I’m starting to think we’re doing something right in this new (well, new for us anyway) world of blogging. Last Thursday night we were delighted to hear we were awarded Silver for Best in Blogging at the prestigious 8th annual Digital Media Awards in Dublin! It’s fantastic news, especially considering the competition. Ronan Lyons bagged first place and the trophy, so fair play to him! The winners page can be viewed on digitalmedia.ie

March 27th is the date of the Irish Blog Awards in Galway, so be there or be square!

Eight months on from picking up Ireland’s Best Commercial Website at the Digital Media awards, Curious Wines is at it again, picking up Best eCommerce/Services Website at the Irish Web Awards. Curious Mike, his lovely wife, Curious Mary, and the very talented Sabrina Dent, made the trip north to Dublin’s Radisson SAS for Ireland’s most prestigious web awards ceremony.

We faced some stiff competition (sincerest congrats to all those shortlisted), but we managed to walk away trophy in hand, with a real sense of pride and joy. As well as Sabrina, Mike and I must acknowledge the hard work of Katherine Nolan (@dochara), who does all the amazing stuff at the back-end that makes the site so easy to get around. So ladies, from the bottom of our hearts - thank you for making this site Ireland’s best wine website.

Other winners on our radar are regular contributors to this blog, Look and Taste, who picked up best videocaster. Sabrina’s husband won best new web application for Kildare Street, so well done to John, and to all the other entrants who are continuing to raise the bar in Ireland’s tech and service industries.

A final word of thanks to headline sponsors Realex Payments, Best eCommerce category sponsors CyberCom, and most of all the inimitable Damien Mulley who puts on the best (and dare we say it, most authentic) awards ceremony in the industry.

All winners on the night can be viewed here, and thanks to everyone on Twitter and Facebook for your warm congrats, we’re overwhelmed with the love!

Keep watching this space, as Ireland’s best wine website is about to get even better.

Following on from our making the shortlist for Best Ecommerce Site and Most Beautiful Website at the Irish Web Awards this coming weekend, our Twitter feed was peppered with lovely little love notes:

• @Grayzie: Well deserved nominations. If you don’t win, those peeps need their heads checked!
• @davidmcavinue: You must be running out of space on the mantlepiece. Well done!
• @brianclayton: Congratulations on the well deserved nominations there gents!

So we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for a gong and a reason to pop open a bottle of bubbly on Saturday night- thanks for the good wishes! Speaking of wishes, there’s nothing to warm a wine seller’s heart like the sound of happy customers who’s only regret is that they didn’t buy more:

Had a lovely evening in with The Last Stand. Only sorry I got 2 bottles and not the full box.

And other nice things to read from more lovely customers:

• @Omaniblog: Curious Wines are great to deal with. I can swap the one bottle I didn’t enjoy for another - and they have so many good ones at greatprices.
• @grapes_of_sloth: I started off with your Spatlese Pinot Blanc 2005 - beautiful.

Beautiful indeed. Thanks for the love, guys

It’s that time of year again. The results of Decanter World Wine Awards 2009 have been released, and we’re delighted to see, of our current vintages in stock, one Gold, one Silver, five Bronze and four commendations awarded. All can be seen below.

This adds nicely to our medal collection from last years awards, most of which we still have in stock (including a lovely gold medal winning Albarino, which is one of many). We’ll keep you well informed of new award winning vintages as they come in - as well brand new award winning lines.

The Decanter World Wine Awards is great for consumers seeking for tried and tested wine that will deliver on quality, but it must be remembered that there’s big money involved in entering the competition, so many of the smaller producers with lesser marketing budgets can be overlooked.

Gold Medal

Glaetzer Amon-Ra 2007: Ripe fruit with a savoury spice, bacon, liquorice, chocolate and opulent oak - exceptional complexity.

Silver Medal

Langmeil Hangin’ Snakes Shiraz-Viognier 2007: Medium intensity. Gorgeous nose. Lovely, supple mid-palate. Plush and gorgeous.

