Uncorking Livermore Valley's Best (Uncorked! 2025 Wine Competition Winners)

Livermore Uncorked! 2025 wine competition judges (image: lvwine.org)

I feel as though I have a long history with a crap-ton of wine regions at this point… because, well, I do. Livermore Valley is one such region, and I was thrilled to get back there on a media jaunt late in 2024 after several years of being away. I can now top that off with another media tour just completed in early 2025, assisting Decanter‘s Jonathan Cristaldi with an soon-to-be-released tasting report on the region, and having the pleasure of being one of the judges at the 2025 incarnation of the Livermore Valley Uncorked! Wine Competition.

Artwork at Almost Famous Wine Company, Livermore

I’m now very, very happy to share with you the official results of the 2025 Uncorked! competition. Despite the thought that (almost) seen it all when it comes to having been on the wine competition judging circuit for the better part of 15 years, Uncorked! managed to surprise me. All of the entries in the 2025 competition were previously vetted in some way, having nabbed a silver or better medal in other competitions, and/or having achieved a certain score threshold from a major wine publication (above and beyond the more traditional entry requirements involving production amounts and the like).

This made for an easy time judging, relatively speaking, in that the “floor” of quality for the entries was refreshingly high. No real frogs to kiss to get to the princes in this one, folks.

As a result, the wines you see below are all most certainly well worth your time (and your hear-earned cash). Fair warning: some of these will be difficult (if not impossible) to come by without visiting the producers—and if that’s not a fantastic excuse to get your ass out to Livermore Valley, I don’t know what is…