Second, it was its fascinating interplay in the nose: bright, floral varietal fruit – suggesting raspberry, cranberry, and a little bit of cassis (i.e. What was it about the Ripken Pinot Noir that impressed these judges? First, going on first-hand account, it was this red wine’s keen sense of balance and slightly tart, zesty, palate freshening edginess, unimpeded by a just-right body (not too light, not too heavy). This year’s head wine judge, Mike Dunne – a highly regarded wine journalist with experience judging in many other wine competitions – unabashedly described the jurists at this year’s State Fair as “the finest group of professional wine judges ever assembled, for any competition.”

Nearly half the judges who had manned the tasting panels in previous years were replaced by completely new judges in 2013, coming from California or flown in from other states.

The California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition is the country’s longest running commercial wine judging: it was started in 1855, and has been interrupted only occasionally (like during World War I and World War II).įor the 2013 State Fair judging, a concerted effort was also made by the organizers to involve an even higher level of professional wine judges than ever before.

Only 207 wines were awarded Gold or Double Gold medals. This year 709 wineries entered 2,625 wines for 72 judges to examine over a three-day period. To attain a Gold in this particular competition, wines like the Ripken Vineyards Pinot Noir are blind-tasted right alongside Pinot Noirs from the entire state, including vaunted regions like Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Monterey. Ripken’s award winning Pinot Noir, home grown in the DeltaĪttention, fine wine shoppers: Lodi is now growing some first class Pinot Noir!Īt least, this is what a discriminating panel thought about the 2010 Ripken Vineyards Lodi Pinot Noir ($20) when they awarded it a Gold medal and “Best of Class (of Lodi)” earlier this month, during the judging process of the 2013 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition.

2010 clone 5 santa barbara pinot noir