The Napa Valley winery V. Sattui is famous for its picnic grounds, perhaps the most inviting and comfortable winery picnic grounds in all of California. It gets attention, too, for its unique marketing plan. V. Sattui wines are sold only at the winery or through its website.
Then there are the wines. V. Sattui has achieved an enviable record of excellence on the wine competition circuit with an array of wines. And V. Sattui is nothing if not consistent. For the third consecutive year it has been named domestic Winery of the Year at the Winemaker Challenge, staged January 19-20 in San Diego.
Not only did V. Sattui amass 36 medals from 40 wines entered, it claimed four best-of-class Directors awards with its 2017 Collina d’Oro Chardonnay ($40), 2016 Grenache ($38), 2016 Malbec ($44) and 2016 Gilsson Vineyard Zinfandel ($42). Among V. Sattui’s 36 medals, three were awarded platinum and 14 gold.
Banfi was equally impressive capturing the honors for best foreign winery, though with far fewer entries. Its crowning achievement was the 2015 SummuS ($69.99), a red “Super Tuscan” blend that tied the 2015 Ledson Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ($150) for Wine of the Year. Each wine was awarded a score of 98 points.
The SummuS continues a strong run for Banfi, which was the Wine Talk 2018 foreign Wine of the Year. Banfi earned 11 medals, including one platinum, six golds and one silver.
Ledson’s wine-of-the-year award was only the beginning of its strong showing. It took medals with all four of the wines it entered and earned another of the top awards when its 2015 Bellisimo was voted best Bordeaux-style blend.
For the record, the value wines of Barefoot Cellars and Barefoot Bubbly, which retail for between $6.99 and $9.99, scored 24 medals and racked up a major award when its non-vintage sweet Riesling at $6.99 was awarded Best of Show Dessert wine. This is a wine that Barefoot should be especially proud of given the volume of production and its consistent high quality.
Complete results can be found at WinemakerChallenge.com
8