August 11, 2023 – Pennyroyal Farm was a big winner at the 44th annual Mendocino Wine Competition, with all their entries receiving medals. Per long time competition director, Allan Green, there are no Bronzes awarded in this one; you get Silver, Gold or nada. Moreover, Pennyroyal’s winemaker, Sarah Cahn Bennett, scored two Best of Show awards: Best Sparkling for the Pennyroyal Farm 2019 Blanc de Noir, Anderson Valley, and Best of Show White for the Pennyroyal Farm 2022 PinoTrio, Anderson Valley. Judges raved about this blend of 37% Pinot Noir, 37% Pinot Blanc, and 26% Pinot Gris, calling it a fantastic representation of Anderson Valley’s coastal winegrowing region.
Usually, Roederer or McFadden Farms takes Best Sparkling, so this was a coup. Typically, Navarro or Husch wins Best White. It’s fitting that the next generation is holding sway here, as winemaker Sarah Cahn Bennett, 41, is the daughter of the couple that founded Navarro, Ted Bennett and Deborah Cahn, and was trained by Jim Klein, their longtime winemaker and the most-awarded Anderson Valley vintner to date.
Klein proved his mettle for Navarro Vineyards once again as The Sweepstakes Winner of the competition, with all 27 Navarro wines entered taking home medals, eight of which were double golds, plus ten golds and nine silvers. Klein still rules the numbers game, offering the most consistently excellent lineup year after year.
Pleiades Wine Company’s 2022 Rosé of Sangiovese, the only entry by the Sean Thackerey brand, bested 17 other entries in the category to win Best of Show Rosé Wine. This lovely pale pink 100% Sangiovese comes from Gibson Ranch in Hopland, where the judges stayed and where the competition was held at Brutocao’s event center.
Best of Show Red went to a sassy and herbaceous Greenwood Ridge Vineyards 2021 Syrah, Mendocino, which was a departure. Usually, a Pinot Noir waltzes away with Best Red at this competition.
Best of Show Dessert was awarded to Enotria 2022 Moscato, Mendocino, which was made by Greg Graziano of Graziano Family of Wines, who supplies much of the fruit to Blue Fox Cellars in Carmel Valley.
Other wines worthy of mention were the Best of Class 2022 Blue Quail Gewurztraminer from Potter Valley, the Best of Class 2022 Husch Chenin Blanc (always a solid “other white” category beater), the Best of Class 2022 Greenwood Ridge Sauvignon Blanc, the Best of Class 2022 Girasole Sangiovese, the Best of Class 2021 Navarro Pinot Noir South Hill and the Best of Class 2019 Nelson Family Petit Verdot. Also of note were the double gold winning 2022 Graziano Columbard, 2022 Monte Volpe Vermentino and 2022 Navarro Gruner Veltliner.
Gold medal wines from this competition will be poured at the Mendocino County Fair in Boonville, September 22-24, 2023. The complete list of 2023 Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition awards is available at www.mendowine.com.
Visiting Mendocino Wine Country
If you’re planning to attend the Mendocino County Fair in Boonville on September 20-24—highly recommended if you enjoy all those old fashioned 4H exhibits, plus calf roping, sheepshearing, wool spinning and fiber displays—try to visit Pennyroyal Farm.
Sitting on Highway 128, just past the intersection of Hwy 253 which takes you to Ukiah, Pennyroyal is also a creamery. They have goats, sheep and chickens on property, offering endless entertainment and a slew of excellent award-winning cheeses to complement their wines. This is the place to stock up on snacks for a wine tasting adventure. One year, the Mendocino Wine Competition gave us judges a goody bag with Pennyroyal cheeses: one of the best swag bags ever!
Another tip: the Fair is popular, so you should definitely book a room fast.
In the Boonville environs, top places to stay are the Indian Creek Inn, The Madrones and
Boonville Hotel. The Hotel usually fills up first, but heading up valley towards Philo puts you in a cooler climate.
What’s exceptionally convenient about Indian Creek, just south of Philo, is the way it’s set up for groups to share. Each wing has a shared kitchen and living room area, and three separate rooms with Queen beds and private baths. The setting is magical, with some units near a creek and others on top of a ridge with a stunning view of some of Anderson Valley’s ridgetop vineyards speckling the golden hills to the east. It’s adjacent to Golden Eye, Domaine Anderson and The Madrones, with Maggy Hawk’s new tasting room nearby. Navarro, Greenwood Ridge, Husch, Roederer and Handley are just a few minutes away.
The Madrones, adjacent to the entrance to Indian Creek, sports beautifully furnished rooms, a dispensary and an onsite restaurant, Wickson, plus winery tasting rooms.
Extend your stay to Mendocino with an overnight at foodie paradise, Brewery Gulch Inn. They have a cute new property in their stable called the Beach Trail Cottage, perfect for 1 or 2 people (adults only), with full kitchen and an upstairs ocean view bedroom, right next to Van Damme State Park. Completely private.
In the town of Mendocino, among the more comfortable and spacious lodging setups are the MacCallum House Suites, which sit on a hill overlooking the town and adjacent to the veteran’s cemetery. The upstairs rooms have ocean views. They are situated next to the Hill House, the charming old deadringer for a New England Victorian hotel that was used in the filming of “Murder, She Wrote,” starring Angela Lansbury.
Dining at the MacCallum House, run by newly appointed GM Saya Abernethy-Hansen, who has worked her way up the ranks at the MacCallum house for over 11 years, proves one of the best, most spacious dining spots in town. Replete with outside garden and ocean view tables, it sports a stylish bar with sitting room, and ample seating inside the glassed-in upstairs porch that offers sweet peaks of the ocean. Excellent food and local wines are always in season.
In Hopland, the center point for exploring the Redwood Valley and Potter Valley AVAs of inland Mendocino, the newly renovated Thatcher Hotel provides the charm of a 123-year old structure, rewired to serve the modern lifestyle, with plenty of outlets and enormous slate floor bathrooms with great lighting, huge sinks (I hate those skimpy little pedestal things) and spacious rainfall showers.
Hanging out at the bar, as we did the night before the wine competition was a good way to explore locally made wines and distillates. There’s a lot more than beer happening in Hopland. The hotel has a sweet pool, too. Although it’s pretty much too hot for hot tubs, the cool breezes do eventually make their way over the western hills, settling over the vast vineyard plantings that replaced the equally vast pear orchards, that in turn replaced the acres of hops from which the town derived its name. Hopland remains the only town in CA through which Highway 101 rolls through without a stoplight.
Mendocino County still retains the charm of the past, but with the conveniences of the present. You’ll find WiFi pretty much everywhere now, plus EV charging stations at Greenwood Ridge and Handley, and yet it still feels like two centuries ago, because basically, it is. And that’s a blessed rarity these days.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
