Sonoma County Harvest Fair's sweepstakes wine winners revealed

A sauvignon blanc, a pinot noir and a late harvest semillon won the coveted sweepstakes awards Sunday at the Sonoma County Harvest Awards Gala, with two of the three hailing from the Russian River valley appellation.

The Trione Vineyards and Winery 2014 River Road Ranch Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc, at $23, won the sweepstakes award for white wines. Matrix Winery's 2013 Russian River Valley Estate Pinot Noir, $54, took honors for reds and the Clos du Bois 2013 Knights Valley Fleur Late Harvest Semillon, $40, is the specialty wine winner.

A crowd of 500-plus paid at least $75 each to hear the Harvest Fair's wine competition champions announced at Santa Rosa's Wells Fargo Center Sunday night. The event recognized the Sonoma County wine industry's best winemaking and culinary efforts.

'The suspense of the sweepstakes winners is exciting,' said one of the attendees, Katy Long of Santa Rosa. 'To be honored among your peers in a friendly competition builds camaraderie and gives you bragging rights. This is a community that works together and celebrates together.'

Before the awards ceremony, attendees were treated to a reception in the lobby, where they sampled award-winning wines and dishes. The dress code was definitely Wine Country casual, with jeans and tennis shoes interspersed with cocktail dresses and designer shoes.

With two of the winners groomed and bottled from the Russian River valley, the evening highlighted the appellation's qualities.

The area is one of the most recognized for wine quality by consumers across the country, according to Ray Johnson, director of the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University.

'The quality of wines are exceptional and it's also such a beautiful landscape with vineyards surrounded by redwoods,' he said.

Scot Covington, winemaker at Geyserville's Trione, accepted the award for the sweepstakes white.

'It's amazing,' he said. 'I'm so happy to bring this to the Trione family. It's a dream come true.'

Trione Vineyards and Winery dates back three generations. Family members began as farmers, but transformed themselves into vintners when they built their winery in 2005, with their first bottlings rolling onto the market from the 2006 vintage.

Diane Wilson, co-vintner and winemaker of sweepstakes red winner Matrix, said she was happy to receive the award.

'It's nice to get some recognition for Matrix, which only produces 4,000 to 5000 cases a year, so it's not usually in the limelight,' Wilson said.

Matrix, in Healdsburg, is owned by Wilson and her husband Ken, and the couple has been joined in their winemaking efforts by daughter Victoria.

The sweepstakes specialty wines award was accepted by Jennifer Tusa of Clos du Bois, who works in hospitality for the winery.

'What an honor,' she said. 'We're really so honored to be able to make wine in Sonoma County.'

Geyserville's Clos du Bois, founded by Frank Woods, is now owned by corporate beverage conglomerate Constellation Brands. The winemaker is Melissa Stackhouse.

Last week, organizers announced a total of 1,189 award-winning wines in the best of class, gold, silver and bronze categories. With a total of 1,254 entries, only 65 wines didn't win an award.

A total of 315 wines received gold medals and of those, 89 received 'double gold' distinction, signifying a unanimous 'gold' vote from a panel of judges. There were 629 silver medals awarded and 205 bronze winners.

Sunday's ceremony featured an extensive lineup of accolades, including a broad range of wine and food awards.

Earth's Bounty Kitchen and Wine Bar in Santa Rosa won top honors in the Harvest Fair restaurant competition.

'We're surprised and excited,' co-owner Christopher Ludwick said. 'We're a new restaurant that opened in June of last year, so we're glad to be recognized.'

The trio of sweepstakes wine winners, which rose from a pool of 40 best-of-class winners, were kept under wraps until Sunday.

Organizers said the goal behind the split announcements of winners was to build suspense throughout the week and to give retailers two opportunities to brace themselves for a crush of consumers eager to buy the award-winning wines before the Harvest fair this weekend.

Sunday's sweepstakes winners can expect a bump in sales, according to area retailers.

Kristi Mohar, wine buyer and manager of Pacific Market in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, said the sweepstakes winners are always a hot item. Sales for them and other medal-winning wines are steady for about a month, she said.

'I'll be on the phone Monday trying my best to buy them for our customers,' Mohar said.

Ben Pearson, wine buyer of Santa Rosa's Bottle Barn, echoed the same sentiment.

'I just hope we can get our hands on all the sweepstakes winners,' he said. 'Monday will be my single biggest wine buying day of the year. Some people come in from out of town and they're buying multiple cases for holiday parties or gifts.'

Sunday's awards also recognized Sonoma County's agricultural leaders, with a special tribute to the late Saralee McClelland Kunde, who died in 2014.

Patrick Emery, president of the Sonoma County Fair Foundation, said construction has begun on Saralee and Richard's Barn at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to further agricultural education.

The large, multipurpose building, fronted by a plaza, will be in the center of the fairgrounds, Emery said.

'Saralee's passion was to keep agriculture strong in Sonoma County and she said we needed to do that by educating the public about it. This is a way of carrying out her vision,' he said.

Other agricultural honorees Sunday were:

— Dan Rotlisberger, of Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, Inc. for 'Outstanding Young Farmer.'

— Marcus Benedetti, president of Clover Stornetta Farms, for 'Outstanding Young Person In Agribusiness.'

— Stephanie Larson, Sonoma County's livestock range management advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension, for 'Friend of Sonoma County Agriculture.'

— Bob and Shirley Dempel of Dempel Farming, for 'Lifetime Contribution to Sonoma County Agriculture.'

— The Trione family of Trione Vineyards and Winery, for 'Lifetime Contribution to the Sonoma County Wine Industry.'

— Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing Company, for 'Excellence In The Craft Beer Industry.'

— Kozlowski Farms, for 'Excellence in Local Food Production.'

Staff writer Peg Melnik can be reached at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.