Bronze Medal

Alta Pinot Grigio 2007: Fresh, herbal, spiced pears and apple. Good acidity, well-balanced, integrated palate.

Tussock Sauvignon Blanc 2008: Fresh but slightly oily note. Well made with good balance.

Elgin Vintners Sauvignon Blanc 2008: Flinty, steely nose, very crisp, classy balance. Long finish.

Langmeil Blacksmith Cabernet Sauvignon 2006: Mint and cassis. Focused. Generous, ripe tannins.

Langmeil Three Gardens 2006: Subtle evolution. Tea, black fruit and pepper, firm tannins.

Commended

Heartland Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Rockbare Shiraz 2006

Rockbare Chardonnay 2007

Chateau Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc 2008

Other recognised wines of earlier vintages

I’ve recognised the earlier vintages, many of which have received awards in previous years, as I believe they pay testament to the ability of the winemakers.

Woodstock “The Stocks” Shiraz 2006 (Bronze Medal) - 2004 vintage

Tabali Reserva Syrah 2007 (Silver Medal) - 2006 vintage (Bronze Medal in 2008 Awards)

Mirabello Pinot Grigio Rosé 2008 (Commended) - 2007 vintage

Tohu Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (Commended) - 2007 vintage (Air New Zealand Elite Gold)

Palazzi Negroamaro 2007 (Commended) - 2006 vintage

Saxanburg Private Collection 2006 (Bronze Medal) - 2004 vintage

Alvaro Palacios Les Terrasses 2007 (Bronze Medal) - 2005 vintage

Fuenteseca Bobal-Syrah 2008 (Bronze Medal) - 2007 vintage (Bronze Medal in 2008 Awards)

Heartland Viognier-Pinot Gris 2007 (Bronze Medal) -2006 vintage

Glaetzer Annaperenna 2007 (Bronze Medal) - 2006 vintage (Trophy winner in 2008 Awards)

Glaetzer Bishop Shiraz 2007 (Bronze Medal) - 2006 vintage (Commendation in 2008 Awards)

Langmeil Orphan Bank Shiraz 2006 (Bronze Medal) - 2005 vintage (Bronze Medal in 2008 Awards)

Domaine Chante Cigale Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2006 (Bronze Medal) - 2005 vintage (Bronze Medal in 2008 Awards)

Another wine I would like to mention is the 2008 white brother of our award winning Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Chante Cigale. It won a Decanter Trophy (the top accolade), and we’ll be doing our best to get our hands on a few cases before Christmas.

That’s it for another year - in the meantime watch this space for new wines and awards.

Click here to view all of the results from the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards

Friday the 13th turned out to be a very lucky day indeed for Curious Wines. Dressed to the nines in ballgowns and penguin suits, we took off for Dublin and the 7th Annual Digital Media Awards, where we scooped some great sites and big brands to bring home the award for Best Commercial Website. If you heard a huge noise anywhere in Ireland at about 8:55 PM, that was us - whooping with unabashed glee.

You can read our rather official comments on winning this very prestigious award in the press release, but more to the point: we’re having a celebration sale so we can share our happiness and good luck with our customers. In honour of the 7th DMAs, all champagne and sparkling wines are 7% off. So buy, drink and be merry - we certainly are.

Cheers!

We were absolutely over the moon to get the news on Tuesday that Curious Wines has been shortlisted for a Digital Media Award in the Best Commercial Website category. Everyone here is confident that Curious is a great site with great products and can hold its own in the cut-throat world of online commerce, but since we’d been in public launch for about 20 minutes when we put our application in back in November, it was the tiniest bit cheeky on our part, and a brilliant surprise to learn we’d made the shortlist for this year’s awards.

We’re in excellent company in this category with a great list of finalists:

• Argus Car Hire
• Curious Wines
• Hairy Baby Clothing Company
• ssh.ie
• three.ie
• Toyota Ireland Website

Frankly, we’re all so delighted to be listed in such prestigious company that we’d be happy to lose to any one of these nominees. On the off chance our name is called out for a gong on the 13th of February, however, we’ll be cracking open a bottle or two of our very best bubbly!