Forty-Five North Vineyard & Winery

Forty-Five Carat!

April 27, 2009

Steve Grossnickle, Owner

So, what’s better than 22-carat gold? Forty-Five Carat Gold, of course! The title of this missive would indicate that once again gold has been discovered on the 45th parallel and not only once, but thrice. Last fall, the San Francisco Wine Competition deemed our Hard Apple Cider worthy of gold. Second, at the Finger Lakes Wine Competition in late March, our Nouveau Pinot Noir Rosé and Select-Harvest Riesling received gold medals. And, just last week, more gold was panned at the Pacific Rim Wine Competition where our Pinot Noir Rosé received Best of Class, beating all comers on each of the judges’ cards. Our 2007 Reserve (oaked) Chardonnay and tasty Peach Crémant received golds and our Pinot Gris, Unwooded Chardonnay, and both Rieslings (Semi-Dry and Select-Harvest) all received silver awards. In my humble opinion, these wines are better than their 2007 versions. But, at best I’m extremely vino prejudiced—just ask my family. Here’s a rundown from 2009 competitions thus far:

San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

• Gold - Hard Cider
• Bronze - 2007 Pinot Gris
• Bronze - 2007 Reserve Chardonnay

Finger Lakes International Wine Competition

• Gold - 2008 Nouveau Pinot Noir Rosé
• Gold - 2008 Select-Harvest Riesling
• Silver - 2007 Cabernet Franc
• Silver - 2008 Pinot Gris
• Silver - 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling
• Bronze - 2008 Unwooded Chardonnay

Pacific Rim International Wine Competition

• Best of Class - 2008 Pinot Noir Rosé
• Gold - 2007 Reserve Chardonnay
• Gold - Peach Crémant
• Silver - 2008 Pinot Gris
• Silver - 2008 Select-Harvest Riesling
• Silver - 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling
• Silver - 2008 Unwooded Chardonnay

Update (4/30/2009): We were floored by this comment from Yolanda Daly, director of the Pacific Rim Wine Competition, and wanted to share it:

Your wine certainly knocked the feet out from under the judges and caused a great stir. They were so impressed by your wine that we were forced for the first time ever, to create a Best Pacific Rim Rose Wine category. Beautiful wine!

About 2000 wines were entered by close to 400 wineries, we had 54 Rose and Blush wines. Your wine competed against all of the reds which totaled 954 entries. It came in second to the Grand Champion (Barbera by Jeff Runquist), and the judges were so upset at the lack of a Best Rose Award that it was agreed we had to create one. You have made history.

Congratulations to Shawn and the rest of the staff here at Forty-Five North!

Forty-Five Carat! was posted on April 27th, 2009 at 8:36 PM and filed under Uncategorized.