CLEVELAND — A group of Ohio wine lovers is being recognized for its good taste. That is, good tasting wine. 

The North Coast Wine Club is among four Northeast Ohio wineries honored by this year’s San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition. 

Tom Radu is a founder of the club. He has a taste for fine wine and started making his own at home. That’s when he realized something.

“There’s no fun in drinking good wine by yourself, you need someone to share it with,” he said. “So, that’s what we do.”

The club was launched as a social community centered around one thing.

“That’s that they’re interested in drinking, making and enjoying fine wines,” he said. 

The camaraderie is what attracted Lorrie Sinkhorn to check out the club for the first time. 

“Because you can talk wine and you understand each other’s language,” she said. 

But more than talking wine, there’s drinking wine. And members like Paul Chudzinski pour themselves into the production of each variety. 

“We make really good wine so that’s pretty much what kept me here,” he said.

The winemaking process is led by trained enologist Dave Sabo. He said he has a nose for it.

“You have (to have) a good sniffer,” he said. “You gotta be able to smell.”

In a back room at the club’s headquarters in Solon, French oak barrels from Napa Valley are waiting to be bottled. 

“I’ll tell you a future award winner, right here, got two barrels of the appassimento,” Sabo said. 

But judges in the San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition are already recognizing the club as a winner. They honored their red blend with a silver prize and their pinot noir ranked at the bronze-level this year. 

“These are professional judges,” Sabo said “It’s not some schmo off the street saying, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a good wine.’”

Last year, was the first time the club submitted wines for judging and they received the top ranking of double gold for a blend they call Gratify.

“That’s like the Super Bowl,” Sabo said. “That’s like the big deal.”

While the club is drinking in the success of their wines, the awards aren’t everything. 

“It’s icing on the cake,” Radu said. “And, hopefully, what it will do, it will open up the rest of the world to us.”

And have more people raising a glass to appreciate the finer things in life.

The North Coast Wine Club is open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. You don’t have to be a member to purchase or sample their wines.