Entering its 40th anniversary, the New York Wine Classic is the state’s premier wine competition, celebrating the excellence and diversity of New York wines. The bottle that’s rated highest receives the Governor’s Cup, a large silver chalice. The winery that achieves the highest score overall across the top seven grape-based wines it submits earns the honor of “Winery of the Year.”
The origins of this competition go back to the mid-80s, when Jim Trezise, New York Wine & Grape Foundation’s first director, was asked by the New York Secretary of Agriculture to take over what had been a commercial wine competition held at the state fair. Trezise moved the competition from Syracuse to New York City.
“We held it at the Marriott Hotel at the foot of the World Trade Center,” recalls Trezise. “We invited some of the luminaries at that time, like Kevin Zraly of Windows on the World, who’s the most famous wine educator on the planet. He was a judge.” Another early judge in the competition was restaurateur Danny Meyer.
The first year, there was a tie: Wagner Vineyards in Seneca Lake won for its 1984 Johannisberg Riesling, and the now-closed Rolling Vineyards won for its 1985 Seyval.
The Classic’s format has changed several times since that first year. For a while, it became the New York Wine and Food Classic.
“We added a food element to the competition,” Trezise says, and the wines were paired with food for evaluation.
Throughout his time at the Foundation, Trezise’s goal for the competition was to shine a spotlight on New York wines and their ever-increasing quality.
Until recently, judging was done in person, but as the current NYWGF director, Sam Filler, reveals, the COVID pandemic changed that.
“We suspended in-person judging,” he says. “Now we’re partnered with the Beverage Testing Institute, which provides a cleaner analysis of the wines, a more objective analysis.”
That leaves the Foundation to showcase and celebrate the winners.
“What we’ve been doing the past couple of years is provide extra support and marketing assets to the winners so they can really squeeze the benefit out of being recognized for their excellence,” says Filler. In addition to the Winery of the Year and Governor’s Cup winners, there are several other “Best of” winners in various grape and style categories.
Recent New York Wine Classic Winners Weigh In
Weis Vineyards in the Finger Lakes earned the Winery of the Year title in the competition in 2022, 2024 & 2025. In 2024, it also won the Governor’s Cup for its Riesling Ice Wine.
“The New York Wine Classic is the most recognized wine competition in New York State,” say Peter & Ashlee Weis, the winery’s owners, via email. “For us, it is especially meaningful because it is all New York wineries competing against each other. We love being part of the New York wine industry, and it is a great opportunity to see how our wines stack up against some of the best wines being made across the state.”
Paumonak Vineyards on Long Island earned Winery of the Year in 2021 and 2023, and its Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc won the Governor’s Cup in 2023.
Kareem Massoud, winemaker at Paumonak, says the winery enters the competition for two reasons. The first is because it’s a great, straightforward way to get recognition for the wines they make.
“The competition is open only to New York wines, and so the winners should represent the best of the best, so to speak, of New York wine,” he says. “If you do well and have a good showing, it can give your brand some additional visibility.
Sometimes, that visibility comes from the governor.
“Governor Hochul did actually show up and present us with the Governor’s Cup in 2023, says Massoud. In addition to Paumonak gaining individual visibility, he sees the competition as a reminder to the governor and the state that the wineries exist and that the state should be supporting the local wine industry.
Massoud’s other reason for entering wines into the competition is that it gives him a sense of how his wines compare to those of his peers in the state.
The Weises have a similar sentiment.
“The competition gives wineries across the state a way to measure themselves,” they say. “It helps showcase the quality of New York wines as a whole. It is also a great reminder of how much talent there is throughout the industry and helps shine a spotlight on New York as a serious wine-producing region.”
The Classic also gives them evidence that they’re on the right path.
“After winning Winery of the Year for a second time, it really gave us confidence that what we were doing was not just a one-time success,” they say. “It helped reinforce our focus on quality and showed that the hard work of our entire team was paying off.”
Evidence of the Ever-Increasing Quality of New York’s Wines
Today, the awards don’t just show those in New York how good their local wines are; the wines that are the “creme de la creme” are recognized nationally and internationally, according to Trezise.
“The Finger Lakes are highly regarded as the best Riesling region in the United States, on par with global regions like Alsace and Rheingau,” he says. The competition can claim to identify the best Riesling from the best Riesling region in the U.S.
(It is worth noting that entering wine into the competition is voluntary and not all wineries choose to enter bottles.)
Ultimately, says Tresize, the Classic “reinforces the fact that New York wines have evolved in quality in a remarkable way,” which was his vision when the Foundation started.
“Because of all the collaboration in the state, we have achieved that,” he says, referring to the industry as a whole, including the winemakers, growers, Cornell’s researchers, and the Foundation.
“Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power,” Tresize has said for years. New York’s industry is diverse, but when it works together as a unified group, he believes “we can accomplish everything.”
Ultimately, that’s what the New York Wine Classic celebrates, and Filler sees it that way, too.
“I think it is a wonderful celebration of the community that makes up New York grapes and wines,” he says. “That’s not exclusive to the growers or winemakers. It’s also the consumers, the trade, and the media who have been great supporters. The Classic celebrates excellence and the improving quality that this community is committed to.”
Join us for the 2026 New York Wine Classic Live Ceremony on Monday, August 10th at 6:00 PM hosted by Wanda Mann, East Coast Editor of The SOMM Journal and founder of Wine With Wanda. Our Live Ceremony is open and free to all New York wine lovers. Please register here: newyorkwines.org/classic/
