You are here: Home

Editor's Blog

Shawn Walters, Hybrids and 2007 Whites Strut Their Stuff at State Competition

Alan Eaker, Shawn Walters and Dan Matthies

BEST OF CLASS: Winemaker Shawn Walters (center), flanked by Longview owner Alan Eaker (left) and Chateau Fontaine's Dan Matthies display their trophies.

Winemaker Shawn Walters, hybrid grapes, and 2007 white wines all came up winners at the 2008 Michigan Wine and Spirits Competiton in East Lansing on August 5.

Walters had a hand in two Best of Class trophies and eight Gold medal wines for four different wineries. Traminette and Frontenac hybrids snagged the trophies in two classes typically won by European (Vinifera) grapes, while whites from the 2007 vintage took half of all Gold and Double Gold medals awarded.

COMPETITION'S TOP WINES:

DRY WHITE: 2007 Chateau Fontaine White Riesling
SEMI-DRY WHITE: 2007 St. Julian Traminette, Braganini Reserve
DRY RED: 2007 Longview Rustic Red
DESSERT: 2007 Brys Estate "Dry Ice" Riesling Ice Wine
FRUIT: Mackinaw Trail Razz Berry
JUDGES' SPECIAL AWARD: 2007 Bowers Harbor Pinot Noir Rose
SPARKLING: No Best of Class, by vote of the judges
SEMI-DRY RED: No Best of Class, due to no Gold Medals awarded

View or download the full medal winner list here.

Editor's Blog: Competition judges felt especially feisty this year
Editor's Blog: We gave out HOW MANY medals?

Judges awarded medals to 73% of the wines entered in the Competiton (254 of 346). These included eight Double Gold (2%) and 39 Gold (11%). Silver accounted for an additional 111 wines (32%) and 96 wines (28%) took Bronze. Leelanau Peninsula's Chateau Fontaine minted the most Gold, with five medals; no other winery took more than three.

COMING UP ROSES: Spencer Stegenga of Bowers Harbor hoists the Judges' Special Award for his Pinor Noir Rose

The heralded 2007 vintage began to live up to its hype, with every Best of Class wine and the Judges' Special Award winner a member of the class. Its whites took half of the total Gold count -- 23 of 47 -- and the first few reds showed extremely well.

Two wines from hybrid grapes bested the pack in categories that usually see Vinifera winners. St. Julian took Best Semi-Dry White for its 2007 Braganini Reserve Traminette, a hybrid version of Gewurztraminer. And Longview's 2007 Rustic Red -- made from 100% Frontenac grown on Leelanau Peninsula -- won Best Dry Red.

Old Mission's Brys Estate took top prize in the Dessert category for its "Dry Ice" Riesling Ice Wine, so named because the wine's residual sugar content (6.8%) is less than half that of most Ice Wines, while Mackinaw Trail took the Fruit class with its Razz Berry dessert wine.

SWEET: Winemaker Coenraad Stassen of Bry Estate holds the Best Dessert trophy

Judges voted a Special Award to Bowers Harbor for its 2007 Pinot Noir Rose, which wasn't eligible for any Best of Class trophy.

No trophy was awarded in the Sparkling or Semi-Dry Red classes. Semi-Dry Reds earned no Gold Medals, while judges voted against awarding a Best of Class Sparkling from among the three eligible wines

Shawn Walters earned two of his eight Gold and Double Gold medals for his base of operations, Leelanau Peninsula's new Forty-Five North Winery. Wines he made for Chateau Fontaine earned two more, including the Best of Class Dry 2007 White Riesling. Longview, where he's Consulting Winemaker for owner Alan Eaker, grabbed three more Gold, along with the Best of Class Dry Red for their 2007 Rustic Red. Walters took his final Gold for a Michigan Riesling made for California's Jana Winery, owned by Riesling master Scott Harvey.

_________________________________________

To keep things running smoothly at the Competition, more than 2000 glasses of wine need to be pre-poured and arrive exactly on time in front of 24 judges at six tables. It's a monumental task that required over a dozen volunteers and staff. Here's a glimpse behind the scenes at some of the people and activities powering the Competition.

Scroll your mouse wheel or move the slider to rotate pictures; click thumbnails to enlarge.

Loading images

Bookmark

Email This

< Prev		Next >

Recent Features

Who needs the Sky Club when there's Vino Volo?

Winery, Distillery settle lawsuit over "Grand Traverse" name

New Wines from Sandhill Crane, St. Julian Raise Funds for Charity

Top wineries' sales flat in 2008, But CGT comes on strong

REVIEWS: "ORPHAN" VARIETALS

GOVERNOR SIGNS BAN ON RETAILER WINE SHIPMENTS

How sweet is that Riesling?

Joel Goldberg's Blog

New posts every Tuesday, sometimes more or less often

WEATHER FLIP-FLOP, 2010

So far, Michigan's warm, early-maturing 2010 vintage looks like a winner for red wines -- while California is suffering one of its coolest summers in years.

A "WHAT-IF?" FANTASY

Two high-profile politicians who carried water for Michigan's wine wholesaler cartel lost big in the primary for Governor. So let's take a trip into fantasyland, where politicians do what's good for the state, rather than their contributors.

KNOW A GOOD BYO? PLEASE SHUT UP!

Michigan's consumer-unfriendly laws make most BYO illegal. So publicizing places that quietly allow it doesn't necessarily do them any favors.

BAD PRESS FOR WINE COMPETITIONS

Wine competitions may hate the name Robert Hodgson. He's putting numbers to longtime concerns about judging quality and consistency.

GUESS WHO CRASHED THE PARTY?

Yes, thank you, I believe I WILL try some Michigan Cabernet Franc next to that '86 Cheval Blanc

OLD MISSION'S CAPE CONNECTION

Mere coincidence that Old Mission's two South African-trained winemakers grabbed all the awards at the Cab Franc Challenge? Maybe not...

WINE WRITING'S ETHICAL THICKET

Why does wine writing tolerate murky ethics and apparent conflicts of interest that wouldn't be acceptable in other areas of journalism? The new AnnArbor.com is the latest media outlet to ignore such concerns.

HAS TERRY STINGLEY FOUND MICHIGAN'S "IDENTITY WINE"?

Terry Stingley

Kalamazoo retailer Stingley believes Cab Franc has the chops to become our state's flagship. And he's organizing a one-of-a-kind event to help make it happen.

MichWine Classics

Ode to the Leelanau Winemaking pioneer Larry Mawby pens a poem about his home

The South Will Rise! Wyncroft's Jim Lester likes his region's future