Stephen Skelton MW has spent almost the whole of his working life growing grapes, making wine and advising vine growers in Great Britain. He has also written and lectured extensively on vineyards in and wines from the UK.
Rosemary George was one of the first women to become a Master of Wine, back in 1979. She is the author of 13 books, including The Wines of the Languedoc and The Wines of Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois. Her other specialist wine regions are Tuscany and New Zealand.
CH’NG Poh Tiong is a prolific writer, senior wine judge and consultant. He has been a publisher of many magazines, guides and books including The Wine Review, the second oldest wine magazine in Asia. Poh Tiong is also writer of the world’s first guide to Bordeaux in Chinese.
Norm Roby has been writing about the California wine scene for over 30 years. From Vintage Magazine he moved to The Wine Spectator with his ‘Inside California Wine’ column; he then became the California Correspondent for Decanter magazine.
Award winning writer Giles Fallowfield is an acknowledged expert on the wines of Champagne, and has gleaned his deep knowledge of the region from regular visits there over the past 30 years.
Monty Waldin is an author and broadcaster. He has written books on both organic and biodynamic wine and biodynamic gardening. He currently hosts the English language Italian Wine Podcast.
Caroline Gilby MW is a freelance writer specializing in the wines of Central and Eastern Europe. She is author of The Wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova and chairs the panel of Eastern Europe wine judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards.
Darren Smith is a freelance wine writer. After several years of writing about wine and tiptoeing around the idea of winemaking, last year he decided to launch his own ‘gypsy winemaking’ project – called The Finest Wines Available to Humanity (TFWATH).
Natasha Hughes is a London-based Master of Wine. Her career – a mixture of journalism, consultancy, judging at wine shows, event management and leading seminars – brings to mind an old MW exam question: ‘Jack of all trades, Master of Wine?’
James Lawther MW is an independent wine writer who has lived in France for over 30 years. He is the author of The Heart of Bordeaux and The Finest Wines of Bordeaux.
Joe Fattorini is a wine writer, presenter and speaker, known for his role as ‘Obi Wine Kenobi’ on television’s The Wine Show. For 14 years he was the weekly wine correspondent for The Herald Newspaper, and in 2017 he was named Wine Communicator of the Year by the IWSC.
Elizabeth Gabay MW has worked as merchant, consultant, writer and educator, specializing in southern France and Central Europe, and, since publishing Rosé: Understanding the Pink Wine Revolution (2018) also focusing on European rosé.
Jim Budd has been writing about Loire wine since 1988, a year after he bought a house with his friends in the Cher Valley. Jim writes for Wine Behind The Label as well as his own blog Jim’s Loire.
Wine writer and consultant Steven Spurrier, joined the wine trade in London in 1964 and later moved to Paris where he bought a wine shop in 1971, and then opened L’Académie du Vin, France’s first private wine school in 1973. Spurrier organized the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which unexpectedly elevated the status of California wine and promoted the expansion of wine production in the New World.
Susan Keevil is our Editor at the Académie du Vin Library. She has been a wine writer and editor for over two decades, hooked on the subject ever since she was a ‘cellar rat’, cooling Chardonnays at Rosemount in Australia’s Hunter Valley. Dabbling in wine and wine words is her ideal day.
Based in Richmond, Virginia, Jason Tesauro is a writer, sommelier, and photojournalist with three books, four cameras, and five children. Look for his work in Esquire, Decanter, Travel+Leisure, and Food & Wine.
For over 30 years as a Master of Wine, consultant, speaker, educator, trainer, writer and judge, Peter McCombie MW have enjoyed promoting the world of wine. Peter is a Co-Chairman of the International Wine Challenge and judge wine competitions all around the world.
Stephen Brook is a multi award winning author of more than thirty wine books, his works include Complete Bordeaux, The Wines of California, The Finest Wines of California. Brook also fully revised the last two editions of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion, and he writes for magazines in many countries, including Decanter.
Jamie Ross’ introduction to wine was as a graduate trainee in Chile in the late 1980s. He is an editor and writer, and founder of a micro-winery based in the Cachapoal Valley.
Based in Lugano, Switzerland, Robin Kick is a freelance wine consultant and writer who spends most of her time tasting through Europe, paying particular attention to the wines of Burgundy, Italy and Switzerland. She passed the Master of Wine exam in 2014.
German-born but London-based, Anne Krebiehl MW is a freelance wine writer and lecturer. She is the contributing editor for Austria, Alsace, Burgundy and England for US Wine Enthusiast Magazine and also publishes widely in trade and consumer publications. Her first book, The Wines of Germany was published in 2019.
