Alameda County Fair’s Many Timely Competitions

Alameda County Fair wine judge Barry Herbst of Bottle Barn at Santa Rosa.

 

From pigs to pies, county fairs long have highlighted the intersection of industrious agriculture and individual creativity.

Wine, with its roots in both farming and artistic expression, is right at home on fairgrounds, especially when it comes to the affable competitiveness that county fairs encourage.

As a consequence, county fairs underwrite many of today’s wine competitions. Many do it out of curiosity – what is going on in our backyards? Many do it out of financial need – revenues from wine-competition entry fees typically underwrite other fairgrounds programs. Most are motivated by at least a little of each.

Against that backdrop, the Alameda County Fair at Pleasanton on the east side of San Francisco Bay is carving out a niche for itself as the sponsor of the most imaginative, flexible, and timely wine competition in California.

First, Alameda County is home to two American Viticultural Areas – San Francisco Bay and Livermore Valley. OK, they are not the most prominent of the state’s wine regions, the East Bay being more closely identified with other industries, like technology and housing, especially pricey housing. Yet, the area has played a long, colorful, and influential role in the state’s evolving viticulture and enology.

Thus, the Alameda County Fair commercial wine competition is perfectly poised to acknowledge the past, present and emerging future of wine in the state generally and the Bay Area in particular.

It is pursuing that goal with spunk and fun, to gauge by this year’s recent wine competition, which in application really is four competitions in one: There’s a competition to recognize Alameda County wineries; there’s a competition to recognize Zinfandel, California’s most historic commercially made wine; there’s a competition to acknowledge Sauvignon Blanc, not only a grape variety and varietal wine to bring early attention to the Livermore area but also one of the few bright spots in the current American wine market; and this year there was an entirely new competition to recognize blended wines, which not so long ago were tough sells in the American wine market but now are growing in popularity and stature.

And here is one more remarkable thing that sets aside the Alameda County Fair’s wine competitions – it charges no entry fees. Where other competitions might ask $50 or $70 or $90 for each wine entered, Alameda charges nothing. It does ask wineries to submit six bottles of each entry, only two or three of which might be used for judging. The rest are poured at the fair’s Wine Fest, which is how the competitions generate revenue for the fair. (This year’s Wine Fest is June 29; tickets are $30 per person. That is the same date as the Lady Winehouse concert, a tribute to Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga; tickets are $15 per person. The fair gets under way June 14 and runs through July 7; more information: Alameda County Fair.)

So how did all these competitions shake out a couple of weeks ago?

For one, the Alameda County competition reaffirmed Livermore Valley’s standing for solid white wines when the saturated and elegant Sakura Vineyard and Winery 2023 Livermore Valley Pinot Blanc ($35) was elected the competition’s best-of-show white wine. It had stiff competition, including a sassy Viognier and two edgy Albarinos, but the Pinot Blanc won on the strength of seizing clearly and firmly the pineapple side of the grape’s nature – juicy core, sturdy leafiness, the whole plantation.

The best-of-show red, meanwhile, reaffirmed another long-running trait of Livermore Valley – the reliable stewardship of the valley’s Wente family. The winning wine was the Wente Family Estates Murrieta’s Well 2021 Livermore Valley Merlot ($75). While solidly structured, the wine’s juicy, plummy fruit made it readily accessible for drinking today.

The other top award winners in the Alameda County competition were the playful and graceful Del Valle Winery 2023 Livermore Valley Grenache Rosé ($34) as best-of-show rosé, and the The Singing Winemaker 2018 Lodi Karen’s Kisses ($23), a riff on tawny port, best-of-show dessert wine. (Under the rules of the Alameda County competition, grapes of entered wines need not be grown in Alameda, though the winery is to be based in Alameda.)

In the Zinfandel Challenge, two of the more strapping representatives of the genre tied for best-of-show honors, the lumbering and warm Macchia 2022 Lodi Maley Vineyard “Voluptuous” Zinfandel ($27) and the equally sybaritic and charging Trestle Glen Vineyards 2021 Sonoma Valley Estate Zinfandel ($35). (The Zinfandel Challenge is open to all wineries.)

Best-of-show in the Sauvignon Blanc Summit, also open to all wineries, was the peachy, elegant, and persistent Darcie Kent 2023 Livermore Lemmons Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ($25).

This was the first year for the Best of the Blends competition, conceived by Patty Cuellar, the fair’s wine-competition coordinator, to recognize the growing popularity of blends among both vintners and consumers. The competition drew an impressive 155 entries.

The best-of-show red blend was the loping Barlow Vineyards 2019 Napa Valley Calistoga “Barrouge” ($60), a Bordeaux-inspired takeoff based on Cabernet Sauvignon.

The best-of-show white blend was the Darcie Kent Vineyards 2023 Livermore Valley “Alpine White” ($30), an imaginative, seamless, refreshing, and assertive blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino and Gruner Veltliner.

Aside from the wines to win high honors, I came away from the judging with several personal favorites.

From among the 48 entries in the Sauvignon Blanc Summit, the 2023 version of the Whitehaven Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($20) showed by its bouncy citric fruit and spicy suggestion of jalapeño chile pepper why New Zealand takes on the varietal are so widely available and popular in the United States. It is as exhilarating as a carnival midway ride.

In a class of 16 Cabernet Sauvignons priced $30.01 to $69.99, the Wood Family Vineyards 2021 Livermore Valley “Viva” Cabernet Sauvignon ($42) was my favorite for its classic Cabernet styling and its underscoring of the secure minerality long associated with red wines from Livermore, followed by the Wente Family Vineyards 2021 Livermore Valley “Duetto” Cabernet Sauvignon ($60), inky, concentrated and cohesive, but with a spine so rigid it will benefit by three to five more years in the cellar.

Livermore Valley is developing a standing for Cabernet Franc, and in a class of 11 “other red varietals” the Garré Vineyard & Winery 2020 Livermore Valley Cabernet Franc ($38) showed why with its inviting perfume, zesty and sweet red-fruit flavors, supple tannins, and smoky wood.

From beyond Livermore Valley, and closer to Sacramento, one of the stronger performances on the day was turned in by the fresh, graceful, and

determined Amador Cellars 2019 Amador County Family Reserve “Miscela Italiana” ($48), an imaginative yet fitting blend of Primitivo, Aglianico, Barbera and Teroldego. It was one of 14 wines up for best-of-show red in the Best of the Blends competition.