Esther Mobley

Esther Mobley is the wine critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. She joined the paper in 2015 to cover California wine, beer and spirits, a beat that has included reporting on California wildfires, reviewing local bars, profiling undocumented vineyard workers, naming an annual Winemaker of the Year and analyzing the movements of California’s $40 billion wine industry. She publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter called Drinking with Esther.

In 2019, Esther was named Feature Writer of the Year in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards. The previous year, she won first place in the California News Publishers Association Awards Print Contest for feature writing, for her story about a winery owned by a California cult, and also first place for agricultural reporting, for her writing on Napa Valley's land-use controversies. Her work was recognized as the Best Writing on Beer, Wine or Spirits by the Association of Food Journalists in 2017 and 2019. She studied English literature at Smith College.