What are the Born Digital Awards?

The II Annual Born Digital Wine Awards successfully closed its submission process last week having experienced a soaring 50% increase in qualified entries compared to last year. This is an incredible achievement for the awards program that also saw a 30% increase in the number of countries participating in the awards program.

The final count for the second edition of the Born Digital Wine Awards showed over 300 submissions from 24 countries, including: Australia, Belgium, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Turkey.

The BDWA is also excited to announce the success of a new category for the Awards Program: Best Wine Photo Essay, that received entries from over 13 different countries. This category was added, by popular demand, to showcase amazing photography that tells an engaging and meaningful story.

The qualifying submissions will now begin the judging process. Thanks to our translation sponsor, “U Can Have It“, who have been exceptional at providing us with high quality translations in a short period of time, all entries in all languages are being judged together.

The shortlist of top entries in each category will be announced in the beginning of May 2012 and we will be announcing the winners at the London International Wine Fair. More information about this event will be shared in the near future.

For now, we would like to thank our sponsors Laithwaites Wine and Virgin Wines for making this year’s Born Digital Wine Awards possible, while extending our  deepest gratitude for all of your submissions. We wish all entrants the very best of luck!

Great news! The Born Digital Wine Awards website is now in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian! So please take a moment to peruse the website at your leisure in a language that suits you best. Hopefully, in the near future we’ll be adding more languages as the awards program takes off in the far corners of the globe.

Remember, there are only 24 days left to submit your work, and potentially win 1,000 euros, so please submit your best video, written and photography pieces today in ANY language!

Good luck!

We all love a story about unearthing a previously little-known talent, bringing their best work to a wider audience and maybe giving them “a big break”. We especially love it in wine.

We all know stories about innovative importers who have done this, finding new wine producers with great wines, but this is also very much the mission of the BDWA too.

The Born Digital Wine Awards is the only digital program supporting both recognized and emerging wine content creators, producing a wide range of digital content, but doing so regardless of language or geographical location. These individuals are passionate, creative, innovative but often unrecognized for their work, and the Born Digital Wine Awards is a way for their voices to be heard and amplified around the world.

It is not easy to find a sponsor that has the same vision we do – companies that value a global perspective, are as mad about wine as we are, but are also digitally focused, so we are proud to announce a partnership with Laithwaites Wine and Virgin Wines.

Laithwaites is a family business, started by Tony Laithwaite in 1969, and remains a family affair today, despite its phenomenal growth. The Laithwaites story has always been one of discovering (and buying direct from) small producers, and bringing their wines to a new audience. This is no small feat when you realise that Laithwaites offers a vast selection of wines from 22 countries, including Hungary, Croatia, Moldova, and in the near future, Turkey! Not only this, but they sell their wines to an amazing diversity of consumers in the UK, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Poland. Their unique appeal to consumers is the stories and long-held relationships behind their wines which are passed on to customers to entertain and enhance the enjoyment of wine overall.

Virgin Wines has been a pioneer in the online wine retail sphere, combining a fun, approachable communication style, the reach of the web plus the expertise of trained advisers. This commitment made them one of the leading and longest standing specialist wine retail brands on the web and today they are still growing fast and expanding to operate not just in the UK, but also the USA and Australia.

Both companies are veterans of the “direct” retail experience both online and off and really understand the value of quality communication with the enthusiastic wine consumer, and as such are very keen to promote talented wine communicators from all around the world of wine.

With this support, we hope the BDWA will make the world of wine online in 2012 even more varied, even more exciting and even more deliciously satisfying. I’m sure we can all raise a glass to that!

We encourage you to take a moment to check out both Laithwaites Wine and Virgin Wines in the New Year and see if maybe they can get the creative wine juices flowing.

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. 

Building on last year’s success, the Born Digital Wine Awards (BDWA) announces the new 2011 judging panel and awards category. The BDWA awards recognize writers and artists internationally for content first published online in a free and unrestricted manner.

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.

The judging panel for the 2011 edition combines winners from last year’s BDWA along with highly regarded wine professionals from around the world. Submissions – published in the 2011 calender year – will open on December 1, 2011.

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.

To learn how to submit work, or to help support the Born Digital Wine Awards, please go to their website: http://www.borndigitalwineawards.com

The categories for the 2011 awards include:

Best Investigative Wine Writing: for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single wine article or series (video, written text)

Best Editorial Wine Writing: for outstanding examples of wine writing, giving prime consideration to literary quality and originality

Best Wine Tourism Feature: Speaking about a particular region as a tourist destination with a focus on wine (written text, video)

Best Wine Themed Video: Video content that either educates, demonstrates or builds awareness for wine

Best Winery Self Produced Content: for outstanding examples of content created by wineries to promote their brand and reach out to key audiences (video, written text)

Best Wine Photo Essay **NEW CATEGORY**: A set of 2 to 10 photos, published in one online location, that focus on a wine theme or story. (photo)

Members of the new 2011 Born Digital Wine Awards judging panel will be:

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
Tim Atkin (UK) – Wine Writer www.timatkin.com, blogger
Wink Lorch (France) – Wine Writer,  Wine Travel Guides, blogger
Richard Ross (UK) – Wine App Developer and writer, www,wine-lines.com, blogger
Jay Selman (USA) – Co-founder, Grape Radio and founder, Grape Visions, blogger

About the Born Digital Wine Awards
Founded in 2010 by Robert McIntosh from The Wine Conversation (http://wineconversation.com) and Ryan and Gabriella Opaz from Catavino (http://catavino.net), the annual awards aims to recognize international works on wine originally published online.