News

Industries

Companies

Jobs

Events

People

Video

Audio

Galleries

My Biz

Submit content

My Account

Advertise with us

SA's Malu Lambert wins at Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Awards

Local journalist Malu Lambert was named the Montblanc Emerging Wine Writer of the Year Award at the 2019 Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Awards.

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."

It’s all worthwhile

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.

When asked what the award means to her Malu says: "Everything! I am beyond happy to be recognised by the most prestigious wine writing awards in the world! In my early 20s, I worked as a waiter to pay for my studies, and continued to do so when I started writing for a magazine – worked all night, wrote all day! I have pushed myself and took many, many leaps of faith. To be recognised like this makes it all so worthwhile.

"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."

Let's do Biz