Wine Blog Awards

The Finalists in the 2013 Wine Blog Awards Are Announced

Joel — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:25:13 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 WINE BLOG AWARD FINALISTS!

Click the “VOTE” button below to vote for your favorites in 9 categories: Voting will continue through May 24th at 11:59pm when the polls will close.

Best Blog Post of the Year

Finalists:

W. Blake Gray’s Darth Vader is My Lover: Revelations about Brettanomyces
Lilyelaine Wakawaka’s Escaping Convention: Calibrating to Stark Conditions, a Conversation with Greg Brewer
Katie Kelly Bell’s Adventures in Taste
Ron Washam’s Blind Book Review–”How to Love Wine”
Alfonso Cevola’s Rape of the Veneto
Ron Washam’s The Death of WIne Critics

Best Original Photography or Video on a Wine Blog

Finalists:

Best Industry/Business Wine Blog:

Finalists:

Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog:

Finalists:

Best Single Subject Wine Blog:

Finalists:

Best Winery Blog:

Finalists:

Best Writing On a Wine Blog:

Finalists:

Best New Wine Blog:

Finalists:

*** final review of finalist qualifications has changed the “New” category as of 5/21/13 ***

Best Overall Wine Blog:

Finalists:

Schedule change – Judge’s results are almost in!

Joel — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:19:14 +0000

Apologies for the schedule change. The judges have been hard at work for the last months carefully reviewing all entries. At this time we anticipate finalists being announced next week with the opening of public voting!

The 2013 Wine Blog Award Judges

Tom Wark — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:05:07 +0000

We are very pleased to announce the judges for the 2013 Wine Blog Awards. These accomplished individuals have the task of determining the finalists in each awards category, narrowing them down from hundreds to just a few. It is a daunting task. Yet we are lucky and pleased to have these individuals on board to carry it out.

DOUG COOK
FOUNDER, ABLE GRAPE
A former VP of Web Search Engineering at Yahoo! and Director of Search at Twitter, Doug has spent the last few years working at the intersection of wine and technology. One labor of love has been Able Grape, a search engine for the wine world, with some 26 million pages of wine information. While building Able Grape, Doug evaluated and categorized tens of thousands of wine sites and blogs, so he hopes to bring a unique perspective to the excellent WBA judging team. Doug holds the Diploma from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, has written for Wine Business Magazine and has given talks at the Wine Writers Symposium and the Wine Bloggers Conferences. He hopes to finish his MW someday, or at least fail it in style, when he doesn’t have a million crazy projects going.

MIKE DUNNE
COLUMNIST, WRITER
Mike Dunne is a freelance wine writer dividing his time between Sacramento, California, and San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur. He contributes a weekly wine column to The Sacramento Bee, writes for various other publications, and tends two blogs, A Year In Wine and Finding Los Cabos. A frequent judge on the wine-competition circuit, he also is one of two chief judges for the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition.

PAUL GREGUTT
WRITER, AUTHOR
Paul Gregutt is an independent journalist covering the wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed “Washington Wines & Wineries – The Essential Guide”, published by University of California Press.
Since 1999 he has been the Northwest editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine, and a founding member of the magazine’s Tasting Panel. His reviews of Oregon and Washington wines appear exclusively in that publication and on his website, www.paulgregutt.com. For the past two years he has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People In the Wine Business. His most recent project is Waitsburg Cellars, a line of wines focused on old vine whites and innovative red blends.

JULIE ANN KODMUR
MARKETER, PUBLICIST
Julie Ann Kodmur is an award-winning publicity and marketing consultant and freelance journalist who founded her own publicity and marketing consultancy in 1997 in St. Helena. She has contributed to The New York Times, Town & Country, The Wine Enthusiast, American Journalism Review and Stanford Magazine; for five years she served as the editor for The Napa Valley Wine Report. She has been a panelist on publicity and marketing topics at numerous wine industry symposia and served as a wine judge. She has taught public relations and journalism at Pacific Union College in the Napa Valley. Julie Ann lives in St. Helena with her family, which includes a Springer Spaniel and a strawberry roan mustang.

