Good Harbor Vineyards Strikes Gold at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

Good Harbor Vineyards is bringing home the gold once again from the annual San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Before we get into our specific wines that brought home the gold, we’d like to share a little history about this long running competition and the significance of the accolades received.  

The competition was founded in 1983 and was originally named the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition. It kept this name until it entered a title naming sponsorship agreement with the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper in 2000. This is when the competition was renamed the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. 

Six years after the renaming, more than 900 wineries across the United State entered a record breaking 3,318 entries. It has since then become the largest wine competition of American wines in the world. The 2024 competition saw more than 5,500 entries from over 1,000 wineries.

Bringing home the gold this year are the Blanc de Blanc, Blanc de Noirs, 2022 Pinot Grigio, 2021 Dry Riesling, and 2022 Late Harvest Riesling. We were also awarded two silver medals for our 2021 Pinot Noir-Zweigelt and 2022 Unoaked Chardonnay.

Both our Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noirs are part of our John W. Simpson Sparkling Series. When making all of our sparkling wines, our winemaking team uses the Charmat method, which helps maintain a bright fresh palate. Our production team is able to push the boundary when it comes to the ripeness of the fruit and allows it to benefit from the way the effervescence lifts the higher aromatics.

If you are a Chardonnay fan, you will enjoy the Blanc de Blanc, which is produced from 100% Chardonnay. While enjoying a glass of this bubbly, your tastebuds will experience flavors of apple and pear from the first sip to the very last drop. 

The Blanc de Noirs is produced from 100% Pinot Noir. This wine has richer and more complex flavors imparted from use of the Pinot Noir grape.  Big lush apple and candied cherries work in harmony on the palate. 

Both of these longtime, popular members of our sparkling family have won several awards from national and international wine competitions - including the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, TEXSOM Awards, and the Jefferson Cup International Wine Invitational. They have also received high scores from Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast, both are  well-known international wine publications.

In recent years, our Pinot Grigio has been dubbed ‘Michigan’s Pinot Grigio’ after being recognized multiple times by VinePair. Good Harbor Vineyards has one of the largest plantings of this delicious grape variety within the state of Michigan. Our vineyard team crops our fruit at a low tonnage per acre which allows rich, intense fruit flavors in the final product. 

The 2022 Pinot Grigio has aromas of ripe pear and lemon rind that can be experienced during the first few swirls around the glass. If you let it linger a little longer, you will be able to pick up hints of the mineral components from the vineyard soil in which it grows. 

In addition to the recognition by VinePair, the Pinot Grigio has received high scores from well-known wine reviewers including The Wine Advocate Robert Parker, Wine & Spirits Magazine, and Decanter.

Riesling is a grape variety that grows around the world but is one of the varieties that thrives across the state of Michigan - especially Northern Michigan. This variety is one that produces lovely stonefruit aromatics and maintains high levels of acid. Our 2021 Dry Riesling has aromatic notes of white peach and apple. When enjoying it, your palate will encounter limestone and bright crisp apple.