{"id":385526,"date":"2026-07-03T23:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/385526\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:46:27","slug":"28-san-diego-county-restaurants-earn-2026-wine-spectator-awards-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/385526\/","title":{"rendered":"28 San Diego County restaurants earn 2026 Wine Spectator Awards \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wine programs at 28 San Diego County restaurants<\/a> have won 2026 awards of excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine.<\/p>\n

Launched in 1981, the Wine Spectator awards are judged on the quality, breadth and depth of restaurants\u2019 wine programs, as well as the how the wines harmonize with the menu and how they\u2019re presented to guests. There are three levels of awards, based on the number of wine selections.<\/p>\n

Addison by William Bradley, the Michelin three-star restaurant in San Diego\u2019s Carmel Valley, has been on the Wine Spectator list since 2009. Addison remains the only San Diego County restaurant to earn the Grand Award, Wine Spectator\u2019s highest honor, which recognizes the best wine programs with more than 1,000 selections. There are only 99 Grand Award winners in the world.<\/p>\n

Addison\u2019s wine list, curated by Wine Director Sean McGuinness, has 2,800 selections and an inventory of more than 10,000 bottles. To celebrate its vast wine cellar, Addison in May debuted a no-reservations-required champagne lounge where diners can enjoy champagnes, wines and more with an optional mini tartlet tasting menu.<\/p>\n

The only other Southern California Grand Award winners are Capo in Santa Monica, Spago in Beverly Hills, The Stonehouse in Santa Barbara and Wally\u2019s in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

\"SavannahSavannah Riedler smiles after being awarded the Michelin Sommelier Award during the California Michelin awards ceremony at Eve on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Ten local restaurants earned the Best of Award of Excellence, which honors programs with 350 or more wine selections. There are 1,830 restaurants with this designation worldwide.<\/p>\n

New to the \u201cBest of\u201d category this year are Michelin-starred Lilo Restaurant in Carlsbad, The Fishery in Pacific Beach and Mastro\u2019s Ocean Pub in downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n

On June 24, Lilo\u2019s Wine Director Savannah Riedler was named Michelin Sommelier 2026 for the state of California. She created Lilo\u2019s wine program from scratch. It opened in April 2025 with 88 hand-selected wines and now boasts more than 350 selections that represent the wine regions of California, the West Coast and other international coastal regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super excited about this,\u201d Riedler said of the Wine Spectator award in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Also honored with the \u201cBest Of\u201d award this year are returning restaurants Callie in East Village, Juniper & Ivy in Little Italy, The Marine Room in La Jolla, Mister A\u2019s in Bankers Hill, Nine-Ten in La Jolla, Pony Room in Rancho Santa Fe and Stake Chophouse & Bar in Coronado.<\/p>\n

And 17 restaurants earned the Award of Excellence, honoring wine programs with at least 75 selections. There are 2,083 restaurants with this award worldwide.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Award of Excellence winners include five\u00a0first-time honorees: Barona Oaks Steakhouse in Lakeside, Barra Oliba in Little Italy, Grant Grill in downtown San Diego, Le Charcuterie Bar in East Village and Top of the Hyatt in downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n

Also honored with the Award of Excellence are returnees A.R. Valentien in La Jolla, Eddie V\u2019s Prime Seafood restaurants in both La Jolla and downtown San Diego, Ember & Rye in Carlsbad, The Grove Steakhouse in Alpine, Hell\u2019s Kitchen in Valley Center, Huntress in downtown San Diego, Marisi in La Jolla, Morton\u2019s Steakhouse in downtown San Diego, Seasons 52 in La Jolla, Solare Ristorante in Arts District Liberty Station and STK Steakhouse in downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n

Wine Spectator Chairman and CEO Marvin R. Shanken said in a statement that wine-drinking at restaurants has softened in recent years, so the value of these awards has helped award-winning restaurants distinguish themselves among wine connoisseurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restaurant industry is rapidly transforming as diners become more selective about when, how and what they drink. As wine drinkers grow more mindful, restaurants are adapting with creative wine programs,\u201d Shanken said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wine programs at 28 San Diego County restaurants have won 2026 awards of excellence from Wine Spectator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,7,421,181,412,1969,74,84,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":["post-385526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-california","tag-food-and-drink","tag-latest-headlines","tag-restaurants","tag-retail","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}