$12.99 Monterra Wines Named Best in U.S.! Winery Awarded ``U.S. Wine Producer of the Year'' At Top International Competition.

Food Writers

NAPA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2002

When you think of America's best wines, do you think of $100 wines from the Napa Valley? Guess again. According to some of the world's leading wine experts, the best American wines come from the Monterra winery in Monterey County, California and sell for under $13 a bottle.

Monterra has been named "United States Wine Producer of the Year" by an international panel of wine connoisseurs and judges, winning the top award over thousands of entries, some costing more than $50 a bottle. And the victory is no fluke. Last year, Monterra's sister winery Delicato Family Vineyards also won "U.S. Wine Producer of the Year" honors.

The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) is one of the oldest and most prestigious of all international wine competitions. IWSC judging panels include Masters of Wine, winery owners, and members of the wine trade who taste and compare entries "blind," that is, with labels hidden. More than 2000 entries from virtually every wine producing country in the world were judged during the 2002 competition.

The International Wine and Spirit Competition is the only wine competition that submits entries through a two-step judging process of professional blind tasting and extensive chemical analysis. Entries are judged in award categories divided by variety, region and vintage.

"This is a tremendously flattering victory for us," says Eric Morham, President and CEO, "because the wines at the IWSC are judged on wine quality alone, not on what you put on the label. When it comes to wine quality, we have beaten all comers, two years in a row."

Runners up for the 2002 U.S. Wine Producer of the Year trophy included Ernest & Julio Gallo, Justin Vineyards and Winery, Swanson Vineyards and Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates.

Monterra Winery is located in Delicato's San Bernabe estate vineyard in southern Monterey County, California. Here, the winery crushes and vinifies more Monterey grapes than any other winery. The internationally distributed Monterra brand, Delicato's new Encore by Monterra and Delicato Monterey Vine Select wines are all produced at this winery from Monterey county fruit.

For more than 75 years, the Indelicato family has been growing fine wine grapes while assembling a portfolio of world-class estate vineyards. Today, the winery harvests more than 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of vineyards across the top regions of California including the San Bernabe Vineyard in Monterey, California, the most diverse single vineyard in the world and Clay Station, in the rolling foothills east of Lodi, California.