We are extremely excited to announce that the 2011 Born Digital Wine Awards will begin accepting submissions in exactly one month’s time. On December 1st, 2011, the BDWA will seek out writers and artists from around the globe for their content published online in a free and unrestricted manner.

Last year, the inaugural awards proved to be success, with over 200 entries from 16 different countries around the world. Many of the category winners have accepted our invitation to join our judging panel among leading figures in wine journalism, videography and general publishing, including:

Tim Atkin (UK) – Wine Writer www.timatkin.com, blogger – 2010 Winner of Best Editorial Wine Writing

Wink Lorch (France) – Wine Writer,  Wine Travel Guides, blogger – 2010 Winner of Best Wine Tourism Feature

Richard Ross (UK) – Wine App Developer and writer, www,wine-lines.com, blogger – 2010 Winner of Best Investigative Wine Piece

Jay Selman (USA) – Co-founder, Grape Radio and founder, Grape Visions, blogger – 2010 Winner of Best Wine Themed Video

Michel Bettane (France) – Author of Grand Guide des Vins du France and  writer, Bettane et Desseauve, blogger

Hervé Lalau (Belgium) – Deputy-Chief Editor at In Vino Veritas and writer, Chroniques Vineuse, blogger

Fongyee Walker (MW candidate) (China) – Co-founder, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting, author, blogger

Patrick Schmitt (UK) – Editor, Drinks Business 

Elin McCoy (USA) – Writer Bloomberg and author, blogger

Ulf Sjodin MW (Sweden) – Head of Category Management, Systembolaget and writer

The Born Digital Wine Awards is different from other competitions in that the BDWA accepts submissions in any language. The awards are not a wine blogger competition, but are open to any content creator, so new voices can be placed alongside articles by established writers, photographers and videographers.

This year, based on feedback from online wine communicators, the BDWA is also excited to announce a new category for the 2011 awards: Best Wine Photo Essay. This category was added to reward amazing photography that tells a engaging and meaningful story.

We are also excited to announce the support of the Circle of Wine Writers. Founded in 1960, the CWW aims to support quality wine communication across all mediums, of which digital has become the most prevalent.

We will be publishing more information about the awards in the coming weeks and hope everyone will begin reviewing their work for possible submission pieces.

Note: Submissions are open to all content published first in electronic format in a free and unrestricted manner between the dates of January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011 in any language. Each person may submit a total of 3 pieces over all categories.