This week the panel of judges convened at the Maisons Marques et Domaines headquarters in London to determine the shortlist of writers for the 2019 Roederer Awards. The judges read and reviewed over 600 submitted pieces of work.
The panel, comprising a mix of previous winners, journalists, editors and picture editors, guided by long
standing chairman of the judges Charles Metcalfe, spent hours debating and assessing the entries, carefully
considering each candidate until they had unanimously agreed on a shortlist of the best entries for each
category.
The diversity of the subject matter, the quality of the research and the ability to make even complex subject
matter approachable and enjoyable set the shortlisted writers apart from their peers. The shortlisted writers
garnered praise from the judges who noted that the “writing is outstanding, readable and well
informed”. One judge praised a journalist’s ability to “plunge into ultra-geek, then come up for air and make
it relevant before plunging back down again”. Another saw the “heart’s blood’ in one author’s work,
communicating a passion which “made you want to go out and drink those wines”.
The new Pio Cesare Consumer Title Writer category attracted some incredibly diverse entries, the best were
“writing about wine in a different way, scrubbing away elitism [and illustrated with] lovely analogies”.
It was not just the written entries that impressed the panel, the calibre of the artistry submissions showed
diversity in subject matter with the best showing not only excellence in composition but eliciting an
immediate and emotional reaction from the judges.
Richard Billett, managing director of Maisons Marques et Domaines spoke on behalf of Champagne Louis
Roederer when he said: “The 2019 edition of the LRIWWA has seen a large number of high calibre
submissions with a truly global feel – witnessed by the number of shortlisted candidates chosen by our
Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards 2019 Shortlist judging panel this year, across a broad spectrum of categories, coming from outside the UK. It is particularly encouraging to see that this well-established competition, now in its fifteenth year, has continued to consolidate its international dimension, reach and appeal.”
An awards ceremony will be taking place to announce the winners in London, on Wednesday
18th September 2019.
The sponsors are: Domaine Faiveley, Domaines Ott*, Marchesi
Mazzei, Pio Cesare, Ramos Pinto and Montblanc.
The shortlist:
RAMOS PINTO ONLINE COMMUNICATOR 2019
Tim Atkin MW
Margaret Rand
Matt Walls
Kelli White
Simon Woolf
CHAMPAGNE LOUIS ROEDERER ARTISTRY OF WINE AWARD 2019
Leif Carlsson
Kristian Gehradte
Michel Joly
Ryan Opaz
Jon Wyand
MONTBLANC EMERGING WINE WRITER OF THE YEAR 2019
Kevin Day
Hannah Fuellenkemper
Malu Lambert
Sara Underdown
Peter Weltman
DOMAINE FAIVELEY INTERNATIONAL WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019
Rebecca Gibb MW
Rajat Parr/Jordan Mackay
Terry Theise
Janet Wang
Simon Woolf
DOMAINES OTT INTERNATIONAL FEATURE WRITER OF THE YEAR 2019
Rebecca Gibb MW
Neal Martin
Esther Mobley
Kelli White
Simon Woolf
MAZZEI INTERNATIONAL WINE COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019
Nina Caplan
Andrea Frost
Cathy Huyghe
Alder Yarrow
PIO CESARE CONSUMER TITLE WRITER OF THE YEAR 2019
Nina Caplan
Rachel Fellows
Karen MacNeil
