Highlights, 2024 Chronicle Wine Competition

 

In recent years, my role at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition in Cloverdale has been to write tasting notes on best-of-class wines.

This year’s competition attracted 5500 entries organized into 177 classes. That’s too many classes to taste and to write about over three days, so I concentrated on the 70 best-of-class wines also nominated for sweepstakes deliberation, considered on the competition’s fourth and final day.

Nevertheless, from my perch in a backroom I see all best-of-class winners, and pick some to taste and note even if they aren’t sweepstakes bound. What attracts me could be a novel grape variety, a wine from an area not recognized for doing exceptionally well by the variety or style, multiple winners from a single winery, even the nature or art of the label.

For the record, the Chronicle competition is the largest wine judging in the nation, restricted to entries from North America.

Some observations from seeing and tasting best-of-class wines at the 2024 gathering:

• In apparent recognition that heavyweight bottles not only inflate a winery’s costs but contribute to climate change by their expense in manufacturing, shipping and recycling, fewer wineries look to be bottling their wines in thick and weighty bottles. This drift also could be seen as enlightened recognition that the heft of a bottle has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the enclosed wine.
• Similarly, more wines look as if they are being bottled with screwcap closures rather than traditional corks, a reflection of their efficacy and ease – no special tool needed! This turn to screwcaps also recognizes that most wines are consumed young, not laid down to age for decades, though screwcaps have been shown to be effective over the long haul.
• For some odd reason, a higher proportion than usual of best-of-class wines were in awful packaging, meaning that information on front and back labels couldn’t be easily read, or if it could it was so sketchy as to be worthless to consumers weighing the merits of this or that wine in reaching a purchasing decision. Graphics designers, start handing out your business cards to vintners.
• California, not surprisingly, remains dominant for domestic wines in number, variety and quality, though the wines of other states, most notably Washington, Michigan, Idaho, Ohio and Texas are rising quickly in character, reliability and value.
• The next generation of winemakers looks to be pretty talented, judging by the performance of student-made wines. In this respect, the most striking outcome was the best-of-class award that went to the student-made robust yet graceful College Cellars of Walla Walla 2021 Walla Walla Valley Stoney Vine Vineyard Syrah, which beat out 49 commercially made Syrahs in the class priced up to $34.99. What’s more, a double-gold medal was awarded the student-made Santa Rosa Junior College Shone Farm 2022 Russian River Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir. (A double-gold medal is awarded when all judges of a panel agree that a wine deserves gold.)
• The most impressive overall performance was turned in by Sunce Winery & Vineyard of Santa Rosa, which had 41 of its wines win medals, and accumulated the most best-of-class awards, for Alicante Bouschet, Dornfelder, Mourvedre and “Zemjla’s Blend,” mostly Barbera. Sunce, which also had six wines win double-gold honors and 30 win gold medals, sources grapes from all over the north state. The Dornfelder, for one, was made with fruit grown at Lodi, while the Mourvedre was from the San Francisco Bay Area appellation.

 

 

 

 

 

• For decades, Virginia grape growers and winemakers have been crowing that they produce the best Viognier in the country. They’ve even designated Viognier the state’s official grape. Results at the Chronicle validate their confidence. Of the nearly 100 Viogniers entered, both best-of-class wines not only were from Virginia, both were made by Jefferson Vineyards of Charlottesville. Wait, it gets even better. The 2022 Viognier to win best-of-class in the group priced up to $29.99 was the winery’s first to be made solely in stainless-steel tanks. The winery’s heftier and more layered 2021 “Th. Jefferson” Viognier won best-of-class for the group priced $30 or above.

 

 

 

 

 

• Wineries from the greater Sacramento area did well in a wide range of grape varieties and wine styles, none more so than Cooper Vineyards in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley, which topped 3600 red wines to win the red-wine sweepstakes with its warm and beefy Cooper Vineyards 2021 Shenandoah Valley of California Estate Barbera. The award was fitting in that the late and revered Dick Cooper was the grape grower pivotal in establishing Barbera in the Sierra Foothills, where it is rising in availability and stature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Lewis Grace Winery on Apple Hill just outside Placerville was another highly awarded winery from the foothills. Lewis Grace had three best-of-class wines – for Charbono, Graciano and Syrah. Its wines also won four double-gold medals and four gold medals.
• Longtime Calaveras County winemaker Steve Millier also had a strong showing, winning best-of-class for an Amador County Zinfandel under his Black Sheep brand and for a Calaveras County Touriga Nacional and a Lodi Zinfandel, both under his Milliaire brand.
• For foothill wine enthusiasts, no best-of-class may be more surprising than the one awarded Vino Noceto of the Shenandoah Valley for its 2018 “Fumo e Terra” Aglianico. Up to now, Vino Noceto has been identified almost exclusively with Sangiovese, two of which did win gold medals at the Chronicle.
• Another surprising win was scored by Sobon Estate, also of Shenandoah Valley, for the best-of-class it received for its fresh, sturdy and unpretentious 2020 California Cabernet Sauvignon, which at $17 may be the best bargain in the state for the varietal.
• Other Sacramento-area wineries to win best-of-class honors were Bella Grace of Amador County for both its 2022 Orange Muscat and its 2022 Rosé, a blend of Grenache and Mourvedre; DiArie of El Dorado County for its 2023 Sauvignon Blanc; Miraflores in El Dorado County for its 2019 Syrah-based blend named “Estate Clone;” Montoliva of Chicago Park for its 2020 Dolcetto; Clarksburg Wine Co. of Clarksburg for its 2022 Chenin Blanc/Viognier; Peltier of Lodi for its 2017 Teroldego; Seka Hills of Capay Valley for its 2021 Grenache; Helwig of Amador County for its 2020 “Davancy Trois Soeurs,” a white blend; Heringer of Clarksburg for its late-harvest Tannat, a dessert wine; Starfield of El Dorado County for its 2022 Marsanne; Inner Sanctum Cellars of Sonora for its proprietary Port-inspired dessert wine “Ocho;” and Ponderosa Cider Co. of Auburn for its “Pineapple Crush” fruit cider.

• One final note: The best-of-class wine that most enthralled me for its novelty, complexity, backstory and label, and the one I would have wagered to win the specialty-wine sweepstakes, though it didn’t, turned out to be the Quady Winery Vya Sweet Aperitif Vermouth, a tawny, shadowy and cascading blend of around 20 herbs and spices, guaranteed to make your next Negroni exceptionally intriguing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All my best-of-class tasting notes can be found at https://winejudging.com/, where information also is available on tickets to a Feb. 17 public tasting in San Francisco to celebrate the competition’s award-winning wines.