San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Competition’s 20th anniversary celebrates ‘camaraderie,’ volunteers, sponsors
The March 7, 2001 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle is faded now and crinkly. “In 1982,” the article reads, “two wine industry insiders sat down over a glass of Zinfandel and laid plans for the first Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition the following year.”
The story goes on to announce a name change, as Cloverdale Citrus Fair had just “collaborated with the San Francisco Chronicle to conduct the largest Northern California Wine Competition.”
What a remarkable time it has been, as the nonprofit San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition now enters its second decade, furthering the Cloverdale legacy born 37 years ago.
As the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition celebrates its 20th anniversary, the sheer numbers have grown: from 25 judges in 2001, to 66 national talents now. From 981 medals awarded among 240 regional wineries then, to 6,211 awarded among more than 1,000 North American wineries this year.
And at the public tasting on
Feb. 15 at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion, guests will be able to taste more than 1,500 SFCWC gold medal winners alone, as well as many winning wines in other categories.
Wine expert Pat Henderson has had a front row seat to the competition’s evolution, as one of the original Cloverdale judges and a current judge for this 2020 season.
“I have not kept count, but I think that I have been a judge at least 20 times — I have had to miss a few over the years due to conflicts with my work schedule,” he said.
For the 2001 judging, Henderson was the winemaker at Valley of the Moon Winery in Kenwood, sitting alongside notable other judges including Gina Gallo of E. & J. Gallo Winery/ Gallo Signature Series, and Wilfred Wong, then a wine buyer for Beverages & More (now BevMo!), and today chief storyteller for wine.com plus a current judge.
Now owner of a business