DWWA judge profile: Larry Stone MS

Larry Stone MS is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).

Larry Stone MS

Larry Stone MS is the CEO and Founder of Lingua Franca, an estate winery in Willamette Valley, working with Dominique Lafon to craft elegant, complex Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a Burgundian sensibility in the New World. He became the first American to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Sopexa in Paris over 20 years ago, months after becoming a Master Sommelier.

His career as a restaurateur and sommelier included opening the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, working as general manager and sommelier of Charlie Trotter’s restaurant, and then relocating to San Francisco to open Rubicon Restaurant with New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent and partners Robert De Niro, Robin Williams and Francis Ford Coppola.

From 1994 to 2008, Rubicon and Stone earned many awards, including a Michelin star, the Ivy Award from Restaurants and Institutions, and Stone’s second James Beard Foundation Outstanding Wine Service Award. In 2001, Stone became a board member of Niebaum-Coppla Estate Winery, and then in 2006 its general manager.

He helped create Evening Land Vineyards, and in 2010 became its president. He is a former Trustee of the James Beard Foundation and served as Co-Dean of Wine Studies for the International Culinary Center in New York.

Today, all his energies are focused on his Lingua Franca estate vineyard and winery in the Eola-Amity Hills with winemaker Thomas Savre.

Larry Stone MS was first a judge at the DWWA in 2015.

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See more judges at the 2024 DWWA.