At the California State Fair, Wines for Fun Foods

The 2023 California State Fair & Food Festival gets under way Friday at Sacramento’s Cal Expo and runs until July 30.

While I recognize that many of you will be drawn to the fair by the opportunity to talk with Martha and I during our appearances at the author nook, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that the nook is near the exposition’s wine garden.

In June, both of us judged the State Fair’s commercial and home wine competitions. From that experience, I would like to recommend that visitors to the wine garden relax with one – or more – of the following 10 wines.

All are drawn from the commercial wine competition, given that homemade wines aren’t poured at the garden. I tasted the wines blind during our panel deliberations or during the final sweepstakes rounds.

I can’t guarantee that they will be available at the wine garden. Not all award-winning wines are poured, and among those that are, their stockpile often is fast depleted, to judge by earlier fairs. If the wines here aren’t at the wine garden, they generally will be available at grocery stores, wine shops and the wineries that produced them.

These wines are personal favorites from the competition, narrowed down by their appropriateness for the wine garden, for the styles of food available on the fairgrounds, for their largely appealing price, and for the kind of hot weather that fairgoers typically endure. I have listed them from lighter to heavier:

J Vineyards & Winery California Cuvée Brut ($22/$29): The J website lists 27 sparkling wines. This Cuvée Brut, curiously, isn’t one of them, perhaps because it is the cheapest bubbly in the J lineup. Others range from $40 to $130. That’s not the only curiosity about this wine. Our panel at the State Fair was assigned assorted classes of “charmat-method” sparkling wines, meaning the effervescence of the wines was created during a secondary fermentation in large tanks. That’s a faster, more practical and less costly way of provoking bubbles than the romantic and revered “methode-champenoise” technique, whereby effervescence is produced by a patient and precise secondary fermentation in sealed bottles. The thing is, the J California Cuvée Brut is a bottle-fermented sparkling wine, not a charmat wine, according to a spokesman for E&J Gallo Winery, which owns the J brand. Only after the competition did the folks at J responsible for entering the wine realize that they inadvertently had designated it for one of the charmat classes. Regardless, this is one fine sparkling wine, winning its gold medal on the strength of its light yet vibrant hue, its delicate yet fresh fruit, its ticklish bubbles, and its thread of toastiness. It is a blend of mostly Chardonnay, with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. (How, you might ask, could a panel of seasoned judges not tell the difference between a methode-champenoise sparkling wine and a charmat-method sparkling wine? Most people can’t, according to a recent Brazilian study in which the same base wine, the same yeast and the same aging were used to make two sparkling wines. Their only difference was that one was made with traditional techniques, the other with the charmat process. After chemical and sensory analyses of the finished wines, researchers concluded “that the method used for the second fermentation is not the determinant of the eventual differences currently associated with sparkling wine produced by the traditional and charmat methods.” They added: “The differences found in sparkling wines made by charmat and traditional methods are subtle and do not cause major changes capable of modulating the overall characteristics of the products. The longer the sparkling wines age, the more difficult it becomes to only differentiate the products sensorially by the method used in the second fermentation.” Here’s the study. In the wake of this research, I have to wonder whether wine competitions should continue to group sparkling wines by the method used for their second fermentation.) Meanwhile, back at the State Fair, consider savoring the J California Cuvée Brut with the Cheetos popcorn, the regular version, not the spicy.

Lewis Grace 2021 El Dorado Brut Rosé ($39): Fruity and frisky, this is one gorgeous and fun sparkling wine, further evidence that brothers Trevor and Tyler Grace are doing exciting things at their family’s estate on Apple Hill in El Dorado County. The wine also is further evidence that a charmat-method sparkling wine, which this is, need not lack for complexity and verve. For our panel, this was a rare spontaneous double-gold winner, meaning all three judges agreed at the outset that the wine deserved gold, no further discussion needed. The wine, made with estate-grown Pinot Noir, is a light, bright pink, packed with energy despite its delicate color, and alluring for its suggestion of cotton candy (it is off-dry). It has the body and moxie to go with one of those massive grilled turkey legs so popular during the State Fair.

