PENDLETON — A local team beat Argentina in December at one of the world’s most prestigious competitions.

Argentina is famous for its malbec wine, but Pendleton’s Cerebella Winery scored decisively at the 2023 San Francisco International Wine Competition.

“I believe there were submissions from almost all the wine countries in the world,” said Michele Metcalf, general manager at Cerebella. “It is the most well-known wine competition in the world. For instance, our 2019 malbec, took the Best of Class Double Gold, beating out multiple malbecs from Argentina.”

Metcalf said it wasn’t any strategic plan to defeat wineries in Argentina that resulted in the victory.

“We didn’t go into planning for it,” Metcalf said. “There are so many things that make up a good wine, and the grapes from that 2019 malbec came from FireThorn Vineyard in Echo. So they’re very local — all the grapes came from the closest vineyard to us. A good vintage is a combination of the conditions that year, and the winemaker. There’s so many things that go into that particular vintage being great.”

Forbes Magazine published a scorecard for the San Francisco competition, quoting the judges as determining the Cerebella 2019 malbec as having, “Great fruit, including cherries and blackberries, with lovely aromatics that lead to a juicy middle and a really nice finish. The oaky and well-balanced characteristics further enhance the wine, creating a delightful expression of this varietal.”

Metcalf said Cerebella winemaker and owner Robb Zimmel relies on a group of informal consultants to help him with product development.

“Just having people taste them helps make sure they’re what we want them to be, and we make minor adjustments as needed,” Metcalf said. “Robb’s philosophy is he doesn’t make the wine based on his personal preference and taste, he makes it based on the consumer preference and taste of our specific little consumer group, our wine club members, our local community. So we have a lot of input from the people who like our wine and buy our wine.”

But how is it possible a vineyard in Echo might be causing competitive angst among the growers in Argentina?

“The Columbia Valley is well known for their red varietals,” Metcalf said. “… It’s an American Viticultural Area that is partly in Oregon and partly in Washington, divided by the Columbia River, even though the river obviously is a little bit further away. It’s still part of the Columbia Valley, well-known for red grapes.”

Two other wines from Oregon also earned double gold in the competition. Metcalf said since the winery’s success in San Francisco, there has been an uptick in orders and name recognition. “I don’t know the actual percentage,” Metcalf said. “We’ve had an increase not just in sales of that particular varietal but also an increase in people interested in the winery and reaching out.”

Metcalf said a not-so-welcome indication of the winery’s success is a lot more spam in her email inbox.

She said the award helps media-wise and in receiving accolades from the winemaking peer group.

“It’s exciting and a considerable surprise and we feel as if maybe we got pushed a little further into the fray than we were ready for, even though we’re excited about it,” Metcalf said.

The winery has 12 varietals at the moment, including the successful 2019 malbec, as well as malbecs from 2016 and 2017. Cerebella also has a blend it calls Jackson Sundown, named for the American Indian rodeo rider who gave a legendary performance in the 1916 Pendleton Round-Up.

If You Go

Cerebella Winery is at 30 SW Emigrant Ave., Pendleton.

The business is open Monday through Thursday noon to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday noon to 8 p.m. At the beginning or middle of May, Cerebella could expand its hours to close at 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday as well.