photo credit: Tina Caputo
Judges voting at the 2025 North Boast Wine Challenge.

At the Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge last week, 33 judges gathered at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to taste and evaluate more than 1,100 wines.

Judges included local winemakers, retail and restaurant wine buyers, and wine journalists.

More than 200 local winemakers entered the 2025 competition in the hopes of scoring a gold medal, or maybe even the top award: “The Best of the Best.”

According to head judge Daryl Groom of Groom Wines, the bar is especially high for this competition because the North Coast region’s diverse climate allows lots of different grape varieties to thrive.

“Such diversity and high quality,” Groom said. “It attracts the best winemakers in the world.”

This year, Groom noted, the contest featured some new wine categories that reflect current trends in the market. Nouveau reds—young red wines generally made without oak—have become popular with consumers, he said, along with orange wines, which are white wines fermented on their skins.

To evaluate the wines, judging panels tasted flights of wines by varietal or category without knowing the producer, the price, or the appellation. Each judge ranked the wines, then the panels compared notes

to determine a final award of bronze, silver, gold, or no award.

“I think what I look for most is whether or not the wine is truly well-made and classic in style and varietally correct,” said Jennifer “JB” Kelly, the head of sales and marketing at Luxury Wine Partners. “There's this little magic moment when you're tasting the wine that you just go, ‘A-ha!’… This is the one.’”

As a veteran wine judge, Kelly has some “pro tips” for tasting over 100 wines in one day. She said she starts by hydrating like crazy the day before the competition.

“The core of judging wine is making sure that you're spitting and you're refreshing your palate every category,” Kelly said. “Keeping your palate fresh, getting up and walking around when you need to, and just kind of mentally preparing for the whole process.”

To prevent palate fatigue, Kelly said, she sips peppermint tea between flights. She jokes that prepping for a wine judging is similar to training for an athletic event.

“I mean, it's a competition,” Kelly said. “You’ve got to!”

On the second day of judging, panelists reconvened for a final sweepstakes round to vote on the top red, white, rose and sparkling wines—along with the Best of the Best.

Judge Matt Duffy, the owner and winemaker at Vaughn Duffy Wines in Kenwood, said taking the top prize isn’t just about bragging rights. In 2023, his Pinot Noir won the “Best of the Best” award,  beating over a thousand other wines for the title.

“It overnight changed our winery,” Duffy said. “We were very under the radar at that time, and suddenly we were on the front page of the Press Democrat and had people waiting at our tasting room for us to open the next day.”

This year, the Best of the Best honor went to the 2021 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon from Fortunati Vineyards in Napa Valley.

Wine lovers will have a chance to taste the wine, and all of the gold medal winners, on June 14 at the North Coast Wine & Food Festival in Santa Rosa.