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

Best Investigative Wine Story

Best Wine Tourism Feature

Best Winery Self Produced Content

Best Wine Themed Video

Best Wine Photo Essay

Click any image to see it large, and use your arrow keys to navigate through the photos in each set.

Giacomo Tincani (La Basia): Tie (Legare)

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This photo essay shows the binding of vine-shoots, traditionally done with willow branches. After pruning, when the tiny buds of this year’s growth have just appeared, vine-shoots are gently bent along the wires and tied with a flexible willow branch in one quick movement.
Photographs were shot in late winter in the vineyards of La Basia, a small winery in the Lake Garda region (Italy). The photos show a patient, careful manual method, passed down from father to son over many generations. The work, and thus the images, depict a quiet and meditative relationship between man and environment.
These photos are part of a larger ongoing project to document the various unique stages in the seasonal cycle of a family winery, where traditional techniques coexist alongside modern technology. Rather than a nostalgic vision of past times, they are intimate moments of a dynamic juxtaposition: a tie between old traditions and today’s practices.

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

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This is a series of pictures that shows the Four Winds Vineyard team picking the Riesling. The season was characterised by lots of rain and these pictures shows the team rushing to get the harvest in before the storm hits.

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

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These are a series of photographs I made during three visits to a group of small wine producers in the Maule Valley in Chile. They own one or two acres of old carignan, pais grancahe and mouvdre vines. They use horses and old farming methods. The wine is fermented and stored in ceramic jars called “tinajas” The vines are up to 100 years old and they have been grafting some of them.

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

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Some of the many tasks being undertaken on a day in late May at Dr. Bürklin Wolf, who are based at Wachenheim an der Weinstrasse in the Pfalz region of Germany. In 2005 the decision was made to convert all their vineyards to biodynamic viticulture. Today this is being done under the guidance of consultant Monty Waldin.

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

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The 2011 growing season was plagued with rain which resulted in wildly-long canes, walls of foliage and an over-all lushness that is usually reserved for Spring. This series of pictures shows the Four Winds Vineyard team putting on our Shiraz nets.

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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!