Harvest Fair's top red wine loses its medal

The top-ranking red wine in this year's Sonoma County Harvest Fair wine competition was disqualified Tuesday, a first in the fair's 35-year history. Adler Fels Winery was forced to relinquish its "sweepstakes" honor because it failed to meet a minimum case requirement for entry.

Soon after the winery's 2007 Russian River Pinot Noir won the sweepstakes red at the Saturday night gala, a culmination of three days of tasting and judging, officials began questioning whether the wine met the minimum 75-case requirement to participate in the professional competition.

"We are very disappointed that this has happened, but our wine competition is known worldwide for its high level of professionalism and we need to maintain its integrity," said John Balletto, Harvest Fair board of directors president, in a statement issued following Press Democrat queries. "Our rules were established to make sure the public has access to the winning wines. While this is a very unfortunate situation, we are satisfied our system proved itself."

Attempts to contact Adler Fels late Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Fair officials have decided not to award the sweepstakes red to a runner-up. The other of the two sweepstakes winners, the white Owl Ridge 2008 Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc, and all gold-medal-winning wines will be available for tasting at the Harvest Fair Friday through Sunday at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds as planned.

Local retailers said they became suspicious Sunday at the fair's trade tasting event, when Adler Fels poured a different vintage than the winning wine. When questioned by fair officials, winery representatives initially said they couldn't immediately access the winning wine in their warehouse.

While this is a dramatic example of the inaccessibility of a sweepstakes winner, many retailers said they have been increasingly frustrated in recent years. Ben Pearson, wine buyer of Santa Rosa's Bottle Barn, said this is the third time in the past four years that a sweepstakes winner has been out of reach for his customers.

"The Harvest Fair is a big deal," Pearson said. "Our customers expect us to have these wines. When they can't get the wines it leaves a bitter taste on their palate."

Michael Traverso, co-owner of Traverso's Market in Santa Rosa and a member of the fair board, said, "In today's market, anything under $20 is a fast-moving price point and when a wine wins an accolade, yeah, sure, people might be intrigued by it and want to buy a case." Adler Fels sells for $25. Owl Ridge retails for $12.

Traverso, who stressed that he wasn't speaking on behalf of the entire board, said increasing the minimum production requirements may be something the board would consider in the future "to avoid situations like this." Traverso said organizers don't want to alienate small wineries, but "it can be frustrating out there."

Retailers and consumers aren't the only ones aggravated when a sweepstakes win is beyond reach. There is such a thing as "winners' angst."

Chris Hanna, president of Hanna Winery, said one reason her Santa Rosa winery hasn't entered the competition for the past few years is because winning can create an "allocation war" where distributors, local retailers and national accounts vie for a dwindling supply of wine.

"Distributors are irate, retailers are irate and most of all, consumers are irate," said Hanna, whose winery won the sweepstakes on three occasions.

"The first year we won, we sold out of the entire vintage in a week," Hanna said. "We have a national account at the Four Seasons (hotel chain) and we can't be out of stock for two months or we could lose the contract."

Looking ahead, Hanna said organizers might consider a different requirement for sweepstake contenders. "I do think for wines under $20, wineries should be prepared to set aside a lot more wine (than the 75 required cases.) For sweepstakes, you've got to be closer to 300 to 400 cases."

You can reach Staff Writer

Peg Melnik at 521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.