Meet the Year’s Winning Wine
After sweeping a California wine challenge, this Sonoma County label should find a place on your must-try list
The annual Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge wrapped up last month, scoring over a thousand entries from wineries in Northern California wine country, including wineries in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties.
This year’s competition judges say they tasted more reds than ever before, including varietals less common to the local terroir, like Lagrein, Barbera, and Tannat. Another pleasant surprise? Sweeping success from a family-owned winery, which took home gold in three categories, including the competition-wide Best of the Best.
Kokomo Winery’s 2016 Pinot Noir, which also earned Best of Show Red and Best of Sonoma County, won a perfect 100 out of 100 score, the first ever in the competition’s six years.Founder and winemaker Erik Miller (pictured above), who runs the winery with grower Randy Peters, moved west from Indiana to establish roots in beautiful Sonoma County. After leaving his job in finance, he took up an internship at Belvedere Winery, and fell in love with winemaking.
“After the first harvest, I knew the corporate ladder wasn’t for me, and I decided to take on oenology,” he laughs.Soon after, he began his own winemaking venture, naming it after his blue collar hometown of Kokomo, IN. The rest is history.