Wine lovers taste and approve at gala

June 7, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

So, a few weeks ago, 20 Northern California experts convened to taste 700 of the best wines in the region.

Saturday, their results were released. The event was a wine gala for Savor Magazine's North of the Gate Wine Competition, where a couple hundred wine enthusiasts assembled to sample the gold medal winners at Herzog Hall at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds.

It is the sixth year of the competition, which selects the best wines from the counties of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Marin, Humboldt and Solano. This year's event received entrants from 173 wineries.

In addition to the gold medal winners, North of the Gate announced the sweepstakes winner for red wines, which was a tie between two zinfandels, both from Sonoma County. They were the 2004 Sonoma County Zinfandel from Cline Cellars, and Pezzi King Vineyards' 2002 Dry Creek Valley Old Vines.

According to competition judge and Wine X Magazine writer Chris Sawyer, "The zinfandels really stood out this year. Cline's is just a beautiful, gorgeous wine. It's wonderful to have the zinfandels, which are California Heritage wines, recognized."

Some of Cline Cellars' grapes come from Petaluma (Stage Gulch Vineyard and Adobe and Frates Vineyard), but they were not among the gold medal winners in this competition.

The sweepstakes white wine winner was Navarro Vineyards, for their 2004 Muscat Blanc Anderson Valley.

Navarro's Jim Klein was also named Wine Maker of the Year, based on the number of Best of Class and Sweepstakes winners achieved by the winery. Navarro entered 13 wines in the competition. Eight of them won gold or double gold, and three were best of class. The winery is located in Philo in Mendocino County.

The wine gala was enjoyed mostly by local wine aficionados, but one oenophile, Ron Roberts, was visiting from Issaquah, Wash.

"This is a really nice event," he said. "The quality of the wines is really good. A lot of times I come to events like this and it's a lot of bottom feeders, they don't have nice wines."

If you missed the gala, you will have another chance to sample both gold and silver medalists at the Sonoma-Marin Fair wine garden from June 21 to June 25.

(Contact Dane Golden at dgolden@arguscourier.com) -->

TASTE THE WINNERS

Did you miss Savor Magazine's North of the Gate Wine Competition wine gala? You'll get one more chance. Both gold and silver medalists will be at the Sonoma-Marin Fair wine garden from June 21 to June 25. Visit www.yourfair.org for more information.