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for immediate release
Contact: Julie Ann Kodmur, 707/963-9632, corking@julieannkodmur.com
or Stu Smith, 707/963-2283, nvhigh@aol.com
or Robert Whitley, whitonwine@aol.com ,criticschallenge@aol.com
or www.criticschallenge.com or
www.whitonwine.com
SMITH-MADRONE CHARDONNAY WINS PLATINUM-BEST OF SHOW
At first Critics Challenge Competition in southern California
San Diego, CA, June 2004---Smith-Madrone Winery’s 2001 Chardonnay
was awarded the Critics’ Platinum Award and tied with the 2003
Vionta Albarino for Best of Show-White Wine at the Critics Challenge
wine competition
in San Diego, held May 29-30. The Chardonnay is grown at an elevation
of 1,800 feet on top of Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley.
Critics Challenge Competition Director Robert Whitley, who writes the nationally
syndicated Wine Talk column for Copley News Service, said 1,299 wines were
entered in the inaugural Critics Challenge. The wines were evaluated by
renowned wine journalists, headed by Chief Judge Mary Ewing-Mulligan, co-author
of Wine For Dummies. Other judges included Michael Apstein, Gerald Boyd,
Stephen Brook, Michael Franz, Paul Lukacs, Ed McCarthy, Nick Passmore,
Leslie Sbrocco, Bruce Schoenfeld and Marguerite Thomas. The Critics Challenge
was conducted at the Westgate Hotel in San Diego May 29-30, 2004. Complete
results and details are at www.criticschallenge.com.
“
This is an impressive showing for Smith-Madrone,” Whitley said. “The
quality of the entries in this competition was very high. And any time
a chardonnay comes out on top of the vote with all of those eclectic palates
in the room, it must be a brilliant wine. Both Chief Judge Mary Ewing-Mulligan
and I loved it for its restraint and beautiful subtleties. This is a chardonnay
with exceptional finesse and a real sense of place,” he added.
Whitley is also the Director and Chief Judge of the Monterey Wine Competition
and
Director of the San Diego National Wine Competition.
For brothers Stuart and Charles Smith (the founder/enologist and winemaker,
respectively) this award is renewed affirmation in their life-long quest
to make “great wine” from their vineyards perched on the mountainsides
of the Napa Valley. In this day of Mr. and Mrs. Got-Rocks literally buying
up the Napa Valley and out-sourcing their farming and wine-making to the
top hired-guns, it gives the Smith brothers great satisfaction to earn
recognition for their wines the old-fashioned way---they did it all themselves. “For
33 years, it’s been our hands which planted and tended the vineyards,
it’s our hands which have crushed and pressed the grapes and it’s
our palates which have decided when and what to bottle,” Stuart Smith
explains. And that hard work is paying off: “over the past three
vintages Smith-Madrone Chardonnay has successfully run the gauntlet of
judgings, receiving 9 gold medals, 7 silvers, 2 Best of Shows and 1 Sweepstakes
award in major wine judging competitions.
Stuart Smith adds that “next to children, making wine is the most
personal endeavor I can imagine, and, as with children, it is a lifetime
of hard work with all the accompanying joys and sorrows, but unlike with
children, there is no reticence to publicly state a criticism of a particular
wine.”
Platinum award winners will be featured on the wine list of Le Fontainebleu,
the Westgate Hotel’s award-winning restaurant, at the discretion
of Whitley and subject to availability. The Westgate Hotel, a member
of Leading Hotels of the World, is a co-sponsor of The Critics Challenge
Competition.
‘
Best of Show’ is determined in a vote from among the wines awarded
Critics Platinum during the competition. This year’s Critics Challenge
produced 22 Critics Platinum awards.
The Smith-Madrone Chardonnay sells for $25.00 and is available directly
from the winery (<http://www.smithmadrone.com/>www.smithmadrone.com
or 707/963-2283) or at fine wines and restaurants. The winery also produces
Cabernet Sauvignon ($35.00) and Riesling ($17.00) from its own estate
vineyards surrounding the winery.
Smith-Madrone’s winemaker Charlie Smith explains, “at Smith-Madrone
our goal is to make artisanal wines that are distinctive and different
and are an expression of both the vintage and us as vintners, but above
all else, are wines that bring pleasure to the senses. This wine—which
is 100% estate-vineyard-grown Chardonnay from vines which are 29 years
old-- has a lovely pale straw yellow color, with a powerful aroma of Chardonnay
fruit that booms out of the glass. The California sun provides an explosion
of fruit on the taste buds that confirms the aroma, and then lingers into
a long, smooth finish,” he adds. Stuart Smith, the winery founder
and enologist, explains further, “our Chardonnay is grown at the
highest point in the Spring Mountain District appellation in the Napa Valley,
just west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. The vines are planted on very
steep slopes (up to 35%) in red volcanic soil. The vines receive only the
rain that Mother Nature lets fall from the sky. From April until October
the vines must send roots deep into the mountain soil in search of moisture.
This centuries old method of farming wine grapes, known today as dry farming,
creates a grape with intense flavor, structure, and finesse.” Harvesting
of the Chardonnay started on September 11, 2001, approximately one week
later than usual, with a smaller than usual crop. The wine was fermented
in new 60 gallon French Marchive barrels, from oak harvested from France's
Never, Trancais and Allier forests. Following fermentation in the barrel
the wine was aged "sur lie" for a total of 11 months.
Earlier this month Smith-Madrone’s 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon won
a gold medal at The 21st Annual San Diego National Wine Competition,
one
of only 16 gold medals awarded to the field of 319 Cabernet Sauvignons
entered. The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon also received a gold medal at the
2003 California State Fair.
Smith-Madrone is a family-owned estate-bottled winery dedicated to producing
Chardonnay, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon exclusively from its own
vineyards. It was founded by Stuart Smith in 1972 with the purchase of
200 acres on
top of Spring Mountain west of St. Helena in the northern Napa Valley.
One of the least-known and most scenic appellations of the Napa Valley,
the Spring Mountain District was recognized by the B.A.T.F. in May of
1993. The winery enjoys dramatic views of the floor of the Napa Valley,
as well
as of its own steep dry-farmed vineyards. In exploring the property before
purchasing it, Stuart Smith discovered old grape stakes interspersed
with the forest's tall trees, evidence of a vineyard planted in the 1880s
and
abandoned with the onset of Prohibition.
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