We are extremely excited to announce the Shortlist for the 2012 Born Digital Wine Awards! The competition was hard fought – with over 300 submissions from 24 countries, including: Australia, Belgium, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Turkey – and our judges completed the complex task of narrowing down the large number of entries to a concise and deserving list of “Top 5” for each category.

We really appreciate the efforts of everyone who took part, both as candidates and judges, and entered such great material, putting our new content and judging system though its paces. The winners will be announced at the London International Wine Fair, on the Access Zone, on May 23rd 2012 at 16:30 (London Time). As the Access Zone will be streamed live, you can join us at: www.vrazon.com/accesszone.

The “Top 5″ in each category, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, are listed below. We are particularly pleased by the presence of so many names you may not be familiar with appearing on this list. We encourage you to check them all out and make up your own mind before the announcement of the winners:

Best Editorial Wine Writing

• Amy Corron Power (Another Wine Blog): Wine Intelligence admits Bias, Ulterior Motives in “Wine Blogger Distrust” Release
• Andrea Frost (The New Ruby Press): The Invention of Wine
• Paul Keers (Sediment): Just Looking: The Joy of Wine Browsing
• Quentin Sadler (Quentin Sadler’s Wine Page): Minerality in wine – flight of fantasy, fact or terroir?
• Evan Dawson (Submitted Piece to Palate Press): Il Dimenticato: Piedmont’s New White Star Has a Mysterious and Forgotten Past

Best Investigative Wine Story

• Pamela Heiligenthal (Enobytes): Has the term ‘California Grand Cru’ Gone too Far?
• Jim Budd (Jim’s Loire): Campogate, no Pay no Jay
• Evan Dawson (Submitted Piece to Palate Press): Message from California Winemakers: Stop Slandering Our Pinot!
• Carly Wray (Submitted Piece to Snooth): Malbec in Argentina
• Chris Kissack (Wine Doctor): Pressure Sensitive

Best Wine Tourism Feature

• Mariella Beukers (Wijnkronieken): Culinair genieten in Süd Steiermark
• Louise Hurren (Submitted Piece to Wine Travel Guides): Authentic wines and hearty cooking in Bucelas outside Lisbon
• Tom Florina (The Vine Route): Contextual pleasures: NYC chic meets Corsican mystique
• Nick Stock (Post Ferment): Preserving Home Turf: A very special part of the world
• Wendy Crispell (Sassy Sip NYC): The Carso, They’ve got the stones to produce great wine and cheese…………

Best Winery Self Produced Content

• Iris Rutz-Rudel (Balade dans la vigne): Balade de Juin dans la vigne
• Gavin Quinney (Bauduc Blog): 13 Unpalatable Facts about the UK Wine Duty
• Ryan O’Connell (O’Vineyards): Who Visits Vineyards
• Brian Overstreet (Brulium Wine Blog): Born to Sell
• Kerith Overstreet (Brulium Wine Blog): Insufferable

Best Wine Themed Video

• Ophélie Neiman (Miss Glou Glou): Au coeur du bouchon de liège
• Heiko Michels (Weinkoerper): Es Gart
• Giorgia Guarienti (Off Road Strade Creative): Wine: Got to Deserve It
• Richard Hemming (Purple Pages): An MW student’s guide to remembering appellations
• Debra Meiburg: (Debra Master of Wine) Grape Moments: Length Matters

Best Wine Photo Essay

Giacomo Tincani (La Basia): Tie (Legare)

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Lannon Harley (Four Winds Vineyard): 2011 Riesling Harvest at Four Winds Vineyard

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Matt Wilson (MattWilson.cl): Small Wine Producers in the Maule Valley Chile

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Mick Rock (Cephas): A biodynamic day at Dr Bürklin Wolf

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Lannon Harley (Four Wines Vineyard): Rolling out the nets at Four Winds Vineyard

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Thank you to all the judges and supporters!

And congratulations to all the short listed entrants! We look forward to announcing the winners at the London International Wine Fair on Wednesday the 23rd of May at 4:30 London Time!