The creation of the article Peter Dredge is not a winemaker by accident took three days of travel, a week of writing and re-writing, and a 35+ year build-up of writing craft. It also took about $7500 of photography equipment, though the article’s accompanying image could have been achieved with far less expense. The article was published independently on this site, which is a free platform. I received zero payment, in any way. In Sydney last night this article was named as the winner of the Best Published Feature Article at the 2026 Wine Communicators of Australia awards. I’m grateful. I’m humbled. And I am, more especially so, because – now that I’m older – the more acutely aware I’ve become that the “wins” are hard to come by in life.
Most importantly, right now, I’m thankful to Peter Dredge himself, and – to be honest – for the “fact” that I didn’t stuff his story up. Dredge’s story is remarkable. If he hadn’t shared it so openly, and honestly, I wouldn’t be on the receiving end of this award.
The other finalists in this category were Cody Profaca – "The future of Australian wine is here today and here to stay" (Drinks Trade), Lisa Cardelli – "The Cost of Silence" (Halliday magazine), and Markus Patz – "The Edges of the Wine World" (Drinks Trade). I’ve been following all of their careers; all of them are guns at what they do; all would have been deserved winners.
It’s pretty obvious, from the style of my piece, that my article on Peter Dredge wasn’t written by ai. The opening paragraph is 711 words, for starters. But given the farcical events of the 67 Pall Mall writing competition earlier this year, and the controversy around the best feature winner, let me just say categorically: no ai was harmed during the writing of this piece, because no ai was used in any part of its writing or re-writing or checking or re-checking.
I love ai, and use it. But it can stay the hell off my front lawn.
I started as a cadet journalist in 1987. I’ve written for a lot of publications over the course of my near-40 years in this profession, both in Australia and internationally. I’ve been lucky enough to win some awards along the way. This 2026 WCA award continues an unusual theme: I’ve never won a writing award under someone else’s masthead; every award I’ve won has been the result of independent or “self” publishing. Which is either weird, or it says something.
That said, (almost) no publication in the world would run with a 711-word opening paragraph. I do though believe in the power of pacing.
The winning article: Peter Dredge is not a winemaker by accident
Peter Dredge of Dr. Edge. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
