There are competitions and there are competitions. But in the wine world, the JancisRobinson.com Wine Writing Competition is the one that matters.

 

Jancis Robinson OBE MW - author of the Oxford Companion to Wine, the World Atlas of Wine, and a platform reaching enthusiasts in 180 countries - runs the most authoritative wine writing competition in the world.

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In 2025, I entered the competiton. The brief: write an ode to a grape variety. Most entries (I suspect) wrote about grapes. I wrote about rain - the Indian monsoon, to be specific. A national reckoning that feeds 1.4 billion people and produces afternoons that no European wine guide has ever thought to address.

 

The wine was Riesling. The logic was irrefutable. The reverence for wine orthodoxy was minimal. The approach was that of a curious observer, standing in the rain, making a case that the wine world had not thought about.

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The judges - including Hugh Johnson OBE - awarded my submission the Judges' Choice Award. The top prize. First Indian, Asian and UAE-based winner.

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"Can this person actually write?" The judges answered that question.

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The article is here: Monsoon Diaries with Riesling — JancisRobinson.com

 

Read it. And know that “petrichor” rhymes with “spätlese.”