The entries for the 15th annual Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards were praised variously by judges as “well researched”, “beautifully written”, “absolutely brilliant” and “thought-provoking”.
As Charles Metcalfe, the chairperson of the judges, noted: “each year I think the entries must be as good as it gets, but each year it gets better."
Congratulations to the winner of the @montblanc_world Emerging Wine Writer of the Year Award, @MaluLambert #theroederers #LRIWWA19 pic.twitter.com/5INdILx4vF
— MMD UK (@MMDUK) September 18, 2019
The entries were judged by a panel of esteemed industry heavyweights, the panel comprised a mix of previous winners, journalists, editors and picture editors, who spent hours debating and assessing the over 600 entries.
Malu was up against stiff competition from writers hailing from California, Australia, Amsterdam and Denver. She won the judges over with her emotive piece on JancisRobinson.com on Clairette Blanche in South Africa.
Malu is a freelance wine journalist, having got her start as a features writer at Good Taste magazine. Since then she has gone on to work for numerous titles as well as winning the title of Veritas Young Wine Writer in 2015.
Currently, she is the wine editor for Food & Home Entertaining and contributes regularly to Winemag.co.za, Wines of South Africa, Winelands and wine.co.za.
Deeply passionate about wine and telling the stories of the industry she says: “Bottled in every wine, is a lost summer, hopes and dreams of human endeavour and, of course, the story of the very soil itself. How can I not want to tell that story?”
Malu channels this passion into studying wine too; she is currently a WSET diploma student as well as a graduate of the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy.
An honour to be the @louisroederer_ & @montblanc Emerging Wine Writer of the Year! #LRIWWA19 #theroederers pic.twitter.com/d1O5K985xf
— Malu Lambert (@MaluLambert) September 20, 2019
"The outpouring of support from the industry at large in the wake of the award has truly moved me, what an incredible industry we have and I am so proud to bring this award home for us."
