Decanter contributor Wink Lorch wins Best Drink Book at Andre Simon Awards
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Decanter contributor Wink Lorch has won the Andre Simon Best Drink Book of 2014 for her crowd-funded book Jura Wine.
Best Drink Book 2014 Jura Wine; Mick Rock & Julian Barnes; Charles Jennings, Paul Keers & Julian Barnes
Lorch triumphed over four other shortlisted drinks titles including Natural Wine, by fellow Decanter contributor Isabelle Legeron MW.
The majority of the photographs in Jura Wine – funded by more than 360 supporters through Kickstarter – were taken by Mick Rock of Cephas, whose images are also regularly featured in Decanter.
Sediment, a collection of the weekly wine blog posts by Paul Keers and Charles Jennings, won the John Avery Award, named in memory of the reknowned Bristol wine merchant, Master of Wine and former Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Chair for South Africa, who died in 2012.
Man Booker Prize-winning author Julian Barnes, assessor of the drinks titles, described Jura Wine – the first book written in English on the region’s wines – as ‘a personal, deeply committed and clear-sighted guide’ that showed Lorch’s passion for the Jura and its future.
Rock, receiving the award for the absent Lorch, said it deservedly ‘put this small region in the spotlight’.
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On receiving their award for Sediment, Keers and Jennings paid tribute to their wives for ‘being tolerant in their pursuit of wine’ and allowing them to smuggle four bottles into the weekly shopping trolley.
Barnes described their writing as ‘up there’ with Jay McInerney and Kingsley Amis, and ‘snortingly, choke-on-your-cornflakes funny’.
A Year at Otter Farm by Mark Diacono won the 2014 Best Food Book from six other shortlisted entries. The Virtues of the Table was awarded a special commendation.
Some 130 food books and 20 drinks books were submitted for the 2014 competition. For the full list shortlisted titles and previous winners, visit andresimon.co.uk
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Written by Tina Gellie
Tina Gellie has worked for Decanter since 2008 across a number of editorial roles and is currently the brand's Content Director. An awarded wine writer and editor, she won several scholarships on the way to getting her WSET Diploma, and is a freeman of The Worshipful Company of Distillers. She has worked in wine publishing since 2003, including as Deputy Editor and Acting Editor of Wine International. Before her wine career she was a newspaper journalist for broadsheets in London and Australia.