The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) Announces the Shortlist for ‘Blogger of the Year 2014’

The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) Announces the Shortlist for

‘Blogger of the Year 2014’





Today (22nd August 2014) sees the announcement of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s (IWSC) shortlist for ‘Blogger of the Year’.



The award, now in its third year and sponsored by González Byass was created to highlight inspirational bloggers promoting public awareness in wines and/or spirits over the last 12 months.



Last year, the award was won by Madeline Puckette, Co-founder of Wine Folly. Based in Los Angeles, Madeline, a certified sommelier and graphic designer, impressed the judges with her passion for wine and ability to explain the world of wine through creative infographics. In its inaugural year, the competition was won jointly by Dr Jamie Goode with Wineanorak.com and Helen McGinn with Knackeredmotherswineclub.blogspot.co.uk



This year’s shortlist of nominees:





Joel Harrison & Neil Ridley - www.caskstrength.blogspot.co.uk

Neil & Joel are former music industry A&R men who decided to turn their hands to the world of whisky. In 2008 they set up their blog Caskstrength and have since become prolific contributors to a variety of publications, books, websites and whisky awards around the world.





Fiona Beckett - www.matchingfoodandwine.com

Fiona is one of the UK’s leading experts of food and drink matching, wine columnist for the UK’s top newspapers and magazines and the author of 23 books on food, wine and beer. She is currently wine columnist for the Guardian, a contributing editor to the wine magazine Decanter and wine writer for FOUR magazine.





Matt Walls - www.mattwalls.co.uk

Matt has worked in the wine industry for 12 years, having first got into wine by working in off-licenses in Brighton. He writes articles for trade magazines such as Imbibe and Harpers Wine & Spirit and contributes regularly to drinks publications such as timatkin.com, Decanter and Tonique. In 2012, he published his first book ‘Drink Me! How to choose, taste and enjoy wine’.







Lauren Mowery - www.chasingthevine.com

Lauren is the weekly wine columnist as well as the coffee and tea columnist for The Village Voice. A former New York litigator, she transitioned to the start-up wine industry though Gilt Taste, before launching her own career as a wine and travel writer. In her spare time, she studies for the WSET Diploma which she has nearly completed.









Adam Teeter & Joshua Malin - www.vinepair.com

Adam has spent the past 9 years of his life obsessed with wine and trying to remove the elitism often associated with the industry. Josh loves putting things together — websites, words, lego, and cases of wine. Together they created VinePair, a new way to understand and talk about wine.







The winner will be announced at the prestigious IWSC Awards Banquet on Wednesday 12th November 2014



Notes to editors:

For more information please contact Holly Axelrad at Green Row, Holly@greenrow.co.uk

The International Wine and Spirit Competition was founded in 1969 and is the premier competition of its kind in the world. Its aim is to promote the quality and excellence of the world's best wines, spirits and liqueurs. All entries are blind tasted in groups divided by variety, region and vintage as necessary.
IWSC has appointed Laura Catena as the 2014 president.
The 2014 Annual Awards Banquet will be held on Wednesday 12th November, at The Guild Hall, City of London.