Results of the 24th Annual Taster's Guild International Wine Judging have been announced. Daniel Gehrs Wines' 2010 Monterey Riesling received its second Gold Medal and our

 2009 Central Coast Merlot was awarded the prestigious Double Gold Medal on the heels of its first Gold Medal performance earlier this year at the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition. 

"Of nearly 2,500 wine evaluations from 11 countries and 37 states/provinces, only 45 wines were designated "Double Gold" by our panels of 30 experienced judges" wrote Joe Borrello, President of the Taster's Guild in announcing this year's results. That places our 2009 Merlot comfortably in the top 2% of all wines judged.

  

Only 1,068 cases of this superb vintage, featuring a blend of 87% Merlot from Paso Robles, 9% Malbec and 4% Cabernet Franc, both from the Santa Ynez Valley were bottled in December of 2010.  

Riesling has been one of winemaker Dan Gehrs' favorite and most critically successful white wines for over three decades. This new 2010 was slowly cold fermented over a two month period and finished fermentation with 2.7% residual sugar which gives the wine a delightfully fruity/flowery aroma and flavor not unlike those wines of the Rhine and Mosel from Germany. It even has a touch of that flinty or stony minerality on the palate typical of its European cousins. Perfect for quaffing on a warm, summer afternoon or with a luncheon salad entree or perhaps with the first course at dinner in the evening this is a perfect way to welcome the warmer days of summer ahead. Less than 400 cases were bottled and the release is scheduled for the summer of 2011.

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