Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition

Currently the world's largest wine competition
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Founded in 1983 as the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition, the event has evolved over the years, broadening its base to a greater number of wine regions. In 2000, the Cloverdale Citrus Fair entered into a title naming sponsorship agreement with the San Francisco Chronicle with the wine competition. The wine competition was renamed the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition with the award tasting of the medal winning wines to take place in San Francisco. In 2006 over 900 United States wineries entered a record breaking 3,318 wine entries for the competition from wine regions throughout America. The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest wine competition of American wines in the world.

The competition rapidly grew in the 1990s to over 100 wineries. Eligibility was gradually increased to include all wineries in Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties. Consequently, it was renamed the Tri-County Wine Competition from 1996–99. The competition expanded to the entire North Coast Appellation in 2000 as the California North Coast Wine Competition. This area included all wineries in the counties of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Solano and Marin. During this period of time, wineries and wine entries exploded and the Cloverdale Citrus Fair was now the dominant wine competition in Northern California, dwarfing even the prestigious Sonoma County Fair Wine Competition. Major problems arose with the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition as the competition outgrew the public tasting at the local regional fair during the Presidents Day Weekend in Cloverdale. Bob Fraser, organizer of the wine competition, met with Dennis Banks, Advertising Executive of the San Francisco Chronicle and a seed was born for a future collaboration of the Citrus Fair and the Chronicle and to bring the wine competition tasting “out of the country to the City”, San Francisco.

In 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle Wine competition expanded its geographical base nationally. Records were broken in 2006 with number of wineries entered, entries of wines, and awards. The public tasting in San Francisco is the largest tasting of American wines in the world and a tremendous attraction for San Francisco Bay Area lovers of fine wine, food, and entertainment.