Sarah Heller MW announced as IWSC's Wine Communicator of the Year

After a record number of entries into this year’s IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year awards, sponsored by Veronafiere, our panel of judges - Joe Wadsack, two-time winner of the IWSC’s Wine Communicator award and all-round drinks expert, Helena Nicklin, IWSC judge, award-winning wine and spirits writer, consultant, TV presenter and one of The Three Drinkers, Nicky Smith, founder of Smith and Vine, wine PR consultancy and winner of the Drinks Business’ 2021 PR Company of the Year, Laura Richards, Digital Content Editor for IWSC’s consumer brand, Club Oenologique and Janina Mathiasz, Head of Incoming Management Office for our sponsor, Veronafiere S.p.A. – had the difficult task of narrowing down the long list of applicants to just five shortlisted candidates.

After much deliberation - looking at our candidates’ careers to date, as well as their triumphant communication efforts during the pandemic - the judges selected Aleesha Hansel, Angela Aiello, David Kermode, Sarah Heller MW and Tim Atkin MW as our 2022 shortlist.

With all that said, the IWSC is delighted to reveal that from an esteemed shortlist, our judges unanimously concluded that Sarah Heller MW be crowned our winner of the IWSC’s 2022 Wine Communicator of the Year.

Sarah impressed the judges immensely with her international reach, she is able to bridge the gap between the Asian and Western market. Sarah also has a strong focus on educating consumers about the world of wine, her series of wine educational videos has nearly 8 million students. The different styles of communication Sarah adopts to reach her audience is incredibly creative. One of the methods of communicating her wine message leans on her fine art degree from Yale University, Sarah has built a career in art with a series of digital and physical paintings called Visual Tasting Notes that evoke her experiences tasting some of the world’s most exciting wines. Sarah’s approach to wine communicating is to encourage consumers to build a personal relationship with the wines they drink and consume them consciously, drinking less frequently but choosing better quality, thoughtfully made wines. Her objective isn’t to demystify wine but rather to elucidate while keeping its mystique intact. 

The IWSC want to congratulate all our shortlisted candidates and of course our worthy winner, Sarah Heller MW. We look forward to working closely with Sarah in 2022, across the IWSC and our consumer brand, Club Oenologique.