Kickstarter funds first Jura wine book

A proposed book on the wines of Jura has smashed its fundraising target using pledges secured through online resource Kickstarter.

The proposed book on the wines of Jura by Wink Lorch

A campaign by winewriter and educator Wink Lorch to self-publish a guide to Jura’s wines and the region’s culture started on the kickstarter website on Friday 22 March and managed to hit its fundraising target of £7,500 yesterday, despite a 31-day proposed money-raising period.

Speaking to the drinks business about this achievement, Lorch explained that the online fundraising resource for creative projects is effective, but requires a lot of work, a broad contact base and a clearly defined proposal.

“Kickstarter takes a huge amount of work to do successfully,” she said.

Continuing she commented, “It can only work if you have a very specific project that you know there is a market for and if you have a wide network of contacts who will be prepared both to back the project and to share with their networks.”

Despite securing 275 backers pledging varying amounts to total £8,692 – smashing her goal by over £1,000 – Lorch is still looking for more financial support over the next few days of her campaign.

As she explains on kickstarter, she needs the extra funds for a larger print run, better photography and a website for the book and Jura wines in general.

Once published, Jura Wine will be the first book on the region’s produce printed in English, and Lorch says that it will be a paperback with around 320 pages comprising 100,000 words, up to 200 photographs and 10-15 maps and diagrams.

Lorch is a specialist on the wines of Jura and writes the Jura & Savoie chapter for Tom Stevenson’s Wine Report and has contributed pieces on Jura and Savoie to many wine books including the Oxford Wine Companion.

You can read more about Lorch’s proposed book here.