Tahoe Ridge Winery wins big at California State Fair

Tahoe Ridge Winery won two bronze medals for their 2006 cabernet sauvignon and 2006 reserve petite sirah at this year's California State Fair.

The competition is the oldest and largest wine competition in the country, dating back to the 1850s. More than 600 wineries submitted more than 3,000 wines for judging.

Up until this year, wines were submitted to the competition from California wineries only. Tahoe Ridge Winery has submitted requests to the state fair chief judge for the past four years to allow the entry of wines from outside California as long as the wines contained a minimum of 75 percent California fruit.

In February, Tahoe Ridge Winery was notified that the chief judge would allow entries from Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.

"It is a true honor for Tahoe Ridge Winery to be represented up against some of the top wines in the world and be awarded a medal for our efforts," said Tahoe Ridge owner Rick Halbardier. "Once again, my thanks goes out to the hard working and dedicated staff, the investors, the growers and the customers who continue to purchase all the great Tahoe Ridge wines. This brings our medal count to 14 medals for the 2009 season."

The other competition Tahoe Ridge is awaiting the results of is the Orange County Wine Society Wine Competition in Southern California. The competition is similar to the state fair in that Tahoe Ridge Winery had to petition the Orange County Wine Society to allow wines from outside California to enter the competition. Permission was granted in April for wineries from Nevada to enter the competition as long as the entries included a minimum of 75 percent California grapes.

For the past 15 years, Tahoe Ridge Winery and the Nevada Wine and Grape Growers Association has hosted the Nevada State Fair Amateur Wine Competition in August. The company is looking to develop the competition into a commercial wine competition by 2011 to support the developing Nevada wine industry.

For more information, visit www.tahoeridge.com.