The 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, held at Cloverdale’s Citrus Fair last week, is now in the record books. More than 6,700 American wines, from all over the USA, were entered into this year’s competition and after 3.5 days of swirling, sniffing, sipping, spitting and judging six wines received the penultimate recognition of Best of Class Sweepstakes awardees.
Gaining the spotlight at Friday mornings sweepstakes taste-off were: Sparkling Wine – Korbel, 2013 Brut Natural, Russian River Valley AVA; White Wine (A rare tie) – Hanna, 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley AVA and Castello di Amorosa, 2015 Gewürztraminer, Anderson Valley AVA; Pink Wine – Trentadue, 2015 Rosato di Sangiovese, Alexander Valley AVA; Red Wine – Tonti Family Wines, 2013 Zinfandel, Russian River Valley AVA; Dessert or Specialty Wine – Coopers Hawk, Vidal Blanc Ice Wine, American AVA.
There was also a label competition; the winner of that judging was Tolosa Winery from Edna Valley, near San Luis Obispo, with a beautiful raised, etched and painted label.
Approximately 125 volunteers, mostly from Cloverdale and Sonoma County, but some from as far away as Oregon and the Sacramento area, along with the Citrus Fair staff and Full of Flavor Catering, poured more than 23,000 tastes, served nearly 1,500 meals, set up and tore down 20 judging panels, washed and racked thousands of wine glasses and handled 40,000-plus bottles of wine numerous times to verify and cross verify that the wines being blindly served to the judges were the correct wines; all of this to assure the integrity of the competition.
The judging week started Monday with final preparations by the volunteers and the organizing staff led by Bob and Scott Fraser and Anne Vercelli. The actual judging began Tuesday morning when the 62 judges, who braved local rains and flooding, gathered at the Citrus Fair for a welcome champagne and sparkling breakfast. Fair CEO Bonnie Wlodarczyk welcomed the judges, some of whom have been judging this competition for more than 10 years. Bob Fraser, competition executive director gave a humorous rendition of the 34 year history of the competition, which started in 1983 as the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition. Finally, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce representative Dolph Green welcomed the judges and thanked them for their expertise in objectively and fearlessly judging so many wines, as many 380 each over the four days.
Later Tuesday evening the local Pine Mountain—Cloverdale Peak (PM-CP) wine growers and producers hosted a pre-dinner reception at the Citrus Fair showcasing PM-CP grapes with wines from Miro Cellars (Silverwood Vineyard), BobDog (Sky Pines Vineyard), Ampère (Pine Mountain Vineyard), Captûre (Jackson Family), Imagery Estates (Upper Ridge) and Archimedes (Coppola). The dinner in Warner Hall at the Citrus Fair was catered by Ken Rochioli’s KR Catering.
It was a kick to see so much local involvement in the largest competition in the world for American wines. Not only the volunteers but the many judges from around the Bay Area and Sonoma County, including Cloverdalians Miro Tcholakov, winemaker at Trentadue and his Miro Cellars and Christopher O’Gorman, director of communications for Rodney Strong Vineyards. Like icing on a cake, Tcholakov was honored with Best of Class Sweepstakes for the Rosato Di Sangiovese he made for Trentadue.
To get more information about the award winning wines visit winejudging.com.
