Wine Searcher contributor and former acting editor Wink Lorch has won the award for the best wine book with her labor of love, Jura Wine, at the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards in London.
The judges described her insider's guide to the Jura wine region as exhaustively researched, packed with information and full of good photos.
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Man Booker-winning novelist Julian Barnes, who was this year's assessor for the wine books, said: "Jura Wine is the first proper book in English about the wines of Jura. When its author took her first-ever glass of it, she thought it was 'weird'. It is a reaction many of us have shared, and perhaps not got beyond. Happily for us, she did, and has produced a personal and deeply committed guide to this often intractable region."
Lorch said winning the award was "a real honor, especially as André Simon himself loved to write about French wines. Great news for the little Jura wine region and for me too, with thanks to my wonderful team who helped create the book, and to the Kickstarter supporters."
She was unable to collect her prize in person, as she is currently in Brazil en route to the UK after a spell as acting editor of Wine Searcher, so photographer Mick Rock – whose pictures were used in the book – picked it up on her behalf.
"It was the oddest setting to have received the news, I can tell you – at a Franco-Brazilian natural wine tasting high up in the hills of Rio – but I'm very happy," she told Wine Searcher.
Writer and photographer Mark Diacono – known for his commitment to sustainable, ethically sourced food – scooped the prestigious prize for food writing for his 2014 publication, A Year at Otter Farm.
The book, which the judges commended for its vibrant celebration of growing, cooking and eating alongside high production values, charts the seasonal challenges and triumphs of rural living. Tracing a full year at Otter Farm – a unique smallholding in Devon – the book is packed with inspiring recipes through the seasons, all brimming with flavour and fresh ingredients.
Founded in 1972, the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards are the only awards in the UK to recognise exclusively the achievements of food and drink writers and are the longest continuous running awards of their kind.
Previous winners include Michel Roux, Caroline Conran, Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nigel Slater and Rick Stein. The winners in each category were awarded £2000 ($3000). The recipients of the John Avery and the Special Commendation Award received £1500 each, while each shortlisted author received £200.