Michael Fridjhon has been writing about wine for over 40 years. He is author or contributor to over 40 books, and is South Africa’s best known international judge and its most widely consulted liquor industry authority.
Christine Austin is a UK-based wine writer who contributes to regional, national and international publications. She is a wine judge for several international competitions.
Giles Cooke MW is the Director and Shareholder of UK importer Alliance Wine and the Managing Director of Alliance Wine Australia and Winemaker for Thistledown Wines. He splits his time between the UK and Australia. Obsessive about Grenache in Australia and Spain.
Dr. Liz Thach MW is a wine journalist, educator and researcher. She has published more than 150 articles and nine wine books, including Luxury Wine Marketing with co-author Peter Yeung. She currently works at Sonoma State University in California as the Distinguished Professor of Wine & Management.
Michele Longo is a Certified Sommelier and teacher. He writes for Barolo & Co magazine and is co-curator (with Ian d’Agata) of the Italy Section of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book. Michele’s latest book (also with Ian D’Agata) is Barbaresco and Barolo: Listening to Nebbiolo and its Langhe Terroirs is published later this year.
Sam Caporn MW has been in the wine trade for over 20 years and became a Master of Wine in 2011 when she was awarded the Madame Bollinger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Practical Examinations (the tasting papers). She now works as a freelance expert – The Mistress of Wine – and is also a Co-Chair of the International Wine Challenge.
Andrew James is a professor of English literature at the School of Commerce at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. He is currently on sabbatical leave in France at Université Grenoble Alpes in France in order to write a book on Bandol wine. His great interest as a wine researcher is understanding the evolution of wine-speak, and the reflection of culture in wine language.
Katrina Smith is an award-winning wine professional with 10 years experience in the industry. She is currently studying towards the revered Master of Wine qualification whilst providing virtual educational wine services via her business Tipple Talk.
Clare Tooley MW lives and works in California, sourcing wine for national wine clubs. She began a life studying wine in London before moving to Bordeaux and then the United States, where she became a Master of Wine in February 2021.
Laura Milnes is a Toronto-based wine consultant. She runs her direct-to-consumer wine club Crushable, and also writes freelance for her own blog Silk+Coupe and for various publications.
Jacopo Mazzeo is an independent wine and drinks journalist. He writes regularly for a number of trade and consumer publications including Wine Enthusiast, Harpers Wine & Spirit, Whisky magazine and The Drop. Jacopo is a former sommelier and can be found at JacopoMazzeo.com.
Raymond Blake has been writing about wine for 25 years and has been published across the globe. He is a regular contributor to 67 Pall Mall TV. His latest book, Wine Talk, has been published by Skyhorse, New York.
Saira balances a successful career in the City of London with creating wine and travel content for ‘Pursuit of Grapeness’. More on Saira can be found on her website on her Instagram page.
Sumita Sarma is a wine buyer and marketing specialist with a decade’s experience of working across Asian and European wine markets. She runs her own publishing and consultancy company, Sumilier.
Simon Field MW forsook the dubious charms of a life in the City to buy wine for Berry Bros and Rudd; twenty very agreeable years ensued, with specialisations in France and Spain the result, passions which has continued to nurture over the last few years.
Amanda Barnes is an award-winning wine writer and specialist in the wine regions of South America. She is author of The South America Wine Guide (2021), and has lived in the southern hemisphere since 2009.
Simon J. Woolf is an award-winning British wine writer and the author of two critically acclaimed books, Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine and Foot Trodden – Portugal and the Wines that Time Forgot.
Sophia Longhi is a wine writer and the winner of the IWSC Emerging Talent in Wine Communication Award 2022. She is especially passionate about championing women in wine on her page @skinandpulp.
Benjamin Roelfs (26), is a wine professional from The Netherlands with, he admits, ‘a huge passion for the wines of Alsace’. Writing mostly online on his Instagram account, he regularly celebrates the wines of this region. He is a trained sommelier and he keeps up his study of wine every day.
Tom Surgey is a leading drinks presenter and wine professional. An in-demand live performer, when not on stage or in front of a camera, he writes. He has two young daughters, who get the blame for any delays on deadline.
Wink Lorch lives partly in London and partly in the French Alps. She has become a specialist in the unusual wines of the French Alps (Savoie, Bugey and others) and of the Jura, contributing to many books and magazines on these specialist regions.
Caroline Roddis has been writing about wines and spirits for more than a decade, both as a freelance writer for a wide range of lifestyle publications and as editor for global retailer The Whisky Exchange.
