Calaveras Winemakers Awarded Top Honors at the 44th Annual Sierra Foothills Wine Competition
- calaveraswines
- May 14
- 3 min read
Calaveras County Fair 2025 Wine Competition Winning Wines - Tom Bender
Late last month the 44th annual Calaveras County Fair wine judging took place at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds. 18 judges from throughout Northern California gathered to evaluate 265 wines from 35 wineries located in the Sierra Foothills. Judges include wine industry professionals, local wine experts, restaurant and retail operators; providing a good mix of palates that blended well. All the wines are blind tasted by 6 panels of three judges each.
The judging is open to any winery located in the seven foothill counties from Mariposa County to Yuba County The bulk of the entrees come from Calaveras, El Dorado, and Amador Counties and the number of entries this year was the largest ever, up 20% from last year. Their participation comes at a time when the wine industry is going through numerous challenges; from slowing wine sales and excess inventories to much of the fruit being left hanging on the vines. There is also a growing trend in shifting from wine consumption to other beverages.
Over my 40 plus years organizing the competition, the types of wine entered have evolved from the more recognizable varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon to new grape type regional plantings and players such as Viognier and Vermentino along with reds such as Barbera and Grenache. I remember the early years having upwards of 10 White Zinfandels being entered. This year there were none.
That being said, Chardonnay still proved to be a big player and winner at the competition.
“The 2025 competition at Frogtown had its usual surprises and affirmations. The former was represented by a Chardonnay winning Best of Show White wine; it's a variety generally dismissed in the hot and arid Gold Country. The Drytown Cellars Chardonnay entry stood out for its silken texture and swaggering fruit. The latter was represented by a Lewis Grace Barbera winning Best of Show Red wine, showing why the variety is challenging Zinfandel as the wine most closely identified with the Mother Lode.” according to judge Mike Dunne, the acclaimed wine writer and author.
Wine writer and local judge, Mike Kelly, was also taken with many of the wines. “This year's event had some very distinct and beautiful wines. The wines of Lavender Ridge (Murphys) were stellar in their performance with their 2023 Roussanne winning Double Gold/Best of Calaveras, along the White Blend "Cote's d Cal" and Grenache getting Double Gold, together with Rick Gilpin Wines Sauvignon Blanc capturing a Double Gold.”
A double gold is awarded when all three judges on a wine panel are in agreement on awarding it a gold.
Kelly also thought that Syrah and Petite Sirah somewhat stole the spotlight from the highly rated Zinfandel's normal awards. “Another noteworthy winner included El Dorado County’s Lewis Grace Winery who scored Barbera 2023 Best of Show Red, Double Gold, 2022 "Renner" Syrah Double Gold and 2022 Tempranillo Double Gold. It was also a pleasant surprise to see Val du Vino (Double Gold Syrah), Frog's Tooth (Gold with Carignane with new winemaker) and Gossamer Cellars (with Gold for their Graciano) awards.”
A growing category was the “Red Blend” class which Mike Dunne judged. “In the preliminaries, our panel was positively impressed by the clarity and seamlessness of so many blended red wines, showing careful stewardship of vineyards, winemaker understanding of each component's strengths, and facility at bringing them together for wines of character and finesse.”
A surprising growing category was sparkling wines with 6 entries from 5 different wineries participating. Starfield Vineyards from El Dorado County won Best of Show - Sparkling for their 2023 Brut Moscato.
The largest red category is still Red Zinfandel class with 27 entries this year. Part of the judging involves the “Zin Challenge” in which the judges select the top Zin of the competition. This year’s winner was the Sobon Estate 2022 “Blue Heron” Zinfandel which was produced in honor of founder and early Amador wine pioneer, Leon Sobon. It seems appropriate.
A complete list of the awards and wineries can be found below. And be sure to visit the wine display at this year’s Frog Jump weekend at the Calaveras Fairgrounds.
Cheers to all the wineries who entered their wines this year!
Tom Bender – Chief judge, wine instructor at Columbia College and local home winemaker.
For more information contact coordinator Tom Bender at 209-768-6234 or tombender006@gmail.com
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