Prominent Master Sommeliers, Remarkable Wine Directors, and Managers of renowned Food & Beverage establishments to judge the 4th Annual Sommelier Choice Awards in San Francisco on 16th May 2022.

Involving some of the top sommeliers, wine directors, and food & beverage managers, the Sommelier Choice Awards focuses on providing on-premise buyers and sommeliers a valuable benchmark for understanding which wines would make an excellent addition to the wine list.

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The Sommelier Choice Awards prides itself in involving top-notch judges that have the direct responsibility of procuring wines for their establishments. The judging panel consists of prominent professionals of the US wine industry that collectively have the buying power to list wines from all over the world that would be a part of this competition. Industry professionals that are experienced in assessing wines based on their ability to pair with food, their typicity, their quality, their value for money proposition, and how they are demonstrated through their packaging and design. 

For the 2022 Sommelier Choice Awards, the compelling panel of judges consists of the below-mentioned names. 

Judges at Sommeliers Choice Awards 2022.
From Left to Right: Serena Harkey, Jacob Brown and Luke Kenning

The judges of the Sommelier Choice Awards 2022 are:

Maximilian Kast M.S., Master Sommelier and Director of Education at Broadbent Selections Inc.

Mikayla Avedisian-Cohen, Wine Director and General Manager at Crenn Dining Group, Alameda, CA

Gillian Ballance M.S. DWS, Master Sommelier and Education Manager at Treasury Wine Estates

Wes Box, Winemaker at All Points West

Thomas Brenner, Head Sommelier at Chez TJ, Mountain View, CA

Jacob Brown, Head Sommelier at Lazy Bear, San Francisco

Paul Carayas, Wine Director at Chez TJ, San Mateo, CA

Will Costello M.S., Master Sommelier

Chappy Cottrell, Award-Winning Wine Director, Certified Sommelier and Wine Podcast Host

Joshua Decolongon, Sommelier and Co-founder at Endless West, San Francisco, CA

Mark Guillaudeu, Beverage Director at Commis

Serena Harkey, Director of Wine at Left Bank Brasseries and LB Steak

Ira Harmon MS, Master Sommelier and Fine Wine Specialist at Vin Sauvage, Las Vegas, NV

Morgan Harris M.S., Master Sommelier

David Hunter, Wine Director at Tavern on Kruse, Lake Oswego, OR

Steven Izzo, Wine Director at The Vault Garden & Steakhouse

David Keck M.S., Master Sommelier and Wine Director at VT Wine Shepherd, VT

Luke Kenning, Wine Director at Farallon Restaurant SF

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Judging Process

- The Sommelier Choice Awards has five highly-efficient judging criteria that distinguish it from the rest of the wine awards. Initially, the wines will be tasted blind to determine their quality, food parability and typicity.

- On an evaluation sheet, the judges will write down the price based on their assessment to later evaluate the value score.

- Judges will then determine the package and value score of the wine once they are revealed with the actual price and shown the package. The package will be judged for the on-premise considering factors like label design and information, closure, and overall look.

- The judges can discuss the wine as a whole to help allocate scores in the five judging areas; however, each judge will give the wine its own score and the average will be taken as the final score.

- Judges will also mark 'By The Glass’ if they think the wine is a good fit for By The Glass.
Food parability and quality will get more weight for their scores.

Judging Dates

The judging will take place on May 16, 2022, in San Francisco. To be considered a part of the Sommelier Choice Awards, all products must be in the warehouse by April 24, 2022. 

Please check our website to know about Key Deadlines and Pricing. 

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