RUTZ CELLARS WINS GOLD!

In February, 2003, over 2500 Northern California wines competed in 40 different categories at the 20th annual San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Rutz Cellars is proud to announce that all four of our entries won medals in their category.
 

Gold Medals

Rutz Cellars 2000 Maison Grand Cru
Chardonnay - Russian River Valley
Category: Chardonnay - $25 and Over

 


Rutz Cellars 2000 Maison Grand Cru
Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley
Category: Pinot Noir - $25 and Over

Silver Medal

Rutz Cellars 2000 Dutton Ranch
Chardonnay - Russian River Valley
Category: Chardonnay - $25 and Over

Bronze Medal

Rutz Cellars 2000 Dutton Ranch
Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley
Category: Pinot Noir - $25 and Over

About The Competition

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition began in 1983 as the Cloverdale Citrus Festival Wine Competition. Cloverdale is located in the Alexander Valley - one of the finest wine growing regions in the world - and the Citrus Festival has been held there every President's Day weekend for over 110 years.

The wine competition has grown in size and scope over its 20 year history. The first contest featured 15 wineries and 45 wines from within a 20 mile radius of the Cloverdale fairgrounds. After that, it steadily broadened its base to a greater number of wine regions. From 1996-1999 it was expanded to the Tri-county Wine Competition (Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties), and in 2000, it was renamed the California North Coast Wine Competition by adding Napa, Solano and Marin counties. Now, in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle,  it has become the Chronicle Northern California Wine Competition. Wines bottled in or made from grapes grown in all northern California counties, from Monterey to the Oregon border, and east to the Sierra foothills, qualify for the 2003 competition.

Competition Director Bob Fraser instituted the "West Coast" style of wine judging. This system employs five-member panels consisting of a winemaker, a wine retailer or marketer, a wine writer, a wine educator, and a culinary or tourism professional. This year's pool of 48 judges contained many well-known industry names, including Gerald Boyd - columnist and staff wine writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dan Berger - syndicated columnist and publisher of Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences, Bill Moffett - Owner and Publisher of Vineyard and Winery Management magazine, John Parducci - Owner and Winemaker for Zellerbach Winery, Gina Gallo - Winemaker for Gallo of Sonoma, Barry Gump, Ph.D. - Professor of Enology at California State University, Fresno, and G.M. "Pooch" Pucilowski - Consultant and Chief Judge for the California State Fair Wine Competition.

On Saturday, March 15, medal winners from the Chronicle Wine Competition were invited to a public tasting at the Festival Pavilion in Fort Mason, San Francisco. A packed house of tasters enjoyed gourmet food, music, and of course award-winning California wines.
 

The Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason was packed with tasters
 sampling the medal-winning wines.