One of the country’s most anticipated weeks in wine and food, the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, was named winner in the 2023 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest for “Best Wine Festival.” The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival was nominated by USA TODAY’s panel of experts as the top selection of the finest wine and food festivals across the country. Following nominations was a period of reader voting in which the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival was named the winner and the country’s best wine festival by the general public.
This year’s award marks the 4th year since 2019 the San Diego Bay Food & Wine Festival has been honored by the USA TODAY 10Best panel, a testament to the festival’s nineteen-year commitment to celebrating the bi-national cultural diversity and rich culinary scene of the region.
The official results for Best Wine Festival are as follows:
- San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival
- Key West Food & Wine Festival
- Lodi Wine Festival
- Black Vines
- Naples Winter Wine Festival
- World of Pinot Noir
- Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
- International Pinot Noir Celebration
- South Beach Wine & Food Festival
- Taste of Sonoma
The 10Best panel is composed of wine industry experts which include a combination of editors from USA TODAY, editors from 10Best.com, and relevant expert contributors who seek to find the best wine-centric celebrations throughout the United States. The core of the site’s uniqueness is its team of local travel experts: a well-traveled and well-educated group who are not only experts in their fields— and their cities — but discriminating in their tastes. USA TODAY 10Best guides provide unbiased and experiential travel content for top destinations around the world.
“Our team set out 20 years ago to create an annual showcase that puts a national and international spotlight on the city of San Diego and its talented and passionate local chefs, farmers, fisherman, winemakers, and producers,” says Festival Co-producer, Michelle Metter. “Over 11,000 passionate wine and food enthusiasts now take part in this epic week that celebrates our city’s multinational influences and sunny and diverse culinary landscape alongside the largest curated collection of wine, beer and spirits producers and culinary friends from across the country. The 19th Annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is honored to receive this distinction from USA TODAY 10Best for a 4th year, joining the other prestigious national accolades recently awarded to our deserving culinary community.”
The 19th annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival invites travelers to “Arrive at Awesome” and experience the best of the city from November 8-12, 2023. Each year, Southern California’s largest food and wine festival welcomes over 11,000 enthusiasts to join the showcase of globally renowned chefs, winemakers, farmers and fisherman whose talents span across the border to include Baja, Mexico, providing a rich discovery into the bioregion’s abundant fresh produce and seafood and diverse culinary tapestry.
Festival highlights include over 60 nationally recognized and locally celebrated chefs, legendary winemakers, guest mixologists, award-winning authors, distillers, sommeliers, brewmasters, artisans and tastemakers, and more. Additionally, the festival includes hundreds of domestic and international wine, beer, and spirit producers to taste from throughout the festival’s multi-day experience. The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival also features an immersive cross- border experience to Valle de Guadalupe, producing the only bi-national food and wine festival in the country.
Individual tickets and weekend packages are currently available for the Grand Decant, Grand Tasting, and Grand Fiesta experiences. A full festival event schedule will be available in September 2023.
