Judges for the 2008 Toast of Taos
Southwest Wine Competition

We have picked a fine panel of judges for our wine competition comparing vintages from wineries in New Mexico Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma. A wine is judged first by its appearance, color and body, then by smell, taking note of the bouquet. Lastly a wine is judged by its elements of flavors, such as dryness or sweetness, to find the most well-balanced wines. Try judging yourself at our wine tasting events!

Jay Bileti, Arizona
With an early interest in wine (even, as a child, helping his Italian grandfathers make wine), Jay enrolled in the International Wine Academy in 1990 and completed the five year International Wine Master program and is an International Wine Master. He writes, speaks, teaches, and judges wine when not working with computer software and traveling (world-wide) with his job.

Donna Prescott, Arizona
Donna is an expert in wine and spirits, and has formal degrees awarded by the industry's top educator, the Wines and Spirits Education Trust(r) (WSET) in London. Those degrees include the Advanced Certificate and the Diploma (pending), which leads to the wine industry's highest credentials, the Master of Wine. She has visited wineries throughout the world, and received honors on her Diploma papers.

She is the CEO of D'Vin Wine, a marketing and educational consultancy. Other credentials include wine educator and judge at numerous wine competitions. Her most recent competition included the first ever all female "National Women in Wine" Competition in Sonoma. Donna is also the President and Founding Member of Women for WineSense Arizona.

Doug Caskey, Colorado
Doug is the Executive Director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, having served in that capacity for a number of years. He works closely with the Colorado wineries, and has both organized and judged wine competitions as well as working with the Colorado wine festivals.

Teresa Farney, Colorado
Teresa J. Farney is the food editor at the Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs. She covers food, wine and restaurant news for the 100,000 circulation publication. She has a degree in Home Economics Education from the University of Northern Colorado. Teresa taught home economics and biology at Air Academy High School in the late '70s, and later wrote a food column for the Colorado Springs Sun where she became the food editor. In 1986 she moved to Washington, D.C., to be the Vice President of Marketing and Consumer Affairs for the National Turkey Federation, a trade organization for turkey farmers. In 1986 she returned to Colorado Springs to take the position of food editor at the Gazette. She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, an invitational organization of women leaders in food, beverage and hospitality whose mission is education, advocacy and philanthropy. She is the 3rd Vice President for the international board.

Javin Taylor, New Mexico
Javin, Ph.D, is a professor of electrical and computer engineering who loves wine. He has been a member of “Los Amigos del Vino” in Las Cruces for over 15 years and has been the author and publisher of their newsletter. He has conducted wine classes and has judged wine in both local and international competitions.

Shirley Nelson, New Mexico
Shirley has worked with the Southwest Wine Competitions for about 5 years as it has traveled to various New Mexico locations. She is a free lance wine writer and a contributor to the Hugh Johnson wine reference books. Shirley teaches wine courses, has taught wine/food classes, has been a wine consultant for a restaurant in Switzerland, and has judged in both local and international wine competitions.

Sherry Prudhomme Parsons, New Mexico

 

Hermen Key, Texas
Hermen is the buyer for a prestigious store in Houston: Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods. Although he works with wine, having been in the business since 1991, he thinks of wine as a hobby and has traveled extensively in Europe. For the past three years, Hermen has been the Head Panel Judge for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition

Renie Steves, Texas
Renie is a wine journalist for the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the author of cookbooks (Fort Worth is Cooking! as well as Dallas is Cooking!) Plus she is the owner of Cuisine Concepts, a cooking school in Ft. Worth. Renie is a wine judge, food stylist, wine/food consultant, writer and instructor, and quite a world traveler.

Jeff Siegel, Texas
Jeff Siegel writes the Wine Curmudgeon column for the Star-Telegram newspaper in Fort Worth and Advocate Magazine in Dallas and is the author of The Wine Curmudgeon blog. His specialties are inexpensive wine and American regional wine. He is also an award-winning writer and journalist who has written six books. He has traveled extensively in search of wine wisdom to places as obvious as France, Spain, Chile, Napa, and Sonoma and to places less traveled, such as Colorado, Missouri, and west Texas.

 

COORDINATOR

Ian Norrish
Ian Norrish has been involved with wine since his early days in New Zealand where he grew grapes and made small quantities of wine, prior to moving to the USA with his job in 1982. An active member of the American Wine Society since 1986, he graduated from the Wine Judge Training Program in 1995 and has judged at commercial wine competitions and state fairs over the past 12 years. Ian is a board member of the New Mexico Vine and Wine Society and has established and run wine judging classes for wine judges in the New Mexico State Fair. Now retired from the high tech industry, he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and leads an active outdoor life tasting the desert air, along with the local wines.