KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The oldest and most prestigious wine competition in North America has named Chacewater Wine Co. the Golden State Winery of the Year.
The California State Fair announced the winners of its Commercial Wine Competition after judging 2,890 wine entries from almost 700 California wineries.
This is first time in the competition's 150-year history that this prestigious award has been given to a Lake County winery.
“You have to have multiple high scoring wines to win Winery of the Year,” said California State Fair Chief Wine Judge GM “Pooch” Pucilowski. “Chacewater's Lake County Chardonnay scoring Double Gold, Best in the State is impressive considering there were 302 entries in that category."
Chacewater Wine Co. will be presented with the Golden State Winery of the Year award at the "California's Grape & Gourmet" event on Aug. 18 at Cal Expo in Sacramento.
The competition ranked Chacewater Wine Co. the best winery in the state, having achieved the highest average rating.
Chacewater's 2010 Chardonnay was awarded a Double Gold medal and won Best Chardonnay.
Chacewater wines also received two gold medals, five silvers and two bronze medals in addition to three Best in Class awards.
“I am thrilled to see our hard work of the last year be recognized by such a big honor and numerous high ranking awards,” said winemaker Mark Burch.
Chacewater Wine Co. released its first seven wines in July of 2011 and six more wines in March of 2012.
Chacewater's wines are crafted from grapes grown by select Lake County grape growers as well as from organic and sustainably farmed grapes from their Estate Sierra Foothills vineyard.
The company's wines have been awarded Gold and Double Golds from this year's San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and Chacewater's 2010 Zinfandel and 2009 Malbec received a Best in Class and Gold Medal award at last month's Los Angeles International Wine Competition.
Visit Chacewater online at http://chacewaterwine.com/ .