Ramona Valley Vineyard Association

Ramona wines score high at competition

S. Elaine Lyttleton

Published 08/02/2010 - 2:29 p.m.

Ramona Sentinel

The wine grape growers were talking about powdery mildew and gopher traps while they sipped Ramona Valley wines. The 23 winemakers were studying the judges score sheets and comments while they sipped their wines.  

The nine judges were talking about the wines they had judged while they sipped their favorites from among the 63 wines entered.  

And everyone was having a good time in Sizzler of Ramona at the 4th Annual Lum Eisenman Ramona Valley Wine Competition on Sunday, July 11.

The purpose of the competition, which is sponsored by the Ramona Valley Vineyard Association, is to honor Lum Eisenman for all that he has done to encourage the production of quality wine grapes in San Diego County, and particularly the Ramona Valley American Viticulture Area (AVA).  It is also to provide constructive feedback to all winemakers who are making wines from Ramona Valley sourced grapes, and to focus on the potential of the Ramona Valley AVA for the production of quality wines.

According to the competition’s business manager, Carolyn Harris, the wine must qualify for Ramona Valley AVA labeling, which means at least 85 percent of the grapes used to produce the wine are sourced from vineyards located within the Ramona Valley AVA.  A map of the AVA can be viewed on the association’s website at www.ramonavalleyvineyards.org. 

While only Ramona AVA wines are judged in this competition, they are judged using the University of California Davis 20-point scoring system, which means they are not compared one to the other, but scored as though they are in competition with all wines, anywhere. A wine that wins Gold in the Ramona competition, for example, would likely win Gold even if compared to a well-established Napa, French or Italian wine.

The nine judges are all well qualified for the job and for offering the welcome constructive criticisms of the wines to the wine makers. They included Eisenman, who is a consultant, winemaker at Belle Marie Winery and author of the popular book, “The Home Winemakers Manual.”  

Julian winemakers Jim Jenkins of J. Jenkins Winery and Mike Menghini of Menghini Winery were back for repeat stints as judges as was John Alongé, author of “The Wine Heretic” and founder of the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center.

Menghini commented, “The Ramona wines have always been good, but they are definitely getting better.  We found only two that were ‘wrong,’ and we had to really hunt to find anything wrong with the others.” 

Also judging this year was Pete Anderson, a winegrower and an associate professor at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, where he teaches in the Wine Technology certificate program. Temecula winemakers from Maurice Car’rie Winery, Gus Vizgirda and Jim Swelgin, came down to help, as did Mark Stuart, a certified wine professional, speaker and educator.

Swelgin had never tasted Ramona wines before and Vizgirda, who has judged here before, commented, “Ramona wines may likely get medals at major commercial competitions.”  

Rounding out the judging team was Ron Nowak, founder of the New York Society of Wine Educators and a regular judge at the well-known Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.  He commented, “I am greatly impressed by the Ramona Valley wines,” he said. “I am unhappy that I don’t see the local wines in San Diego restaurants.  You get Tuscan wines in Tuscany and Chilean wines in Chile, but not San Diego wines in San Diego. It’s heresy!”

There were 46 red wines, 12 white wines and seven dessert wines entered in the competition.  Twelve of the 23 winemakers entered in the compettition are home winemakers and 11 are commercially licensed.  

Bronze medals were awarded to 10 wineries and Silver medals to 7 wineries. Two wineries came away with a coveted Gold medal. Joe Cullen, winemaker from Scaredy Cat Ranch, won Gold for his 2008 Alianico grown at Paccielo Vineyard, and  Pyramid Vineyard owner and winemaker Don Kohorst captured Gold for his 2008 Syrah grown at Pyramid Vineyard.

As long as the county insists on a major use permit for a small boutique winery to open a tasting room, and as long as that permit continues to cost $250,000, consumers will find it difficult to taste the Ramona wines prior to purchase, those at the competition agreed. 
 
In the interim, oenophiles can go to the San Diego Wine Country website at www.sandiegowineries.org or the Ramona Valley Vineyard Association site for contact information to the wineries to learn which wine shops and restaurants carry their wines for tasting. Among wine shops that do are Country Cellars in Wynola, Alternative Wines in Carmel Valley and the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center on Harbor Drive in San Diego.

Most of the wineries have wine clubs, and if the judgment of the tasting professionals can be trusted, one may benefit by buying from San Diego wineries, “blind.”