Questions, answered clearly

We list wines made from 100% Texas-grown grapes by Texas wineries when we can verify an award from a qualifying international competition. We aim to link to wines that can be purchased from the winery, but vintages sell out and availability can change. Always confirm the vintage, price, inventory, and shipping eligibility on the winery's website.

Competition results provide an independent signal when you have not tasted the wine or visited the winery. Panels commonly include sommeliers, wine educators, critics, writers, buyers, chefs, winemakers, and other experienced professionals. An award is useful evidence—not a guarantee that every person will prefer the wine.

Methods vary by competition. In a common blind-tasting format, wines are identified by a code rather than a producer name and are evaluated by a panel against the competition's published criteria. Wineries generally pay an entry fee and provide samples. Top Texas Wines records the published result; it does not judge the wines.

Names and criteria vary by competition, but the usual order from highest honor to lower medal is:

🏆 Best in Show — selected from top wines across multiple classes or categories.

🏆 Best in Class — the top result within a class or category; it may also be called Class Champion, Top of Class, or Best in Category.

🏅🏅 Double Gold — commonly awarded when every judge on a panel independently awards Gold; some events use a different equivalent name.

🏅 Gold — an outstanding result under that competition's criteria.

🥈 Silver — a strong result meeting the event's Silver standard.

🥉 Bronze — a result meeting the event's Bronze standard.

No award means the wine did not receive an award in that event. It is not a universal judgment about the wine or winery.

Top Texas Wines converts verified competition results into award points and adds the points recorded for a wine during its general availability, using tracked results beginning in 2018. The total score is used to order eligible wines and to aggregate winery leaderboards.

Best in Show (also Grand Champion or Judges Selection) = 10

Best in Class (also Class Champion, Top of Class, or Best in Category) = 7

Double Gold (or an event's equivalent, such as Platinum) = 5

Gold = 3

Silver = 2

Bronze = 1

Award points are a discovery and comparison tool. They are not critic scores or a promise of personal preference.

Scores from these international wine competitions are included in our rankings:

American Fine Wine Competition
Beverage Testing Institute International Wine Competition
Critics Challenge
Cross Timbers Granbury Wine Competition
Decanter World Wine Awards
Denver International Wine Competition
Drink Pink Vino International Rosé Wine Competition
Experience Rosé Wine Competition
Finger Lakes International Wine Competition
Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition
Great American International Wine Competition
Harvest Terroir Challenge
Houston Rodeo Uncorked
International Womens Wine Competition
James Suckling
Jefferson Cup Invitational
Lone Star International Wine Competition
Los Angeles International Wine Competition
Master Classic Wine Competition
New York International Wine Competition
New York Wine & Spirits Competition
San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Wine Competition
San Diego International Wine & Spirits Challenge
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco International Wine Competition
Sommeliers Choice Awards
Sunset International Wine Competition
Texas International Wine Competition
Texas Vintners Cup
Texas Wine Invitational
Texas Wine Symposium & Competition
TEXSOM

Not every winery enters competitions, and not every result is available when the directory is updated. A missing winery or wine is not a negative quality judgment; it means Top Texas Wines does not currently have qualifying, verified award evidence for that listing. If a result is missing, send us the competition, year, wine, vintage, and a link to the published source.

Top Texas Wines is a discovery directory, not a wine retailer. The Buy direct from winery button opens the producer's website, where the winery controls current price, inventory, shipping eligibility, age verification, tax, fulfillment, and customer service. Buying there also creates a direct relationship between you and the Texas winery.

No. Award-points rankings are editorial data and are not for sale. A winery may purchase a clearly labeled Featured partner placement to gain additional visibility, including for a winery or wine that is not highly ranked. Paid prominence never changes the entry's award score or numerical position.

Featured Wines are wines selected by the editor. A selected wine may also be an advertising partner, but the underlying wine record and its award information are never changed.