Can you wax lyrical about wine?

Do you write about wine on the internet? Chances are, if you’re reading this, maybe you do. Well don’t miss your chance to enter the Born Digital Wine Awards. The only competition to welcome entries in all languages, entries close at the end of January.

With categories such as wine tourism and investigative wine-writing as well as editorial, video and winery-produced content, the awards are intended to celebrate wine-writing quality in all its guises. In response to popular request, a photographic category has been added this year.

Last year’s inaugural contest received well over 200 entries – see here for the diverse list of winners. Speaking to DrinkBritain.com, competition co-founder Robert McIntosh said he would like to see double that in 2011, including more non-English submissions. 

One of a six-strong international judging panel including Jancis Robinson MW, Patrick Schmitt, editor of Drinks Business said that he hoped for more from winery blogs and "more surprising and compelling wine tourism stories", and "better production values in the videos. That being said, there were a few stunners among them all.”

This year's judging panel includes such luminaries as celebrated French author/editor Michel Bettane, Fongyee Walker from China, co-founder of Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting and an author and blogger himself, plus a number of last year’s winners, including Tim Atkin MW,  app developer and writer, Richard Ross, and Wine Travel Guides founder, Wink Lorch.

A bit of detective work

Richard Ross won the investigative award in 2010 for his piece on the discovery of that devastating insect, Phylloxera. Apparently the minx was first sighted not in the vineyards of France, but the suburbs of London, following its appearance on a Hammersmith vine.

“I have always liked the footnotes,” said Richard, explaining how the quest began. “I remember reading how the first sighting of phylloxera was in Hammersmith, and there I was, living in Chiswick." An early web convert, Richard began his site, Wine-lines.com, back in 2002.

Writing for the web is different, he concedes. “You have to cut to the chase more quickly. You need to deliver your story in a more direct fashion, urging people to keep reading.”

Prizes this year are generous, as last year, with 1000 Euros going to the winners of each category, plus a free pass to the European Wine Bloggers Conference – due to take place in 2012 in Turkey – and a free sub to Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages and Circle of Wine Writers, for those not already members.

A walk on the wild side

And what did Wink Lorch do with the winnings for her tourism piece on Alpine days out in Savoie? “Buy an iPad2 and the rest went on more travels,” an ever-energetic Wink tells me via Twitter earlier this week.

“Wine tourism is hugely important because if you can bring a wine’s taste to life, make it more interesting, [then] people are more likely to buy it,” says Wink. “But to find that story completely you need to go to the place, to immerse yourself in the terroir, the people and the place; by eating in the area and drinking in the views”

Speaking about the tourism scene in England, Wink particularly likes the self-guided tour options. “Not everyone wants to do the guided thing,” she says. “And that [self-guided option] doesn’t exist in every part of the world.”

What are the criteria?

The competition website explains what the awards are about:

The BDWA is not a “blogging” award, nor an emerging wine writer award. The organisers believe that the future of content creation will eventually adopt a digital first (or “born digital“) approach, where content is first published on the web, and only a fraction ever being printed. 

So if you have shared great stuff online over the last year, whether it be words, videos or pictures, what are you waiting for? Head to the competition website and submit your entry.

Good luck!