So I am down here in the Southern Hemisphere, in a cozy bed in Mendoza, Argentina after spending most of the day yesterday driving over the Andes mountains from Santiago, Chile. Truly an amazing drive. It was clouded a bit, perhaps, by the two and a half hours that we spent going through customs at the Argentinian border, which seemed rather odd to me since all of the people I have asked have assured me that the two countries are on very good terms.

What is also odd is how the voting in the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge seems to ebb and flow. I have long since stopped trying to figure it out, but after last week’s rather anemic turnout, this month’s vote had one of the top five turnouts in the history of the Challenge.

Odd.

Most (72%) of the vote went to this month’s winner, with the second place finisher at a very distant 10%.

Also fairly odd.

Who is that winner?

Well…

Wi.Nes

This marks the third month in a row that we have had a first time winner, and as the winner, Nesli has the honor/responsibility/task/burden of choosing the theme for next month’s Challenge.* As is normally the case, I now mention that I hope to have the next Challenge up and running by this time next week, in the hopes of gently urging Nesli to get over the immense joy of winning quickly.

Hopefully it will ignite the collective juices of the MWWC “community” and encourage many long-time contributors (like, cough, me) to once again take to the keyboard and enter this month!

Congratulations Nesli!

*She also gets the “privilege” of displaying this badge on her site if she so desires.