Last week, John, The Wine Raconteur, won the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #16 (#MWWC16) and just like all winners of the Challenge, his “reward” was to choose the theme for the following Challenge (in this case #MWWC16).

A few of us started the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge over a year ago with the desire to promote more creative wine writing. The thought was that we get caught up in tasting notes, winery visits, and the occasional food porn and we soon forget that part of the reason we put in all the hours that we do on these silly blogs is that we love to write!

In his post announcing the new theme (which he did not forward to me, by the way), he stated “I do believe that I have entered submissions to every Challenge…” Well, according to my records, while he certainly leads with the number of overall submissions, it seems as though he missed #MWWC5 (theme: Feast). I did go back and check before I called him out on this, and it seems as though I am indeed correct.

Just keeping it real, John….

Now that I have hopefully made him blush (I like to do that to the newly crowned winners), I must point out that he leads the pack with overall submissions (15) and consecutive weeks submitting (11), so it was certainly fitting that he got his first MaWWaCky (I just made that up—what do you think?). There is no doubt that he put a lot of thought into his choice, and he offered up the first quad-syllabic theme (to be fair, Anatoli at Talk-a-Vino had a theme with five syllables):

  A quick recap of the rules:

The rules

1. The Challenge is open to anybody and everybody. It helps if you have a blog, but that is certainly not a requirement (contact me if this is the case).
2. Write a post based on this month’s theme: “Epiphany”.
3. The post should be at least tangentially related to wine (after all, it is the name of the challenge).
4. The post should be more or less around 1000 words (I routinely violate this rule, so it is just there as a “guide”).
5. Include the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge badge (above) that was designed by the very first winner, The Armchair Sommelier.
6. Remember to vote!
7. Once you post on your blog, please do at least two of the following and I will be sure to include a link here as well as on all subsequent posts about this month’s challenge:
   1. Include a link back to this post in your entry.
      
   2. Use the hashtag #MWWC17 somewhere in your post.
   3. Tweet, using the #MWWC17 hashtag and include a link back to your post.
   4. Send me an email: jeff(at)thedrunkencyclist(dot)com

The all important dates:

Deadline for submission:  Monday, June 8th, 2015

Voting Begins: Tuesday, June 9th, 2015

Voting Ends:  Monday, June 15th, 2015

Winner Announced:  Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

Previous winners:

If you’re looking for some inspiration here are the links to the previous winning posts:

MWWC1 – Transportation

The Armchair Sommelier

MWWC2 – Trouble

My Custard Pie

MWWC3 – Possession

The Wine Kat

MWWC4 – Oops

Confessions of a Wine Geek

MWWC5 – Feast

The drunken cyclist

MWWC6 – Mystery

The SAHMmelier

MWWC7 – Devotion

The Sweet Sommelier

MWWC8 – Luck

The drunken cyclist

MWWC9 – Fear

The Sybarite

MWWC10 – Value

Dracaena Wines

MWWC11 – Friend

Armchair Sommelier

MWWC12 – Local

Talk-a-Vino

MWWC13 – Serendipity

Duff’s Wines

MWWC14 – Tradition

Cheap Wine Curious

MWWC15 – Success

JvB Uncorked

MWWC16 – Finish

The Wine Raconteur

Please contact me if you have any questions: jeff (at) thedrunkencyclist (dot) com