Italy, Spain Rope Winners In Houston

Wake-up call? Reality check? Whatever. The prolonged sweepstakes round at Rodeo Uncorked yesterday ended with a sweep of the top honors by European wines, breaking the hold California has had on the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo commercial wine competition since its inception eight years ago.

The Grand Champion is the Marchese Antinori 2007 Bolgheri Superiore Guada al Tasso, a "SuperTuscan" blend from the Antinori family's estate on the Tuscan coast southwest of Florence. Though it's an Italian wine, the grapes that went into it historically have been most closely identified with France. It consists of 57 percent cabernet sauvignon, 30 percent merlot, 10 percent cabernet franc and 3 percent petit verdot. It had been grouped in the class called "Old World Bordeaux Blends," and was one of 58 wines to be nominated for the competition's highest honors. It got my vote as for both best red wine and Grand Champion on the strength of its graceful opulence, complexity, freshness and length. Though from Italy - something we didn't know - it defined Bordeaux for the lushness of its cherry fruit and its suggestion of underlying olives and herbs. It also carries a Bordeaux price tag, customarily selling for between $70 and $125. The Antinoris did well in Houston. The Antinori Cervaro della Sala 2009 Castello della Sala from Umbria was declared the best white wine in the judging. It's a chardonnay very much in the California style - deeply colored, thick in body, buttery in texture and tasting of ripe cirtric fruit with notes of lemon verbena.

The Reserve Grand Champion - basically, the runnerup - is a Spanish wine, the Cellers Costers del Ros 2004 Priorat L'Obila, another blend with French breeding. The wine is made largely with grenache, but it also includes cabernet sauvignon and carignan. It's inky and firm, but with a fruitiness that shared with the Guado al Tasso lushness and approachability.

Until this year, California wines pretty much dominated the Houston competition, winning the Grand Championship since the judging's inception in 2003. The winner usually was a cabernet sauvignon or a blend based on cabernet sauvignon. That preference among judges continued this year, except that the winning cabernet is from Italy rather than California.

Competition in Houston was stiffer this year. A record 2,444 wines were evaluated, a 40 percent increase over last year's total. Organizers attributed the rise to their efforts to personally contact and cajole distributors into entering more wines. (To qualify for the judging, wines must be available in Texas.)

Next spring, during the month-long run of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, a wine auction will be held, during which a 9-liter bottle of the Grand Champion wine will be up for bid. Last fall's Grand Champion wine, the Alexander Valley Vineyards 2006 Cyrus from Sonoma County fetched $210,000 at the auction. Overall, wine events of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo raised $1.3 million, which underwrite schoolarships for college students studying agricultural subjects.

Califonia wines weren't entirely shut out from high honors. The award for best red wine went to the aptly named Niner Wine Estate 2008 Paso Robles Twisted Spur, a richly textured blend of grape varieties traditionally associated with France's Bordeaux and Rhone Valley regions. For the award, the winery gets chaps. The wineries that produced the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion get saddles.