The Results Are In

Well, another wine competition is in the books. This time it was the West Coast Wine Competition (WCWC) sponsored by Vineyard & Winery Management magazine and held at the Sonoma Mountain Village Event Center complex in Rohnert Park. The three-day affair had 1,400+ wines judged by 21 qualified judges representing academia, journalism, wine buyers and salespeople, winemakers and restaurateurs.

Reviewing the results from various perspectives brings up many fascinating facts. The sweepstakes winners for Best Red and Best White wines continue to prove Pinot Noir and its cousin, Pinot Gris, are not only popular—but also very good. Best Red was Paradise Ridge’s 2007 Pinot Noir and Best White was Ventana Vineyards’ 2008 Pinot Gris. Strike one up for Sonoma County.

Sonoma County also had four other gold medal Pinot Noirs (out of 10). It also did well in Zinfandel, and rightfully so, with four out of 11 gold medals—but Lodi and Amador counties did just as well. Lodi has been coming on like gangbusters the last five to six years with increasingly better quality as well as the right price point in today’s market. (Maybe I should also point out that many of its wines aren’t alcoholic monsters like many from our area.)

Our neighbors to the east, Napa, won eight golds (four in Cabernet Sauvignon) while Sonoma had 19. Sounds great for the locals, right? Well, there were 108 total golds awarded, which means these stalwarts only garnered 25 percent of the total gold medals. If we’re as good as we think we are, then how come 76 percent of the golds went to other appellations that we consider inferior to our own?

There are probably many reasons that could be thrown out for discussion, but they might not overlook the thought that maybe we aren’t as good as we think we are. From a practical standpoint, it might be a little easier to understand Napa’s meager share by realizing its climate isn’t as diverse as this side of the mountain range, and is particularly conducive to making great Cabernets and not so for many other varieties. Sonoma has always said its very diverse climate and soils are conducive to growing a much greater number of varieties.

I think what we need to start realizing is that many of the newer appellation areas are getting better and better each season, and we might be sitting on our laurels. I’ve mentioned the great strides Lodi has made over the last few years, and it all correlates to the establishment of its grape grower commission, which brought cohesiveness to its growers and winery partners. It also did some great research on improving wine quality by improving grape quality. Today, Lodi’s Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Syrah/Shiraz are all wonderful and competing in the marketplace with great success. The price point tends to be a couple of dollars less than Sonoma’s, and that’s the hot point in our current market.

Another area that’s showing increasing quality is the state of Washington, where Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah are doing extremely well. Several wineries of note include Chateau St. Michelle, with seven awards out of eight entered; and Claar Cellars and Cougar Crest with all entries getting medals. From the Sacramento Valley, both Bogle and Jeff Renquist did extremely well with 20 medals out of 21 entries. Of no great surprise is the tremendous job that’s always done at Navarro Vineyards, which received 18 medals out of 18 entries—including three double golds. V. Sattui is also always a very consistent winner and this year is no different with 20 medals out of 22 entries.

Of local note, there are a few highlights despite the poor showing by Sonoma County overall. Bill and Betsy Nachbaur of Acorn received five medals for five wines; Carol Shelton, as usual, received six for six; Kendall-Jackson had 18 for 20; Stephen & Walker were seven for seven; and to no one’s surprise, Mazzocco and Wilson wineries (same owner) received 17 for 20. A couple of my favorite surprises were Miro, of Trentadue fame, who also received a double gold and a gold out of two entries with his own label (Miro Cellars). The Bandit—1 liter bag-in-a-box of Pinot Gris—won a gold; and 3 liter bag-in-a-box of Cabernet Sauvignon won a silver. The Bandit is a product by Rebel Wine Company in the valley and the Cab is done by Trinchero Family Estates for the Target Corporation. Hopefully this will start a trend of putting good wines in chateau-la-box.

So then the question still remains: Where are all of the good Sonoma County wines? One canned answer from them would be, “Oh, we didn’t enter,” but that’s hard to ascertain since no judgings release the names of the non-medal winners. The reason for this is similar to the old saying, “to protect the innocent.” If non-winners were publicized, then wineries would definitely not enter for fear of negative publicity. So I ask: Did we get beat or did we not enter? Since there were 1,400+ wines entered, you’d think some would have been beat. Maybe they only enter the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, where up to 99 percent of the wines entered get medals (the WCWC only awarded about 50 to 60 percent). Oh, the fear of maybe finding out you’re not as good as you think! Is it possible they didn’t enter because it might expose them as being from Sonoma County, since they have already shown this fear by not using those evil words on their labels? I better go back and look to see if any of the winners I mentioned here have Sonoma County on their labels. I know that Bill (Acorn) and Carol (Shelton wines) wouldn’t do that to me, would they?

Well, there are a lot more competitions coming up, so it’ll be interesting to see if we can redeem ourselves. One would think that with the shift in wine consumption to lower cost products that a winery would do anything it could to get more publicity. Do you old timers remember Hugh Codding once saying that bad publicity is better than none at all? Sounds of Gaye LeBaron—You’re old if…A few of my friends in the retail end of the business say it’s impossible to even believe the offers that wineries are making just to move some inventory. Have we seen those savings passed on to the consumers? Maybe in a very few instances.

OK, off to do your homework—and don’t be ashamed to try the screwtops and chateau-la-boxes when studying.

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