Announcing: RPWA’s New Extraordinary Winery Awards

Dear Readers,

We are incredibly excited to share with you the news about our soon-to-be-launched Extraordinary Winery Awards.

As our review team travels the world in search of wines to recommend to our readership, we have continually noticed that, for every major fine wine region we cover each year, there is without fail one winery that stands qualitatively above all others. The review team at Robert Parker Wine Advocate is proud to highlight these superlative wineries for our readers with our new annual Extraordinary Winery Awards.

Each year, one winery from every major fine wine region of the wine world will be awarded a Robert Parker Wine Advocate Extraordinary Winery Award. To be eligible as a region, that region must have at least one winery producing at least one “extraordinary” wine (rated 96-100 points) within the consideration period.

Judging for the awards is conducted by the RPWA Reviewer team, headed by Robert M. Parker Jr. and Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW. 

    The judging for the Extraordinary Winery Award each year takes into consideration:

    1. The number of 96-100* point wines produced by that winery within the 12-month consideration period
    2. The cumulative score of the 96-100* point wines produced by that winery within the 12-month consideration period
    3. The consistency of greatness and/or improvements made by that winery over the last five years
    4. The views of the Reviewer for that region
    * Note that barrel tasting (bracketed) scores will not be taken into consideration for this award.

    The “consideration period” for each award will consist of a 12-month period immediately preceding the award judging. All the reviews of wines receiving 96-100 RP points that were published within the consideration period for each region being recognized will be taken into account when drawing up the short list of award nominees. In each category, up to three winery nominees will be shortlisted for the award.

    In addition to the regional Extraordinary Winery Awards, every awards ceremony for a major area (e.g., the Americas in October 2017) will highlight a rising star winery that is currently flying under the radar, which is why we’re calling this the Under the Radar Winery Award. This award follows Robert Parker’s tradition of bringing to the attention of our readership wineries that are poised to become the next-great-thing and are well worthy of attention. The nominees and winner of this award will be based on the first-hand experiences and views of our Reviewers, with consideration of published reviews. A winery from a region that is not yet eligible for an Extraordinary Winery Award (i.e., a region that does not yet have a winery with a score of 96-100 points) may be considered for this award.

    Our final award to be given out for each major area will recognize a Lifetime Winemaker Achievement Award recipient. This will be awarded to a winemaker who has contributed enormously to improving the quality of wine for their major area and for the world in general. Nominees will be drawn up by reviewer recommendations and Robert M. Parker Jr. Winners will be selected by a voting committee, including Robert Parker, Lisa Perrotti-Brown and the relevant reviewers for the covered regions.

    Our first group of Extraordinary Winery Awards will be for the Americas, and the winners will be announced in conjunction with the launch of the MICHELIN Guide New York City 2018 at a gala dinner to be held in NYC on October 30, 2017. The Awards categories and nominees for this inaugural event can be found below.

    Find out more and reserve your seat today. Cheers! 

    Extraordinary Wineries from the Americas: 2017

    October 30, 2017

    Award Categories (9 Awards)

        A. Best Napa Valley Winery 2017

        B. Best Sonoma County Winery 2017

        C. Best California Central Coast Winery 2017

        D. Best Oregon Winery 2017

        E. Best Washington State Winery 2017

        F. Best Chile Winery 2017

        G. Best Argentina Winery 2017

        H. 2017 Under the Radar Winery Award - Americas

        I. 2017 Lifetime Winemaker Achievement Award - Americas

    Nominees (in alphabetical order):

    A. Napa Valley

        1. Abreu

        2. Harlan Estate

        3. Outpost

    B. Sonoma County

        1. Aubert

        2. Marcassin

        3. Peter Michael

    C. California Central Coast

        1. Alban

        2. Saxum

        3. Sine Qua Non

    D. Oregon

        1. Bethel Heights

        2. Cristom

    E. Washington State

        1. Cayuse

        2. K Vintners

        3. Quilceda Creek

    F. Chile

        1. De Martino

        2. Errazuriz

        3. Sena

    G. Argentina

        1. Aleanna

        2. Catena Zapata

        3. Per Se

    H. Under the Radar Winery Award - Americas

        1. Herman J. Wiemer, Finger Lakes

        2. Rex Hill, Oregon

        3. Alcohuaz, Chile


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