San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Explore Mike Dunne’s Best of Class tasting notes
Come along with Mike Dunne for a road trip to American wine regions beyond California.
While California accounts for four of every five bottles of wine made in the United States, it faces competition from every other state in the union. New grape varieties, new styles of wine and new regions are flourishing across the country.
At this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, more than 40 wines from states not named California won Best of Class honors. Here, Mike Dunne introduces 25 of them, chosen for their character, authority and backstory.
Dunne has written about wine for more than 50 years. He is the author of “The Signature Wines of Superior California: 50 Wines that Define the Sierra Foothills, the Delta, Yolo and Lodi,” a deep and personal dive into the evolution of the wine trade around Sacramento. Dunne judges frequently at home and commercial wine competitions across the United States. He and his wife, Martha, also a wine judge, live in Sacramento.
Here are the Best of Class wines that most impressed him from states other than California, other than Sweepstakes winners on page U4.
Blanc de Blancs: Ferrante Grand River Valley “Star Seeker” Bubbly Blanc ($19)
If the Cleveland Browns had as much cohesion, attack and stamina as this sparkling wine, the NFL playoffs would have turned out differently this year. Cleveland comes into play because the Grand River Valley is an American Viticultural Area just east of the city. From there, Ferrante’s “Star Seeker” is an aptly named sparkler. It has the thrust and flow of a successful launch into orbit. Its spritz is enduring, its acidity forthright, its sweetness delicate and its flavor has suggestions of peach and lime. Fruit Sparkling: Lakeshore Farms Trading Company Natural Peach Sparkling Moscato ($13)
Lakeshore Farms Trading Company is a brand of Leelanau Cellars in northern Michigan. Lakeshore Farms produces an extensive portfolio of fruit wines, still and sparkling. The Peach Sparkling Moscato stood out for capturing sleekly all the essence of a peach orchard at prime ripeness. It is sweet, but refreshing, not cloying. Sauvignon Blanc/Fume Blanc ($22-$27.99): Aurora Cellars 2022 Michigan Leelanau Peninsula Sauvignon
Blanc ($24)
Sauvignon Blanc customarily is a straight-forward wine, bringing to the table suggestions of grass or grapefruit, reinvigorating acidity and an amiable adaptability. This Aurora has all that, but also a complexity rare to the varietal, with minerality and smoke coursing through its grapefruit, peach and lime fruit. It is almost feral in its attack and grip.
Viognier (Up to $29.99): Jefferson Vineyards 2022 Virginia Viognier ($29.95)
Out of nearly 100 Viogniers entered in two classes, both Best of Class winners not only were from Virginia, both were from the same winery, Jefferson Vineyards of Charlottesville. Jefferson Vineyards has been banking on Viognier — Virginia’s official state grape — since the 1980s, perfecting a style clean, lilting and incessant. This version is their first to be made solely in stainless steel, accounting for its radiant transparency. Viognier ($30 and over): Jefferson Vineyards 2021 Virginia “Th. Jefferson” Viognier ($32)
The “Th. Jefferson” is a bolder, more complex take. It seizes Viognier’s acclaimed honeysuckle, peach and spice with uncommon drive and grace. On top of that, it trails off reluctantly, perfume and flavor lingering resolutely.
Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio ($18 and over): Verterra Winery 2022 Michigan Leelanau Peninsula Pinot Grigio ($22)
The sandy soils and cool temperatures of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula merge in this tight and frisky Pinot Grigio. It delivers a beckoning balance of mature fruit and peppy acidity, earning it an invitation to any table where grilled shrimp or baked cod is the centerpiece.
Pinot Blanc: Amoritas Vineyards 2020 Leelanau Peninsula Pinot Blanc ($21)
A veritable pineapple plantation is stuffed into this animated Pinot Blanc. Never mind that it is from Michigan, not Hawaii. It is all zingy fruit on a limber frame, underscored with the kind of electric and grippy acidity that comes only from a cool climate like the Leelanau Peninsula.
Malvasia Bianca: Callaghan Vineyards 2022 Arizona Willcox “Love Muffin White” Malvasia Bianca ($35)
With gutsy experimentation and quick and savvy adaptation, Callaghan Vineyards has developed a reliable lineup of wines at home in the arid, windy and sunblasted terrain of southern Arizona. Here’s a fully ripe, floral, spicy and medium-bodied Malvasia Bianca, given refreshing acidity with 20 percent Picpoul Blanc.
Gruner Veltliner: Weis Vineyards 2022 Finger Lakes Gruner Veltliner ($22)
Gruner Veltliner is customarily overly polite in its expected expression of peach, citrus and white pepper, but the Weis will have none of that, showcasing its refreshing fruit and sprightly spice with the vigor anticipated when its grapes are grown in a receptively cool region like Finger Lakes.
Gewurztraminer: Haak Vineyards and Winery 2022 Texas High Plains Gewurztraminer ($25)
A Gewurztraminer as expansive and daunting as the High Plains itself. The wine delivers a lattice of roses, a basket of lychee, grapefruit, peach and lime, a generous dash of spice, and no bitterness, just embracing and billowing pleasure.
Vignoles: The Vineyards at Pine Lake 2022 Ohio Vignoles ($17)
This is one frolicking wine with brassy yellow color, floral bouquet, melodic sweetness, punctuating spice, and in flavor, happy suggestions of sponge cake — lemon or peach, take your pick. Thanks to its cleansing acidity, it bounds across the palate.
