I’ve collected a few final, and hopefully useful, thoughts on the 2008 Monterey Wine Competition. This was the first of the three major wine competitions that I will seriously scrutinize this year. The other two are the San Diego International in April and the Critics Challenge in May. I am the Director of all three, and frequently draw upon the results for insights into emerging wineries and industry trends.
At Monterey this year I was focused on the outstanding performances of wineries that are either new or have been flying underneath my radar, therefore making them new to me.
For example, I first noticed Edward Sellers of Paso Robles, a relatively new winery, when it emerged with a number of medals from the 2007 Monterey competition. After it repeated that feat with strong performances in the San Diego and Critics Challenge competitions of the same year, I duly took note that this was a winery to watch.
And Edward Sellers didn’t disappoint this time around, taking six medals in the ’08 Monterey competition, including a couple of golds for its 2005 Selectionne Syrah ($32) and its 2006 Blanc du Rhone ($29). But Edwards Sellers wasn’t the only Paso Robles winery that was impressive this year. Bianchi Winery swept to eight medals, including a gold for its 2005 Gary Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley. At $25 this is a fabulous value for a top-flight Pinot. And Ronan Cellars, another newbie from Paso, won gold medals for its reserve 2005 Cabernet Franc and a Lakeview Vineyard (Monterey County) Syrah. Both wines are modestly priced at $15.
Paso Robles – located in California’s Central Coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco – has quadrupled its number of bonded wineries over the past ten years, and with that explosive growth comes a steep learning curve. Not all of the new wineries produce swell swill, but obviously Edward Sellers, Bianchi and Ronan are on a successful path.
The Pacific Northwest also had a good weekend in Monterey, with strong performances from Tsillan Cellars and Bernard Griffin. Both wineries are from Washington’s Columbia Valley. Bernard Griffin took four medals, including a gold for its 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon ($17). It backed up the gold with three silvers. Tsillan didn’t win a gold, but had a superb showing nonetheless with eight medals overall, including four silvers.
I had neither seen nor heard of Tsillan Cellars before this year’s Monterey competition, but the wines I tasted over the judging weekend lead me to conclude Tsillan is a winery with a very bright future.
East Coast wineries also had their day in the sun. Goose Watch and Heron Hill, both from the Finger Lakes region of New York, each bagged a slew of medals.
Goose Watch excelled with the ‘stickies’, winning gold medals for its 2006 ‘Finale’ White Port ($18) and its Triple Cream Sherry ($15). Throw in a couple of silvers and a couple of bronzes and it was a very nice competition performance for Goose Watch.
Heron Hill won two golds and two silvers and demonstrated a proclivity for Riesling, with three of its four medals going to wines made from the Riesling grape, including gold for its 2006 Semi-Dry Riesling ($13). The other gold was for a Vidal Blanc ($18).
Wineries from the great heartland were well received by the judges, too, though the top performers – St. James and Stone Hill wineries of Missouri and Mary Michelle winery of Illinois – are anything but newcomers. They are perennially among the finest wine producers located in the Midwest.
St. James claimed a dozen medals, two of them gold, and showed best with a couple of its least expensive wines – 2005 Chardonel ($11) and a Riesling made from purchased Columbia Valley grapes ($10).
Stone Hill, like St. James a perennial winner at major wine competitions, took three gold medals with wines made from hybrid grapes – a 2005 Chambourcin ($16), a 2006 Chardonel ($11) and a 2007 Vignoles ($16). Stone Hill won eight medals overall, and placed two wines (the Chambourcin, a stunning good red wine, and the Vignoles) in the ‘sweepstakes’ round of voting for the best-of-show awards.
Mary Michelle won five medals, four of them silvers.
Finally, for those value-minded readers seeking exceptional quality at a reasonable price, there were these stellar performances: Parducci Wine Cellars, with eight medals, all priced at $9.99; Black Swan of Australia, six medals, line-priced at $8; Cypress, five medals, all at $10.
MONTEREY WINE COMPETITION RESULTS
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