Wine Awards & Accolades 
With 5,816 wine entries from nearly 1,000 wineries, the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is one of the most highly respected wine competitions in North America. And the participation is wide-ranging: this year everyone from small micro-wineries to large-scale suppliers sent in entries. The wines were tasted by over 40 experienced judges from various areas of expertise, then narrowed down to the exclusive few who entered the winner’s circle.
La Chertosa Gold Medal winners include our 2018 Fra Paolo Reserve Zinfandel and our 2019 Don Silvio Reserve Sangiovese. Both wines were produced from grapes grown in the Sonoma Valley. This is our first Gold Medal for the 2019 vintage of Reserve Sangiovese, and the 22nd overall for this varietal. It’s the third Gold Medal for the 2018 vintage of Reserve Zinfandel, and 16th overall for this varietal.
La Chertosa Wines was founded in 2014 by Sonoma winemaking legend and family patriarch Sam Sebastiani. Our wines, which we describe as “Old World,” are produced primarily from grapes grown in Tuscan series red soils and aged in oak barrels. Like many fine European wines, these are balanced, expressive, and deliciously enhance the foods they are paired with.
“Recognition and acclaim from the top judgings year after year validate our preference and history with red-soil wine growing,” Sam remarked.
“Many of the top old-world European wines, whether from Italy or France, have two factors in common: long-established vineyards and great winegrowing red soil,” he added. “Whether it is Cherry Block at Sebastiani, or Wildwood Vineyards or Serres Ranch, we have held true to our Italian heritage by selecting vineyards planted in the most valuable soils. Thanks to my six decades of selecting the best locations, La Chertosa wines are the offspring of superbly cultured vineyard sites. And their taste shows it.”
In looking over our latest awards, we began wondering just how many medals we had received over the years, so we checked—and were happily surprised by the total! Since 2014, we have won the following awards:
- 4 Double Gold Medals
- 2 Platinum Awards
- 11 “Best of” Awards
- 75 Gold Medals
- 112 Silver Medals
- 47 Bronze Medals
- 251 Total Medals and Awards
Not bad for a “Micro” winery, eh?!