CLEVELAND, Ohio – Four wineries in Northeast Ohio have earned awards at the San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition.
Awards are broken into multiple categories by both varietal and bottle cost. So $30 Cabs are rated with similarly priced ones, for instance.
Valley View-based Ficarra Cellars was a big winner, garnering eight awards. It earned best-of-class honors for a Carmenere, silvers for Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc, and bronze for Montepulciano and Rossato Rose.
Debonne Vineyards in Madison won double gold for an unoaked Chardonnay, gold for ice wine, and silvers for Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.
Laurello Vineyards in Geneva won double gold for an ice wine, silvers for Chambourcin and Pinot Grigio, and bronze for Chardonnay.
All of Debonne’s and Laurello’s grapes in their winning wines are from Ohio’s Grand River Valley.
Solon-based North Coast Wine Club garnered silver for Little Somethin’ Somethin’, a red blend from California’s Russian River Valley, and bronze for its Appasimento Grand River Pinot Noir.
The club says it is the only winery in the Lake Erie Shores region that received an award for a red vinifera varietal wine. Vinifera are European varietals as compared to the more common French hybrids grown in this part of the country. Organizers bill the club as a wine-making educational center and commercial wine-tasting venue. It sources grapes from all over the world including the West Coast as well as Chile and the Grand River Valley.
The competition included more than 6,700 wines from more than 1,000 North American wineries.
Here are the awards by category.
Related coverage: How an Italian village is being created in Valley View with winery’s expansion (photos)
About North Coast Wine Club: The club is at 30700 Bainbridge Road, Solon. Visitors are welcomed 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays. Email [email protected].
I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 8:05 a.m. Fridays for “Beer with Bona and Much, Much More” with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler. Twitter: @mbona30.
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