The judging season is in full swing and I’d like to look at the San Francisco Chronicle Cloverdale wine judging results for a minute. The judging is the largest wine competition in the country, with 4,000-plus entries. With that many entries, you could assume a significant number of wineries have entered, including a vast majority of Sonoma County’s wineries. A complete list isn’t available, because the powers that be feel showing wineries that didn’t win anything would result in bad publicity for them. More evidence that wine competitions are all about positive publicity and judges are gently and subtly asked to give awards.
Like anyone else, the very first thing I looked at were the Best of Class Awards. I was first of all surprised that Sonoma County accounted for 19 percent. Whether I was happily or sadly surprised, I’m not sure. Nineteen percent isn’t necessarily a low or bad number, but it could deflate those of us who think we produce the finest wines in the country. What it probably really shows is that we overrate ourselves. Or maybe that everybody else is getting better.
Looking further into the gold medals awarded, it’s obvious Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc are still the lifeblood of Sonoma County’s premium wine industry. In Zinfandels priced more than $25, about 60 percent of the gold medals are from Sonoma County. (I needed to know what appellations are in the county, however, since many of the labels failed to point that out, probably because they’re ashamed of it.) In the less than $25 classes, only 14 percent were Sonoma County wines. I’m not sure whether that means our less expensive Zinfandels aren’t very good, or that we don’t produce very many. Oh God, where have the good ole days gone, when a $10 Zinfandel was thought to be too highly priced to sell? I can remember, but it’s becoming more faint as each day passes. I wish my salary had increased as fast as the price of Zin went up. Does price reflect quality improvement? Your guess is as good as mine. In Sauvignon Blanc, only 6 percent of the under $14 class were from Sonoma County, but for more than $14, nearly 50 percent of winners were from here.
In the other major varietals, 33 percent of the Chardonnays were from here, with 47 percent in the more than $35 class. Twenty-eight percent of the Pinot Noirs were from Sonoma County, and only 26 percent were in the high-end class. So, what does this all say? It says the winning wineries have about two weeks to a month to take advantage of the marketing benefit that gold medals give. In other words, make hay while the sun is shining, because tomorrow all will be forgotten when another half-dozen judgings release their awards.
Meanwhile, another judging, called the Grand Harvest Awards (GHA) sponsored by Vineyard and Winery Management magazine, was going on in Santa Rosa. Using a different format that involves trying to identify terroir differences, wines are judged in groups by terroir identification rather than just varietal. Complete results are available online at www.vwm-online.com, but after spending some significant time looking at the results some strange things began to appear.
Unlike many current competitions, only 9 percent golds were awarded, along with 31 percent silver and 35 percent bronze. Twenty-three percent didn’t receive awards. Most other competitions award nearly 20 percent golds and nearly all wines get something. (Look at the 2008 Sonoma County Harvest Fair and the Chronicle West Coast Wine Competition to see what I mean.) Of 141 gold medals, Sonoma County only won nine, a dismal showing at best. The proverbial butt kicking came from Washington state (24 golds), Mendocino County (20 golds), Paso Robles (10 golds), and even the New York Finger Lake area (seven golds). Our wonderful neighbor next door (Napa) also only won nine.
These results could be saying many different things. What about the judges? Nope, they were all very reputable wine judges who do many judgings each year. Maybe many didn’t enter, but since wineries receiving no awards aren’t published, one cannot tell. I’ll assume they entered, since their names show up at many other judgings. Not surprising were the five out of nine golds in Cabernet by Napa. They are, and probably always will be, the dominant Cabernet producer in the world. Where did Sonoma County shine? Nowhere in particular. Are we not as good as we think or did they not enter? Tough call. I’d like to think it’s the latter.
Another surprise was the very poor showing of Oregon Pinot Noirs, with only three golds. I thought they were promoting themselves as the Pinot Noir capitol of the world—but three doesn’t sound very dominant to me. One pleasant surprise was the showing of the Lodi area. For the last few years, it’s been doing increasingly better each season, especially in reds and primarily in Zinfandel. It’s absolutely living proof what a strong grape growers commission can do, by working together, to improve wine quality. They’re smart enough to know this, and they have a 10-year lead on Sonoma County, because they were intelligent enough to pass the proposal to establish a commission. It took shortsighted growers in this county a couple of votes to finally pass a commission a couple of years ago. What is it about farmers that they hate to work together? Is it their independent attitude, or something I’ve missed for the last 40 years?
What does all this mean? Just what I’ve been saying all along. You really have to wait until later in the competition season, and look at all of the results together. The really good wines will appear with golds and silvers very consistently. Then, at least you know what you’re supposed to like. Is that what that means? I guess I’m still an advocate of drinking what you like, not what you’re supposed to like based on somebody else’s opinion.
As a closing thought, it’s interesting to note that the greatest increase in dollar value sales a couple of months ago was Delicato and Carlo Rossi box wines (a more than 100 percent increase in year-over-year sales). Meanwhile, at the bottom end were Smoking Loon and Pepperwood Grove with a 27 to 37 percent drop. What this says is beyond me, since they’re all low-cost products. So are people really switching to lower priced wines? I do love the fact that box wines are coming on strong! Nothing like great convenience with a decent product to go with it. Maybe we should be talking about a box a day?
Rich Thomas is professor emeritus, Director of Viticulture, at Santa Rosa Junior College. He is also a vineyard consultant in the North Coast. You can reach him at rthomas@northbaybiz.com.