ROBERT JOSEPH
WRITER, CONSULTANT
Robert Joseph, creator of TheJosephReport.com is the award-winning author of over 25 books including Bordeaux and its Wines, the Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, French Wines and the annual Good Wine Guide. He was co-founder of the International Wine Challenge and Wine International magazine and is editor-at-large of Meininger’s Wine Business International. His experience living in Burgundy led him to want to produce wines himself; he is now co-owner of Hugh, Kevin & Robert which sells over 1.2m bottles of its own innovative branded and award-winning Le Grand Noir wines in over a dozen markets. As director of the DoILikeIt? Consultancy, Joseph is frequently invited to address major industry forums internationally on marketing, communications and social media. His most recent venture involves the creation of personalised e-books that allow people to decide for themselves on their content.

MICHELLE LOCKE
WRITER, EDITOR
Michelle Locke is a writer and editor based in the San Francisco Bay area. A recovering news reporter, she now specializes in food, wine and travel, writing stories that appear in print and online publications across the country. She is a freelancer contributor to the Associated Press and writes the News in Focus column for Vineyard & Winery Management magazine.

PAUL MABRAY
CO-FOUNDER, VINTANK
Co-founder and Chief Strategist at VinTank, of the wine industry’s most innovative consultancies, Paul Mabray is a familiar and influential member of the American wine industry. Prior to founding VinTank in 2009, Paul worked in the wine industry in a variety of capacities including founding Inertia Beverage Group, where he created and founded one of the largest and most popular e-commerce platforms for the wine industry. At VinTank, Paul has been a champion of digital innovation in the wine industry working with numerous clients across the globe to help them develop effective tools to brand and market their goods and services. Mabray is regularly sought out as a speaker and panelist at industry conferences and seminars across the world where he speaks to the promise and possibilities of new tools for wine education and marketing.

JORDAN MACKAY
WRITER
Jordan Mackay is the James-Beard-award winning wine and spirits writer for San Francisco magazine. His writing on food, wine, spirits, and beer has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Decanter, The Art of Eating, Wine and Spirits, Food & Wine, Gourmet and many others. Currently, he writes regularly for San Francisco, as well as a monthly pairing column in Cooking Light. His first book, Passion for Pinot, was published in 2009, and his second, Secrets of the Sommeliers (with Rajat Parr), was released in October 2010, winning the James Beard award in 2011. His latest book, Two in the Kitchen, with his wife Christie Dufault, was published in late 2012. Currently, he is working on a book about Texas barbecue and two more books on wine. He lives in San Francisco.

DAVE MCINTYRE
WINE COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST
Dave McIntyre has written the weekly wine column for The Washington Post since October 2008. He also writes Dave McIntyre’s WineLine, a blog that started as an email newsletter in 1999, before the word “blog” was coined. He is co-founder of Drink Local Wine, an organization and website that highlights writing about wines from “The Other 47” states. Meininger’s Wine Business International named him as one of the most influential U.S. wine writers in 2012. Dave has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Wine Enthusiast, Sommelier Journal, and Washingtonian magazine, among other publications. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

MARY ORLIN
WRITER, EDITOR, PRODUCER
Mary Orlin is the WineFashionista, blending wine and fragrance with style. She is the James Beard Award and Emmy Award-winning co-founder of Orlin Media, specializing in video story telling for wineries. Mary writes about wine and perfume on The Huffington Post where she is a featured blogger. Her writing has been featured in Gastronomique En Vogue and Uncorked. She also produces for the AOL “You’ve Got” video series about interesting and inspirational stories. Most recently Mary was the Executive Producer of the NBC show In Wine Country, which she launched in 2001. The show ran for an nine seasons, and is now in syndication. Prior to NBC, she was a producer on CNN Travel Now, a travel, food and wine show. She was also an editor for Zagat Survey, food and wine editor for the Palo Alto Weekly and a contributor to Travelocity Magazine.

