Our Contributors
Jane Anson
Jane Anson has lived in Bordeaux since 2003 and is an award-winning author of Wine Revolution (Quarto 2017), The Club of Nine (Katz Publishing 2016) Angélus (Editions de la Martiniere, 2016) and Bordeaux Legends, a history of the 1855 First Growth wines (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2013), as well as co-author or translator of over a dozen wine and travel books including Lynch Bages & Cie by JM Cazes (Glenat 2015) and the Michelin Guide to the Wine Regions of France (Michelin Publications 2010).
Eric Asimov
Wine Critic, The New York Times, USA
Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times and the author of "How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto," published by William Morrow, and “Wine With Food: Pairing Notes and Recipes From The New York Times,’’ written with recipes by Florence Fabricant and published by Rizzoli. His weekly column appears in the Food section of The Times. Naturally, he is on Twitter and Instagram, too, @EricAsimov. A collection of his columns is included in “The New York Times Book of Wine,’’ published by Sterling Epicure.
Mike Barrow
Owner, Costaflores; Director, OpenVino
Mike Barrow is the owner of Costaflores, a boutique organic winery in Mendoza, Argentina, and the director of the OpenVino project, launching the worlds first open-source winery and wine-backed cryptocurrency. With 30 years of experience in the IT world, focusing on datacenter, blockchain and cloud-centric services, Mike is now disrupting the wine world with “extreme transparency”, vintage tokenization, and vine-wine-dine-mind traceability model, converting consumers into shareholders.
Marion Bastien
Marion graduated in 2008 from ENSAT & DNO Toulouse (with a Masters in oenology and agronomy). She has since worked in various winemaking, marketing & sales roles in France, USA, Argentina and China before joining Lallemand Œnology company in 2013 as technical specialist. Marion provides technical support for wine yeast, bacteria and yeast derivatives for various countries (France, Italy, Switzerland, Argentina and Bulgaria). She is also involved in trials with wineries and institutions around the world.
Toby Bekkers
Drawing on over 25 years’ experience in the Australian wine community Toby owns and operates Bekkers Wine with his wife Emmanuelle in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Bekkers Wine was established with the purpose of creating a fine wine beacon for McLaren Vale. Toby remains convinced of the opportunities offered by Australia’s land and climate to produce fine wines that can stand proud alongside the world’s finest. Toby is also a Board Member of the Australian Wine Research Institute and a respected viticulture consultant.
Will Berliner
Owner/vigneron, Cloudburst
Will Berliner is the owner/vigneron of Cloudburst, Australia’s cult wine.
Michel Bettane
Wine Critic, France
After several successful careers in other fields, such as music and literature, Michel turned his mind to wine, quietly rising to his current position of pre-eminence alongside his business partner Thierry Desseauve, curating the renowned Bettane+Desseauve guide.
Séverine Bonnie
Marketing Director, Chateau Malartic-Lagravière
Born in Paris, Séverine Bonnie (SB) graduated from the Troyes Business School in Marketing and Management and from a Deug of Economics from Paris Sorbonne. After commercial and marketing positions in various press groups in Paris, she arrived in Bordeaux in 2003 with her husband Jean-Jacques, called to take over the family property Malartic-Lagravière acquired in 1997 by Jean-Jacques parents.
Lori Buchanan
Senior Sales Manager, Jackson Family Vineyard, USA
Dr. Akilah Cadet
Founder, Change Cadet
Dr. Cadet is the founder of Change Cadet, an Oakland based organizational development consulting firm specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Change Cadet aims to support women, people of color, and underserved communities, through coaching, strategy, innovation, and organizational change.
Felicity Carter
Editor in Chief, Meininger’s Wine Business International
Felicity Carter is editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International, the world’s only global, English language wine business magazine.
Mathieu Chadronnier
Managing Director, CVBG
Mathieu Chadronnier, Managing Director of CVBG, is one of Bordeaux's most influential wine negociants and one of its youngest top players. A modernist in this traditionalist world, he has pioneered new IT solutions to fine wine distribution, and is at the forefront of the recent introduction of great non-Bordeaux wines on the place de Bordeaux.
Eduardo Chadwick
President, Viňa Errazuriz, Chile
Eduardo Chadwick comes from a long line of entrepreneurs with a passion for wine and today carries on his family’s legacy. He joined Viña Errázuriz in 1983 after obtaining his degree in industrial engineering from the Catholic University of Chile. He set out to learn as much as he could about wine and went to the Institute of Oenology in Bordeaux to meet Emile Peynaud, considered the father of modern oenology. He also travelled to many more of the world’s wine regions to absorb the best techniques and put them to practice at home.
Guillaume Charlin
Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, France
Guillaume Charlin leads The Boston Consulting Group’s Consumer practice in Western Europe.
Jason Cho
Wine Director, Blue Hill New York.
Jason joined the Blue Hill New York team in 2016 to fulfill his passion for wine and moved through the different front of house positions before becoming a Sommelier. In December 2017, Jason transitioned from Head Sommelier to Wine Director at Blue Hill New York.
Ellen Comberg
Chairwoman, Global Female Leader, Germany
Ellen Comberg is an attorney-at-law and entrepreneur. She studied in Germany, France and the US.
Dr Philip Comberg
Board Member, Nubryte, Silicon Valley, USA
Philip is a board member of Nubryte, a smart home solution start-up in Silicon Valley and of German publicly listed Joh. Friedrich Behrens AG, a manufacturer of industrial high pressure injection tools.