New Clairvaux Vineyard 2022 Tehama County St. James Block Assyrtiko ($21): This is a long-shot bet to be in the wine garden, given that winemaker Aimee Sunseri and the Trappist-Cistercian monks of The Abbey of New Clairvaux up by Mount Lassen produce so little of the wine. Assyrtiko – pronounced ah-seer-tee-ko – is a green grape most closely identified with crisp, minerally and high-acid white wines of the Aegean island of Santorini. The monks of New Clairvaux planted a small plot of Assyrtiko and its fellow Greek grape Moschofilero in 2011 at the urging of Sacramento grocer Darrell Corti, who felt the varieties would be a good fit for hot and arid Tehama County. Since Sunseri began to make the wines in 2015 the two grapes and their wines have drawn increasing interest and respect. (For more on Assyrtiko generally and New Clairvaux’s interpretation specifically, check out prolific wine blogger Michael Kelly’s report.) In a highly competitive sweepstakes round at the State Fair, the New Clairvaux Assyrtiko was elected the competition’s best white wine. It’s dry and assured, lean in structure but vivid with roving fruit flavors – citrus, peach, apple and green olive. Its high-pitched acidity makes it a fitting companion for all sorts of foods, including the corndogs at the State Fair, but hold off on the mustard.

Herzog Wine Cellars Baron Herzog 2021 California Dry Chenin Blanc ($11/$12): As a measure of how tight the voting was during the best-of-show white-wine balloting at the State Fair, this Herzog Chenin Blanc fell just one vote short of tying the New Clairvaux. The wines are similar in their fresh, clean and loping fruit, with the Herzog also carrying an intriguing seam of cheese rind. For a white wine, it also is unusually long in the finish. The “California” appellation indicates that the grapes were drawn from several areas about the state, probably including Clarksburg in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta, home of the most distinctive Chenin Blanc being grown in California. Since the State Fair wine competition, the Herzog 2021 California Chenin Blanc was declared the best Chenin Blanc at the Critics Challenge International Wine & Spirits Competition in San Diego. At the State Fair, the wine could work with the fried chicken from Drewski’s Hot Rod Chicken Truck.

Navarro Vineyards & Winery 2022 Anderson Valley Dry Gewurztraminer ($27): Why isn’t Gewurztraminer more popular? For all the strapping authority it can throw it should be one of the country’s more popular white wines, but it is far from it. Maybe it’s too authoritative, possessing too much muscle and bravado for a white wine, virtually all of which are rather diffident alongside Gewurztraminer. Fortunately for those of us fond of Gewurztraminer, winemaker Jim Klein of Navarro Vineyards & Winery in Mendocino County continues to approach the varietal with respect and rigor. As a consequence, Navarro’s Dry Gewurztraminer frequently wins high honors on the competition circuit. The 2022 version of the wine is no exception, finishing a close third in voting for the State Fair’s best-of-show white wine. (Maybe there’s hope for Gewurztraminer, after all; of the nine wines up for best white, two were Gewurztraminers, a rare showing for any competition; the other was the South Coast Winery 2021 Temecula Valley Gewurztraminer.) As to the Navarro, it is the template for all the characteristics the grape is expected to yield – pungent floral aroma, luxurious texture, a bushel of citric fruit, and punctuating spice. It is a truly dry Gewurztraminer, but without a note of bitterness, to which the wine can be susceptible, accounting for the masking by residual sugar that characterizes so many interpretations of the variety. The Navarro is an especially electric Gewurztraminer, jolting with grapefruit and lime, ripping with acidity, exceptionally persistent in finish. Jim Klein attributes the distinctiveness of the Gewurztraminer to fermenting a portion of the juice in contact with grape skins, then finishing the wine on its lees for seven months in refrigerated French oak ovals, all of which help boost the wine’s aroma, flavor and body. Given the wine’s drive, pair it with Wing Mahal’s “samosa-wich” – pastry filled with Indian spiced peas and potatoes, but go easy on the sweet-and-spicy sauce.

