As a wine director at a restaurant, it's not uncommon to find myself tasting "in bulk"--say, 80-plus wines in a single day.

 Usually, I'm considering the quality of the wine in the glass, a well as the price point, where it would fit on my wine list and so forth.

Everything I need to know about the wine is right in front of me. But then there are the bulk tastings for which I'm serving as a judge in a wine competition. In such an environment, I probably know the vintage and the grape variety (or varieties), but not much else.

In this case, I--like all the other judges--am tasting dozens upon dozens of wine purely to answer the question, "How good a wine/riesling/cabernet franc is this?"