January 23, 2023
Aratas Wine was awarded “BEST OF CLASS” for the 2017 “Shake Ridge Ranch” Petite Sirah and “SILVER MEDAL” for the 2018 Napa Valley Petite Sirah
Founded in 1983 as the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition, then renamed the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition; judging takes place in San Francisco each January. This year over 1000 United States wineries entered a record breaking 7000+ entries in a competition open to all wine regions across America.
Over 60 prestigious experts within the media, trade, hospitality and education industries from around the country joined together to judge these wines and because of their diligence, the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition continues to hold the title of the largest competition of American Wines in the World.
Read more below:
“BEST OF CLASS” Aratás 2017 Amador County Shake Ridge Ranch Petite Sirah: In appearance, this Aratás Petite Sirah captures the variety’s customary inky purple, but on the palate the wine is an unusually serene take on the variety, its berry/cherry fruit flamboyant but cheery, its thread of licorice atypical but alluring, its tannins reserved and its oak finely integrated.
Mike Dunne, Wine Writer
For each San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, longtime wine writer Mike Dunne tastes and jots notes on best-of-class wines. For the competition in 2023, Mike first tasted best-of-class wines and then trimmed this wide field to the 50 wines he found most exemplary. He searched for wines that not only represent exceptional character, quality and value, but reflect trends within the wine scene. He focused on such popular varietal wines and styles as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but he also sought wines that show the increase in the growing of grapes and the making of wine beyond California, including wines made from hybrid and native grapes in states not identified so much with vitis-vinifera strains.
Given the breadth of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition – drawing 7,000 entries from throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico – the whittling of even the best-of-class field to just 50 prime selections is a daunting task, but Mike is familiar with such challenges.
He is the author of the recently published “The Signature Wines of Superior California: 50 Wines that Define the Sierra Foothills, the Delta, Yolo and Lodi,” his deep and personal dive into the evolution of the wine trade in appellations about Sacramento over the past 50 years, a stretch during which he chronicled the area’s viticultural and enological development for several publications and platforms, especially The Sacramento Bee.
These unique, award winning wines are currently available at www.arataswine.com/buy-wine