On April 15th, 2019, the Italian Wine Podcast received a significant award at the wine journalism competition Born Digital Wine Awards with Vinventions. Episode 139 of the show, where podcast host Monty Waldin interviews wine producer and TV personality Joe Bastianich, won as “2018 Best Interview.” The Award aims to showcase digitally-born, multimedia, and multilingual journalistic content about wine released each year. With two years of broadcasting and 200 episodes to date under its belt, the Italian Wine Podcast has recently released a series about the international markets for Italian wine as well as an educational podcast about the iconic Sangiovese grape with vine genetics academic Prof. Attilio Scienza.
Monty Waldin’s podcast interview to Joe Bastianich, who owns the Bastianich Winery in the Friuli Venezia-Giulia region and is also a famous TV personality, received a prestigious award at the Born Digital Wine Awards with Vinventions as the “2018 Winner of Best Interview”. The winners of this wine journalism competition which shines a light on international, digital, and multimedia content about wine were revealed in an online ceremony held on April 15th, 2019, after an initial shortlist which was released in early April. The Italian Wine Podcast was the only podcast show to be longlisted in the Best Interview category.
The Born Digital Wine Awards recognition as “Best Interview” is an important international endorsement for the Italian Wine Podcast, one that rewards the show’s continuous commitment to its mission: to inform, educate, and entertain audiences worldwide about Italian wine. Podcast host Monty Waldin comments on his approach to interviewing guests for the show and on the importance of the interview medium: “A podcast, like any conversation, benefits from a bit of unpredictability. There is nothing wrong with majoring on stock questions, especially for wine interviews, where listeners want some basic background facts about terroir, vineyard size, brand names and wine styles, winemaking and market trends, as well as sales data and so on. But a podcast, to my mind anyway, is more than data mining. It is an opportunity for disparate strangers—guest, audience and question-master—to share a new connection. And to achieve this, as presenter, you have to reveal a bit of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your professionalism and your incompetence. Otherwise it is not a level playing field. We are all vulnerable, and if you show your guest that I think you gain trust and both you, audience and guest all gain a unique, shared experience. A successful podcast should also have a bit of spontaneity and fun, in my case via my sometimes dry, always desperate English humour. We are thrilled when guests want to come back on and do a second podcast with us. It shows they value this increasingly popular medium, and its shows that we valued them, their time and their personal story. And that like after any fleeting conversation, you can always make time to talk again, and go a bit deeper.”
Podcast host Monty Waldin (left) with Joe Bastianich (right) after recording episode 139 which won the Born Digital Wine Awards as “2018 Best Interview.”
Since 2011, the Born Digital Wine Awards has been a wine journalism competition which rewards digital journalism and multimedia content about wine in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The 2018 edition was open to categories such as “Best Editorial (text),” “Best Tourism Content with a Wine Focus (Text or Video),” “Best Food & Wine Content (Text or Video),” “Best Interview (Text, Video, or Podcast),” and “Best Visual Storytelling.” The 2018 edition also saw the addition of two special awards: the “Sustainability Award” and the “Innovation Award by Vinventions.” In total, 370 works were entered from all over the world, registering a 20% increase in entry numbers from the previous edition and also an increase in non-English entries. In an official statement to the entrants, Chair of the Awards Richard Siddle praised the high quality of the submitted work: “The quality of the work this year was outstanding. Like any good wine the Born Digital Wine Awards gets better every year. The 2018 competition was the best and toughest to judge yet. Best because there was simply so many good entries across all categories, but particularly the visual storytelling and tourism categories where people’s digital skills could really come to the fore. It’s great to see such a diversity of work from right across the world, from full on geeky, to right out cheeky and fun.” To keep the conversation going, first prize winners in each category have been invited to join the Born Digital Wine Awards & Vinventions Summit on “Truthfulness and Future of Wine Communication” that will be held in Liege, Belgium, from May 30th to June 2nd, 2019.
Approaching episode 200 of the show, the Italian Wine Podcast has recently resumed its “Let’s talk wine biz – wine2wine series” with wine professionals working in the industry whose perspectives on foreign markets can be useful to Italian wineries looking to expand abroad. New episode recorded during wine2wine 2018 feature expert insights on the Hungarian, Swedish, Brazilian, Czech, Slovak, and Hong Kong wine markets. Moreover, during Vinitaly 2019 in Verona, Monty Waldin had the opportunity of gather new stories from wine producers and personalities of the Italian wine world. Most recently the show also broadcast an interview with leading Italian vine genetics scholar Prof. Attilio Scienza. In this interview which is available both in Italian and in a translated and dubbed English version with transcripts in each language, Prof. Scienza talked about one of the most iconic Italian indigenous grapes—Sangiovese—unveiling its genetic origins and ties with native varieties such as Mantonico, Nerello Mascalese, Foglia Tonda and other Southern Italian grapes. On Tuesday, May 14th, 2019, the show reached episode n. 200 with an interview with Wine Spectator’s Executive Editor Thomas Matthews.
About:
Italian Wine Podcast: Cin Cin with Italian Wine People! is a new podcast project dedicated exclusively to the Italian wine world. Wine writer Monty Waldin uncovers the unique Italian wine-making tradition in conversation with some of its key protagonists. Italian Wine Podcast aims to inform, educate, and entertain listeners about Italian wine. Italian Wine Podcast is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, XimalayaFM (for China) and on the official website. Listeners interested in providing feedback about the show can access a demographic survey on the podcast website. It is also possible to donate to the show to help fund part of the show’s technical equipment, production, and publication costs. To advertise on the show, additional information and a prospectus can be requested by emailing info@italianwinepodcast.com.
