Does your business offer a unique wine tourism guest experience? Would you like local and international recognition?

The Napa County Chambers of Commerce, The Napa Valley Destination Council, Napa Valley Vintners, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Golden Gate Restaurants Association are coordinating application entries for the Great Wine Capitals Global Network (GWCGN) 2010 "Best of Wine Tourism" awards. A panel of local judges will select the San Francisco-Napa Valley winners who will then be entered in the international contest happening in November at the GWCGN Annual General Meeting in Bordeaux, France.

All entrants and winners will receive local media coverage, and the international winner will be featured in an advertorial spread in Decanter and on the GWC website in 2010. Entrants must be a member of either a Napa County Chamber, The Napa Valley Destination Council, the Napa Valley Vintners, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, or the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.

Entry deadline is September 4, 2009.

The seven entry categories are:
Accommodation*
Wine Tourism Restaurants*
Architecture, Parks and Gardens
Art and Culture
Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences
Wine Tourism Services*
Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices
*These categories are not required to be wineries, but must have a strong wine tourism focus.

All contest entries are accepted online on the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) website, www.napavintners.com. To submit your entry, you must have or create a trade account with the NVV. Click here to log in, or to create your trade account at: www.napavintners.com/account/home.asp

Once you have created your trade account, or are logged in, you can access the contest materials and form from this page: http://www.napavintners.com/account/home.asp.
If you have any questions, please contact Patsy McGaughy at Napa Valley Vintners at (707) 968-4207.

A press conference and award trophy presentations will be held on the Mayor’s Balcony at San Francisco City Hall on October 15th, 2009.

The Napa Valley is home to the founders of America’s fine wine industry - legendary entrepreneurs whose passion for winemaking and desire to create truly memorable hospitality experiences have resulted in The Napa Valley being acknowledged the world over as North America’s Great Wine Capital.

From humble beginnings, wine tourism in The Napa Valley has been carefully grown into Napa County’s second largest industry – hosting over 4.5 million guests a year, employing 17,500 hospitality professionals, and contributing over $1.3 Billion annually to the local economy – all while supporting the preservation and protection of The Napa Valley as one of the most unique agricultural regions in the world.

Each year, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network’s “Best Of” Wine Tourism Awards, offers hospitality leaders throughout Napa County the unique opportunity to showcase their best practices for awards in the seven categories of restaurants; accommodation; architecture, parks and gardens; arts and culture; innovative wine tourism experiences; wine tourism services; and sustainable wine tourism practices. Three of the categories (wine tourism services, accommodation and restaurants) do not require the business to be a winery, but should have a strong wine tourism presence.

“We have an incredibly special combination of guest serving businesses here in The Napa Valley”, says Clay Gregory, president & CEO of The Napa Valley Destination Council. “The “Best Of” Wine Tourism Awards is a very important opportunity for local businesses to gain much deserved recognition and elevate their images even further on the international stage. What a marvelous program to take advantage of!”

All of the local winners will be entered for a chance to win one of the global awards. Adjudicated by an international panel of respected wine tourism professionals, the 2010 global winners will be announced at the 11th annual general meeting of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, held in Bordeaux, France in November this year.

About GWCGN
Great Wine Capitals Global Network is an alliance of eight internationally renowned wine regions - Bordeaux, France; Cape Town, South Africa; Florence, Italy; Mainz, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; Porto, Portugal; Bilbao-Rioja, Spain and San Francisco-Napa Valley, USA. The “Best Of” international competition is designed to reward wineries and other wine-tourism focused businesses, locally and globally, from each network city that have distinguished themselves in terms of the excellence of their facilities in the various categories. For more information on all regions and past winners visit www.greatwinecapitals.com

The San Francisco-Napa Valley 2009 winners were:
Accommodations: The Meritage Resort and Spa
Wine Tourism Restaurants: Domaine Chandon - étoile (also the international winner  in this category)
Architecture, Parks & Gardens: Rubicon Estate
Art & Culture: Robert Mondavi Winery
Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences: The Hess Collection
Wine Tourism Services: Viviani Inc. Destination Management
Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices: Long Meadow Ranch