Winning wines of South Valley

Local wineries win 47 medals in SF wine event

Gilroy’s Kirigin Cellars wins 11 medals in 2017 ‘San Francisco Chronicle’ Wine Competition. Featured here is marketing manager Vrinda Khanna. BEST OF CLASS Gilroy’s Kirigin Cellars wins 11 medals in 2017 ‘San Francisco Chronicle’ Wine Competition. Featured here is marketing manager Vrinda Khanna.
Congratulations to our eight local wineries that earned a combined 47 medals at the 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Martin Ranch Winery led the way with 12 medals, and Kirigin Cellars garnered 11 medals, with both winning in the Best of Class category. Other winners include: Creekview Vineyards, Fortino Winery, Satori Cellars, Solis Winery, Guglielmo Winery, and Lion Ranch Vineyards.

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, founded in 1983, is the largest wine competition in the United States. More than 6,800 wines from 28 states were entered. Sixty judges spent three days sipping, swirling and selecting the best wines from the following categories: red, white, rosé, sparkling and dessert.

Within each category are medals that, in addition to Best of Class, include: Sweepstake, Double Gold, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Sweepstake winners must be unanimous among all 60 judges. Best of Class are the best wines in their price range. Double Gold winners are the unanimous result of a five-member panel. Then comes Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Although these medals offer prestige, some wineries prefer not to enter each year due to expensive registration fees. Six-bottle minimums of each wine must be shipped at the wineries’ expense. And submitted entries must be part of a single lot of at least 60 gallons—not at easy feat for boutique wineries.

View all the winners at www.winejudging.com.

Bev Stenehjem
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About Bev Stenehjem
Bev Stenehjem is a wine columnist for South Valley Magazine and is the author of the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley, Arcadia Publishing. Bev also promotes the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley association on Facebook and Twitter. Reach her at [email protected].