The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Dec. 19 that the San Francisco International Wine Competition accidentally accepted illegally smuggled Russian wines. The judges for the competition pulled the 95 bottles of wine after an uproar from the Bay Area’s pro-Ukrainian community.
“They were openly bragging about this,” said San Francisco’s Ukraine Consul General Dmytro Kushneruk, according to The Chronicle.
Kushneruk contacted Congressman Mike Thompson, D-Napa as soon as he found out about the illegal wines. The congressman’s staff reached out to the San Francisco International Wine Competition to ensure that the wines would be removed.
The San Francisco International Wine Competition is run by the same company that runs The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, The Tasting Alliance. Each year, thousands of wine and spirits brands vie for the prestigious Double Gold designation, which opens doors for many brands.
The Russian outlet Kommersant reported that Pavel Mayorov, Deputy Executive Director of the Association of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Russia, considered transferring some of the wines across the Mexican-American border with a “coyote,” an individual who smuggles goods and people across the border illegally.
Since March 2022, the United States imposed a ban on Russian alcohol in addition to other products like diamonds and caviar. Interestingly enough, Pavel told Kommersant that it appeared someone working for the San Francisco Wine Competition may have been a bit more amenable to the illegal wines.
“The first reaction of their leadership to us was negative, but then we managed to incline them to our side,” Pavel explained, according to the Russian news site. “We immediately explained that there would be logistical difficulties and we might have to import wine into the country unofficially. We were told: ‘Okay, we are ready to accept your wines for the competition. Here is the address, here the wines must be no later than the end of the samples acceptance.”
Pavel shared with the outlet that he took it upon himself to transport the wines without connecting them to Russia. He had dual citizenship and used a different passport, then carried them as a “personal load.” After a few connecting flights between Georgia, Doha, and San Francisco, Pavel told custom officers that the wines were a “collection assembled at the request of Californian winemakers.”
As soon as Andy and Deb Alter-Starr found out Russian wineries were submitted to the San Francisco Wine Competition, they wanted the public to know. Deb Starr runs an organization called Napa Valley to Ukraine, and Starr expressed that Russia “destroyed so much of Ukraine,” and “destroyed Ukrainian vineyards and wineries.”
“For them to potentially get awards at the same time as they’re destroying other wine regions, that doesn’t sit with me,” Starr expressed to The Chronicle. “That shouldn’t sit with anyone.”
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