Best of Class- San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

http://winejudging.com/medal_winners_2012/445.htm

Was really excited to receive this award at one of the top wine competitions. This is a big style wine that is 100% Merlot and was aged for 20 months in barrel.
Only 70 cases produced.

I really am looking forward to trying to improve up on this wine and will have some ideas for future vintages. I will also continue to produce a Bordeaux style blend with it and add some Malbec and Petite Verdot from our ranch blended with some super premium hillside Cabernet Sauvignon.

Costa Azul Winery will be the future home of Christopher Cameron Vineyards

Here is my architect's (Brian Church, Del Mar) rendition of the new build that is going to be taking place in about 3 months. Winery will have a Mediterranean style restaurant and a demonstration vineyard. All of the wine will be produced on site and we will be able to hold around 300 barrels of wine.

2009 Crush- Gold at the end of the Rainbow

(Pictured Todd of San Diegiueto Cellars, myself, and Matt of Matthew Richards Wines)

Crush went very well this year without too many bumps in the road... As usual there was a lot of work but the wine has just recently been put in barrel and is tasting great.

This year I made:

2009 Dry Creek Chardonnay- I used 4 different yeasts including an indigenous fermentation. The wine was barrel fermented and it should be dynamic once blended together. The will be different in style than the 2008 as this is bigger and will have more richness.

2009 Dry Creek Valley Merlot- This could be the best year yet as the sugar levels were spot on and the flavors are incredible. This will be comparable to the 2004/2005 Merlots from our vineyard.

2009 Lake County Malbec- The fruit came from the Olof Vineyard in Lake County. Really intrigued by this varietal and think the market should be strong as there aren't a lot of domestic wineries producing a stand alone. This wine is quite low in alcohol but has tremendous fruit and body!

2009 Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah- arrived and while not as big as the Gold medal winning 2007 but I think it will be a bit more in balance with the classic blackberry and spice flavors.

2009 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon- This vintage will be great as it has the classic fruit found in our Cabs but I decided to extract more tannin during fermentation to give it a little more backbone.

2009 Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Rose'- I have been playing around with Rose' the last couple of years with great results and should be releasing this one in a couple of months. It has lots of strawberry jam on the palate and a lot of minerality as well.

GOLD MEDAL- 2009 Orange County Fair Wine Competition

I was literally screaming with joy when I opened the notification letter as this is our third Gold this year. I just cracked a bottle of this Petite and thought it would be a good time to update the blog.

I knew this wine from the get go was going to be delicious and in the barrel it was tough to stop tasting. The Orange County Fair Wine Competition is the largest one of California wines in the world and therefor the most competitive. There is no charge to enter so there is typically 40-80 wines entered per category and this year there was a total of 3089 wines entered.

I am thrilled about this wine for the following reasons-

About 7 years ago I convinced my father to plant this Petite Sirah at his vineyard and I am so excited to be working with this fruit. My father has no regrets eitheras he receives more per ton for his Petite than any other grape and has sold these grapes to some excellent boutique wineries.

This is the year that I began experimenting with convection toasted French oak and was extremely thrilled in the barrel and bottle with the results.

While I am a huge fan of blending- this wine is 100% 2007 Lambert Bridge Vineyard Petite Sirah! I invited some friends in to work on the blend and we tried for hours on end to come up with a wine with a touch of Cab or new vintage Petite Sirah but we always went back to the original!!!

While I enjoy Cabs and Merlots- I am a bigger fan of the "Rustic Reds" (Zin, Syrah, Petite Sirah) so this wine was fun to make and now drink!

Just bottled this wine 2 months ago and it will only get better.

Now where did that bottle go......

GOLD MEDAL- Critics Challenge Intl Wine Competition

This is the second competition that I entered this year and the second Gold Medal which is always exciting. I recently bottled this wine so it will only get better with a few more months of aging.

2006 Christopher Cameron Vineyards
:: Cabernet Sauvignon ::
Lambert Bridge Vineyard
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County

80% Cabernet Sauvignon 10% Merlot 5% Petite Sirah

Aged 28 months in French and American oak barrels.

145 Cases Produced

In our opinion this is the best vintage of Cab that we have seen come out of Dry Creek in the last decade. This wine just has it all- body, depth, fruit, and color! There is tons of ripe marashino cherry, blueberry,and a touch of anise.

Bottling!!!!

Yesterday- was quite the long one......... We bottled 200 cases of the Christopher Cameron 2007 "Lambert Bridge Vineyard" Petite Sirah and 160 cases of a 2006 Costa Azul Sonoma County Red Blend. I wanted to say thanks to the many volunteers that come in to help during crush and with bottling as it really is a big help!

GOLD MEDAL at the San Diego International Wine Competition!

Two well know wineries out of Napa (Markham and Franciscan) received Silver.
A Sonoma County wine deemed better than many (20-40) Napa Valley Merlots that were entered in this competition-??? How could that be?

In all seriousness- Napa Cab is phenomenal and of course has the edge (and hype) on Sonoma for that varietal but every year Sonoma wins more medals and in my opinion is a better county for a wide range of wines including- Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Sauvignon Blanc, and oh yeah- guess Merlot too!

Definitely put tons of time and effort into producing this wine so I guess in a way it feels good to be recognized. I have been out selling 6 wines currently to restaurants and wine shops and have been most impressed with this wine although many of the buyers have been preferring the Bordeaux blend. The bad part is that I only have about 30 cases of the Merlot left..............