Success for Inaugural Born Digital Wine Awards 

The inaugural Born Digital Wine Awards 2011 have proved an immediate success, with in excess of 200 submissions, coming from 16 different countries across the world.

The Born Digital Wine Awards (BDWA) are the brain-child of Vrazon, a company specialising in Social Media in the drinks industry and a fusion of Catavino (Ryan and Gabriella Opaz) and Thirstforwine (Robert McIntosh).

The aim of the awards is to give value to writers and videographers who are most successful at creating wine content online – it must be “born digital” to qualify – ie be published first online.  The Awards are international, with entries welcome from around the world and in any language. The criteria for entry are straightforward and the categories are as follows:

➢ Best Investigative Wine Piece

➢ Best Editorial Wine Writing

➢ Best Wine Tourism Feature

➢ Best Wine Themed Video

➢ Best Winery Self-Produced Content

The content must have been published during 2010; the maximum for written pieces is 3,000 words and for videos, 10 minutes.  The winner of each category receives 1,000 Euros. While in future years there will be a fee to enter in order to cover administration costs, Vrazon has elected to waive this fee in the inaugural year.  

The panel of judges comprises of leading figures both in wine journalism and general publishing, renowned here in the UK and internationally:

➢ Jancis Robinson MW

➢ Evan Schnittman

➢ Elin McCoy

➢ Patrick Schmitt

➢ Robert Joseph

➢ Hervé Lalau

“Online publishing of wine content, whether it be it video, blogging, twitter, or one of many other platforms, is exploding right now. We feel that the combination of having such a high number of quality entries in our first year and the support of such high calibre judges shows that there is a real need to recognise wine journalism which uses different platforms,” explains Gabriella Opaz.

The short list will be announced on 1st May, with the winners being announced on 18th May on The Access Zone at the London International Wine Fair.

Various sponsorship opportunities are available and any interested parties should use the contact details below to find out more.

For further information, please contact: contact@borndigitalwineawards.com

Or Dillon Morrall victoria@dillonmorrall.com, alison@dillonmorrall.com

March 2011

Event Hub – seamless organisation for ALL your wine events

Whether you are a large scale generic, a medium sized wine shipper, a wholesaler, or a retailer, organising wine events, however large or small, will most definitely come under your remit.  “Event Hub” harnesses all of the latest developments in technology to bring you a fuss-free way of organising all your information and communication needs, from the tailor made invites and the  perfectly presented tasting booklet to the guests registering on-line.  This sheds many layers of agonising, time consuming, repetitive tasks and considerably reduces the margin for error.  Event Hub acts as an invaluable support tool for any event organiser.

 Key assets include:

• Online entry of wine details which can then be adapted to different events throughout the year and saves a lot of duplication.
• Ability to produce effortlessly ‘smart’ emails, invites, brochures, newsletters, guest badges etc all with a consistent branding and ‘look’ bespoke to your company or your clients.
• Visitors can search on line prior to visiting your event in order to plan their ‘wine journey’ via grape variety, region etc
• Facility for visitors to ‘register on line’.
• If required, ticket sales can be accommodated.
• There is the facility for a ‘spellcheck’ which can be pre-programmed to include specific repetitive names often misspelt or not accented properly eg Albariño, Marqués
• Not holding many events but wish to communicate with your customers? Event Hub allows you to design smart emails, produce slick leaflets and send to your database with minimum effort.
• Accessible and affordable for both large and small companies. 

Event Hub has already been put through its paces by industry stalwarts Wines of Chile and Wines from Spain. 

“As an event organiser of both large and small wine tastings, I have found the Event Hub to be a very useful tool in collating information for the Annual Wines from Spain Fair,” comments Sue Glasgow of Spear Communications.  “It’s the no nonsense, “can do” approach which has helped us catalogue over 1,500 wines and delivered both print and online versions on time in a stress free environment.  I particularly like its easy usage which can be operated both by exhibitors and organisers to great effect and ensure that wines, exhibitors and visitors come together at this one stop site.”

