Greenwood Ridge Vineyard makes you think instinctively of terroir: unusual geography, striking geology and climate, and the kind of glowingly happy vines you see only in exceptionally placed vineyards. It’s located on an open knoll on Greenwood Ridge about 10 miles from the Pacific coast, overlooking the Menocino Ridge appellation to the south and the Anderson Valley appellation to the north.

“When we gotthe vineyard in 1973, everyone who came said the same thing: ‘Wow, what a great place for a vineyard!’” recalls owner Allan Green. “The problem was, hardly anyone came.” That made it even harder for Green to establish the winery he founded in 1980, Greenwood Ridge Vineyards. So he needed a hook, and he needed it fast.

Back then, wine tourism was nothing like it is now. Actually, it was a lot like “nothing” if you weren’t in Napa Valley. That was the problem. Green’s vineyard is seven miles up a bumpy county road from Anderson Valley, which is another 25 miles of twisting two-lane road from the nearest freeway in Sonoma County.

Anderson Valley already had one landmark winery by 1983, Navarro Vineyards, but in those days Navarro counted its vintages in single digits. Roederer Estate would not arrive until 1986. Pinot Noir is the valley’s standard bearer today, but in 1983 it was a weird dry red in a country that drank sweet whites (if it drank any wine at all).

Yet there was Green, up on Greenwood Ridge, growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Riesling . He knew that if he could just get people to come to his property, they would understand and appreciate his wine. After considering and rejecting a variety of ideas, he finally hit on a quintessentially American notion: to stage a competition.

The world had seen plenty of wine competitions by then, but Green turned the whole concept on its head. Instead of pitting wines against each other, with a set of judges deciding the winners, Green’s competition would pit the judges against each other, with a set of wines determining the winners.

“I had no idea if it would work, or if anyone would show up,” Green admits. A quarter-century later, his California Wine Tasting Championships have proven their popularity and staying power. On the last weekend in July, the event brings together hundreds of wine enthusiasts of all descriptions. Many come year after year to measure their wine tasting acumen against one-time foes who have become long-time friends. There are categories for novices, amateurs and professionals in both singles and doubles, so anyone can try their hand on equal terms.

“Blind tasting keeps you honest,” says Peter Marks, M.W., who won the professional singles and individual grand champion titles in 1992. Today he directs the food and wine program at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa. “This competition is an entertaining way to check in and see just how well you measure up against other good palates.”

Mendocino consulting winemaker Dennis Patton, the individual grand champion in both 1988 and 1989, says he started attending to make sure he wasn’t developing a “house palate” – a tendency among winemakers to become biased toward the wines they make most often.

“You can get too comfortable as a winemaker when you always know what you’re tasting, where it came from, and when it was made,” Patton points out. “Going to the California Wine Tasting Championships, you find out in a hurry if you can still tell the difference between grapes, appellations and vintages.”

Sarah Hassell won the professional doubles category with Mark Bowery last year, after convincing him to come out of competitive retirement and be her teammate. Bowery is wine director at the renowned Albion River Inn and a two-time grand champion who notched one of the all-time top scores ever in winning the 1996 pro singles.

Hassell was eager to compete for two reasons. “I sell wine all week,” she says, referring to her jobs as a representative for distributor Henry Wine Group on weekdays and as the sommelier at Albion River Inn on weekends. “When I’m talking with a retailer who is considering a large order or a restaurant customer who’s about to spend $150 on a bottle of wine, I need to know that my palate is good.”

The other reason she wanted to enter? “I’m a competitive person by nature, and the event is a way to compete and have fun with something I love, all at the same time,” she says. She also adds that there’s a chocolate tasting, a cheese tasting, plenty of food and wine, and free live music. “So even if you bomb in the wine competition,” she says, “you can still have a blast!”

In the first round of the California Wine Tasting Championships, all contestants taste eight California wines blind. For each wine, they select a grape variety from a master list of reds (Bordeaux varieties, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel) and whites (Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc). They get six points for every grape they get right.

If this sounds like a fairly forgiving test, that’s intentional. “I wanted to make sure as many people as possible do well in the first round, so that they have reasons to stay longer and have more fun,” Green. “Even if people don’t make the cut, they still stick around to eat and drink and watch the rest of the competition.”

Care for a Game of Doubles, Anyone?

In the second round, competitors again taste eight California wines and get six points for each variety. They also get one bonus point for identifying the vintage, two bonus points for the region, and three for the producer. The top scorers win the title in their class, after as many tie-breakers as it takes.

The singles competition is on Saturday, and the doubles are on Sunday. Many people come for the whole weekend and compete in both events. On Saturday, there’s one additional event: an individual grand championship that matches up the top three scorers from the amateur and pro categories. In most years, the individual grand champion was a second- or third-place finisher in round two who came on strong in the grand championship competition.

“One wine put me over the top in 1988,” Patton remembers. Tom Elliot of Northwest Wines, Ltd., a San Francisco-based distributor specializing in the wines of Oregon and Washington, had edged him out to win the pro singles title. Then, in the grand championship round, the final wine was a white wine from the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation that stumped everyone – except Patton. “By luck I had tasted that wine a couple of weeks earlier,” he laughs, “so I got all 12 points on it and won by a whisker.”

Green selects all the wines and carefully sets up the flights to increase the challenge round by round. Past competitors often groan anew as they recall a final-round flight that upended them, such as the time Green put three Chenin Blancs into a flight of four whites.

This makes Green smile happily. “It wouldn’t be a real test if it were too easy,” he says. Then he reveals what is perhaps his real reason for making the latter rounds so deliciously difficult: to keep the entertainment level high for the throng of other competitors looking on. After all, the people visiting his vineyard are still the reason for the whole event.

“People love to watch the best tasters scratch their heads and struggle to identify things about a wine, because we’ve all been there,” Green says. “It’s great to see that even the experts don’t know everything, and that there’s always more to learn for everyone.”

Next: “My Dinner With Champions: Past Winners Dissect the California Wine Tasting Championships – While Having A Little Competition of Their Own”

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Going to the California Wine Tasting Championships? Plan Now.

This year’s event will be one of the wildest ever, because founder, host and master of ceremonies Allan Green is adding two new categories of competition: one for past champions, and a grand championship for high scorers in the doubles competitions. That means there will be more prizes to win and more exciting head-to-head battles to watch all through the weekend of July 28-29.

In another tip of the hat to the event’s 25-year history, Green has invited back singer-songwriter Keeter Stuart to provide the live music. Other popular attractions, including the chocolate tasting and cheese tasting, will also be back.

All this makes it important to plan ahead for a place to stay in the area. Anderson Valley is a logical choice because it is both nearby and full of wineries to visit – but the valley has no large hotels and its B&Bs fill quickly in summer. There are many more rooms available in the inns on the Pacific coast between the Navarro River and the town of Mendocino, approximately 45 minutes to an hour away from Greenwood Ridge Vineyards. Use the links below to look for lodging, and book early to make sure there’s a spot for you. - TE

Calfornia Wine Tasting Championships: California Wine Tasting Championships
Lodging: Anderson Valley Lodging
Anderson Valley: Anderson Valley Info