craigdailypress.com

Tasting salsa and wine is a tough job but somebody has to do it.

"It's a lot harder than I thought it would be," Rena Olsen said about judging salsa. "I judge all the time but I've never judged salsa before."

Long-time competitors and some rookies got their shot at the salsa, wine and beer contests Saturday at the Moffat County Fair.

Olsen said the salsas were hard to choose because each had a different color, spice and smell.

"They were all kind of unique," Olsen said.

One-of-a-kind was the motto for Dan Sherman, who has been making salsa for years now but never goes by the book.

"I just make up my own recipes entirely," Sherman said. "I just started doing it and putting in what I thought would be good."

11-year-old Wyatt Oberwitte, on the other hand, took up making salsa from has father, Richard, and has been learning from a contest veteran. Wyatt Oberwitte took first in the vegetable salsa category.

Wyatt Oberwitte said he changed up a few things in his father's salsa, added tomatillos and made it more of a tomato-based salsa.

"I didn't think I'd take first," he said. "I thought it might be second or third but not first."

In the beer and wine categories, Jim and Linda Madsen took grand champion with their raspberry wine, while Bonnie Reiman and her son, James, took top honors with their rootbeer and sarsaparilla soda, respectively.

Olsen, who is the wine and beer contest superintendent, said she was happy to see some new faces in the wine competition.

"It's been the same few people so it's nice to see some new names," she said.