About 60 people — including friends and family of the finalists and distributors of Sutter Home wines — sampled the creations while a quintet of judges asked questions and tallied the scores.

Rising labels like Seaglass, Sycamore Lane, and Fre are driving progress for 16-million-case California wine player Trinchero Family Estates. While the company’s top-selling brands like Sutter Home, ...