Meg Bernhard Named 2024 Spurrier-Winiarski Wine Writer-in-Residence at UC Davis
Resident will draw on library collections, industry access for wine writing project on climate change and labor
The UC Davis Library is pleased to announce the 2024 recipient of the Spurrier-Winiarski Wine Writer-in-Residence Award: Meg Bernhard, Las Vegas-based journalist, essayist and author of the 2023 book, “Wine.”
Bernhard will be awarded $50,000 to support her three-month residency at UC Davis, where she will pursue a research and writing project delving into the intersection of climate change and labor in the global wine industry.
The Spurrier-Winiarski Wine Writer-in-Residence Award, administered by the UC Davis Library, was created in 2023 in recognition of Steven Spurrier and Warren Winiarski, friends and legendary pioneers in the wine world who valued the importance of wine writing to the elevation and greater understanding of making and appreciating fine wine.
As Resident, Bernhard will have access to the extensive wine writing and related collections at the UC Davis Library — considered the “greatest wine library in the world” — as well as opportunities to connect with wine industry and wine writing experts in California’s premier wine making regions.
“I did wine research at the library’s special collections in 2021 for “Wine,” and was fascinated by the range and depth of the university’s archive,” said Bernhard. “Librarians and research specialists helped me a great deal during my stay in Davis, and I’ve wanted to return for a longer period of time to more fully immerse myself in the material.”
While “Wine” is a meditation on wine and power, Bernhard’s proposed Resident project, Wine on Fire: Grapes, Climate, and Labor in a Changing World, will “blend science writing, cultural criticism, and labor reportage to paint a nuanced portrait of the shifting wine landscape as the Earth’s climate changes.” She plans to examine the financial, environmental and human health impacts of climate-change-induced natural disasters, as well as the technologies created to mitigate them.
Six months following the conclusion of the residency, Bernhard will submit a manuscript based on her research, further contributing to the body of knowledge in wine literature.
Bernhard was selected through a rigorous panel review process, which included representatives from UC Davis and the Académie du Vin Library, which was founded by Steven Spurrier with the purpose of furthering wine appreciation by publishing the finest wine writing, past and present. The review committee was inspired by Bernhard’s compelling narrative voice and creative use of the UC Davis Library’s collections as well as the project’s originality and significance.
“We were impressed by Bernhard’s body of work and her research for her book Wine,” said Hermione Ireland, managing director and publisher of the Académie du Vin Library. “Through this writing project, we expect Bernhard will shed light on a topic of critical importance to the California wine industry and beyond, and also further Steven Spurrier’s vision of elevating wine writing to enhance readers’ appreciation of wine. We know that Steven would have been so proud of this award, in his and his great friend Warren Winiarski’s names, supporting more wine writers in their careers for the greater good of the industry and consumers.”
About the Spurrier-Winiarski Wine Writer-in-Residence Award
Created in recognition of Steven Spurrier and Warren Winiarski, this $50,000 award supports research, writing, and publication of a long-form project that offers a valuable contribution to wine writing using the UC Davis Library’s collections on wine and related topics.
About Meg Bernhard
Meg Bernhard’s work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and other publications. Her Hazlitt essay “Water or Sky?,” about finding meaning in shared grief, was anthologized in the 2021 Best American Travel Writing, and her work has been supported by the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and the Overseas Press Club Foundation. Her book Wine, with Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, is a meditation on wine and power, and published last year.
Media Contact:
- Audrey Russek, Food and Wine Archivist, Archives and Special Collections, asrussek@ucdavis.edu