Back-to-back wine competitions in Petaluma and Angels Camp last week provided both surprise and affirmation, as competitions are inclined to do.

One day it was the Sonoma-Marin Fair’s North of the Gate Wine Competition in Petaluma, which draws entries from most of Northern California, but largely from North Coast counties.

The next day it was the Calaveras County Fair’s Wine Competition, which draws entries from wineries in the Sierra Foothills American Viticultural Area, stretching from Yuba County to Mariposa County.

The big surprise in Petaluma was the strong showing of two related Mendocino County brands and one consistently reliable Sonoma County brand.

Actually, the surprise only was in the number of their awards, both brands racking up numerous honors.

From Mendocino County, that would be Navarro Vineyards, which won best-of-show honors for both its exceptionally strapping, citric and peppery Navarro Vineyards 2022 Anderson Valley Gruner Veltliner as best white wine and its luxuriant and honeyed Navarro Vineyards 2022 Late-Harvest Cluster-Select Riesling as best dessert wine. What’s more, Navarro’s sister winery, Pennyroyal Farm, won top honors for best pink wine with its delicately colored yet dashing Pennyroyal Farm 2022 Anderson Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir ($28). (The Navarro winners aren’t yet listed on the winery’s website.)

What didn’t the Navarro/Pennyroyal family win in the final round? Well, there was best red wine, claimed by the consistently reliable Sonoma County-based Carol Shelton Wines, specifically the Carol Shelton 2021 Central Coast Coquille Rouge ($27), a precisely calibrated expression of all the personality, diversity and drive that an assemblage of Rhone Valley grape varieties should provide, in this case Mourvedre, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Grenache Noir and Alicante Bouschet.

And then there was best sparkling wine, which meant a return trip to Mendocino County for the pink and polished McFadden Potter Valley Cuvée Brut Rosé ($35), spirited with bubbles and suggestive of nothing so much as a patch of strawberries ripening under spring sunshine.

At Frogtown of Angels Camp, the story to emerge from the Calaveras County Fair competition was the strong showing by one venerable Amador County brand (Sobon Estate) and the equally impressive performance of a comparably new El Dorado County brand (Lewis Grace Winery).

The Sobon family produced both the best-of-show red wine with its hulking and swaggering Sobon Estate 2020 ReZerve Petite Sirah ($28) and the winner of the “Zinfandel Challenge” in its peppery and persistent Sobon Estate 2021 Rocky Top Zinfandel ($20). (Zinfandels are singled out for their own competition within the competition because they constitute the biggest class from year to year – 29 of the nearly 200 entries this year.)

From Apple Hill, brothers Trevor and Tyler Grace were responsible for the best-of-show white wine, the unusually rich and long Lewis Grace Winery 2022 Lodi Alta Mesa Albarino ($26), and the best-of-show rosé, the Lewis Grace Winery 2022 El Dorado Estate Grenache Rosé ($25).

Another and even younger El Dorado County winery, Starfield Vineyards & Winery, took home honors for best-of-show sparkling wine with its floral and focused Starfield 2020 El Dorado Estate Brut Moscato ($38).

Calaveras County wineries weren’t entirely shut out from high awards, with the Hatcher Winery non-vintage Tawny Port ($20) winning best-of-show dessert wine. The competition also acknowledges Calaveras County with its own two high honors – Best of Calaveras White Wine, won by the Lavender Ridge Winery 2020 Viognier ($28), and Best of Calaveras Red Wine, won by the Above the Rush Wines 2019 Barbera ($42).

I came away from each competition with some personal favorites. And forgive me if my tasting notes were influenced by the long drives to and from Petaluma and Angels Camp:

The Carol Shelton Wines 2021 Contra Costa County Planchon Vineyard Barbera didn’t win the best-red round at the North of the Gate Wine Competition, but it ranked high in the first vote of an especially diverse and strong field, which also included Pinot Noir, Montepulciano, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, among others. More to the point, the Barbera was the most complete take on the varietal I have come across this year. It was as brilliant and perky as one of those roadside throw rugs of California poppies I zipped past on my twisting and scenic drive between Napa and Petaluma.

Our panel at North of the Gate was assigned Chardonnay, not a class that generally excites me, tending to be more sluggish traffic congestion than acceleration. This class, however, was a surprising and pleasant exception, offering up one sporty top-down entry after another. We had 19 of them, with five of them getting double-gold medals, meaning all three judges of the panel concurred that they warranted gold.

One of my favorites was from a longtime reliable producer of spot-on Chardonnay, revealed only after the day’s deliberations – the elegant and balanced Rodney Strong 2020 Chalk Hill Chardonnay ($25), its undulating and lilting fruit as refreshing as a spring breeze rippling through one of the fields of tall grass I passed. Another double-gold winner was another Rodney Strong entry, the sprightly, sweetly fruity Rodney Strong Vineyards 2021 California Chardonnay ($18). Our best-of-class not only was a double-gold winner, but a double-gold winner variously called “spontaneous,” “natural” or “wild,” meaning all three judges agreed without discussion that the wine was so impressive it deserved gold – the bouncy and persistent Blue Quail Wines 2022 Mendocino County Potter Valley Estate Chadonnay ($18), a brand of McFadden Family Vineyard & Farm of Hopland.

For our panel, the biggest surprise of the day not only was another spontaneous double-gold winner but a wine that proudly promotes itself as vegan, the Pacific Redwood 2021 California Organic Syrah (around $15), the liquid equivalent of a fat and buttery slice of blueberry pie you might find in a pie shop along a rural California road. Pacific Redwood is a brand of Frey Vineyards in Mendocino County.

Other than poppies, nothing says California road trip more than a tunnel of stately eucalyptus trees lining a hinterland road, the image evoked by another spontaneous double-gold winner, the Cline Cellars 2021 Alexander Valley Rock Carved Cabernet Sauvignon ($46). Yep, Cabernet Sauvignon’s occasional suggestion of eucalyptus frames this interpretation, rare for its combination of both tension and opulence.

From the Calaveras County Fair competition, one of the more impressive white wines to this palate was the Starfield Vineyards & Winery 2022 El Dorado Estate Vermentino (price unlisted), which packs all the brightness, vigor, control and rhythm of one of those small groups of intense cyclists you suddenly come upon and swerve around.

At Calaveras, we also had a surprisingly large class of Sangioveses – eight of them, confirmation that the variety is rising in promise in the Sierra foothills. A spontaneous/natural/wild double-gold winner and our best of class was the lean and adroit Vino Noceto 2019 Shenandoah Valley Riserva Sangiovese ($39), which was as much fun and thrill as the stretch of Highway 4 between Copperopolis and Angels Camp, seeming to rise, fall, curve left, curve right all at the same time, a route begging for a Harley Davidson motorcycle, or in this case dishes ranging from a light pasta primavera to something as robust as Bistecca alla Fiorentina, it would be that versatile at the Italian table, like Chianti Classico.

At Calaveras, Tempranillo formed another surprisingly large class – nine of them – with our best of class being the very last entry in the group, the Ironstone 2020 Calaveras County Estate Limited Release Tempranillo ($30), a big and shiny take on the variety. It was like coming upon an Airstream you don’t want to pass, just take your time to savor all the seamless engineering and precise complexity it represents.

Incidentally, the Sonoma-Marin Fair will be June 21-25 in Petaluma, the Calaveras County Fair will be May 18-21 at Angels Camp. At Petaluma, the big draw will be the world’s ugliest-dog contest, while at Angels Camp it will be the frog jump. Both also will have wine pavilions.

To learn where my new book “The Signature Wines of Superior California” can be found, please visit the website SignatureWines.us.