I'm delighted to say that we have found a worthy winner of this year's Geoffrey Roberts travel bursary.
Penelope Boothman, who will spend her £3000 touring eastern Europe this August to research its indigenous grape varieties, was the unanimous choice of judges Sally Clarke, Hugh Johnson, Martin Lam, Willie Lebus and myself. She has already done considerable work building up contacts and undertaking desk research but if anyone reading this can suggest any suitable sources of top-quality information, please send it to pennyboothman@hotmail.com as soon as possible. She is planning to visit Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Penny has already won the Austrian Bursary as a result of her performance in the WSET Diploma exams last summer and is currently studying to become a Master of Wine. Joint runners-up were Jordan Lichman, chef at the Inn at Little Washington, Virginia, who wanted to visit four top American restaurants which also own their own food-producing gardens and/or farms and Glen Wheatley who wanted to study the Chinese wine industry but has since had to return to Europe from his base in Beijing. We were unfortunately unable to help these two as the rules of the Charity Commission severely limit the sums we are able to dispense each year, particularly in this era of low interest rates. We were, however, able to point Levi Dalton of Boston and Herman Gerdingh of Holland in the direction of the generic bodies representing sherry and port respectively so that they could achieve some of their aims. Those who wish to find out more about this annual travel bursary can contact geoffreyrobertsa@aol.com or see further details on this site. We will be actively soliciting entries for the 2004 Award in the first three months of next year. Please spread the word of this travel bursary for potential achievers in the fields of food, wine and travel. We are particularly anxious to recruit more food-related applications next year. Most unusually, wine has become a bit too dominant. We will be actively soliciting entries for the 2004 Award in the first three months of next year. Please spread the word of this travel bursary for potential achievers in the fields of food, wine and travel. We are particularly anxious to recruit more food-related applications next year. Most unusually, wine has become a bit too dominant.
Joint runners-up were Jordan Lichman, chef at the Inn at Little Washington, Virginia, who wanted to visit four top American restaurants which also own their own food-producing gardens and/or farms and Glen Wheatley who wanted to study the Chinese wine industry but has since had to return to Europe from his base in Beijing.
We were unfortunately unable to help these two as the rules of the Charity Commission severely limit the sums we are able to dispense each year, particularly in this era of low interest rates. We were, however, able to point Levi Dalton of Boston and Herman Gerdingh of Holland in the direction of the generic bodies representing sherry and port respectively so that they could achieve some of their aims.
Those who wish to find out more about this annual travel bursary can contact geoffreyrobertsa@aol.com or see further details on this site. We will be actively soliciting entries for the 2004 Award in the first three months of next year. Please spread the word of this travel bursary for potential achievers in the fields of food, wine and travel. We are particularly anxious to recruit more food-related applications next year. Most unusually, wine has become a bit too dominant.
We will be actively soliciting entries for the 2004 Award in the first three months of next year. Please spread the word of this travel bursary for potential achievers in the fields of food, wine and travel. We are particularly anxious to recruit more food-related applications next year. Most unusually, wine has become a bit too dominant.