Event Hub extends beyond just the one event but can be used as a key bespoke 'hub' for all your events/marketing initiatives throughout the year.

Event Hub is the brain child of Matt Eamer at Hansell Design, innovators in design technology, marketing and stand-design, with a complete understanding of the wine trade and its needs.

For  more detail on Event Hub or if you would like to speak to founder Matt Eamer please visit        www.event-hub.co.uk or call Alison at Dillon Morrall if you would like to arrange an interview (by phone or in person)

DILLON MORRALL

Alison@dillonmorrall.com

07778 017578

EVENT HUB

Matt Eamer

01732 743 455

Nick Room becomes the new Chairman of the Gran Orden de Caballeros

Nick Room has officially taken over from Allan Cheesman as Chairman of the Gran Orden de Caballeros.  Nick brings with him a wealth of retail experience and has been buying Spanish wines from Waitrose since 1998.

Nick is passionate about Spain, especially sherry and has championed the Spanish wine range within Waitrose for well over 10 years. His mission is to offer Waitrose customers quality wines with interest and diversity, attaching priority to searching out newer areas in Spain, as well as maintaining a commercial view in offering Spanish wines from more familiar territories in the Iberian peninsula.

Nick was invested in the Gran Orden in 2006, has served on the Steering Committee of the GOCV since 2007 and now steps up to the role of Chairman.

“We are delighted to have Nick as the new Chairman,” comments María José Sevilla,  “he has great commercial experience and many new ideas to share with us as to how we can make the most of our wonderful Caballeros”.

- ends -

Buying a share in The Wine Society for anyone who enjoys wine is like giving them the key to a treasure trove.  The Society’s breadth of range suits everyone – from a complete wine novice to a veritable connoisseur.  For those who “like what they know and know what they like”, The Society is a trusted advisor, who will help broaden their wine horizons. For those extremely well versed in the world of wine, The Society provides a stimulating, wide ranging selection of wines both for laying down and for enjoying now.  For many of us, somewhere in the middle of that range, buying wine from The Wine Society is simply an easy way to ensure that we have a constant supply of wines to suit every palate, budget and occasion. Often billed as the wine trade’s “Best Kept Secret”, The Society is not actually secret  at all - it’s just that only a few people are in the know…….

Each year Wines from Spain holds the New Wave Spanish Wine Awards.  A panel of top judges headed up by Tim Atkin MW blind taste their way through just over 900 entries to come up with a definitive list of 119 'New Wave' winners. Please see www.winesfromspainuk.com for full list.

We take these results to different audiences via press and tastings for example we hold a tutored tasting each year for sommeliers headed up by on trade guru Peter McCombie MW, who was one of the New Wave judges.  With his on trade experience Peter selects a range of New Wave winners most likely to appeal to an on trade audience.

Good independent wine merchants are flourishing in the UK as consumers seek out authentic wines with provenance. This promotion links two of Spain's great assets - its food and its wine. We work with individual merchants to help them promote their Spanish range by providing a 'kit' of Spanish delicacies (jamon, manchego, nuts, olives etc) alongside relevant POS material.  We then also work with them to help promote their tasting by talking to local press, producing emailable invites etc

We spoke to all the major 'high street' retailers and asked them to submit their top 6 Spanish wines.  We then invited journalists, bloggers and wine educators to drop by and taste the line up (60 wines in total).  A popular format is a 'drop in anytime' self-pour tasting where there are no producers or retailers present and you can taste as little or as much as you like.  We hold it 'at home' in the Wines from Spain central London office and always supply some delicious Spanish nibbles to stave away the hunger pangs!

The Wine Society reports that sales of Spanish wines in the year to the end of February 2010 were up 25% on the previous year, making Spain the fastest growing category and the fourth biggest selling country for The Society.

"The colour is a beautiful amber, the nose is spicy and the palate reminds me of honey and tea, with a strong mineral character," says Lodovico Antinori. "You would be hard pressed to find a better match for foie gras with truffle or blue cheese."

An exciting new initiative enters the wine closure market with the launch of Nanocork™, a breakthrough in the fight against cork taints and premature oxidation.