Consumers have spoken and Almaden Vineyards is an overwhelming top choice. Awarded the distinctive Platinum medal, Almaden Vineyards Mountain California Rhine was a clear winner at the annual Consumer Wine Awards last month where only twenty wines out of nearly seven hundred received platinum medals. The results were released this week by competition directors Tim Hanni, M.W., and G. C. "Pooch" Pucilowski.
"At Almaden, we strive to make great quality, approachable wines that offer value to todays consumer," said Almaden winemaker Mike Donich. "It's great to get confirmation of our success in this endeavor from a panel of trained judges." The judges were consumers trained by experts and selected for palatal preferences based on The New Wine Fundamentals Program created by Hanni that focuses on wine perceptions, preferences and values. According to Hanni, The judges assessing each category of wines are the very consumers who are most inclined to buy and enjoy the wines of that category. Everyone has a different palate. The real winner of the Consumer Wine Awards is the consumer who can be confident and passionate about the wines they truly enjoy instead of relying on some experts opinion.
Almaden Mountain Rhine is a California wine with floral aromas and a fresh, crisp finish. It comes in an innovative, vacuum-sealed Bag-In-Box (BIB) Wine System to ensure that the wine will stay fresh for at least six weeks after opening. BIBs offer fresh wine from the first to the last glass and are better for the environment. Bag-In-Box packaging requires far less energy to produce, ship and display than the heavy glass bottles that they replace with 85% less packaging waste and a 55% lower carbon footprint than heavyweight glass containers. Almaden is produced by The Wine Group, second largest winery in the United States and the worlds most cost and carbon efficient vintner.
In addition to the Platinum earned by the Mountain Rhine, the Merlot received a Gold award, and five other Almaden winesChardonnay, Burgundy, Moscato, Chablis and Pinot Grigiowere awarded silver medals.
This is the second year for the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, and the fifth year of a series of tasting events designed to refine and improve the consumer wine evaluation process, stated Hanni. Executed by Diversity Wine Awards LLC, in partnership with the Lodi Tokay Rotary Club, proceeds from the event are used by the Rotary to fund local and international service projects.
About Almaden
In 1852, founder Etienne The
