The Judges

Tim Atkin MW

Tim is a British wine writer with an international following, with more than 30 awards to his name, including the 2015 Louis Roederer Wine Feature Writer of the Year and the 2014 Fortnum & Mason On-Line Drinks Writer of the Year. In 2012, he was selected as one of the ten most influential people in the world of wine by Wine Intelligence.

He writes for Gourmet Traveller Wine, Decanter, Imbibe, The Drinks Business, Woman and Home, The World of Fine Wine, Robb Report, Jamie Magazine and his own website, www.timatkin.com, where he publishes authoritative annual reports on Bordeaux, Burgundy, South Africa, Argentina and Rioja. Tim is also one of the Three Wine Men with Oz Clarke and Olly Smith, whose mission is promote better wine. 

Tim is respected for his forensic, unsnobbish palate and judges wine all over the world. He passed the Master of Wine exam at the first attempt in 2001, winning the Robert Mondavi Award for the best set of theory papers, and holds a BA in French from Durham University and an MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics.

Sam Caporn MW

Sam Caporn has been in the wine industry for over 20 years and runs her own wine consultancy business; The Mistress of Wine which she set up in 2012. Prior to that she travelled extensively around the world blending and buying wines whilst working for Accolade Wines and Direct Wines. At the latter she was responsible for Australia, New Zealand, the Loire, Champagne and Central and Eastern Europe. Four years as Tastings Co-ordinator at Wine Magazine preceded those roles and was arguably one of the very best jobs to have whilst studying for the Master of Wine exams. Sam went on to pass both parts of the examination (both practical and theory) first time and in a career highlight was awarded the 2011 Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for Excellence in Tasting which is awarded to the individual who achieves the highest marks in the rigorous Master of Wine blind tasting papers.

Oz Clarke

Oz is one of the world's leading wine experts, whose formidable reputation is based on his extensive wine knowledge and accessible, no-nonsense approach. His numerous award-winning books include Pocket Wine Guide, 250 Best Wines, Bordeaux and Let me tell you about wine. Oz's third BBC TV series with 'Top Gear' co-presenter James May was 'Oz and James Drink to Britain'. For this series and the accompanying book Oz and James were awarded the International Wine Challenge Personality of the Year Award. Oz has since filmed two series with comic Hugh Dennis and there is more ongoing television with James May. In 2010 Oz became an Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole for services to French agriculture.

Dr Jamie Goode

Jamie obtained a PhD in plant biology and worked as a science editor before deciding that his passions lay with wine. He authors www.wineanorak.com, is the weekly columnist for the Sunday Express and writes for several magazines. In 2006 he won a Glenfiddich award for his first book, Wine science (Mitchell Beazeley), and in 2007 he won a second Glenfiddich award, this time as Wine Writer of the Year. Jamie is currently working on a book titled Natural wine, with Sam Harrop MW.

Peter McCombie MW

Peter's career in wine started in sales working with legendary Winecellars that champion Italian wines. He now operates an independent wine consultancy service, focused on hotels and restaurants.

Born and raised in New Zealand, now resident in London, he speaks widely, hosting corporate and public events as well as industry seminars. He teaches at the Christie's Wine Course and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, as well as conducting bespoke courses for anyone from beginners to MW students. He writes for a number of publications and has judged wine competitions around the world.

Helen McGinn

Helen is the author of The Knackered Mother’s Wine Club, an award-winning wine blog and best-selling wine book. She spent almost a decade sourcing wines around the world as a wine buyer for Tesco, then spent the next half-decade pregnant. Married with three children, she writes a weekly drinks column for the Daily Mail’s Femail magazine and has been the resident wine expert on ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show. Her latest book, Teetotal Tipples, was published in December 2016 and her third book is due out in the Autumn. Awards include Fortnum & Mason’s Online Drink Writer of the Year and Red Magazine’s Best Blogger.