Riesling (Medium Dry): Weis Vineyards 2022 Finger Lakes Semi Dry Riesling ($21)
With a chiming sweetness and offsetting acidity, the Weis is made for lounging in a hot tub or hammock, but also possessed of a framework sturdy enough to stand up to all the expressions of Cantonese cooking likely to be shared at a holiday banquet. Its peachy fruit, balance, clarity, spice and stinging acidity reaffirm the standing of Finger Lakes for noble Rieslings.
Riesling (Sweet): Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery 2022 Old Mission Peninsula Estate Riesling ($20)
Old Mission Peninsula is an American Viticultural Area at the northern reaches of Michigan, neither large nor prominent, yet rising in stature for the purity and intensity of its wines, including this luxurious Riesling, saturated with fruit redolent of various strains of the peach and apple families, especially after they have been baked in pies artfully seasoned with brown spices.
White Native American/Hybrid:
Haak Wines 2023 Texas Dry Blanc du Bois ($29)
Blanc du Bois is an American hybrid grape developed in 1968 in Florida to withstand the state’s heat and humidity, but Texas is where it is yielding its most captivating wines. The Haak is refreshingly zesty. Think lemonade but without all the usual sugar. It delivers floral and fruity suggestions of Muscat but with a structure lean and snappy.
Other White Varietals: Lemon Creek Winery 2022 Lake Michigan Shore Kerner ($19)
Kerner is a grape variety created in Germany about a century ago by crossing the black grape Trollinger with the green grape Riesling. It customarily yields a wine floral and fruity, running to suggestions of apples, mangoes and grapefruit. The Lemon Creek delivers all of that, plus notes of diverting and enticing spice.
White Blends ($22-$29.99):
Duchman Family Winery Grape Growers Texas BBQ White ($24)
The composition of BBQ White is a mystery. Regardless, the upshot is a stimulating white wine floral in aroma, fruity in flavor and spicy and sweet, perfect for sipping at the start of a party or
pairing with grilled chicken with chimichurri.
Montepulciano: Christoval Vineyards 2020 Texas High Plains Rambouillet Montepulciano ($29)
Climatically, the Texas High Plains is one challenging place to grow wine grapes — high, dry, windy and stingy. Yet, from that terrain sprang this Montepulciano, wiry yet intense, dry yet fruity, compact yet expressive. This is a refined wine, more fitting for dishes of finesse than chili or brisket. Try it with salmon.
Syrah/Shiraz (Up to $34.95): College Cellars of Walla Walla 2021 Walla Walla Valley Stoney Vine Vineyard Syrah ($34)
In a showdown of college winemaking teams, College Cellars of Walla Walla would be the No. 1 seed on the strength of this luscious and spicy Syrah. The wine is loaded with blueberry fruit and generously laced with black pepper, all conveyed with restrained tannins. To win Best of Class, it beat out 49 commercially made entries.
Cabernet Sauvignon ($40-$44.99): L’Ecole 2021 Walla
Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($44)
This is why Walla Walla Valley is recognized for wines of carefully considered modulation, all clarity, balance and grace. The complexity of the valley’s soils and its temperate climate add up to a Cabernet Sauvignon svelte and serene.
Petit Verdot (Up to $45.99): Barrister 2019 White Bluffs Dionysus Vineyard Petit Verdot ($47)
White Bluffs is a plateau with complicated soils in Washington state’s Columbia Valley. This Petit Verdot, dense in color and voluminous in aroma, shows off the sort of saturating and lifting dark fruit flavors that will establish this young appellation’s standing for fine wine. As a measure of the wine’s authority, do not hesitate to pour it alongside Chateaubriand.
Carmenere: Texas Heritage Vineyard 2019 Texas High Plains Narra Vineyards Carmenere ($36)
One exhilarating Carmenere, wild with cherry fruit, slaps of green herbs and a cord or so of oak. A wine both serious and jovial, like a topical stand-up comic with exquisite timing, original material and precise enunciation. It shows that a wine need not pack more than 14 percent alcohol to be robust and long; this comes in at 13.2 percent.
Tempranillo ($40 and over): Cinder 2021 Snake River Valley Tempranillo ($40)
This Tempranillo reinforces winemaker Melanie Krause’s standing for wines of both might and courtliness. With purity and range, it provides a study in precisely matching variety with place. It is inky, fragrant, juicy, balanced and long with oak carefully insinuated and tannins subdued.
Red Natives/Hybrid Varietals: Hocking Hills Winery Ohio Léon Millot ($30)
Wines made from hybrid grapes can be quirky. This Léon Millot, however, comes across as more traditional vitis vinifera than the
French/American hybrid it is. The color is bright, the aroma falls in the cherry family, the tannins are more velveteen than grating, the acidity spunky, the impression dry and the finish lasting.
Red Blend: Red Native/Hybrid: Sovereign Estate 2021 Minnesota Reserve Marquette ($33)
A cold-climate grape developed and introduced by the University of Minnesota in 2006 and planted by Sovereign in 2007, Marquette yields here a dark red wine satiny in texture, fruity and earthy in smell, and rich yet lightly tripping with dark fruit flavors. Acid is revitalizing, tannins are mellow.
Sweet Red: Texas SouthWind Vineyard & Winery Purple Rose Sweet Red Table Wine ($20)
The cherished and adaptable Concord grape, a staple of soft drink, jelly and pie in much of the United States, is being exploited by Texas SouthWind to produce a sweet red wine plush with candied fruit and beckoning spice. This is a wine for tailgate parties and latenight poker at the end of the day’s cattle drive.