4 Surprising facts about the SF Chronicle Wine Competiton winners

The results are in for the winners of the largest wine judging in the world, the SF Wine Chronicle Competition. Over 7,000 entries are evaluated according to the “West Coast-style”, which involves a double-blind tasting and also allows for discussion and debate amongst the judges before a final agreement.

Surprising facts about the winners:

– Sunce Winery (Russian River Valley, CA) won the highest number of awards overall, ranging from Bronze to Double Gold. The wins were across small-batch, site-specific wines, across varietals from Italian to Bordeaux.

– Mazzocco Winery (Healdsburg, CA) won the highest number of double gold awards, primarily for its small-batch, site-specific Zinfandels

– Don’t turn your nose up at Texas — outside of California, Texas was the surprising winner of the highest number of Best in Class awards. Wins ranged for everything from Mourvedre to Dolcetto

– Korbel won in the sparkling category for its second year in a row: 2013 Brut Natural Methode Champenoise Russian River Valley this year, and California Champagne, organically grown grapes last year