Nick Adams MW

Nick has been in the wine trade for 30 years and passed the Master of Wine exam in 1992. He grew up in good old W&A Gilbey wholesale (then part of IDV UK) before moving onto the pioneering Geoffrey Roberts agency house, the forerunner for New World wines in the UK. He has spent equal time working in both the On and Off trade channels and now runs his own company First Glass Wine Services, working closely with both the Independent and On Trades and with Corporate and Private clients.

Clive Barlow MW

Clive has been in the wine trade for over 20 years. He began working for Safeways in the late 1980's subsequently moving onto Peter Dominics and Wine Rack and establishing his own wine sales and consultancy business. He passed the MW in 1999 and he is currently Chair of the IMW's Education Committee.

Winnie Bowman

Dr Winnie Bowman is a physiotherapist, biomedical scientist and a Cape Wine Master. She is an international wine and spirit judge and panel chair. Winnie writes about wine, teaches, presents corporate tastings and appears regularly on radio and television wine shows. People, wine travel, opera, theatre, reading and art are her passions. She is the Maître of the Commanderie de Bordeaux en Afrique du Sud, a member of the Education Committe of the Institute of Cape Wine Masters, the Honorary secretary of the Circle of Wine Writers, as well as a member of the Association of Wine Educators.

Anne Burchett

Anne Burchett is a wine marketing and communications specialist and a lecturer on the business of wine. She has worked in the wine trade for nearly thirty years.
Her latest role before setting up her own business was MD of Sopexa UK, an agency for international marketing, promotions, press and public relations specialising in food and wine.
She also held a number of General Management, Sales and Marketing positions for various French wine producers, namely, Chantovent, Skalli, Vinival, Grands Chais de France and Castel UK and for Waverley Vintners.
She graduated from European Business School in 1985 with a Master degree in Marketing and passed her WSET Diploma in 1999. She was awarded a Special Recognition Award for services to French wines by Harpers Wine and Spirit in 2014.
French born, Anne Burchett has now lived and worked in the UK for longer than she has lived in France.

Christy Canterbury MW

Christy Canterbury is a journalist, public speaker and judge based in Manhattan. Upon becoming a Master of Wine, she received the Villa Maria Award for Outstanding Performance in the Viticulture Examination. Christy’s articles have been published in Wine Enthusiast, Food Arts, Sommelier Journal, Beverage Media, TASTED and on Snooth, TimAtkin.com and several other blogs, including her own. Christy is the Consulting Editor of the recently released book, Rock & Vine, and the Italy Editor for the Professional Wine Reference. Her 2012 public speaking appearances included the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference, the Women in Wine Leadership Symposium and TEXSOM. Prior to going independent, Christy was the Global Beverage Director for Culinary Concepts by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the National Wine Director for Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group. In retail, she sourced wines from within and outside Italy for Italian Wine Merchants.

Brendan Heath

Brendan is a Graduate of Charles Sturt University, where he studied winemaking and viticulture. He has been successfully making a diverse range of table wine styles for over twenty years, as well he is a blender and custodian of some of the oldest and richest fortified wine stocks in Australia. He is a passionate wine educator and regularly judges wines throughout Australia.

Ulrich Hoffmann

Ulrich is a winemaker with over 20 years of experience. After an apprenticeship as winemaker and studying oenology in Germany he worked for premium wineries in Spain, France, Napa Valley, Italy and the UK. He has been judging wines internationally for almost as many years.

Ulrich lives in Sussex. He runs Hoffmann & Rathbone, a boutique winery producing fine English Sparkling Wines and also international winemaking consultancy Vivid Wines servicing clients in the UK, Italy and the Lebanon.

Anne Krebiehl MW

German-born but London-based, Anne Krebiehl MW is a freelance wine writer and lecturer. She is the contributing editor for Austria and England for the US Wine Enthusiast and also publishes widely in trade and consumer wine publications. She lectures, consults, translates wine-related texts and judges at international wine competitions. She completed her WSET Diploma in 2010 and was admitted to the Institute of Masters of Wine in September 2014. Anne has helped to harvest and make wine in New Zealand, Germany and Italy. More info on www.anneinvino.com

Elizabeth Kelly MW

Elizabeth has worked in the wine industry for nearly 20 years. She is currently the buying manager for Majestic wines with responsibility for Burgundy, Italy, South Africa and Fine Wine. She is also a certified educator for WSET and is deputy chair of WineGB's sustainability scheme - SWGB. Elizabeth became a Master of Wine in 2020.

