Wine Blogger Award Nominations
Disclaimer from the nomination site:
- The nomination period is April 1-7, 2010. Nominations will be open to the public and will be made via this website. Each blog nominated for a category will be included in the selection process; additional nominations for a blog in the same category will have no effect. Once a blog is nominated for a category there is no reason to nominate it again.
The 2010 Wine Blog Award nominations are under way. The winners will be announced at the 2010 Wine Bloggers conference in Walla Walla, WA. Yes, there is a Wine Bloggers conference. Yes, they even have awards. According to their web site the awards recognize the “best in new media.”
While nomination processes can turn into a convoluted mess of bloggers trolling for votes from their friends and family (be nice, Josh), the committee has a huge undertaking of distilling the nominations into the top five for folks to vote on. Keep in mind that the nominations should be for the best in their category and not the one who was able to muster the most relatives fans to vote 
Rather than recommend myself for anything, I thought I would provide my nominations, in case you don’t know some of these great folks!
Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, Presentation
My first reaction to this category was the great people at www.swirlsmellslurp.com and www.mywinewords.com. Sacha and “him” (don’t know his name) have hip and creative graphics, while Allie and Peter’s video presentation is top notch. Upon further investigation, I also nominated http://drinksareonme.net (although Dale has recently shut down his blog).
While I gravitate toward the non-industry blog and the line is becoming increasingly blurry, I do see these stand-outs. http://fermentation.typepad.com from Tom Wark and Paul Gregutt’s www.paulgregutt.com are two of my favorites!
Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog
This is one of the toughest categories, in my opinion. So many bloggers do a fantastic job of reviewing wine in creative ways. The stand outs to me include Jim from www.vinegeek.com, Ben at www.vinotology.com, Joe at www.1winedude.com, and Kori from www.winepeeps.com
While I do provide wine reviews on my blog, don’t even think of nominating me. Please choose one of these fine people instead!
Although I have been nominated in this category, I think that the following people better exemplify the category. www.michiganbythebottle.com, www.newyorkcorkreport.com, www.wawinereport.com. Each of these folks focus on one region, rarely deviate, and are ambassadors for their region.
This category seems to be a tough one as wineries have been slow to jump on the powerful tool of blogging. Some superstar performers here are www.stsupery.com/blog/ http://blog.jordanwinery.com and http://willamettevalleyvineyards.blogspot.com. Visit these sites as great examples of how a winery can showcase their activities and connect with clients.
Wow, this has to be the single toughest category. I literally read and comment on 100 different blog posts every week. Each morning I start my day by reading / watching so much talent. The following are consistently GREAT – www.1winedude.com, www.suburbanwino.com, http://sipwithme.blogspot.com, www.theoregonwineblog.com and www.anotherwineblog.com
Being one of the seemingly hundreds of wine blogs that have started in the last year, the competition is stiff here. Seems like here, more than any other category, ballot stuffing is becoming an epidemic. Thank you for nominating me. My nominations go to www.vinotology.com http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com and www.swirlsmellslurp.com. PLEASE NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITES so they’re not pushed out by the vote trollers.
In reading through the comments, I saw that I was nominated. While I’m honored for the nomination (thanks SuburbanWino), I am far from qualified. Please consider the following as my nomination for Best Overall Wine Blog – www.1winedude.com, www.winetonite.com, www.paulgregutt.com, www.palatepress.com and Mike Supple at www.supplewine.com.
Nominations end today, so please don’t forget to do your research and vote for the best in each category today!
I think folks are a little confused. At least the way I understand it, nominating is different than voting. The judges will pick top 5 from the nominated blogs in each category. Then there will be voting.
From the website:
“A panel of five expert judges will evaluate all the nominated blogs for each category during the period April 8-30 and will select the top five blogs in each category. The panel will include judges from outside North America. The judges will be announced at some point during the process.
The public will be given the opportunity to vote for the finalists of each category from May 17-23. ”
The spam like posting in the nomination threads doesn’t seem to be accomplishing much at this point.
I agree about the spam like posting, the “rules” have definitely been overlooked, probably because they’re not posted on the individual nomination pages where people tend to go. The group doing the evaluating is going to have a challenging task ahead of them.
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Thanks for the mention here – quite flattered. I also noticed somebody nominated me as well, but I heartily second your nomination!
Good luck to all. Great article – some fantastic writing, education and entertainment opportunities in all of these blogs.
Cheers,
Mike
No acknowledgment of my handsome blogger nomination. I’m pissed.
Clive, if there were a category, you would win – hands down!
I did see you were nominated in a few categories, however! Best of luck!
Thanks for the kind words!!
Wow, Josh, I can’t believe you nominated me… I’m honored, touched and quite frankly blown away. Thank you, thank you! xo
Tamara – don’t sell yourself short. Some bloggers I read periodically have good posts. Every one of your posts is top notch.
Thanks for thinking of the Willamette Valley Vineyards blog (or maybe you are still won over by our Signature Cuvée)! It is a pleasure to create content for and it is pretty awesome to hear appreciation for it.
– Love your blog too. Its one of my top read/watches on lunch!
Christine – I wish more wineries would get on board and share the process with us wine drinkers – and yes the Signature Cuvee is in my dreams on most nights!
Hey Josh,
I’ve been absent online for the past week, so I’m just seeing this. Thanks very much for the mention and the nomination. Very kind of you. I wish I was able to attend WBC2010 so we could meet IRL. Cheers!
You’re welcome, Jim – it is very much well deserved. I’m sure we’ll meet some day. Keep up the fantastic work. You are truly one of the best people in this wine blogging world.