Warren Winiarski was honored as Vintner of the Year at the COPIA Wine Awards held during the Bacchus Gala last September. The ceremonies were presided over by Honorary Chair Robert Redford, with Kyle MacLachlan, star of the television show Sex and the City, serving as master of ceremonies.

COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts, which is located in downtown Napa, CA, introduced the awards in 2003 as a benchmark for outstanding achievement in the wine industry. The 2004 honors also included a Lifetime Achievement Award for the late André Tchelistcheff.

The 2004 award recipients were selected by a distinguished panel of made up of wine experts Hugh Johnson, Robert M. Parker, Jr., and Jancis Robinson. Warren was hailed as “among the world’s most respected winemakers” whose triumph at the 1976 Paris tasting “garnered international acclaim for his wines and transformed the world’s view of California wines.”