Tuesday April 5th is a great day to remember for me. During the afternoon we had a very constructive meeting to develop plans for e-publishing Inside Burgundy. Exactly how ambitious we can be with the electronic version is still work in progress, but watch this space!

Then we went en masse – Simon Berry as publisher, our publishing colleagues Chris Foulkes and Carrie Segrave, and our wonderful designer Lizzie Ballantyne – to the Goring Hotel for the André Simon Food & Wine Book Awards. It was a strong field this year among the wine books so we were very nervous, definitely hopeful but no more than that. Sarah-Jane Evans MW was presiding over the wine book and I got less and less hopeful as she sang the praises of all four short listed books –

GROGAN’S COMPANION TO DRINK
by Peter Grogan
Published by Virgin Books
INSIDE BURGUNDY
by Jasper Morris
Published by Berry Bros & Rudd Press

READING BETWEEN THE VINES
by Terry Theise
Published by University of California Press

WINE MYTHS AND REALITY
by Benjamin Lewin MW
Published by Vendange Press

However, as you may by now have guessed, the final magic words – “and the winner is…. Inside Burgundy!” brought joy and relief. A great result for Berry Bros & Rudd Press with their first book, and for Chris and Carrie who have now achieved 8 André Simon award winners in their publishing career.