St. James, MO – St. James Winery recently placed in the top 15 of the World Association of Wine and Spirits Writers and Journalists annual list of the 100 Top Wineries in the World.
This year St. James Winery has won three major international competitions, received 13 Best of Class awards, and earned more than 70 gold medals, once again making St. James Winery one of the most awarded wineries, not just in the United States but among wineries around the world.
“Our goal is for our grapes and wines to reflect the region where they are grown,” said Peter Hofherr, CEO at St. James Winery. “To be able to do this in the Midwest and compete at the international level shows that our efforts to evolve our grape growing and winemaking practices are paying off.”
St. James Winery’s winning year has been led by the phenomenal performance of its Friendship School White Wine—Pacific Rim Grand Champion, 95 points at Los Angeles, and Long Beach Grand Cru Best White Wine—and its Riesling, which won the John Rose Award for the Best in Riesling at the Finger Lakes Wine Competition and was named Best of Class at Pacific Rim.
“The credit goes to our winemaking and grape growing team, led by Executive Winemaker Andrew Meggitt,” said Hofherr. “Growing grapes and making wine in the Midwest is not easy. They’ve developed innovative techniques and processes to be able to compete at this level and achieve these excellent results.”
In addition to the award winning Riesling and Friendship School White, St. James Winery’s Moscato earned Best of Class at three international competitions: Pacific Rim, Riverside, and Los Angeles. The 2013 Vignoles won two Best of Class awards: Riverside International and New World International. Friendship School Red won Best of Class at Pacific Rim.
St. James Winery is the largest and most awarded winery in Missouri. Founded by the Hofherr family in 1970, St. James Winery celebrating more than 40 years as a family owned and operated winery; St. James Winery wines are sold in 18 states. Find the winery online at www.stjameswinery.com.
The World Association of Wine and Spirits Writers and Journalists
(WAWWJ) is the global association of international wine writers. Every year, WAWWJ classifies wines and wineries that participate in international wine contests. Since 1996, the World Ranking Wines and Spirits (WRW) employs the results of international competitions to rank each wine and winery in order. Last year 630,000 wines were evaluated across almost 500 separate contests around the world.