Entries open today (8 July) for WCA’s prestigious annual Wine Communicator Awards, which for the first time will include a category for Best Wine Educator.
WCA Chairman Angus Barnes said the time was right to acknowledge the key role good wine education played in promoting and stimulating the industry. “Educators are the champions of our industry, inspiring and helping consumers and trade to delve deeper and discover more about our wines,” he said. “We’re excited to introduce this new award and are hoping for a great response.”
There will be nine award categories in all this year, including the Wine Communicator of the Year, Digital Wine Communicator of the Year, and New Wine Writer of the Year, which is run in partnership with Gourmet Traveller WINE Magazine.
The other categories are:
- Best Wine Publication (technical, trade or consumer)
- Best Wine Book (technical, trade or consumer)
- Best Wine Trade or Technical Writer
- Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column
- Best Wine Website or Wine App.
“These awards are open to professionals across Australia,” Mr Barnes said. “If you’re a writer, designer, graphic artist, digital content developer or publisher and you’re helping to tell the Australian wine story in an engaging and innovative way we encourage you to enter.”
The judging panel will include last year’s Wine Communicator of the Year, wine writer and author Jeni Port, VinTank’s Paul Mabray, Fabulous Ladies Wine Society Jane Thomson and Anne Duncan, from the Australian Grape and Wine Authority. The New Wine Writer Award will be judged by Gourmet Traveller WINE Magazine editor Judy Sarris, contributing editor Huon Hooke, and WCA Deputy Chair Angie Bradbury.
Ms Port said the awards were highly sought after and she had considered it an honour to follow in the footsteps of previous winners such as Andrea Frost, Andrew Caillard, MW, Paul Henry, Peter Bourne and Peter Forrestal.
“That professionals in wine communication, in its many and varied 21st Century forms, should consider applying in 2015 should go without saying,” she said
Information about the awards, eligibility and judging criteria can be found here. You can also follow updates via WCA’s Twitter tag: @WineComAust and #WCAwards.