Tom Wark at FERMENTATION has announced the winners of the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards. Tyler Colman, Dr. Vino himself, took home two of the coveted statues (there were statues, right?). Not only did his blog win “Best Wine Blog” but he also won “Best Writing on a Wine Blog.” Congratulations, Tyler!
Perennial front runner Alder Yarrow from Vinography was recognized as “Best Wine Reviewing Blog” and Gary Vaynerchuk took home the “Best Podcast or Videoblog” award for Wine Library TV. My collaboration partner for the new Unfiltered podcast, Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape, won for “Best Wine Blog Graphics.” Rounding out the awards are Pinotblogger as “Best Winery Blog” and The Wine Collector Blog as “Best Single Subject Blog.”
My sincere congratulations to all the winners.
Tom Wark deserves a ton of credit for doing this and I think everything went very well for the first time out of the gate. Next year I’d like to see a more international focus and inclusion of the great UK and Australian wine blogs; perhaps a “Best Non-U.S. Wine Blog” category is in order? At the very least, a non-American judge would be the type of thing I’d like to see.
In the podcast category, I think there are a couple of issues. For one, there is a big difference between indie efforts like Cellar Rat and even my humble podcast and what the Wine Spectator does. Second, I don’t think audio podcasts should be judged along side video podcasts; both lose in the comparison.
But these are quibbles. Thanks for your efforts, Tom. I’m going to raise my game now to get into the finals next year 😉
Well deserved awards to all concerned but have to agree with you on the American focus – although a couple of non-American blogs were mentioned the whole Americacentricness (from the name down) grates somewhat.
As an American, I was also put off by the U.S. centricity of these awards. Unlike other work — motion pictures come to mind — America does not have a monopoly on wine blogs. If anything, the center or gravity is on wine blogs written in the English language. I’m sure this sort of feedback will have some influence on round two, but if not, I think these awards will recede in influence.
Thanks, Tim! Still looking for the statuette…
Keep up the great work! Cheers,
Tyler
The finalists were all deserving of the honor, and I would imagine that receiving the award was merely the icing on the cake.
I would have to agree, however, with the idea that “amateur” podcasts and “professional” podcasts should perhaps have a separate award. What Gary V or Wine Spectator can accomplish given their resources is much greater than anything that Tim or I can do–regardless of desire and drive. But I acknowledge it would at times be hard to properly categorize a podcast. If I’m a part-time wine educator, does that make me a professional, or am I still an amateur? Defining the terms might be tricky.
As for the US-centricity, it didn’t bother me as much as others. Tom Wark set out to accomplish a certain goal, and he did so with flying colors. There’s nothing preventing any of us from creating and organizing an international award program (except time, perhaps). The only thing I could think of that might be tricky is how international folks who aren’t fluent in a particular language might be able to judge a blog in that language. But a set of awards based on language (French, Spanish, German, Italian, English, and on and on) might make some sense.
Then again, I could be wrong…
I don’t think you are wrong, Bill. I hope that the next such awards, sponsored by Tom or someone else, will be more of an International affair. I agree that languages can be an issue but I thought that fine English language blogs published outside America didn’t get the consideration they were due this time around.
But like any 1.0 effort, these fine points often don’t get addressed fully; I am confident Tom will do so in the next round…