The American (English) Wine Blog Awards

Posted by Tom Wark on Dec 13, 2006

When I was playing Little League Baseball every year there would be an awards ceremony at the end of the season. The winning team would get an award. "Coach of the Years" would be awarded. "Most Valuable Player" awards would be given out. Then, at the end, they’d give this award: "Friendliest Player Award".

The coaches decided who would get this award. I never really understood why it was given. More importantly, I couldn’t understand how the coaches could possible determine who was the friendliest ballplayer. They were, so to speak, out of their league.

That’s the same way I feel about judging non-English writing and non-English Wine Blogs. Neither I nor the judges of the American Wine Blog Awards could possibly judge the quality of a wine blog written in Spanish or Italian or French or German.

So, since there has been a bit of discussion on the issue of what the "American" in "American Wine Blog Awards" means, let me clear up a few things.

1. The "American" moniker refers to the geographic place of origin of the Awards. Myself and the judges all reside in America. Plus, i like the alliteration of these four words strung together.

2. The Award categories are open to any Wine Blog written and presented in English. If that Blog originates in Spain, Iraq, China, India, France or Switzerland and if it is written in English, it is eligible for nomination in any of the categories.

I should note that I considered another category: "Friendliest Wine Blog". But not being much of an expert on friendly, and never having won "Friendliest Player Award", I decided against it.