While commercial vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding areas are creating fine vintages, home winemakers are following suit.

More than 70 entries in the Santa Barbara County Fair's contest for homemade wines will be on display during the fair, which opens today at the Santa Maria Fairpark, 937 S. Thornburg.

Taking “Best of Show” this year were Gary and Diane Smith of Arroyo Grande, with a 2004 Syrah made with grapes from Barnwood Vineyards, situated on the eastern border of Santa Barbara County in the Sierra Madre mountain range.

“Making your own wine is a way of life,” insisted Gary Smith, a general contractor and owner of CTM Construction in Arroyo Grande.

For Joe Whalley, a longtime home vintner from Lompoc, it was an off-year at the fair. Whalley won bronze medals for his blackberry and sauvignon blanc wines, but he's accustomed to doing even better.

In about a dozen years of competing at the fair, Whalley has received about 35 ribbons and nine medals. The fair has awarded medals in only the past few years, and already he has six golds. Most of those are for his specialty, pomegranate wine, a product he has been perfecting for three decades. He uses a press to remove the abundance of seeds.

No, he has no plans to go commercial.

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“I'm strictly an amateur,” Whalley said. “I make five gallons at a time, every wine I make. Some of the people in the wine club make a barrel at a time.”

The Smiths of Arroyo Grande also won a gold medal for a 2004 Zinfandel made from grapes from Dusi Vineyard, southwest of Paso Robles, and two bronze medals for their 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2005 Pinot Gris.

He and his wife, Diane, a bookkeeper for John Deere in Santa Maria, joined the Central Coast Home Vintners' Association in 1998 after attending a barbecue social. That first year they bought several hundred dollars worth of wine, read lots of books and when they were finished, months later, they threw everything away. The next year, with a little help from friends, they tried again, but still did not drink their product.

“It wasn't until the third year, with lots of interaction from association members, that we were able to make a wine that we were happy to keep and share with our friends,” Diane explained.

The busiest time of year is just after harvest. The Smiths select more than 1,000 pounds of grapes from various vineyards in the region and then meet with friends to make their wines. “We select about 12 varietals and make over a dozen different wines each year,” Gary said.

“We crush the grapes and then let them ferment, then press off the juice, and they finish fermenting in large glass jars,” he explained. Then the wine goes into oak barrels for a year or more. The Smiths keep checking the acidity of the wine, topping it off as needed because of evaporation.

This year's “Best of Show” winner was actually a group effort, Gary said. Others involved with producing the winning wine include Hank Rickett of Santa Maria and John Thunen of Nipomo.

“We've learned that it's all about teamwork,” Diane added.

Home winemaking has become more popular thanks to technology, according to Linda Thunen of the vintners association, who is also superintendent of the competition. She and her husband have been making wine in their garage for years.

Sponsored by the fair and the vintners association, the competition was open to anyone who wanted to submit an entry, including members of the association, which was started in 1991 by Robert Weldon of Santa Maria, she said.

“Home winemakers are really getting good at what they do,” she said. Many of this year's entries were excellent, and far better than entries in the first years of the contest, she added.

Other winners included Hank and Linda Rickett, Steven Rau, Ron Redman, Mary Michael and Jim Ford, all of Santa Maria; James Moore of Santa Ynez; Ron Carrari and Bill Rose of Los Alamos; Allen Pacela and Charles Liatsos of Solvang; Paul Hohe of Orcutt; John and Linda Thunen, and Ray McMahon, all of Nipomo; Joe Whalley, Lompoc; Maria Goldman, Cameron Farquhar and Donald Hayes, all of Atascadero; Christopher Costello, Goleta; and Kenneth Mapes, Temecula.

Local wineries also won top honors at the fair in this year's competition for commercial wines, including best of show in both red and white wine categories.

Byron Vineyard won the best of show in the red wine category with its 2003 Pinot Noir. Costa de Oro took top honors in the white wine category with its 2003 Chardonnay. Double Gold winners included Addamo Vineyards 2004 Chardonnay, Rancho Sisquoc Winery 2003 Syrah, and Curtis Winery 2003 Rhone blend.

Out of 171 commercial submissions, all from wineries in Santa Barbara County, 130 medals were awarded.

Irene Jones can be reached at 739-2215 or ijones@lompocrecord.com.

July 12, 2006