DR. ELIZABETH THACH
PROFESSOR, SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Dr. Liz Thach, MW (pronounced “tosh”) is a management and wine business professor at Sonoma State University in the Wine Business Institute where she teaches in both the undergraduate and Wine MBA programs. Liz’s passion is wine, and she has visited most of the major wine regions of the world and more than 35 countries. In addition, she has published over 90 articles and 5 wine textbooks, including Wine – A Global Business and Wine Marketing & Sales. A fifth generation Californian, Liz finished her Ph.D. at Texas A&M and now lives on Sonoma Mountain where she tends a small hobby vineyard and makes garagiste wine. She also works as a wine judge in various competitions, and has served on many non-profit wine boards. Liz obtained the distinction of Master of Wine (MW) in May of 2011.

DAVID VOGELS
EDITOR, SOMMELIER JOURNAL
David Vogels is Editor of Sommelier Journal, the professional wine magazine based in Boulder, Colo., and its new online Digital Edition. With more than 30 years’ experience in magazine publishing, he is also Executive Editor of the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics. A Certified Wine Professional from the Culinary Institute of America, he holds degrees in journalism from the University of Missouri and in music literature from the University of Colorado.

Submissions now closed! Thanks for all your help!

Joel — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 06:01:23 +0000

The submissions phase is now closed. Now begins the judging process. Judging will continue until the end of April at which time we’ll announce the finalists!

We’ll soon be posting the announcement of the judges and their profiles.

Good luck to everyone who had their site submitted!

2013 Wine Blog Awards Nominations Now Being Taken

Joel — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:19:00 +0000

The call for nominations in the 7th Annual Wine Blog Awards is now open.

We are seeking nominations in nine categories and the process will extend to March 31st. In order to obtain the significant number of nominations we are seeking, we would ask all those inclined to spread the word.

CLICK TO ACCESS THE CRITERIA FOR JUDGING FOR EACH CATEGORY

CLICK TO ACCESS THE WINE BLOG AWARDS NOMINATION PAGE

CLICK TO VIEW BLOGS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN NOMINATED

THE NOMINATION AND JUDGING PROCESS

It is important to note that once a blog has been nominated in a particular category by a member of the public, it need not be nominated again in order for it to be taken under consideration by our panel of judges. It is not the case that the blogs with the most nominations are those that will be considered to be finalists. The panel of judges will consider each and every blog nominated in a category.

The judges in this year’s awards will be announced in the near future.

After the nominations process closes on March 31st, our judges will then undertake the task of evaluating nominations based on the criteria for each category. Their individual evaluations will be taken together to determine the five finalists blogs in each category.

Once the finalists in each category are determined and announced, voting on the winners begins. The winner in each category is determined by a vote of the public and of the judges. The final determination is based on a 50/50 weighting between collective votes of the judges and the public vote.

The winners will be announced at the 2013 Wine Bloggers Conference in Penticton, British Columbia on Saturday June 7th. We are very pleased to announce also that Mutineer Magazine is sponsoring this year’s Wine Blog Awards and will lead the presentation of the Awards live at the Wine Bloggers Conference.

The goal of the Wine Blog Awards is a simple one: Honor and celebrate the best in wine blogging; encourage the wine blogging community to continue what has been a continued march to relevance and success in the area of wine education and reporting and to draw attention to the wine blogging community.

The 2012 Wine Blog Awards Winners

Tom Wark — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:38:16 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE 2012 WINE BLOG AWARDS

Best Blog Post of the Year – “Why do I Write about Wine” by Evan Dawson, New York Cork Report
Best New Wine Blog – Wine Julia by Julia Crowley
Best Original Video or Photography on a Wine Blog – WineOh.tv by Monique Soltani
Best Industry Wine Blog – The Gray Report by W. Blake Gray
Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog – Kens Wine Guide.com by Ken Hoggins
Best Writing on a Wine Blog – Vinography by Alder Yarrow
Best Single Subject on a Wine Blog – On the Wine Trail in Italy by Alfonso Cevola
Best Winery Wine Blog – The Journey of Jordan by Lisa Mattson and the Jordan Team
Best Overall Wine Blog – Jamie Goode’s Wine Blog by Jamie Goode

One More Vote Remains in Wine Blog Awards

Tom Wark — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:23:03 +0000

Last night at 11:59pm, the general public voting in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards closed. We are very happy to announce that more than 3,000 people voted in a variety of categories. Thank you everyone for helping us determine the award winners that will be announced on August 18 at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference.

