Adler Fels: "We messed up"

<p>Officials at Adler Fels winery acknowledged Wednesday they are to blame for the disqualification of their Sonoma County Harvest Fair sweepstakes award, but said they didn't intend to mislead fair organizers.</p><p>The Santa Rosa winery was forced to relinquish its sweepstakes honors Tuesday because it failed to meet a minimum 75-case requirement for entry in the Harvest Fair wine competition. The disqualification was a first in the fair's 35-year history.</p><p>“Our side of it is that we messed up,” said Paul Wildman, director of national sales. “We just didn't keep better control of our inventory. You can't imagine how disappointed we are at Adler Fels. It's our fault, but I want people to realize we weren't trying to deceive anybody.”</p><p>Wildman said a winery representative warned fair officials on Monday that the winery might not have enough of its 2007 Russian River Pinot, the fair's top-ranking red wine.</p><p>Sheila Quince, who supervised the Harvest Fair wine entries, said when the winery didn't have the required 75 cases, or 900 bottles, she disqualified the sweepstakes red on Tuesday. For each entry, 40 cases are reserved for pouring at the three-day harvest fair this weekend and the remaining 35 are to be made available to wine retailers, restaurants and other outlets.</p><p>“It was tough because there was no precedent,” Quince said. “It was not hard to enforce the rule, but disappointing to be in the position of having to do it.”</p><p>Fair officials have decided not to award the sweepstakes red to a runner up. The fair is permitting Adler Fels to pour the 2007 pinot noir, which costs $25, Friday through Sunday as a best of class winner. This classification only requires a winery to have eight cases of wine.</p><p>Adler Fels initially produced 133 cases of the wine, which have dwindled to 14 cases.</p><p>“We had no idea how popular the wine would be,” Wildman said. “Going forward we plan to keep better control of our inventory.”</p><p>Quince said all other winners appear to have met the 75-case requirement. “We rely on the information we receive on the entry form to be true,” she said. “With 1,214 wines from over 200 wineries, it would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible to check.”</p><p>The white sweepstakes winner, the Owl Ridge 2008 Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc at $12, and all gold medal winning wines will be available for tasting at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds this weekend as planned.</p><p>“We're just glad we won and we have enough wine,” said John Tracy, owner of Owl Ridge Wines in Sebastopol.</p><p>Adler Fels, a Tudor-styled winery located in the southeastern Santa Rosa hills, was founded in 1979 by David and Ayn Coleman. In 2004, they sold the winery to Adams Wine Group LLC, a wine holding company headquartered in Westlake Village, California.</p><p>Representatives of Adams Wine Group could not be reached for comment Wednesday.</p>