Tom Wark at FERMENTATION has announced the winners of the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards. Tyler Colman, Dr. Vino himself, took home two of the coveted statues (there were statues, right?). Not only did his blog win “Best Wine Blog” but he also won “Best Writing on a Wine Blog.” Congratulations, Tyler!

Perennial front runner Alder Yarrow from Vinography was recognized as “Best Wine Reviewing Blog” and Gary Vaynerchuk took home the “Best Podcast or Videoblog” award for Wine Library TV. My collaboration partner for the new Unfiltered podcast, Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape, won for “Best Wine Blog Graphics.” Rounding out the awards are Pinotblogger as “Best Winery Blog” and The Wine Collector Blog as “Best Single Subject Blog.”

My sincere congratulations to all the winners.

Tom Wark deserves a ton of credit for doing this and I think everything went very well for the first time out of the gate. Next year I’d like to see a more international focus and inclusion of the great UK and Australian wine blogs; perhaps a “Best Non-U.S. Wine Blog” category is in order? At the very least, a non-American judge would be the type of thing I’d like to see.

In the podcast category, I think there are a couple of issues. For one, there is a big difference between indie efforts like Cellar Rat and even my humble podcast and what the Wine Spectator does. Second, I don’t think audio podcasts should be judged along side video podcasts; both lose in the comparison.

But these are quibbles. Thanks for your efforts, Tom. I’m going to raise my game now to get into the finals next year