Almaden Mountain Rhine Earns Platinum at Consumer Wine Competition

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 14, 2011

Consumers have spoken and Almaden Vineyards is an overwhelming top choice. Awarded the distinctive Platinum medal, Almaden Vineyards Mountain California Rhine was a clear winner at the annual Consumer Wine Awards last month where only twenty wines out of nearly seven hundred received platinum medals. The results were released this week by competition directors Tim Hanni, M.W., and G. C. "Pooch" Pucilowski.

"At Almaden, we strive to make great quality, approachable wines that offer value to todays consumer," said Almaden winemaker Mike Donich. "It's great to get confirmation of our success in this endeavor from a panel of trained judges." The judges were consumers trained by experts and selected for palatal preferences based on The New Wine Fundamentals Program created by Hanni that focuses on wine perceptions, preferences and values. According to Hanni, The judges assessing each category of wines are the very consumers who are most inclined to buy and enjoy the wines of that category. Everyone has a different palate. The real winner of the Consumer Wine Awards is the consumer who can be confident and passionate about the wines they truly enjoy instead of relying on some experts opinion.

Almaden Mountain Rhine is a California wine with floral aromas and a fresh, crisp finish. It comes in an innovative, vacuum-sealed Bag-In-Box (BIB) Wine System to ensure that the wine will stay fresh for at least six weeks after opening. BIBs offer fresh wine from the first to the last glass and are better for the environment. Bag-In-Box packaging requires far less energy to produce, ship and display than the heavy glass bottles that they replace with 85% less packaging waste and a 55% lower carbon footprint than heavyweight glass containers. Almaden is produced by The Wine Group, second largest winery in the United States and the worlds most cost and carbon efficient vintner.

In addition to the Platinum earned by the Mountain Rhine, the Merlot received a Gold award, and five other Almaden winesChardonnay, Burgundy, Moscato, Chablis and Pinot Grigiowere awarded silver medals.

This is the second year for the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, and the fifth year of a series of tasting events designed to refine and improve the consumer wine evaluation process, stated Hanni. Executed by Diversity Wine Awards LLC, in partnership with the Lodi Tokay Rotary Club, proceeds from the event are used by the Rotary to fund local and international service projects.

About Almaden

In 1852, founder Etienne The

Social Venture Partners Selects Semifinalists in Social Innovation Fast Pitch Competition

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) September 24, 2011

Social Venture Partners (SVP) today announced the selection of 20 semifinalists in the next phase of the Social Innovation Fast Pitch competition (SIFP). In addition, eight high school and college teams have been selected as semifinalists in Ashoka Seattles youth category.

The competitors are vying for $ 175,000 of funding that will be awarded to those who deliver the most compelling five-minute presentations for new local non-profit programs or for-profit social businesses.

The semifinalists have advanced through a series of elimination rounds evaluating their plans and presentations in the key areas of societal impact, innovation, organizational sustainability and leadership; and of course, pitching.

The semifinalists will compete again on Wednesday, September 28th. The top 10 non-profit or for-profit presenters, as well as four youth teams, will earn the opportunity to present in a fast-pitch format on the big stage at Seattle Centers Fisher Pavilion on October 3rd in front of up to 500 attendees.

The finals event will be judged by distinguished leaders in business, investment and community affairs from the Puget Sound region. At the same time, the audience will participate through text message voting to select the most innovative program and the best pitch. Tickets are on sale now at http://sifp.net/attend , with 100% of the ticket price donated to the competing social innovators.

The purpose of SIFP is to create a forum that brings forward the most innovative social ventures and nurtures those ideas through coaching, mentoring and competition, said Will Poole, SVP lead partner and organizer of SIFP. Our semifinalists have excelled in developing and refining their social innovations throughout the competition. Congratulations to them and to all SIFP participants for their creativity, commitment and hard work to bring new ideas for social impact to our community.

Semifinal winners for non-profit programs are (more details on each at http://sifp.net/sf ):

Catholic Community Service of King County

Dynamic Partners

Family Renewal

Flash Volunteer

Get Schooled Foundation

Jolkona

Mercy Housing Northwest

Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development Village

Viva Farms

The West Seattle Tool Library

Year Up

Youth Ambassadors

Youth Suicide Prevention Program

Semifinal winners for for-profit programs are (more details on each at http://sifp.net/sf ):

FindProz, Inc.

Food N Me

Ideal Network, Inc.

ITEASi (IT Enterprise Architecture Solutions Inc)

One4All

Summit Solutions, LLC

Semifinal winners for the high school youth teams are:

SIFF: Sharing Interests Forming Friendships -- breaks social barriers between special needs students and their peers at three public high schools in the Puget Sound and is expanding every year.

Youth Ultimate Project (YUP) -- uses ultimate Frisbee to teach play, leadership and teamwork skills to disadvantaged youth in Cambodiaso far theyve funded two trips to Cambodia to run these life-changing clinics.

Yoga Empowered Students (YES) -- engages a diverse student group in ongoing yoga clinics, and engages the cohort in community building projects at Garfield High School designed at identifying and deconstructing racial barriers segmenting the student body.

MoneySense -- plans to build an interactive website and offer training clinics around educating middle school and high school students about financial literacy and the dangers of financial mismanagement.

Semifinal winners for college youth teams are:

Biodiesel Cooperative-- is a student led, student run, biodiesel conversion lab at the University of Washington, procuring used cooking oil on campus, converting it to industry-grade biodiesel and selling it back to the UW to power part of their on-campus diesel fleet.

Something Real Productions -- combats issues surrounding child soldiers in Uganda, in partnership with Invisible Children, by hosting break dancing battles around Seattle.

StudentRND -- provides a space for young people to explore, innovate, learn, and teach cutting-edge science and technology together.

Reach Out -- brings an innovative approach to day camps, providing 1:1 counselor-to-camper, week-long camps designed to change the self-impression and life-trajectory of disabled, disadvantaged, and homeless youth.

Social Innovation Fast Pitch is a program of Social Venture Partners Seattle, with the goal of increasing the speed and sustainability of social innovation in the Puget Sound region. Learn more about SIFP at http://sifp.net or about Social Venture Partners at http://svpseattle.org

SIFP Seattle 2011 is made possible by generous contributions from founding donors including Ashoka Seattle, Bezos Family Foundation, Bill and Paula Clapp, the Microsoft Alumni Foundation, and Social Venture Partners. Corporate sponsors include Aditi Technologies, Cascadia Capital, Coinstar, Davis Wright Tremaine, Duotone Audio, Fenwick and West, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Pricewaterhouse Coopers; Seattle Centers Next50, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Winshuttle.

To purchase tickets for the October 3 event, go to http://sifp.net/attend/. 100% of ticket receipts are donated to social innovators competing at the event, and the amount is partly tax deductible. Low-cost tickets are available for students with a current high school or college ID.

###

Find More College Text Press Releases