North Coast Wine Challenge welcomes two new women judges

Two new women judges will add their wine acumen to that of 25 others at the 10th annual North Coast Wine Challenge Tuesday and Wednesday, April 5 and 6. With safety protocols in place, the contest hosted by The Press Democrat will be held at the Showcase Cafe at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

Erin Miller, wine director at Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Kitchen, and Petra Polakovicova, beverage manager and sommelier of Montage Healdsburg, said they’re looking forward to helping critique the 1,000-plus entries this year.

The contest rates wines exclusively produced and bottled In the North Coast American Viticultural Areas in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Marin, Lake and parts of Solano counties.

“I’m a geek,” Miller said. “I like to dissect the wine and try to put my winemaking hat on to understand the wine through the lens of the winemaker.”

“I like discovering new wines and their personalities,” Polakovicova said. “Every wine has a personality.”

To keep Miller, Polakovicova and all the judges safe, the COVID-19 protocols initiated in 2020 will still be in place this year. But after a two-year hiatus, the contest is restoring the judges’ dinner on Tuesday, April 5, and the North Coast Wine and Food Festival on June 18. The dinner will be held at the Trione Winery in Geyserville, while the festival will move to Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.

Chief judge Daryl Groom said the competition will help wineries offset the misfortune of the pandemic with a very credible third-party endorsement of their wines by experts in the wine industry,

“We attract top, influential, experienced judges, mostly due to the great wines that are entered,” he said. “It’s all North Coast, with no California appellations or imports. Another draw is how well the competition is run.”

For more than two decades, Miller, 45, worked every harvest in a winemaking role before joining Dry Creek Kitchen In 2021.

“I’m a winemaker by trade and training and in my heart and still work on small-scale projects,” she said. “A wine with balance is one of the most important aspects I look for fundamentally.

“I also like to think of the provenance of the wine. I like to think of where is its place, how was it constructed and what was the winemaker’s intention with it.”

Miller said she has great appreciation for the winemaker behind a well-crafted wine.

“Now, as a wine director, I see this through a new lens,” she said. “I appreciate the humility. The winemaker has to step back and make wines that are true to a vintage, place and varietal. The wine is in the foreground, and the winemaker’s thumbprint is not visible on the wine.”

Before finding her way to wine, Miller had a varied education and career. She studied mathematics and Russian at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon and after graduating in 1999, she spent a year in the Peace Corps in Niger in 2011.

“I realized the rich culture of wine in our lives at a dinner in St. Helena in 1999,” Miller said. “I was asked to think about the wine, what made up the bouquet — the fruits, the flowers, the earth. What made up the palate — the flavors, the texture, the feel, the depth. It was one of the first experiences I had where I got lost in the wine.”

Polakovicova, 43, came from her native Slovakia to San Francisco when she was 18. She had planned to study dentistry, but a side job at the Palace Hotel whet her appetite for wine knowledge. After working in the hotel and restaurant industry in San Francisco for more than a decade, she passed the Certified Sommelier exam in 2007 and joined Montage Healdsburg in 2020.

“I love how dynamic the world of beverage is, and I’m constantly learning something new,” Polakovicova said. “I love how small and tight the community is. It’s great to be a part of it.”

When she critiques a wine, she said, what she looks for is whether a wine is varietally correct and expresses its origin.

What Polakovicova admires most about talented winemakers is how they nurture grapes and showcase wines without manipulating them too much.

“I also admire how winemakers can predict the outcome of a wine, especially when blending is involved,” she said.

A pivotal moment for Polakovicova was when she tasted a bottle of the 1978 Grand Echezeaux from Mongeard-Mugneret.

“At that moment I thought to myself, ‘I get it now,’” she said. “I understand what it is about wine that people love so much. There’s so much complexity and elegance. I love it that wine is not only about flavor but also about geography, history and so much more.”

Like all the judges, Polakovicova and Miller will critique between 110 to 120 wines in a blind tasting Tuesday, April 5, before judging the sweepstakes round on the following day, April 6. They’ll also help mentor three associate judges, who will be tasting alongside the main judges. Groom had hoped to invite nine associate judges this year but had to pare down due to the pandemic.

“The wine judging arena is the perfect opportunity for us to help this new generation, and we’re the only wine competition doing it,” Groom said. “It’s a little extra work on our end, but I’m passionate about it happening and want to see it as a long-term part of our program.”

As for the COVID-19 precautions, all the judges will have temperature checks before entering the building, practice social distancing and wear masks until they’re in their tasting stations.

Despite the safety protocols, Groom sees this year as a return to normalcy, especially with the return of the North Coast Wine and Food Festival in June. About 90 wineries are expected to pour their award-winning wines at the festival, with 30 chefs offering wine pairings. Tickets are available at northcoastfoodandwine.com.

“The gathering is a great tool for selling wines to consumers and getting the word out that they are a gold-medal winning winery,” Groom said. “The pandemic pivoted wineries to more direct-to-consumer sales with the shutdown of restaurants and with sales and marketing people not being able to travel.”

The top Best of the Best winners will be announced in a Facebook Live event at 1 p.m., after the sweepstakes round on Wedensday, April 6. The Press Democrat will announce all the gold-medal winners and top-rated wines in the Feast section on April 13.

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