The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the decision of the San Francisco International Wine Competition (SFIWC), organized by The Tasting Alliance, to disqualify 15 wineries from Russia from the 2025 competition and dispose of their submitted wines after it was determined that they did not comply with the requirements of US sanctions legislation imposed in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UNN reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Details
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Russian officials and media called the admission of their wineries to the competition in San Francisco a political "breakthrough" and proof that "barriers are falling," openly boasting about complex logistics and "gray" schemes for importing wine to the US despite restrictions on Russian alcohol. In particular, several wineries associated, according to open Russian sources, with Vladimir Putin's so-called "wine empire" on the Black Sea were admitted to the competition.
Diplomats from the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, representatives of the Ukrainian community, and partners in the Californian wine community drew the organizers' attention to potential sanctions violations and relevant materials from Russian media.
As a result, the organizers of the San Francisco International Wine Competition acknowledged that Russian wine had been mistakenly admitted to the 2025 international competition and concluded that they were ineligible to participate due to US sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian wineries were suspended, and their samples will not be judged.
Russian officials tried to present San Francisco as proof that there is "no isolation" for Putin's wines. Instead, this decision demonstrates the opposite: sanctions work, and reputable American institutions are not willing to become a showcase for the Kremlin while Ukrainian cities are shelled and Ukrainian vineyards are occupied or destroyed.