury sommelier Heather Downey’s skills have earned her an invitation to be a judge at the upcoming International Wine Challenge (IWC) in London, England.
The IWC bills itself as the world’s most rigorous, impartial and influential annual wine competition. Now in its 38th year, Downey told Sudbury.com she was excited to be a part of it — especially since she had to wait out the pandemic for two years before getting her chance to judge some of the world’s best vintages.
“So I actually applied in 2020 to do this and I was very eager, because I got accepted right away,” Downey said. “And then of course, COVID hits and it was cancelled. I thought my opportunity had come and gone. And then I was approached in January or February, one or the other, to join this year, because they're beginning again, post-COVID.
Downey is the owner-operator of Terroir Tastings in Sudbury. She is a wine distributor and seller, and also teaches courses on wine certifications here in Sudbury.
It might not seem so, but in order to be at her best when it comes to evaluating vintages, Downey must ensure her palette is in good shape and part of that means ensuring her overall health is top notch.
“So I have to be very careful in what I do and who I hang out with,” She said. “If I get sick, or if I get some kind of sinus infection, it's over for me. And then the other thing is, I can't drink anything too hot, or eat any foods that are too hot, because that may burn my taste buds. So it's funny that I have to be pretty careful for a couple of weeks before the competition.”
Keeping her palette in good shape is small price to pay for the chance to sample some of the world’s best wines.
“I'm very excited — I'm going to be trying some of the best wines in the world at absolutely every price bracket, from $10 bottles to bottles that sell for thousands of dollars, so it'll be a really remarkable experience,” Downey said.
Since impartiality is key to good judging, IWC judges are sourced from multiple countries and the wines are blinded by removing all pricing and producer information, so all the judges have to make their determinations on is the wine itself. Wines are grouped by type, region, alcohol content and sugar percentage to ensure similar vintages are grouped together for judging.
“The IWC judging teams include experts and influencers from the international wine industry, commercial decision makers, buyers and MWs working in unison to find the highest quality wines each year from the 52 wine-producing countries represented in the competition,” the IWC states on its website.
Away at the competition from April 18 to April 23, when she comes back across the pond, Downey is looking forward to teaching a seven-week Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) certification course. The WSET certificate is one of the qualifications one needs to be an eligible judge in competitions like the IWC.
The course is open to any wine enthusiasts in Sudbury interested in learning more about evaluating wine.
“Before I was teaching it, it was never ever available in Northern Ontario,” Downey said. “So I teach it out of Collège Boréal’s wine lab, and anybody that loves wine can jump in. We try over 50 wines over the course of six weeks, so it's pretty cool.”
For more information on the course, visit the website here.
