Each of our regular WRO contributors has selected a Wine of the Year and a Wine Producer of the Year for 2007. We will feature one of their write-ups each day in this space through the end of the year, and if you’d like to nominate a wine or winery , email your choices to [email protected] —Ed.
Producer of the Year: Lynmar Winery, Russian River Valley, California. Lynn Fritz founded Lynmar in 1990, and through the 
early 2000s, the wines were good, but not great. But by 2004, Fritz was deep into the replanting of his cool, fog-influenced Quail Hill Vineyard near Sebastopol, had contracts to buy grapes from top-notch neighbouring vineyards, had hired Hugh Chappelle away from Flowers Vineyard and Winery on the Sonoma Coast to direct winemaking, and recruited consultants Paul Hobbs (winemaking) and Greg Adams (vineyards). After just one vintage, their efforts flash like a Las Vegas neon sign, with the 2005 Lynmar Chardonnays and Pinot Noir showing admirable balance and grace. I was blown away by the 2005 Sereinité Russian River Valley Chardonnay ($50), a Chablis-like wine that combines minerality and refreshing acidity with sunny ripe fruit. Other thoroughbreds in the stable 
include the delicious 2005 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($36), which has a polished mouthfeel and black cherry, black raspberry, cola and earth notes. The 2005 Quail Hill Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($60) is similar, yet a step up in interest and complexity. It’s elegant, firmly structured and refreshingly acidic, all of which suggest it will improve over the next three to four years. I also love the crisp Russian River Valley Vin Gris ($20); it’s sold out, so look for the 2007 bottling in spring 2008. Lynmar gets my vote for Producer of the Year, as much for what it’s doing now as for where it’s going. Watch this space.
Wine of the Year: I was fortunate to taste many great wines in 2007, including a handful of 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons that are not at all overripe, yet generous in flavor and richness; some cuvée de prestige Champagnes, and sparkling wines from California and Oregon that get more complex by the year, and some glorious aged Burgundies. You know, the expensive stuff. Yet year after year, an inexpensive ‘little’ California white wine made from grapes grown in a mostly 
disrespected region catches my attention, and this year, the attraction is particularly strong. The 2006 Dry Creek Vineyard Clarksburg Dry Chenin Blanc is out-and-out tasty (think juicy peaches and tropical fruits with a dab of honey), unwooded, just a touch sweet (0.6% residual sugar), low in alcohol (12.5%), food-friendly, amazingly consistent in quality and just $10 or so a bottle. What more could one want? DCV is located in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, yet this wine is produced from purchased grapes grown in the Clarksburg appellation in the Sacramento Delta, an area thought to be too warm for high-quality viticulture–yet Chenin Blanc, once California’s most-planted grape but scarce today, thrives there. I 
toast Dry Creek Vineyard wife-and-husband proprietors Kim Stare Wallace and Don Wallace, and their winemaker, Bill Knuttel, for sticking with a varietal that long ago (and shamefully) fell out of favor. That their Chenin Blanc comes from an unfashionable region and sells at a price any wine drinker can afford makes the story even better.
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