Awards & Honors

2023 Wine's Most Inspiring People— Viticulturist, Preservationist, Philanthropist

2022 Wine Industry Leader - Wine Business Monthly Awards

2021 University of California Davis Cal Aggie Alumni Association "Distinguished Friend of the University Award"

2019 James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

2018 American Wine Legend Wine Star, Wine Enthusiast magazine

2018 Friends of the Colorado Wine Industry award, Colorado Association of Viticulture and Enology

2017 Inducted into the California Hall of Fame as a member of the 11th class by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

2017 Acre by Acre award, received along with his wife, Barbara, Land Trust of Napa County

2017 Person of the Year, Czas Wina Magazine, Krakow, Poland

2016 United States Congressional Resolution 734, commemorating the 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting’s 40th Anniversary, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.

2015 Awarded the title of Board Member Emeritus Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation, one of three board members in its history to be so nominated, after serving on the Foundation for 14 years as a Board Director and Chairman of the Heritage Award Committee

2013 Thomas Jefferson Award, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

2012 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon is named one of the “101 Objects that Made America”, Smithsonian Magazine

2010 University of Chicago Distinguished Alumni Award, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago

2010 Honorary Fellow Award, St. John’s College

2009 Inducted into the Vintner Hall of Fame, Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena, California

2008 Wine Lifetime Achievement Award, California State Fair

2007 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars ranks in the Top 25 Best Cabernet Producers in Wine & Spirits Magazine

2006 United States Congressional Resolution 399, commemorating the 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting’s 30th Anniversary, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.

2006 Silver Spoon Award for Sterling Performance, Food Arts

2005 Award of Excellence for Outstanding Achievements in Winemaking, Boca Bacchanal

2004 “Vintner of the Year” award, COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts

2003 Distinguished Service Award, Gamma Sigma Delta, the International Honor Society for Agriculture, Davis, CA

2003 Quarterly Review of Wines: Professional Excellence Award, New York Institute of Technology

2002 Lifetime Achievement Award, Biltmore Great South Florida Wine Festival

2002 International Symposium on Terrior (Santa Rosa, CA): Terroirist of the Year, Vineyard & Winery Management

2001 Grand Award for lifetime contributions to wine education, Society of Wine Educators

2000 Lifetime Achievement Award for Food and Wine Excellence, Singapore Wine & Food Experience

1997 Honored as one of the 30 greatest winemakers in the world by Jean-Claude Rouzaud of Louis Roederer Champagne at “Diner des Trente,” Paris

1996 Lifetime Achievement Award and Honorary Lifetime Membership, American Wine Society

1995 Lifetime Achievement Award, Midwest International Wine Expo

1992 Award of Merit, St. John’s College

1988 Harry Waugh Trophy for Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1977 CASK 23 Cabernet Sauvignon, International Wine & Spirit Competition London, England

1986 International Judge at the Sydney Wine Show, invited by Len Evans

1986 The Warren Winiarski Trophy For Cabernet Sauvignon established by The International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC)

1976 First Place, Judgment of Paris, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon: a blind tasting of California Cabernets and some French first-growth Bordeaux and American wines by French wine experts, bringing worldwide recognition to California, Napa Valley and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars