What our new competition tells us about the world of wine communication. Our Head of Wine, Asia, Richard Hemming MW has the story.
Since I started writing about wine 16 years ago, the death of wine communication has been declared at least four times. I hope those two facts aren’t related – but either way, if entries into the inaugural 67 Awards are anything to go by, then that death has been greatly exaggerated.
The 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards launched in January this year as a new competition to celebrate the world’s finest wine communicators. We received a total of 642 entries from 223 entrants across 23 countries, over five categories that cover writing, audio and video. While the UK and the US comprised almost two-thirds of entries, there were sizeable contributions from Australia, France, South Africa, Singapore, Italy, New Zealand and Canada, published on platforms including Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, Substack and dozens of publications from personal blogs to national newspapers.
The sheer variety, inventiveness and enthusiasm of these entries shows that wine communication is alive and kicking, but it also reveals some of the issues that communicators face, including the harsh reality of how to generate income.
A huge variety of entries
The subjects in the entries we received for the Awards covered everything from cultural and social issues to academic reports about viticulture. Wine is a famously infinite world, but the best communicators demonstrated that they can make any subject come alive, whether aimed at beginners or veterans. It was heartening to see so much creativity in so many different formats.
Editorial independence was sometimes less clear, however. An honest disclosure of interests is vital, especially in entries where influencers collaborate with brands to promote them. These days, sponsored content is an increasingly common way to generate income through wine communication, but any partnerships should be transparent to retain integrity.
In some entries, errors in style could have been easily fixed. For written entries, basic spelling mistakes and muddled writing undermine an otherwise credible author. In podcasts, badly recorded audio can make an interesting conversation unlistenable. Even the most enjoyable filmed content can be upstaged by clumsy editing and poor lighting. The importance of editors and producers to help oversee content creation remains an important part of the process.
Understanding the expectations for each platform is also important. On TikTok and Instagram, a more homemade, eclectic style of filming can work brilliantly for snappy, short-form videos whereas Vimeo generally demands a more ‘professional’ broadcast standard; just as formal writing works better in a trade journal than in a fanzine.
The most successful communicators understand what their platform requires and therefore what their audience will respond to.
Passing judgement
All those factors are considered as part of the judging process. Each of the 642 entries was initially assessed by a panel comprising of me, Guy Woodward (our creative consultant and former editor of Decanter and Club Oenologique among others), Vinodhan Veloo (Head of Cellar, Singapore and budding MW candidate) and Matt Ayre (Global Wine Logistics Manager and moonlighting wine writer).
We gave each entry two provisional scores out of ten, firstly for style and secondly for content. Style concerned anything objective such as spelling, audio quality, lighting, and editing,while content was more subjective, covering originality, creativity, enjoyability, knowledge level and so on.
Next, our amazing judges took over. To truly represent the world of wine, we selected judges from a broad range of backgrounds and specialties. Above, from left to right:
> Isis Daniel from Washington DC, better known as The Millennial Somm on social media
> Olly Smith, one of the UK’s best-known drinks personalities
> Elaine Chukan Brown from California, a truly progressive wine communicator (and our chair of judges)
> Konstantin Baum MW from Germany, the highly popular wine YouTuber and entrepreneur
> Natalie Wang, the founder and publisher of the authoritative Vino-Joy News in Hong Kong
> Max Allen, a highly decorated wine writer both in Australia and around the world
Each entry was randomly assigned to two judges, who gave their own scores and comments. After six weeks of agonising, we had a three-hour call to thrash out the details and narrow down the longlist. After another fortnight of deliberation, a maximum of five finalists per category will be determined, which then leaves the hardest decision of all: which entrant should be crowned Global Wine Communicator of the Year for their category.
All will be revealed …
The finalists will be revealed in the first week of July, and the winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony on Friday 6th September at 12:30 pm GMT, at a live event in London which will be streamed online.
As well as the prestigious title and trophy, each winner receives £2,000 as a cash prize, thanks in part to our brilliant sponsors: Gusbourne Estate, Berkmann Wine Cellars, Errazuriz and Juliet Victor Vineyards.
Earning a living from wine communication may not be getting any easier, but the standard of entries we received in our first year of the competition is testament to the quality and diversity of wine communication around the world. Hundreds of people continue to dedicate themselves to the craft; the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards is our way of celebrating everyone that keeps wine communication in the prime of life.
To find out more about the awards, visit 67awards.com.
