3 September 2024 Please read these 20 entries and vote for your favourite! See our competition guide for a full overview of the competition and the list of all published entries.
Twelve years ago, JancisRobinson.com held its first writing competition, on restaurants, and, following the success of our first wine writing competition in 2016, we decided to make this an annual competition, with a new wine-oriented theme each year. It has since become a popular event for both aspiring and professional writers, with some featured writers going on to become prominent figures in the wine industry. You can read a comprehensive overview of the themes and winners of the previous wine writing competitions in the guide to last year’s competition. This year’s theme – ‘the wine moment I’ll never forget’, a topic that was suggested by a reader – brought in an unprecedented 214 entries, requiring the panel of judges to be ruthlessly selective in choosing which entries to publish.
Now it’s time to select the winners, and we want your help. We have already published the 60 entries we thought were the best, in full and unedited, and now, after scoring a longlist out of 20 points, we’ve narrowed that down to a shortlist of the 20 top-scoring entries (which you can see below). Please read them and cast your vote for your favourite HERE by 12 noon UK time on Monday 16 September.
The winner of the Readers’ choice poll will receive a pair of Jancis’s handmade Original wine glasses, designed with Richard Brendon, and a selection of 20 wine books published by our partner in the competition, the Académie du Vin Library.
Meanwhile, two expert external judges, Susan Keevil and John Lanchester, have joined us to help select the winner of the Judges’ choice award. Keevil is a skilled editor and editorial director of the Académie du Vin Library, while Lanchester is the award-winning journalist and novelist whose bestselling works include The Debt to Pleasure and Capital. The winner of the Judges’ choice award will receive six Original glasses as well as 20 titles from the Académie du Vin Library.
The runners-up in each category will each receive two of the Académie du Vin Library’s recent publications: Wine Confident by Kelli A White and Wines of the Loire Valley by Beverley Blanning MW. A highly commended entrant from each category will win a copy of the Académie du Vin Library’s On Tuscany.
All winners, runners-up and highly commended entrants will receive a year’s complimentary membership of JancisRobinson.com (or, if they are already members, an extension of their current membership by a year).
The 20 shortlisted entries are listed alphabetically by surname below. Voting for the Readers’ choice award is open to everyone. You’ll also have the chance to suggest the subject of next year’s wine writing competition when you vote. We’ll announce the winners of the Readers’ choice poll and the Judges’ award on Thursday 19 September.
You have until 12 noon UK time on Monday 16 September to vote HERE.
The article shortlist
A lockdown Grüner in Bordeaux, by Charlotte Adams Alsaadi
The young-ish man and the sea, by Todd Behrend
The wine moment I'll never forget, by Emma Bentley
A chance inheritance, by Tom Fox
Ice Ice Baby, by Christy Frank
Of mice and grapes, by Emily Grazier
The road to Damascus, by Luke Haughton
The problem with French wine, by Richard Hough
Wines that bind, by Carol Kaufmann
Can you help me? by Erica Landis
L'appel du vide, by Richard Lane
A toast in the fog, by Philip K Liao
Cheval Blanc and Dr Pepper, by Nina Lloyd
Bottle service, by Karen Magner
A matter of time, by Allyson Noman
Gewürztraminer, golden light, by Steven Norton
Chianti spritzer on the beach, by Melanie Webber
Image by Constantine Johnny via Getty Images.