HOWEVER…VOTING IN THE “BEST NEW WINE BLOG” CATEGORY REMAINS OPEN UNTIL 11;59 ON SUNDAY, JULY 29.

IF YOU HAVE NOT VOTED IN THIS CATEGORY OR IF YOU VOTED EARLY IN THE PROCESS WE WOULD ASK YOU TO CAST YOUR VOTE AGAIN.

CLICK TO VOTE FOR “BEST NEW WINE BLOG”

Upon closing the voting in the category of “Best New Wine Blog” we will begin tabulating votes from the public as well as from the judges in anticipation of the awards ceremony at the Wine Bloggers Conferences. We are very excited to have Alan Kroft form Mutineer Magazine producing the Awards ceremony in Portland.

Again, thank you to everyone who took part in this process from those of you who nominated your favorite blogs, to the judges that produced our list of finalists, to all of those who helped promote these awards and to everyone who has an will vote for the winners.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Finalist & Voting Change

Tom Wark — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:33:32 +0000

It’s with regret that we are announcing a change to the finalists in the Category of “Best New Wine Blog”. With this announcement comes a change in how voting for the winner in this category will go forward from here.

THE PROBLEM:
The finalists in each category are determined by calculating point totals that are associated with judges’ rankings within a category. When calculating the judges allocation of points to the list of public submissions in the “Best New Wine Blog Category”, there was an error. Unfortunately this mistake was not caught until this weekend, after voting had commenced.

ACTION BEING TAKEN:

We are halting the voting for the “Best New Wine Blog” category
We will add the correct blog to the finalist list and send out the “Finalist” logos to all Finalists
We will ask the public for a re-vote ONLY in the “Best New Wine Blog Category”. Every other category is unaffected
The judges will review the finalists from the now correct list of finalists as part of determining the winner

NEW VOTING IN “BEST NEW WINE BLOG” CATEGORY INSTRUCTIONS
The public voting for a run-off for the “Best New Wine Blog” category is being under taken here: VOTE HERE

Voting in just the “Best New Wine Blog” Category will run through July 29th at 11:59pm EDT. Voting in all other categories will continue at the original link: All other categories are business as usual. Voting in all the other categories will continue as planned until July 26 at 11:59 EDT.

APOLOGIES:
We apologize to all those who have, up to this point, voted in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards. No other category of voting has been effected. Still, we regret this error.

…Organizers of the 2012 Wine Blog Awards

The Finalists in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards Are Announced

Tom Wark — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:21:43 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2012 WINE BLOG AWARD FINALISTS!

Click the “VOTE” button below to vote for your favorites in 9 categories: Voting will continue through July 26th at 11:59pm when the polls will close.

Best Blog Post of the Year

We’re excited to present a first for the Wine Blog Awards. This new award is for outstanding examples of feature writing on a wine blog. The award winning post might address industry issues, wine travel, personality profiles or any other aspect of wine. However, the judging criteria will focus on quality of the writing, the expression of the blogger’s unique voice and insightful expression by the writer.

Finalists:

Evan Dawson’s “Why do I write about wine?“
Alder Yarrow’s “2009 Burgundy Vintage According to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti“
Jim Budd’s “Pancho Campo resigns his MW“
Lily-Elaine Hawk’s “Thinking Frank Cornelissen: Considering Wine’s Natural Drinking Window via Munjebel 7 White & Red, and Contadino 8“
Meg Houston Maker’s “You Just Opened a What? Cooking Tips to Make Food More Wine-Friendly“