First-Time Winemaker Wins At America's Largest Wine Competition - 2006 Caliza Syrah Wins Sweepstakes Award at SF Chronicle Wine Competition

PASO ROBLES, CA – January 27, 2009 – Caliza Winery and winemaker/owner Carl Bowker is pleased to announce that the 2006 Caliza Syrah won Best of Class in the Syrah category and won the Sweepstakes Award for Best Red Wine overall in The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. What makes this accolade even more extraordinary is that this is Bowker's first release.

The announcement of the winners of the SF Chronicle Wine Competition was released recently. This is America's largest wine competition with over 4,000 entries from around the world. Bowker entered the Caliza Syrah in the competition last December and had essentially forgotten about it until receiving phone calls telling him he had won. "I got a few congratulatory calls from friends but I really couldn't comprehend what they were talking about" said Bowker. "I knew we had entered the competition, but at best we were hoping for a little recognition. Nothing of this magnitude even entered my mind – I was literally blown away!"

The wining wine is their 2006 Syrah. Sourced mainly from the Russell Family vineyard, the grapes were hand-harvested on Sep. 14, 2006, gently de-stemmed on a EuroSelect by Scharfenberger. After fermentation the wine spent 18 months in 50% new French Oak barrels from five different artisan coopers before bottling. 200 cases were produced, and the wine is available direct from the winery at a suggested retail price of $45 per bottle

Carl, a successful convention show contractor, and his wife Pam considered growing grapes and opening a winery after a trip to the Italian and French wine country several years back. It was then that they fell in love with the lifestyle and scenery. A few years later they decided to make the dream a reality. They travelled extensively from their home base in San Mateo, CA looking for a California vineyard and winery location that would enable them to bring their fantasy to life. They found their dream property in the Templeton Gap sub-AVA in Paso Robles, about a 3 hour drive from San Francisco. With the help of local winemakers, Scott Hawley, Eric Jensen and Erich Russell, Carl set out to craft his wines. A six year project in the making, Caliza Winery consists of two separate vineyards totaling 20 acres and an intimate tasting room that opened on Thanksgiving of 2008.

About Caliza Winery
Caliza Winery is a boutique family winery specializing in small lots of high quality red and white Rhône-styled wines. The new tasting room is open to visitors from 11AM to 4:30PM Friday – Sunday and by appointment. You can purchase Caliza wines and join their wine club at their tasting room (2570 Anderson Road, Paso Robles, CA 93446 PH: 805-237-1480), or on their website at http://www.CalizaWinery.com .

Contact:
Scot Burns
Redbarn Marketing
PH: 805.748 5997
scot@rebarnmark.com
http://www.RedbarnMark.com

If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Carl Bowker, please contact Scot Burns at (805) 748 5997 or via email at scot@redbarnmark.com.