Angela Mount

Angela Mount is a wine writer, presenter and consultant, who was previously head of wine buying for Somerfield supermarkets, where her taste buds were famously insured for £10million. She set up her own business, Angela Mount Associates Ltd, seven years ago; Angela works with a number of major wine producers throughout the world, helping them develop their Uk strategy and wine styles. she is the wine writer for several consumer publications, and is a regular contributor to Harpers Wine & Spirit . She has been judging at the International Wine Challenge for many years. She also consults on a number of restaurant wine lists and is chair judge for both the Bristol and the Bath Good Food Awards.

Ray O'Connor MW

Ray O'Connor is an Irish Master of Wine based in the U.K. He wrote his research paper on bulk transportation of wine and options for maintaining quality en route. His experience in the wine industry includes sommelier for Gordon Ramsay, Commercial Manager for the International Wine Challenge and Wine Director for Naked Wines. He oversaw the new product development and quality control program for all wines at Naked Wines. He has experience in alternative packaging and oxygen management. He consults to wineries and wine regions and lectures on wine quality and styles to people from novice to Master of Wine student. He also makes wine in Spain and Italy.

Treve Ring

Treve Ring is a wine writer and editor, judge and speaker, and perpetual traveller. She is based on Vancouver Island, Canada, though is most often found on a plane or in a vineyard.

After completing her Art History degree with Distinction from the University of Victoria and being exposed to the world of wine business at Christie’s in London, England, she switched gears, leaving the realm of art for the world of wine. She is a certified sommelier, WSET diploma holder, Wine Scholar Guild instructor, and Sherry instructor, and has been presenting on wine internationally since co-founding Cru Consultancy, a boutique wine education and consultation company, in 2012.

Treve began writing professionally in 2001. Her work has been published in World of Fine Wine, Meininger’s Wine Business International, Wine & Spirits, Sommelier Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, WineAlign, The Alchemist, Quench Magazine, Vitis, Lonely Planet Travel, and others. In addition to her role as Correspondent Anorak at WineAnorak, she is the executive editor and senior critic at Gismondi on Wine. Previously she was the longtime wine editor for EAT Magazine, editor at large for Scout Magazine, and SIP Northwest Magazine, as well as the National Managing Editor for WineAlign. 

She tastes thousands of wines each year, and is an established wine judge in Canada, the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United States. Though her travels take her all over the wine world, Treve has spent the last few years concentrating and researching sparkling wine globally, with a focus on Champagne.

Annette Scarfe MW

Annette Scarfe started in wine by importing from small French domaines while holding down a career as a banker. Her job eventually took her to Singapore where she decided to leave banking and focus on wine. She has since developed a reputation in wine education and consulting for both the on- and off-trade. She has also consulted for restaurants including Sake No Hana, Cha Cha Moon and Princi. Annette is a regular on magazine tasting panels, and is also a WSET-certified educator as well as a Bordeaux Educator, and prefers to work with her clients' wine personnel to deliver bespoke training or support.

Madeleine Stenwreth MW

Madeleine Stenwreth is a Master of Wine and international wine consultant based in Sweden with experience in nearly every aspect of the wine business. Prior to setting up her consultancy in 2010 she worked as quality and product development manager for a leading Nordic wine importing group, as wine buyer at the Swedish alcohol retailing monopoly (Systembolaget), as marketing manager for Wines of South Africa (WOSA) and as head sommelier and restaurant manager at 5-star Relais & Chateaux. In 2008 she received the Quinta do Noval Award for her MW dissertation, ‘The effect of altitude on Malbec in Mendoza’.

Madeleine consults globally to high-profile wine producers on product development, inspires and challenges winemakers on blending and quality and style strategy and also acts as a competence-boosting coach for trade professionals. She is a speaker at seminars, holds masterclasses and lectures at various educational institutes for sommeliers and WSET Diploma students, and is a frequent international guest judge in wine competitions all over the world.

