Jeff’s Corner 3-19-21

Howdy, Howdy,

The results from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition are finally in, and once again every wine we sent garnered a medal! This year we medaled 29 out of 29 entries, our highest total yet, with Heath Vineyards and Heath Sparkling showing exceptionally well.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to judge this year (breaking my streak of five years in a row) since they couldn’t invite judges that had to fly. I did, however, receive messages from the directors to be ready to go next year, and Kathy and I can’t wait!

Now, back to the important stuff. Of the 21 wines in our GCV portfolio (all reds are the 2018 vintage, whites and sweets the 2019), there were only three bronze medals, backed up by twelve silvers. Our Rendezvous, Rosé of Malbec, and Serendipity struck gold, while our Viognier, Bellissimo, and Port were double gold. (A double gold is awarded when all three judges on the panel vote gold.)

Our incredible Heath Vineyards wines from Paso Robles impressed as well. All from the 2017 vintage, Absolution and Liberation brought us silver medals, while our Pinot Noir and Syrah shined with double golds. This is the second double gold for the ’17 Syrah, winning one last year as well. It’s great to see this kind of consistency from our judges!

The ’17 Heath Sparkling wines also tore it up. Our Adoration and Blanc de Blancs earned silver, Ebullience a gold, and Euphoria (the first bubbly we produced in 2013) brought us a super impressive Best of Class.
So, here’s what it takes to earn Best of Class. Wines are grouped into categories; Ebullience and Euphoria were in the “other sparkling wines” category, which meant they weren’t easily categorized like Blanc de Noir or Rosé Sparkling.

The entire flight of “other sparkling wines” are first judged on their own merits, and 8 were awarded gold or double gold medals. These eight wines then come back to the judges and compete against each other for Best of Class. 2 of the 8 wines in the Best of Class round were from Heath Sparkling, and Euphoria took home the big prize. Pretty cool!

Ending, I’d like to say there’s no better time than now to raise a glass of GCV wine to Jason and his winery gang, along with Clint and his vineyard crew. Cheers to the magic you create, and making us all very proud…

2017 Euphoria-Best of Class; 2017 Pinot Noir-Double Gold; 2017 Syrah-Double Gold; 2018 Bellissimo-Double Gold; Port-Double Gold; 2019 Viognier-Double Gold; 2017 Ebullience-Gold; 2018 Rendezvous-Gold; 2019 Rose of Malbec-Gold; 2018 Serendipity-Gold; 2017 Blanc de Blancs-Silver; 2017 Adoration-Silver; 2017 Absolution-Silver; 2017 Liberation-Silver; 2019 Cuvee Blanc-Silver; 2018 Merlot-Silver; 2018 Mosaic-Silver; 2019 Muscat Canelli-Silver; 2018 Prosperity-Silver; 2018 Cabernet Trois-Silver; 2019 Cab Blanc-Silver; 2019 Pinot Grigio-Silver; 2019 Grand Rouge-Silver; 2019 Joyist-Silver; 2018 Petite Sirah-Silver; 2018 Elitist-Silver; 2019 Riesling-Bronze; 2018 Originalist-Bronze; 2018 Invention-Bronze