Welcoming Judges Dinner at 5th Annual Foothill Wine Fest Competition
Started out the competition with a judges’ dinner held at IL Forno Classico in Rancho Cordova. Il Forno is a family run business initially operating in the Historic Folsom in 1985. Besides the restaurant at Gold River, they offer a private dining room and wine room and shop. The fully stocked wine store houses about 600 different wine labels. They offer their wines at competitive prices to enjoy with dinner or even take home a unique offering. Their pricing is extremely competitive and offers to match any wine list price for the same wine and vintage. Year after year they have attained the Wine Spectator Award for friendly wines pricing.
Scott Litteral is the owner and pictured below is Scott with his family. Scott is also one of the judges at the Folsom Wine Festival Competition. He personally has tasted all the wines in the cellar being offered. He also mentioned that he has more rare and expensive wines stored on the premises “out of sight” and under lock and key!
The restaurant specializes in fresh seafood, angus steaks, New Zealand Lamb, sauteed pastas, crafted sandwiches and the finest hand-tossed pizzas.
Picture from Il Forno website
The evening started off with each judge bringing a bottle or two of wine to share at the table with fellow judges. You know you are going to be in for a treat when wine judges bring in their selection of wines!
Each judge brought a unique and older vintage of wine. For example, below are a picture of only two of the 20+ wines shared: a 1986 Inglenook Estate Reserved Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2020 Carmignano DOCG (super Tuscan).
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Other wines, too numerous to enumerate, included a 2013 Smith-Madrone Reisling, 2019 Cuda Ridge Carmenere, 2018 Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon, even a homemade wine and on and on.
Coleen Schwieter, Foothill Wine Competition Coordinator, gave a welcoming speech noting that 480 wines were submitted this year from 78 wineries in the Sierra foothill counties. This was a sizeable increase from the previous year of 350 wines. Coleen mentioned the competition is supported by the Folsom Chamber of Commerice and extremely appreciated! She also provided an outline of the events for the next two days regarding logistics and introduced Scott Litteral.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The menu this evening included a choice of either Cesar Salad or Mixed Baby Greens. Below is a picture of the Cesar salad with hearts of Romaine, rosemary croutons, shaved parmesan and Caesar dressing. I chose the Caesar salad:
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Next up was a choice of Naughty Pasta (too long a description but very tempting), Seafood Risotto tossed with salmon, snapper, shrimp, spinach, Chardonnay-lobster sauce, fresh tomatoes, Chicken Parmigiana lightly breaded, baked with marinara and mozzarella, served over spaghetti, Oven roasted Salmon filet with garlic herb compound butter, lemon risotto and sautéed broccoli, and the last option was Grilled Angus Filet Mignon with brandy cream green peppercorn sauce, roasted Yukon gold potatoes and sauteed haricot verts. Many of us chose the Angus Filet Mignon:
Photo ©Michael Kelly
If all these delicious dishes didn’t fill you up, the desserts were beyond decadent! Not only in taste but in size/portions! The choices were Tiramisu, Chocolate cake, Crème Brulee or Toffee Cheesecake. I left the full-size dinner spoon for a reference:
Photos ©Michael Kelly
I think just about everyone took home a portion of their dessert as it could not be consumed after such a filling and wonderful meal.
We all hopped on the shuttle vans that they so graciously provided and headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest for the opening round of wine judging.
Thanks, Scott, for providing such a wonderful venue and delicious food. If you are ever in Rancho Cordova area, this is a stop worthy of your time and consideration.
Picture of Scott Litteral Photo ©Michael Kelly
A special shout out to Coleen Schwieter for all the coordination and logistics for the evening and the upcoming days. Pictured below is Coleen and her husband Randy.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
As you can see in the pictures everyone enjoyed the time socializing, sharing stories and enjoying the evening. Below are Tom (judge) and Wendy Bender from Sonora who were enjoying the festivities:
Photo ©Michael Kelly
While enjoying the evening it was also an opportunity for the judges to say hello to each other as we typically see each other at various events during the year. It is also an opportunity to meet new judges that we may not have spent time with previously. Below are judges (L to R), Lisa Gomez (The Vine), Carrie Boyle (Vintage Wine Marketing, River City Wine, writer) and Lori Alaniz (Sheldon Wine & Spirits Shop):
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Sláinte or perhaps better yet for this venue, salute!
Michael Kelly
https://californiawinesandwineries.com
September 16, 2025 at 8:13 pm
Dear Michael,
Thank you so much for taking your time to write such a wonderful review of the evening. It was truly our pleasure to host such a fun event. I hope we will get the chance to be a judge next year and host the event again. Maybe we can meet up at the actual wine event that we were the judges for. Take care, Scott