Each year in Cloverdale, the San Francisco Chronicle holds the world's largest wine competition of American wines. In January 9 to 12 of 2007, 55 professional wine judges from throughout the US evaluated over 3,800 wines from more than 1500 wineries from over 20 states.
As in many wine competitions, the first phase was to choose the Best of Class winners. The wines were grouped together according to varietal and price range, and the best in each category were chosen. The second part was to pick the Sweepstakes Winners, in which the Best of Class winners among all the different categories of reds, whites, sparkling wines and dessert/specialty wines, competed against each other.
These photos were taken during the final day when the Sweepstakes Winners were being chosen.
Competition results can be found on the winejudging.com website. There will be a public tasting on February 24, 2007 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.
Photos and captions by Michelle J. BakerImages 1-8 of 8
 Mystery Bottles |  Table Setting |  The Wine Guy |  Sue Straight |
 Ben Pearson of Bottle Barn |  Kent Rosenblum |  Wilfred Wong and Dan Kosta |  Sweepstakes Winners |
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