As California led the United States to its best year ever at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), the state also marked several milestones in 2026 – including one of its wineries earning Best in Show for its third consecutive year.
‘This year’s judging demonstrated the overall high quality coming from the US, giving it a well-earned place in the global wine pantheon,’ said James Tidwell MS, who serves as DWWA Regional Chair for the USA and Central America.
In all, California wineries took home 162 medals – a record for the state – across all categories: Best in Show, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
‘The US wine story is becoming broader and more interesting’, commented DWWA Panel Judge Bree Stock MW.
While California’s benchmark varieties reigned in the top tiers of the awards, she said, ‘One of the most exciting developments was seeing newer and less conventional varieties perform with real credibility and a clear sense of place/purpose’.
‘California’s Assyrtiko and Moschofilero entries showed freshness and salinity’, she added, ‘with aromatic floral interest, suggesting that the conversation around US wine quality is expanding beyond the classics’.
Grapes from Italy, southwest France and Spain – including Albariño, Cortina, Tannat, Teroldego and Vermentino – all also earned medals.
A three-peat: Clos du Val takes the top award, again
Founded in Napa Valley in the 1970s and now in its third generation of family ownership, Clos du Val earned a Best in Show medal for the third year in a row – and for the second time with its Yettalil blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot from the Stags Leap District. Last year, Clos du Val captured the top accolade with its 2022 Estate Cabernet Franc.
DWWA judges called the 2023 Yettalil ‘powerful and persuasive’ and a wine of ‘notable finesse’, illustrating the strengths of the ideal vintage in Napa Valley; the wine should easily age for a decade or two.
Three’s a charm: The Platinum elite wines
Clos du Val also notched 97 points and a Platinum medal for its 2024 Estate Sauvignon Blanc, which the judges said showed ‘superb varietal expression, shaped by thoughtful barrel influence and aromatic precision’.
California led the country in Platinum medals, with three in total, at 97 points each.
Among them was AvinoDos, with its ‘sumptuous’ 2022 Blanc De Blanc Extra Brut from Los Carneros. It’s only the second US sparkling wine ever to receive Platinum at DWWA, after Chandon’s Etoile Brut in 2025.
Representing a new generation of wineries in Napa Valley, AvinoDos is based within the city of Napa, in a business park known as the Grape Crusher District for its collection of boutique wineries.
Owners Dan and Julie Dexter source their grapes only from growers with plots totalling 3.6 hectares or less – a size that, under Napa regulations, prohibits the growers from opening their own wineries.
New Mendocino County producer Brashley, started in 2017 by Ashley and Bram Palm, also impressed the judges with its 2023 Hacienda Sequoia Pinot Noir from an organically farmed vineyard surrounded by redwoods in the cool-climate Anderson Valley. The judges called it ‘a sophisticated Pinot Noir with a European accent.’
‘It’s a thrilling thing for a winery as small as we are’, said Ashley Palm. ‘To know that it was blind tasted so many times and it ended up where it was, it just blows me away. It helps confirm what we are doing – doing everything organically, doing everything by hand.’
Brashley winemaker Ashley Holland added, ‘For Anderson Valley, I know the appellation belongs on the world stage. I’ve worked so many places around the world. It is truly a phenomenal site for Pinot Noir.’
She describes the 0.8-hectare (2 acres), dry-farmed Hacienda Sequoia site, which sits on 100,000-year-old sandstone, as singular.
‘I knew when the wine was fermenting that it was really extraordinary. We used to waft the top of the fermentor because it smelled so good’.
Golden State Gold medals: Values and firsts
California collected 13 Gold medals in 2026, with two of the wines receiving 96 points from the judges: Sonoma County winery Marimar Estate’s ‘plush and zesty’ 2024 La Masía Don Miguel Vineyard Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley and Napa Valley producer Nichelini’s ‘vivid’ 2023 Petite Sirah. Nichelini’s 2024 Reserve Zinfandel earned another Gold and 95 points.
The state also secured the country’s only one of the 35 Top Value Gold medals given out this year, honouring the best wines globally in the under £15 (or $20) category.
That went to the plump, juicy 2025 Sonoma County rosé (95) from Angels & Cowboys, a winery founded in 2014 by Israel-born Yoav Gilat, who has started a handful of wine brands to fill what he saw as a gap in the market: high-quality California wines for $20 or less.
Angels & Cowboys winemaker Ondine Chattan described her reaction as one of ‘elation and gratitude’ that their delicate rosé, which she says has a ‘distinctive fruity/savoury interplay’, was recognized by the judges.
‘It is so rewarding to have one of my wines appreciated and understood for its style,’ she said, adding that she is grateful for ‘all our grape growers and winery team members who assisted at every step of the process to deliver the style and quality we set out to produce’.
Three other wines were designated as Value Golds at 95 points: Clos du Bois’s ‘indulgent’ 2024 California Chardonnay, Asda’s ‘gorgeous’ 2024 Exceptional Zinfandel from Lodi and Mina Mesa’s ‘flamboyant’ 2024 Zinfandel from Paso Robles region, which brought the region another Gold medal after an earlier win in 2022.
The Cienega Valley AVA, in western San Benito County within the Central Coast, celebrated its first DWWA Gold medals with Eden Rift’s 2023 Terraces Chardonnay, which has a ‘gorgeous penetrating acidity’, and ‘deeply concentrated’ 2023 Lansdale Slope Pinot Noir.
In another indication of the exceptional quality of Napa’s 2023 vintage, three varietally labelled Cabernet Sauvignons earned Golds: Navigator with its 2023 Napa Valley bottling, SOM’s 2023 Beckstoffer Bourn Vineyard selection from St. Helena and kosher wine producer Herzog Wine Cellars’s 2023 Special Edition from Rutherford.
On the Sonoma Coast, Three Sticks earned the award with its ‘deftly crafted’ 2024 Gap’s Crown Chardonnay.
A global guide to excellence: Decanter’s annual wine awards
Launched 23 years ago, DWWA has become the world’s largest wine competition, recognised as a global standard for quality.
The Awards combine international reach with a commitment to sustainability, a transparent tasting process and unsurpassed judging expertise. Of the 245 judges in 2026, more than one-third of them were Masters of Wine or Master Sommeliers.
‘The results of Decanter World Wine Awards are valuable because they provide both consumers and producers with a trusted and easily recognisable guide to quality in a crowded global wine market,’ explained DWWA Co-Chair Ronan Sayburn MS.
DWWA awards five tiers of medals: the 50 Best in Show – which represented just 0.3% of wines tasted this year – then Platinum and Gold (all scoring 95+ points), Silver and Bronze. In 2026, US wines won a total of 466 medals – nearly double the country’s previous highest tally.
Although California, Oregon and Washington remain the leading states, the 2026 awards reflected the diversity of wine within the US.
Texas took home its first Gold medals with four wines that show what the state can achieve with Portuguese, Spanish and southwestern French reds: Souzao, Tannat, Tempranillo and a Tempranillo-Petit Verdot blend.
Virginia added five more Golds, following two strong years in 2025 and 2024, with Cabernet Franc and Viognier among the standouts, along with blends containing Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Pennsylvania also achieved its third straight year with a Gold medal – this time for a Chambourcin, a hybrid grape that does well in cooler climates. Wineries in Massachusetts, Missouri, Colorado and North Carolina claimed Silver medals.
The full list of 2026 winners from around the world can be found at awards.decanter.com.
Oregon and Washington wines reach new peaks at 2026 DWWA
Region on the rise: Texas wines shine at DWWA 2026
