Oh, What a Night!
Tiny Vineyards Wine Company 2022 Vintage sweeps Gold at the 2024 Harvest Fair
If she wants to go to the County Fair instead of a fancy restaurant, put a ring on it! —Anonymous
Shocked and Amazed
I admit, I went from standing to sitting down when I read the September 25th email, from the Harvest Fair. “Congratulations, your wine, 2022 Vino Tinto Rustico, was selected as the Best of Class in the following Category: Red Blend. Bear in mind that this information is not to be used or shared until Best of Class awards are publicized at the Harvest Fair Awards Night on October 12th.”
Best of Class! How the hell did that happen? I was further flabbergasted, and then a bit confused as to the earlier demand for secrecy when, a few days later, I clicked on a new tab that had appeared on the Harvest Fair website, “Click me for 2024 Gold Medal Winner Report.” I clicked, only to discover that not only had my 2022 Vino Tinto Rustico been awarded Best of Class, it had also won a Double-Gold Medal. But, so had my 2022 Requisite Red, and my 2022 Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon had been awarded a gold medal.
Let me get this straight—a Gold Medal, two Double-Gold Medals, and a Best of Class in one of the more prestigious professional wine competitions in California—Lordy, what was going on?!
Then I feigned hiding a cheeky smile. Puffed out my chest a little. Preened a few feathers, and walked around as if nothing special had happened.
But I was suddenly glutinous for gold, so full of myself, as to remind readers that my only other wine of 2022, my Daniel’s Pride Chardonnay, had won a Gold Medal in the North Coast Wine Challenge back in June. Well, hell, that’s a Gold Medal Sweep for my entire 2022 Vintage!
Okay. There, I’ve said it. Now I feel like some kind of braggadocio. No I don’t. Yeah I do. No I...
Jeez!
Might be mud, might be manure…
There’s something still truly all-American about state fairs, county fairs, harvest fairs. Today they are throwbacks to simpler times when politics took a back seat to blue ribbons, and whoever raised the largest pig, or grew the prettiest roses or baked the perfect apple pie, or—in wine country—made the best bottle of vino; those folks won simple bragging rights for a year and the genuine admiration of the public. And that felt good, and all anyone really needed.
The Sonoma County Harvest Fair highlights local commercial and recreational growers, makers and crafters. It is a signature event in California that showcases the extraordinary wine, food and agriculture in Sonoma County and brings people to the region to celebrate the harvest season.
The Harvest Fair began in 1975 and is considered one of the premier regional wine judgings in the country. During three intensive days in September, 18 notable wine judges evaluated over 900 wines, all made exclusively from grapes grown only in Sonoma County.
Last night was the Taste, Toast and Celebrate! grand tasting gala in the Grace Pavilion at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, and over 1,000 people attended at $90 a ticket to sample all of the Gold Medal and Best of Class wines and incredible bites from the award-winning chefs.
The evening was everything the Harvest Fair promised and Tiny Vineyard Wine Company was in the thick of it, pouring endless tastes of its 2022 Gold Medal Wines to dapper senior citizens, hombres in their dress boots, and coveys of millennials who knew and appreciated big, traditional wines and were constantly posting to Instagram to prove it. I didn’t see many “Nat” wines being poured, if any, but my heftiest blend—my 2022 Vino Tinto Rustico—proved to be a surprise favorite of this wired set.
So now’s your chance to buy a box of gold before the Advance Release price goes up. A mixed case of 2022 Gold and Double-Gold medal winners is like finding a chest of buried treasure! And serendipity—it’s that time of year to stock up on wine for the holidays. You’ll find it all at tinyvineyards.com
Oh, and by the way
A million thanks to all of you who voted for us in the 2024 Wine Business Monthly Design Pack Competition - People’s Choice Awards (I announced the competition in my last post) —which strives to choose and celebrate the most outstanding wine bottle packaging on the market.
Damn if we didn’t win!