Who Judges the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition?

Updated

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (SFCWC) is evaluated by a panel of professional wine judges, and Winejudging.com publishes who they are. The site maintains a Meet the Judges section for the current roster and a separate Former Judges page for past participants, so you can check both the people scoring this year's entries and the history of the panel. If you want to know the judging lineup before entering wines or before trusting a medal, those two pages are the starting point.

Where the judge information lives on Winejudging.com

The site organizes judging-related content under its Judges area, alongside the competition's other reference pages:

  • Meet the Judges — the current panel for the competition.
  • Former Judges — judges who have served in earlier years.
  • 2026 Judges' Dinner — a related event tied to the competition and its judges.
  • Wine Judging Categories — the categories judges evaluate entries within.
  • Medal Winners — results by year, including a Best of Class designation and an archive going back through 2014.

The site describes the competition as "The Largest Competition of American Wines in the World," with award-winning wines "Selected by the Professional Wine Judges of SFCWC." That framing tells you the panel is positioned as professional rather than consumer or crowd-sourced.

What "professional wine judges" means here

The site's own description identifies the selectors as professional wine judges, but it does not publish individual credentials, certifications, or biographical detail in the material available. So the reliable, checkable facts are:

Question What the site supports
Who judges? A panel of professional wine judges
Can I see the current panel? Yes — Meet the Judges
Can I see past panels? Yes — Former Judges
Are individual credentials listed? Not in the available page content
Is there a judges' event? Yes — the 2026 Judges' Dinner

If you need to verify a specific judge's background, treat the Meet the Judges page as the entry point and look for linked bios or press material rather than assuming credentials that aren't shown.

How judging connects to results you can check

Judging output shows up in the competition's medal structure. The site publishes Current Medal Winners plus year-by-year archives (2025 back to 2014), and it distinguishes Best of Class selections within those results. Veteran wine writer Mike Dunne provides expert commentary on the Best-of-Class winners each year; for 2026, the site notes he evaluated every Best-of-Class selection before narrowing the field. That gives you a way to cross-check a judge panel's decisions against an independent taster's notes.

Practical steps to confirm the judging panel

  1. Go to Winejudging.com and open the Judges section.
  2. Select Meet the Judges for the current competition panel.
  3. Select Former Judges if you need historical participation.
  4. Cross-reference with Wine Judging Categories to see what those judges are scoring.
  5. Check Medal Winners and Best of Class for the outcomes, and read Mike Dunne's tasting notes for context on top selections.

Common sticking points

  • Roster changes year to year. A judge listed under Former Judges may not be on the current panel — check the current page for this year's lineup.
  • Limited public credentials. The available site content names the panel as professional judges but doesn't itemize certifications, so don't infer specific qualifications that aren't published.
  • Judges vs. results are separate pages. The judging roster and the medal results live in different sections; you'll need both to connect a panel to an outcome.

For wineries deciding whether to enter, the judges' page is worth reviewing first — it tells you who is evaluating your wine and lets you judge whether the panel's profile matches your target market.