Award Winning Wines
An experienced wine maker and judge draws on his life's work as a research scientist in anaerobic fermentation and the work of commercial vintners to provide this manual, which hopes to improve on standard winemaking techniques. It has been written for winemakers of all levels. All aspects of home winemaking are discussed, from the basic equipment to the Wine Clubs that are the backbone of this widespread hobby. The book concludes with a selection of over 50 recipes from the author and his...
When Bill Smith’s Award Winning Wines came out in August 2000, it arrived at a moment when wine culture in America was shifting. The turn of the millennium brought a new wave of enthusiasm for understanding wine beyond the basics, and Smith’s compact 128-page guide tapped directly into that hunger. What makes this book endure more than two decades later is its practical approach—Smith doesn’t waste time on pretension or flowery language. Instead, he focuses on what readers actually want to know: which wines are worth drinking, why they won awards, and what makes them special.
The book’s significance lies partly in its timing. The early 2000s saw wines like the 2000 Viognier from Renaissance Winery capturing gold medals at major international competitions—the kind of achievements that sparked genuine excitement among wine enthusiasts. Smith’s decision to focus on award-winning selections gave the book an immediate relevance that resonated with readers who wanted to learn from established standards rather than guessing in the wine aisle. It wasn’t a pretentious tome; it was a straightforward resource.
What Smith accomplished in these pages reflects a particular editorial philosophy:
- Accessibility over jargon – He explains why certain wines won recognition without requiring readers to already be experts
- Curated selection – Rather than overwhelming readers with thousands of options, he focuses on wines that have proven themselves through competition
- Practical organization – The 128 pages pack in enough information to actually be useful without becoming dense or academic
- Real-world value – Readers could take this book to a wine shop and actually find the bottles being discussed
The cultural impact of Award Winning Wines extended into how people approached wine purchasing throughout the early 2000s. Wine competitions had existed for decades, but Smith helped democratize the idea that awards actually meant something worth paying attention to. In an era before every consumer had instant access to wine reviews online, this book became a trusted guide that connected readers to the broader world of wine recognition.
The book influenced how casual wine drinkers thought about selection. Instead of relying solely on price point or brand recognition, readers learned to understand medal-winning wines as a meaningful category. This shift—treating competition results as a legitimate quality indicator—continues to influence purchasing decisions even today. Wine retailers and enthusiasts still reference award-winning designations as a shorthand for quality, a concept that Smith helped popularize in accessible form.
Smith’s writing style deserves credit here. He avoids two common pitfalls that plague wine writing: he’s neither condescending to beginners nor insufferably snobby. The tone throughout is conversational and direct. When he describes a wine, you understand what he means. There’s no unnecessary Latin, no pretentious flourishes. This clarity is harder to achieve than it looks, and it’s a major reason why the book still holds up. Someone picking it up today can read it without feeling excluded or bored.
The lasting achievement comes down to this: Smith created something genuinely useful. Wine guides come and go, but the good ones—the ones that genuinely help people make better choices—stick around in readers’ minds. Award Winning Wines did exactly that. It was:
- Focused on verifiable quality through international competition
- Organized in a way that actually worked for real shopping situations
- Written for the person who likes wine but isn’t obsessed with it yet
- Compact enough to be a real reference rather than a coffee table object
Even as the wine world has exploded with information sources in the intervening years—from specialized websites to social media critics to AI-powered recommendation engines—there’s still something to be said for Smith’s approach. In a world of endless options and infinite reviews, sometimes what you want is a carefully curated list of wines that have already proven their worth. That’s not a gimmick. That’s wisdom.
The book’s legacy isn’t measured in revolutionary critical theory or industry-shaking revelations. Instead, Award Winning Wines matters because it helped thousands of readers make better purchasing decisions and understand that wine excellence is something they could learn to recognize. For a 128-page paperback published more than twenty-five years ago, that’s a pretty significant achievement.