Cathy Van Zyl MW

South Africa's only resident Master of Wine, Cathy is a regular judge for the Trophy Wine Show, occasional panellist for several other local competitions and, increasingly, overseas. Co-founder of Grape, she contributes to international magazines and websites, and lectures for the Cape Wine Academy on Tasting and World of Wine Theory. She is currently a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine's education committee responsible for organising its seminar for second-year students in Bordeaux.

Joe Wadsack

Joe won the coveted International Wine and Spirit Communicator of the Year award 2005. He studied wine making in Bordeaux and has since worked as a buyer and consultant for a number of leading supermarket chains. Joe's knowledge and experience culminated in him becoming the youngest ever International Senior Judge at The Royal Melbourne Wine Show.

Fongyee Walker MW

After graduating with an MPhil in Ancient Chinese, Fongyee Walker moved to China in 2007, started Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting and became the first Master of Wine (MW) resident in mainland China in 2016. She is based in Beijing, focusing on wine education and promotion both on- and off-line. Fongyee was featured in the award-winning documentary Red Obsession, has hosted several Chinese streaming wine shows such as: Wok 'n Wine 品尝中国 and Carpe Vinum 意大利美酒之游 and was the executive producer for the documentary Waking the Sleeping Dragon. Fongyee has also written articles for: The World of Fine Wine, Decanter China, Wine in China, and other magazines and has received multiple awards for her contributions to the wine culture of China.

Simon Woods

Since swapping a career as an electronics design engineer for a more enjoyable one in wine communication, Simon has been editor of the Which? Wine Guide, a columnist for the FT and author of a number of books, including the award-winning 'I don't know much about wine but I know what I like.' His unstuffy, entertaining style also means he is much in demand as a speaker for a wide variety of wine events.

John Worontschak

John began his winemaking career at Petaluma winery in the late 70's whilst reading Geology at Adelaide University. Embarking on a winemaking degree at Charles Sturt University he was awarded the Ron Potter Scholarship in 1982. Whilst running Four Corners Consultancy throughout the 80s ad 90s he made own label wines from Peru to Romania and many places in between and was acclaimed for improving the quality of English Wine. Currently director of Litmus Wines Ltd, focusing on English wines, contract winemaking and wine sales www.litmuswines.com ; and Worontschak Wine Services Ltd, a wine business consultation service currently working in Russia, Mexico, Israel, China and the UK www.worontschak.com.

Clem Yates MW

Clem's career in the wine industry really began when she used her chemistry degree to study Oenology as a post graduate at Roseworthy University in Australia. It was here that she developed a real passion for the process of creating and developing wines.

Clem currently holds the role of Sourcing and Supply Director at Off-Piste Wines, who are a supplier to the UK retailers.  As well as winemaking and buying she is responsible for the quality, safety and legality of all their wines. She tries to use her knowledge and experience to protect quality from the process of picking the grapes right through to when a customer opens a bottle.

Prior to joining Off-Piste, Clem was responsible for all the own label Beers,Wines and Spirits at Sainsbury’s, where she developed the “House” range of wines and re-established the Taste the difference level from around the world. She has also previously worked for Tesco in-house. She started winemaking as a flying winemaker covering vintages in both the North and Southern hemispheres including Australia, California, Chile, France and Italy.

Gus Zhu MW

"Gus is the first Chinese national Master of Wine. He is a research and development scientist of Harv 81 Group, responsible for quality control and haloanisole testings of natural cork products of Cork Supply USA (corksupply.com/us) as well as sensory research on Creative Oak (creativeoak.com) at Tonnellerie & Ocirc; (tonnellerieo.com). He entered the wine world as a wine educator under the guidance of Fongyee Walker MW and Edward Ragg MW, the founders of Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting. In 2017, he graduated with the Master of Science degree in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis. Gus' commitment to the academic field of wine is evidenced by his book Behind the Glass: The Chemical and Sensorial Terroir of Wine Tasting."