MENLO PARK, Calif.--For decades, Sunset Magazine has held the franchise as the authoritative publication for "Western Living." It celebrated the shared culture of a civilized California, Oregon, Washington, as contrasted with the more sedate notion of "Southern Living" (which had its own magazine, copied from Sunset), alongside other regional lifestyle books like Arizona Highways. Five million copies in the print edition, another million readers online. Lane Publishing ran it as a family fiefdom on land granted to the governor of "Spanish California" until TimeWarner gobbled it up.
From the low-slung headquarters complex in this well-kept community, Sunset's editors dispensed kitchen recipes, advice on home decor, and calendars for Western gardens long before slick city magazines came onto the scene providing similar, but more localized counsel (and more localized advertisements). The challenge facing Sunset was to leverage its century of tradition and stockpile of goodwill beyond the staples of "Summer Barbecue" and "Perfect Primroses."
The answer, no surprise, was wine. And not just "10 best Zins with Tri-Tip" but serious wine competitions. Who else but Sunset would have the clout to command the three essentials: wineries entering their best bottles; a respected panel of judges; and the platform to publicize the results.
For the past several years, Sunset's competition has involved a couple of dozen judges and wines from California, by invitation. This year, for the first time, the magazine has dramatically escalated the stakes. After all, Sunset readers drink 9 million glasses of domestic wine a week, and almost 2 million more glasses of "international" wines. For wineries, that's a huge market.
The wineries seem to agree. The number of entries has gone from 500 to about 3,000. To wrangle them, some 50 judges (drawn from the ranks of wine makers, sommeliers, wine educators, and journalists) will march (sip, & spit) to the orders of Rebecca Murphy, a Seattle resident who's been doing this for years at the Dallas Morning News competition.
Seattle is well-represented. Nelson Daquip of Canlis and Dawn Smith of Cafe Juanita are here, along with Bob Betz of Betz Family Winery. Yours truly as well, aiming the Sony at anything pink. Sunday night's dinner was a "get acquainted" event; that's Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser in the photo, with a magnum of gris de gris from the Languedoc. The serious work starts in the morning.
UPDATE July 25th, 2012: Results are in. Link is at https://www.enofileonline.com
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