Tag Archives: Wine Blog Awards

The Saveur Blog Awards

Saveur blog awardsThe Wine Curmudgeon needs your help to win one of the Saveur Blog Awards.

I don’t like to ask this, given I’m a wine writer and not a yenta who nags my readers, and most of these awards require lots of nagging. But the Saveur blog awards are a big deal for what I do, perhaps second to the James Beard Awards in the food and wine business. So winning Saveur’s best wine blog award would help advance the cause and show the Winestream Media that wine drinkers want more than scores and winespeak. They want wine writing they can understand and that helps them find wine that’s enjoyable and affordable.

Hence this post, and my request:

Go to the Saveur site and nominate the blog by clicking on this link. The number of nominations is one of the criteria used to pick the finalists. You can nominate the blog — winecurmudgeon.com — until March 13.

That’s our goal for the next 10 days, to get enough nominations so that the Saveur editors notice the blog and begin to understand there’s more going on than they can see from their Manhattan offices. We’ll worry about winning if and when the time comes.

 

Vote for your favorite Wine Blog Awards finalist

wine bloog awardsBut you can’t vote for me, because I didn’t participate this year. Winning last year was enough — time to spread the wealth around and let the world see how many great blogs and websites there are.

The list of finalists is here. The quality of the finalists this year is outstanding, even without me. But if you’re going to vote, a few thoughts:

? My pal Alfonso Cevola is listed for best single subject blog for On the Wine Trail in Italy.

? Jon Thorsen, who does the Reverse Wine Snob and writes about cheap wine, is listed for best wine review.

? W. Blake Gray, who brings a reporter’s sensibility to what he does at The Gray Report, is a finalist for best writing.

Wine Curmudgeon wins Wine Blog Award

I had a nifty little thing mostly written for this morning, explaining why I didn’t care that I didn’t win the 2013 Wine Blog Award for best industry blog. Guess I don’t need to post it, huh?

I was dumbfounded when I got up this morning to find an email from The Italian Wine Guy, a text from Katie Myers, and a tweet from Dave Falchek sharing the news. I honestly didn’t expect to win. For one thing, the category wasn’t a good fit for what I do. For another, I’m from the Midwest, and we don’t win things, as the Chicago Cubs have demonstrated for more than 100 years. Besides, the competition was intense — Blake Gray, Tom Wark, and The Hosemaster of Wine are wine blogging legends.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not thrilled. Or overjoyed. Or any adjective you want that describes complete and boundless happiness. And thank you. I may even find time today to enjoy my achievement, instead of my usual worrying and fretting about filling up the blog and making a living at it. Maybe with a little Puligny? Of course, I also have this nice $10 rose. …

What makes me the happiest is that the award was voted on by people who read wine blogs, and that those people voted for me. That means they want to know the things I write about — the idea that wine should be easy and enjoyable, that it doesn’t have to be about marketing gimmicks and winespeak, that wine writing should do for wine what intelligent, critical writing does for anything else: inform and educate the consumer.

Which, by the way, I’m going to keep doing, and would have even without the award. But you knew that anyway, didn’t you?

Still, it’s time for celebration. How about the Boss, the Big Man and the rest of the E Street Band Dancing in the Dark (courtesy of 19eagle81 at YouTube)?