The Best U.S. Wine—According To The Decanter World Wine Awards 2024

Only one wine produced in the U.S. earned a coveted Best in Show Award from the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards 2024. This wine is Clos du Val, Yettalil, Stags Leap District, California 2021, a Bordeaux-inspired blend listed by the winery for $200.

The award was announced today with other Best in Show winners and medalists at the Decanter World Wine Awards. Yettalil rose to the top tier out of a field of more than 18,143 wines from 57 countries. These were judged by 243 experts whose ranks include 20 Master Sommeliers and 61 Masters of Wine.

Best in Show winners represent the cream of the crop at the awards, which are billed as the world’s most influential wine competition, and only 50 wines were given the Best in Show distinction. This makes them the top 0.28% of wines submitted to the competition.

Yettalil is made by Clos du Val, a celebrated winery producing vintages in the Napa Valley for three generations. Today the vineyard’s wine production is run by Carmel Greenberg, a graduate of the viticulture and enology program at UC Davis.

Decanter judges were uniformly impressed with Yettalil noting: “Everyone who tasted this wine was very excited both about the joy of its sensual profile as well as about its aging potential.”

California was, predictably, the most successful U.S. state in the competition. A Platinum medal was awarded to Trefethen Family Vineyards, Dragon’s Tooth, Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley 2021. California wines also earned 10 gold medals this year, up from three in 2023.

But California was not the only state to see success. Oregon also won a Platinum medal for Audeant Wines’ Luminous Hills Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley and increased its gold medal count from one last year to six. Washington state also earned two gold medals.

The scope of elite wine-producing states is also broadening in the U.S. — both Virginia and Pennsylvanian received their first gold medals from Decanter. Virginia’s gold honor was for Chestnut Oak Vineyard, Petit Verdot, Monticello 2019, while Pennsylvania’s win came for Mazza,The Perfect Rosé 2022.

Overall, the U.S. couldn’t match its global counterparts in the wine competition. France won 12 Best in Show and 28 Platinum medals, leading the competition. Australia earned 71 top medals, including eight Best in Show medals and Spain garnered seven Best in Show medals, 17 platinum and 89 gold medals. Even so, it’s exciting to see U.S. wine making get recognition and for some of that recognition to extend to new regions.