The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are still three months off, but a shower of gold, silver and bronze medals already is under way.
That's because the wine- competition season is in full swing. It started in January and won't end until November, but it's at its most feverish in late spring and early summer.
Here are some key results from three recent judgings.
Riverside International Wine Competition
Riverside in the spring is a lovely town, I'm sure, especially when hot-rodders from across the West gather to parade up and down Market Street and show off their exquisitely restored rigs.
From inside a ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, however, we only could occasionally hear them, not see them.
For three days, judges of the 27th annual Riverside International Wine Competition were sequestered in the ballroom to ponder the merits of about 2,620 wines.
The wines came from throughout the world, but most were Californian, so it was fitting that three of the five sweepstakes winners were from California.
The sweepstakes red was a Sacramento-region wine, the Michael-David Winery 2005 Lodi Earthquake Syrah ($28), which while high in alcohol – 15.5 percent – had a lushness of cherry/berry fruit, well-integrated tannins, bacony complexity and overall balance to make it a clear winner.
The best sparkling wine was a perennial gold-medal winner on the circulation circuit, the pleasantly caressing Mumm Napa Napa Valley Brut ($19), while the best dessert wine came from another reliable brand, the intensely sweet, floral and spicy Navarro Vineyards 2006 Anderson Valley Cluster Select Late Harvest Gewurztraminer ($59).
Out-of-state wines took the other top honors, with the lean and focused Chateau Ste. Michelle 2007 Columbia Valley (Washington) Dry Riesling ($12) winning the white-wine sweepstakes, and the White Springs Winery 2006 Finger Lakes (New York) Rosé ($10) the best rosé.
Five local wines got another high honor, the "chairman's award," bestowed when all four judges on a panel unanimously agree that a wine deserves a gold medal.
Two of them were from the same winery, Chouinard Vineyards and Winery, for its juicy and sweetly fruity 2006 Lodi Mohr-Fry Ranches Alicante Bouschet ($17), an old workhorse of the California wine trade, but only rarely released as a varietal, and its unusually complex 2006 Lodi Mohr-Fry Ranches Late Harvest Viognier ($21).
The others were the Latcham Vineyards 2005 Fair Play Special RSV Cabernet Franc ($20); the Lange Twins Winery & Vineyards 2005 California Meritage ($35), a husky and lengthy blend of grapes traditionally associated with France's Bordeaux; and the Fenestra Winery 2005 Lodi Silvaspoons Vineyard Touriga Nacional ($22), a variety customarily used for port, but here yielding a seductively aromatic, generously oaked, distinctly fruity table wine.
Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition
Rare among competitions because wines are judged in context rather than alone – eat a Kumamoto oyster, sip some wine, have another oyster – the Pacific Coast drew a record 200 wines to its 14th edition.
A panel in Seattle first tasted all 200 wines over a week. It narrowed the field to 20 candidates, then sent the finalists, with dozens of raw oysters, to other panels in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Over the years, both the wines and the oysters have gotten better and better. This year's field was so strong, in fact, that coordinator Jon Rowley ended up with 12 equal winning wines instead of the usual 10. The voting was that tight.
The big surprise, however, was that two wines that almost invariably finish in the top 10 were out of the running this year, the Geyser Peak Winery sauvignon blanc and the Dry Creek Vineyard chenin blanc, the latter of which is made with fruit grown at Clarksburg.
Regardless, Dry Creek Vineyard still came out a winner when its 2006 Sonoma County Fume Blanc ($14.50) placed in the top 12.
If oysters are on your menu in the near future, consider the Dry Creek or one of the other 11 – the Amity Vineyards 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Blanc ($17), the Chateau Ste. Michelle 2006 Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($11), the Clayhouse Vineyard 2006 Paso Robles Sauvignon Blanc ($14), the Clos du Bois Winery 2006 North Coast Sauvignon Blanc ($12), the Covey Run Wines 2006 Columbia Valley Fume Blanc ($9), the Girard Winery 2006 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($16), the Kathryn Kennedy Winery 2007 California Sauvignon Blanc ($19), the Robledo Family Winery 2006 Lake County Seven Brothers Sauvignon Blanc ($16), the Simi Winery 2006 Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc ($10), the Van Duzer Vineyards 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris ($18), and the Willamette Valley Vineyards 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris ($15).
Call Bee wine columnist Mike Dunne, (916) 321-1143. Read his blog at www.sacbee.com/appetizers. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.