Rodney Strong Vineyards 2022 Sonoma Coast Rosé of Pinot Noir ($30): I have no idea when or why Rodney Strong Vineyards switched the name of appellation for its Rosé of Pinot Noir from “Russian River Valley” to “Sonoma Coast” – a topic to explore another day – but what matters here is that the change didn’t affect in any negative way the character of one of the North State’s prettier and more reliable pink wines. The 2022 reinforces that perspective with sweet strawberry fruit, sufficient body and lively acidity. In balloting to choose the best rosé at the State Fair, the Rodney Strong finished a close second to the winner in a field of 11 varied and vivid candidates. The Rodney Strong has the structure and fruit to make it an agreeable companion to the “Greek fries” – fries topped with tzatziki sauce, feta cheese and spices, to be sold by The Sleek Greek during the run of the fair.

Carol Shelton Wines 2022 Mendocino County Wild Thing Rendezvous Rosé ($20): Carol Shelton’s 2022 Rendezvous Rosé is the wine that edged out the Rodney Strong for best blush at this year’s State Fair. Credit its more ample body and more layered fruit, ranging from strawberries to raspberries, the upshot of blending lots of Carignane, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, all grown in an area recognized for superlative ways with each, Mendocino County. Carol Shelton recommends the wine “with almost any food, from sushi to salmon to barbecue.” At Cal Expo you can test that claim by picking up an order of “totchos” – tater tots with nacho cheese and jalapeño chile peppers – from The Dog House and pairing them with the rosé at the wine garden.

Barefoot Bubbly California Moscato Spumante ($9): Another charmat-method sparkling wine from E&J Gallo Winery and another rare spontaneous double-gold winner from our panel. If you like your sparkling wine hugely aromatic, thick, spicy, sweet, refreshing and running through the apple segment of the fruit spectrum, this is as much fun as one of those overstuffed animals given away at game booths in the carnival. Another sure winner: pair this Moscato Spumante with the churro funnel cake by Funnel Cakes.

Navarro Vineyards 2022 Anderson Valley Cluster Select Late Harvest Riesling ($79 per 750-milliliter bottle, $39 for the 375-milliliter): Really, this is such a complete dessert wine that no accompaniment is necessary. The 2019 vintage of this wine was elected the best-of-show dessert wine at last year’s State Fair, the fourth time in the past 10 years it has received that honor, a record of consistency for any wine in the competition. This version, however, won only a silver medal. I favored gold on the strength of its complex aroma, its veritable apple orchard of fruit, and its long, long, long finish, but my lobbying was to no avail. It’s a thunderhead of a dessert wine, building up with drama, volume and power. It carries just 10.7 percent alcohol but 20.6 percent residual sugar. If you just have to have something to eat with it, winemaker Jim Klein recommends a blue cheese, which you will have to bring from home unless samples are being handed out at Cal Expo.

Earl Stevens California Sparkling Orangesicle ($25/$26): If you’ve been waiting to see which wine would work best with the caramel-crunch cinnamon rolls by the concessionaire Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls – the best-of-show food at last year’s State Fair – this is it. Be forewarned, however, that both treats are so sweet you could fulfill in one sitting your quota for sugar for the entire two-week run of the fair. The Sparkling Orangesicle was the funnest and most discussed gold-medal wine to emerge from our panel. There was no easy consensus on this, but it won because it is exactly what it says it is, a novelty wine, not at all traditional, but perfectly at home in California. It is an adult knockoff of a summer confection that has delighted youngsters for ages, the Creamsicle orange ice-cream far, but without the stick. It is all about summer, and if Cal Expo is about to heat up, as the weather forecast predicts, the Sparkling Orangesicle will be a welcome relief. Earl Stevens, aka the rapper E-40, has another hit on his hands.

OK, what you’ve really been waiting for: Our schedule in the author nook in Building A at Cal Expo, just a short stroll from the wine garden: Martha will be selling and signing copies of her book “’Wait, What Do You Mean?’ Asperger’s Tell and Show” 1 p.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday, July 19; 12 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, July 23; and 2 p.m.-10 p.m. Thursday, July 27. I will be there during the same times to sell and sign copies of my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California: 50 Wines that Define the Sierra Foothills, the Delta, Yolo and Lodi.”