One of the country's largest wine competitions took place recently in California. The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition had nearly 7000 entries from over 1400 US wineries. This competition is all about consumers. Wines are judged on taste, price, availability and consistency. If you're looking for new labels, varietals and styles for the new year it's worth taking a closer look at the wines that took top honors. Familiar names like Korbel, Hanna and even an ice wine from national restaurant/winery Coopers Hawk are on that list. See the entire list of winners at www.winejudging.com

Another crowd pleaser is the new Apothic Inferno which received rave reviews from a group of friends and colleagues at a New Years Eve gathering. The plush red blend is aged in whiskey barrels which adds tantalizing and subtle notes of caramel and vanilla that add more of a richness than sweetness to the tooth purpling dry red. Enough chewy tannins balance it out and make it a terrific bottle for grilled burgers, steaks or meat topped pizza. The Apothic line of wines are all easy drinkers, affordable and available at local grocery stores.