Seattle Wine Awards - About Us
What makes the Seattle Wine Awards Washington State's best wine recognition program?
The Seattle Wine Awards Tasting Panel features the top local and national wine professionals consisting of highly respected wine buyers, sommeliers, directors and journalists. Our thorough evaluation is of the highest integrity and our thoughtful process provides both our participants and entries the best environment for tasting. Each wine is personally received, reviewed, confirmed and entered into our program. Every bottle is proofed for soundness by a team of sommeliers to ensure the wine is true to its' origin. Wines are checked for bottle variation and no tainted wines are ever poured for our panel. The wines that earn recognition in the Seattle Wine Awards must achieve professional consensus where they earn one of the following in their respective price/wine categories: Double Gold, Gold, Silver and Bronze Grand Awards of Excellence These honors are of the highest recognition a winery can earn in the state of Washington.
Meet our Tasting Panel
Seattle’s most prominent wine professionals are represented on our Tasting Panel. These are respected Wine Directors, Buyers, Distributors, Educators and Seattle’s top Sommeliers who know what Washington wine is all about. Our panel tastes wine single-blind (meaning they know only the varietal and not the price nor producer). Please visit our Tasting Panel page to learn more.
How are the wines evaluated?
Our experienced Tasting Panel employs a modified 20-point system to score each wine.
Wines are reviewed in flights that reflect the same price and varietal. Each wine is tasted and considered on the following criteria:
Aroma & Bouquet / Flavor & Palate / Structure & Balance / Typicity & Complexity / Overall Impression
Gold Medal Experience Wine Tasting
We're offering wine consumers and connoisseurs a chance to sip, sample and celebrate award winning wines at the Grand Awards Tasting, returning in 2013. Check the Gold Medal Tasting page for ticket information.
Thank you for visiting.
We hope you will browse our site to learn more about our history, our tasting panel and past award winners. Please share us with a fellow wine friend!
Washington State's most prestigious wine recognition program
The Seattle Wine Awards is the largest and most comprehensive independent Washington wine recognition program. Founded in 2006 by Executive Director Christopher Chan, the Seattle Wine Awards maintains the highest standards of integrity in the tasting and evaluation of Washington wines.