Home to California’s largest natural freshwater lake, Clear Lake, the majestic dormant volcano, Mount Konocti, and an abundance of fresh water lakes, rivers, and wildlife, Lake County, California, is an exciting wine region, distinguished by its high elevation, diverse soils, clean air, and sustainable farming practices. Located just north of Napa Valley and Sonoma County, it’s within easy reach for wine tourists eager to make the climb. The drive from all directions is scenic and exhilarating, but the biggest reward lies ahead in the tasting rooms.
“In general, the wines of Lake County are clear-cut, sharply shaped, true-to-varietal, and basically, pretty darn honest,” says Mike Dunne, professional wine judge and columnist for The Sacramento Bee.
His colleague and fellow wine judge, Sue Straight, agrees. “Lake County wines have good structure and acidity,” says Sue. “When I’m judging a wine made from 75 percent or more Lake County grapes, I look for balanced acidity, focused fruit flavors, and consistency from the first sniff, through the mouth, and on through the finish.”
In June, Sue served as a wine judge at the Lake County Wine Awards Competition for the second year in a row. The Lake County Wine Awards Competition began in 2009 to help build consumer awareness of the quality of the region’s wines. The competition was the brainchild of Matt Hughes, winemaker for Six Sigma Ranch & Winery, at the urging of a persistent friend.
“I was founding chair of the Lake County Winery Association and my good friend, Ron Nagy, who grew up in Sonoma and was a big fan of the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, kept asking me why we didn’t have a similar event,” Matt recalls. “Lake County wines hadn’t reached a critical mass to get noticed in the bigger competitions. We simply didn’t produce enough wine with Lake County on the label.”
But the new association did want to find a way to attract attention to the region. “We knew that a competition would be a great chance to get unbiased professionals from the outside to come in and give us a scorecard of sorts,” Matt says. “It was important that every producer could be a part of it, so an open competition made sense. Anyone making a wine with Lake County, or a Lake County AVA, on their bottle could enter and get the judges’ feedback.”With the support of Kaj Ahlmann, owner of Six Sigma Ranch and chair for the winery association at the time, and a few other hardworking colleagues, the Lake County Wine Awards Competition came into existence.
“The Lake County Wine Awards Competition helps consumers make decisions concerning purchasing new vintages of wines from the region,” says its director, Bob Fraser, who also serves as director for the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and the Sonoma Harvest Fair. “It also brings heightened awareness to Lake County as a premier winegrowing region and recognizes Lake County’s wine industry growers and wineries every year with the Sweepstake and award-winning wines awarded every year.”
Besides casting a well-deserved spotlight on Lake County, the Lake County Wine Awards Competition is serving as an annual barometer for winegrowers and wine producers. They receive valuable feedback from judges and ideas for improving or finessing their product.
Matt Hughes gives an example of this. “In the competition’s first year, the Best Red Wine and Best White Wine winners were from producers outside of Lake County. It was like losing the homecoming game! That hasn’t happened since,” he smiles. “Every year, new and interesting wines and producers are being awarded.”
“In the last few years, Lake County wines have been recognized as some of the best wines coming out of California,” Bob Fraser says. “Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon have historically been mentioned as premier varietals in Lake County but Syrah, Petite Sirah, Merlot, Tempranillo, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, and other varietals have also been championed from the area. The Red Hills AVA area in Lake County has particularly been noted for tremendous Cabernet Sauvignon and Red blends.”
“As a wine judge, I have always enjoyed the consistent varietal correctness, focused fruit intensity, and balance I find in Lake County’s Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon,” Sue Straight says. “When you sniff one of these varietals from Lake County, you really know it’s from Lake County. Yum!”
Fot more information and to see the list of 2015 Lake County Wine Awards winners, visit lakecountywineries.org; lakecowineawards.org