(PD) - Day one of the tasting marathon took place Tuesday, testing the endurance of 22 judges as they make their way through 1,254 wines submitted in the 2015 Sonoma County Harvest Fair Wine Competition.

The contestants are hoping to end the three-day competition a sweepstakes winner, while the judges are just hoping to cross the finish line Thursday without palate fatigue.

The identity of the sweepstakes winners will be announced on Sept. 27 at the Awards Night Gala with participating wineries, their industry partners and the public. The bulk of the winners will be announced Sunday, Sept. 20. These awards include best of class, double gold, gold, silver and bronze. Members of the public will be able to taste the top winners at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, Oct. 2-4 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

In Tuesday’s early round of tasting at the fairgrounds, six panels of judges got busy sizing up the wines; their opinions, infused with humor, were augmented by their annual ritual of mild ribbing and discord.

Panelist Charlie Mara from New York walked by a group of judges and joked: “Who’s the alpha dog here?”

Ellen Landis, one of the panelists, said with an unabashed smile, “With sparkling wine I’m often called that.”

The certified sommelier and wine blogger then invoked her most powerful weapon -– a judge’s so-called “silver bullet” -- to champion a sparkler, one that ultimately rose to best-of-class status. The silver bullet gives a judge an extra gold vote to be used just once during any given day to raise a wine’s score. The system was designed to keep good harmony on the judging panel, according to Bob Fraser, chief coordinator of the contest, and most judges don’t use them.

“I chose to use my silver bullet because this sparkling wine has depth and complexity,” explained Landis, who lives in Portland, Ore. and Windsor. “The wine is stunning. It shows yeasty characteristics with beautiful fruit at the core.”

Landis’ move didn’t faze Kristi Mohar, another judge on the panel.

“If she’s that passionate about the wine, she should use her silver bullet,” said Mohar, the wine buyer for the family-owned Pacific Markets. “Maybe she saw more elegance in the wine that we may not have.”