Our 2025 wine writing competition – the shortlist

Julian Leidy

Thursday 11 September 2025 • 1 min read

2025 wine writing competition wine writing competitions

11 September 2025 Have you voted for your favourite yet? You have until midnight UK time next Monday to vote HERE.

1 September 2025 We've whittled the 309 entries to our 2025 wine writing competition down to a shortlist of the top 25. Readers have until midnight UK time on Monday 15 September to vote HERE for their favourite shortlisted entry. See the guide to our competition to read all the published entries.

Team JR's panel of judges has spent an arduous but rewarding several weeks reading all 309 entries to this year's wine writing competition. With so many excellent submissions, we have had to be particularly selective in choosing which pieces to publish, in full and unedited, and there was such an abundance of worthy entries that we switched from publishing one each day to two. It was even more challenging to select a shortlist from the 73 chosen for publication. After marking the published entries out of 20 points apiece, the judges narrowed the shortlist down to the 25 highest-scoring odes. You can see this shortlist below, listed alphabetically by the authors' surnames.

Now, it's time for you to vote on your favourite shortlisted entry. You have until midnight UK time on Monday 15 September to record your vote on this poll. Like the published entries, which are free for everyone to read regardless of whether or not they are a JancisRobinson.com member, this poll is open to anyone who wishes to vote. In addition to voting, you will also have the opportunity in the poll to give additional feedback about the wine writing competition and to suggest future competition themes. It is always so helpful to hear your thoughts and comments about the wine writing competition and inspiring to read your ideas for future competition themes.

Meanwhile, the panel of shortlist judges – comprised of members of Team JR plus Hermione Ireland and Susan Keevil of the Académie du Vin Library and this year's guest judge, the venerable Hugh Johnson OBE – will review and score each shortlisted entry out of 20 points to determine the winner of the Judges' choice prize.

The results of the readers' and judges' voting will be announced on Thursday 18 September. The winner of the readers' poll and the top-scoring entrant in the judges' voting will both receive a set of six of the hand-made Original wine glasses designed by Jancis and Richard Brendon. They will also both win a selection of 20 books published by our competition sponsor, the Académie du Vin Library.

The runners-up in the Readers' and Judges' choice categories will receive a set of two of Jancis' Original wine glasses as well as copies of Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate by Alex Maltman and The Cynic’s Guide to Wine by Sunny Hodge – both recently published by the Académie du Vin Library. Highly commended writers from both categories will receive On Tuscany, a compendium of essays about this famed wine region compiled by Susan Keevil, published earlier this year by the Académie du Vin Library. Additionally, the winners, runners-up and highly commended entrants will all win a one-year subscription to JancisRobinson.com, which they can use themselves or give as a gift.

Finally, a huge thank-you to everyone who took the time to write a submission to this competition. This year's entries were unprecedented in their number, but they were also distinguished by their outstanding quality. It's been a delight to read so many diverse, creative and inspiring odes to various grape varieties.

Now go vote for your favourite entry HERE by midnight UK time on Monday 15 September.