John Stimpfig

‘It was definitely a good day at the office for team Decanter’

Decanter has always sought to attract and keep the most knowledgeable, talented and entertaining writers. and judging by the number of wine-writing awards our contributors have been garlanded with over the past four decades, it’s clear we’ve been pretty successful. In fact, it’s probably the most important factor as to why Decanter is the world’s best wine magazine.

and so to the 2016 louis Roederer wine writers’ awards which were recently held at the Royal academy in london. If you’re unfamiliar with these particular prizes, they are widely accepted as the wine Oscars to those of us who scribble about this glorious subject for a living.

One reason the Roederers are so highly regarded is because they are genuinely international. yet again entries in the seven categories poured in from around the world. That, of course, means that competition is tough and standards are high. Entries are also judged by acclaimed, professional wine writers. There’s nowhere to hide.

‘we certainly had some healthy debates on this year’s bumper crop,’ said Tim atkin Mw, who was on the 2016 panel. atkin himself is no stranger to collecting wine writing awards including a fistful of Roederers over the past decade. he’s also written a terrific interview feature this month on the Gevrey-Chambertin vigneron Jean-Marie Fourrier (see p78).

anyone who gets onto the Roederer shortlist deserves a serious pat on the back. This year several Decanter writers were in the running for the top prizes, including anne Krebiehl Mw, william Kelley, Margaret Rand, Michael Edwards and Emily O’hare.

sadly, 2016 wasn’t to be their year. But I am proud to say that it was for three of their colleagues: andrew Jefford, Jane anson and Nina Caplan. Not for the first time, andrew scooped the wine Columnist prize for his work in Decanter, while Nina was named Food & wine writer and Jane picked up the International Feature writer award. you won’t therefore to be too surprised to hear that the Champagne (Roederer, of course) seemed to taste better than ever that particular night.

with three out of seven awards going to Team Decanter, it was definitely a good day at the office. But rather than being complacent, the challenge is always to try and do better. That’s exactly what we and our brilliant writers will continue to do in the months and years ahead.