Welcome to the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

2024-02-11 -

It is exciting once again to produce the 24th annual San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and Public Tasting! We are excited to announce that the Public Tasting is returning after a three-year absence on Feb. 17 by the beautiful San Francisco Bay at Fort Mason Center.

Since January 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (SFCWC) has been a major barometer for American consumers of wines to peruse the evaluation results from our more than 50 outstanding professional judges representing wine educators, winemakers, trade, media and wine-related fields.

The SFCWC represents a Super Bowl-like opportunity for wine brands and winemakers, large and small, to present wines to a tasting palate of judges who are the best in the nation.

Now, you can taste the best of the best wine winners these judges have selected throughout North America. Enjoy!

Bob and Scott Fraser,

Executive directors

Enjoy sampling award-winning wines at the 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at Fort Mason Center. Advanced tickets are on sale at winejudging.com.

We’re so excited to return to Fort Mason to celebrate the wines that won big at this year’s San Francisco

Chronicle Wine Competition.

After a three-year hiatus, the public tasting is back — and it’s going to be better than ever.

The stories included here will give you a sense of all the behindthe-scenes work that goes into determining which wines are worthy of Chronicle Wine Competition medals. In January, over 50 wine experts gathered in Sonoma

County to taste more than 5,700 wines from all over the United

States, Canada and Mexico. It’s tough work, requiring patience, endurance and a finely tuned palate. You can get to know the stories of a few of these esteemed judges on U18. (We also had a little bit of fun. You can read about our fancy judges dinner, at Windsor’s Bricoleur Vineyards, on U22.)

By the end of the week of judging, those 5,700 wines were whittled down to the best of the best. Those are the bottles we’ll be pouring at Fort Mason on Feb. 17 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. I’ll be in attendance, raising a glass to the ever-rising quality of North American wines. I hope to see you there.