29 June 2022 Many thanks for the entries so far received. Tomorrow is the deadline for submissions! See also our recent announcement that the winner will not only be published but also mentored.
2 June 2022 We announced the prizes for this year's competition.
12 May 2022 We're republishing this today to remind anyone who missed the original announcement to have a go at our popular writing competition. We look forward to receiving entries this month and next, and will be publishing the best ones in July and August.
26 April 2022 We're delighted to announce details of this year's wine writing competition.
Some eager writer-competitors have already been asking for details, so here they are!
Last year we had all of 136 carefully written entries for our competition for essays on the subject of old vines, and we are just as excited by the theme of this year’s competition, which we hope will yield an equally fertile crop of entries. Inspired by the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, which exists to accelerate the adoption of regenerative practices in vineyards, we’d like this year’s entrants to turn their minds to the subject of regeneration in all its aspects:
An account of regeneration in the wine world, whether of a vineyard, a soil, a winery, a person, a family, a community, a business – anything in the world of wine involving genuine renewal.
From Doctor Who to some of the world’s finest vineyards, the word ‘regeneration’ is gaining currency. Modern agriculture (and too many instances of viticulture) has debased the quality of our soils to such an extent that some say we have only 60 harvests left before our soils are entirely depleted. And yet the message of hope is that if we can rebuild our soil carbon, microbial life and structure back to pre-industrial levels, we can not just slow the rate of climate change, but actually reverse it.
Regeneration is not just about soil, however. It is also about ecosystems (of which humanity is very much a part), biodiversity, buildings, communities and economies. We are looking for accounts of renewal and the return of life in any aspect of the world of wine. Articles should ideally be a good read rather than an academic treatise, and human colour and social context are just as important in telling the story as percentages of soil organic matter.
The rules for the competition are:
- Your account can be anything between 500 and 2,500 words long and should not have been published previously, or submitted for publication anywhere other than JancisRobinson.com.
- It should be accompanied by at least one copyright-free image in JPG, JPEG, GIF or PNG format that we may publish
- The main image must be 1,275 pixels across and 750 pixels high. It must be captioned and credited.
- You may send up to four images in total, but the in-article images must be 750 pixels wide in JPG, JPEG, GIF or PNG format, you must indicate where each image should be positioned in the article and all images must be captioned and credited.
- A link to a video hosted elsewhere (eg YouTube) is permitted but we cannot accept video files as part of your submission.
- Your entry should be sent in a Word document attached to an email, along with your image(s). Please note that no other formats can be accepted.
- Include a brief bio/description of yourself at the top of your entry, in the Word document.
- Send your entry to [email protected] entitled WWC22 followed by your full name in the Subject line.
- The deadline for entries is 30 June 2022.
- The entry can be about something in which you have a commercial interest, but you must declare this upfront.
We will not accept entries after 30 June 2022 and we intend to publish the best entries in July and August, announcing the winner(s) in September.
We are currently negotiating exactly what the prize(s) will be and will announce these as soon as possible (see here).
This year, as last, there will also be a people's vote for the best entry. So we would encourage you to read as many of them as possible once we start publishing them in July.
We look forward very much to receiving this year's entries and hope that this year's competition will be as illuminating and entertaining as those in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and all the way back to our first writing competition in 2014.
The photo above is by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.
