Meet our sustainable heroes

JancisRobinson.com 20th anniversary announcement

Sustainability was the theme of this year’s writing competition and is also the theme of our 20th anniversary celebrations. Today we publish 18 videos with heart-warming and instructive messages from thoughtful producers around the world.

Last Thursday we introduced you to 15 short videos made by our team of contributors, a follow-up to my 15-minute video presentation of the story of JancisRobinson.com. Today it’s the turn of the 18 sustainable producers shortlisted in our recent writing competition, thanks to the budding wine writers who took the trouble to profile them so compellingly. This is a major addition to our brand-new Videos section that you can access via the Videos link in the horizontal menu at the top of every page of JancisRobinson.com.

As with our contributors’ videos, we had to decide on an order and we chose to present the two winning entries first: those on Brooks in Oregon (profiled in the writing competition by Pascal Brooks himself; see today's tasting article devoted to Brooks wines from Oregon) and on Spottswoode in Napa Valley (profiled by Ashley Hausman MW and Martin Reyes MW). See here for our 58 tasting notes on Spottswoode wines.

Thereafter, the producers’ uplifting personal accounts are presented in alphabetical order by producer (sur)name.

We hope there are many useful lessons to be learnt from these very varied presentations, put together by Lilla O’Connor who is, inter alia, one of our vital uploaders of tasting notes. She asked each producer to nominate a favourite wine and they feature at the end of each film.

Below are links to each video with the name of its host and, below, the author of the original profile in our competition.

Brooks, Oregon presented by Pascal Brooks
Pascal Brooks

Spottswoode, Napa Valley presented by Beth Novak Milliken
Ashley Hausman MW and Martin Reyes MW

Cullen, Margaret River presented by Vanya Cullen
Mike Bartlett

Crittenden Estate, Mornington Peninsula presented by Rollo Crittenden
Ed Verrill

Felton Road, Central Otago presented by Nigel Greening
Chris Howard

Frogs Leap, Napa Valley presented by John Williams
Clayton Fox

Hirsch, Sonoma Coast presented by Jasmine Hirsch
Nicholas Daddona

Illahe Vineyards, Oregon presented by Bethany and Brad Ford
Aaron Bartels

Jakab, Tokaj presented by Zoltán Jakab
Annamaria Juhasz

Château Maris, Minervois presented by Robert Eden
Alex Hill

Matthiasson, Napa Valley presented by Steve Matthiasson
Chris Struck

San Donato, Tuscany presented by Nicoletta Dicova
Nicoletta Dicova

Sokol Blosser, Oregon presented by Alex Sokol Blosser
Karen Magner

Solminer, California presented by David and Anna deLaski
Joanna Snawder-Manzo

Southbrook, Ontario presented by Bill Redelmeier
Jacky Blisson MW

Waterkloof, Stellenbosch presented by Christiaan Loots
Sarah Suzanne

Dr Wehrheim, Pfalz presented by Franz Wehrheim
Anna Chilton

Franz Weninger, Burgenland presented by Franz Weninger
Hajnalka Kis