Julia Coney
Wine Writer, Educator, and Consultant (USA)
Julia Coney's wine writing includes stories on wine and winemakers, personal essays and the intersection of race and wine. She holds a WSET Level Two Certification in Wine and Spirits and is currently pursuing her Master Level Champagne Certification with the Wine Scholar Guild.
Guillaume Deglise
Chief Executive, Maison Albert Bichot
Guillaume Deglise is an accomplished executive with deep experience in the wine industry. In January 2019, he took up an exciting new challenge as Chief Executive for Maison Albert Bichot, one of Burgundy’s leading wineries. Prior to this role, he served during five years as CEO of Vinexpo, the leading exhibition for wine and spirits. Under his leadership, the company undertook a strong growth in France and overseas. Deglise started his career in Champagne, working successively for Bollinger and Laurent-Perrier.
Laurent Delaunay
Président, Badet Clement, France
Laurent is the 5th generation of a family of Burgundy producers, originating from Nuits-St-Georges.
Minter Dial
Minter Dial is a professional speaker, storyteller, author and consultant, specialised in branding, new tech and digital transformation. Minter has given over 500 talks and seminars to audiences in six continents. He is the author of two award-winning books, Futureproof (2017) and The Last Ring Home (2016), the latter of which he turned into an award-winning documentary film shown on PBS (US) and History Channel (A/NZ).
Maureen Downey
Founder, Chai Vault, USA
With over 20 years of in depth wine industry experience, Maureen Downey stands out as an independent expert on fine and rare wine, and the foremost authority on counterfeit wine and has compiled the largest database on the subject in the world.
Steve Dutton
President, Dutton Ranch Corp, USA
Steve started working with his father when he was five years old and joined Dutton Ranch full-time in 1987. Today, along with his mother and brother, he manages the family business, which has grown from its original 35-acre home shop vineyard to over 80 separate vineyards comprising more than 1,000 acres throughout western Russian River Valley. In 1998, Steve Dutton and long-time friend Dan Goldfield recognized a shared vision between them: to craft wines that express the personalities of their cool-climate vineyards and founded the Dutton-Goldfield winery in the heart of the Sonoma Valley.
Felicity Fowler
Continually inspired by the immense richness and depth of culture, ritual and flavour that tea offers, Felicity has been working with JING tea for the past nine years. During this time, heading up the sales, distribution and marketing functions across Middle East, China and most recently in UK, Europe and the USA.
Jean-Pierre Giraud
Jean-Pierre came to the Wine industry through the spirits industry, Cognac in particular. He has been a Commercial director and deputy GM for more than 40 years and as such had the great privilege to travel around the world supplying barrels to some of the world’s best wineries; and in the course of doing has met some of the world’s greatest winemakers and tasted some of the world’s greatest wines.
David Gluzman
CEO, Folly Enterprises; Co-Founder, Blacksquare, Inc.
David Gluzman is the CEO of Folly Enterprises and co-founder of BlackSquare, Inc. Gluzman has been a wine enthusiast since his earlier career as a competitive cyclist brought him to the wine regions of Italy. In an effort to encourage education and discourage snobbery, he founded WineCollective.ca: a wine club that started as a local project in Calgary. In a matter of years it would become the largest wine club in Canada.
Charlotte Gourraud
Director, Diversification and Synergies Group, LAFFORT®, France
Born and raised in the Champagne region, Charlotte Gourraud has a degree in agronomy and in viticulture & enology, earned in Montpellier, France...
Nigel Greening
Owner, Felton Road
An early foray as a rock and blues guitarist (failed), moved on to a career as a creative director focussing on large live events, films and special effects, which matured into marketing strategy and brand development. Just before the turn of the millennium, Nigel abandoned the marketing world and purchased land to plant vines in Bannockburn, New Zealand, then added to this in 2000 by acquiring a neighbour: Felton Road, then just 3 vintages old. Today, he splits his time between the UK and New Zealand. When not engrossed in wine he makes furniture and guitars, and cooks.
Francis Gugen
SBM Offshore, UK
Francis Gugen has had a long and varied career in the Oil & Gaz business, including as regional CEO of Amerada Hess in North West Europe, Chairman of seismic operator Petroleum Geophysical Services ASA and founder of a number of successful companies.
Lulie Halstead
CEO, Wine Intelligence, UK
Lulie is co-founder and CEO of Wine Intelligence and regarded as a leading thinker in the world of wine business strategy.
Polly Hammond
Managing Director, 5forests
Polly Hammond is a self-described black sheep marketer who spends her days desperately trying to drag traditional wine language, communication, and branding into the digital age. Her agency, 5forests, works with wineries around the world to help them embrace the profitable way to transform to digital, from strategy to social media to online sales. She also writes The Must Read, a widely read, mildly irreverent weekly newsletter about digital wine marketing.
Reka Haros
Reka Haros is an ex FMCG & Advertising executive who inherited a small winery in Italy in 2002. Since then, Reka has been helping wine businesses worldwide grow through strategic marketing and business development coaching and consulting.
Christian Holthausen
Christian Holthausen
A dual citizen of France and the United States, Christian Holthausen graduated in 1996 from Vassar College in New York with a double concentration in feminist theory and literature.
Justin Howard-Sneyd MW
Owner, Domaines of the Bee, France
Justin is a London-based wine consultant. He works with a wide range of international clients, sourcing wine and advising them on how to optimise their wine businesses. As well as major clients like Direct Wines Ltd Justin heads up the Global Advisory Panel for the Global Wine Database, and acts as Wine Consultant to the Masala World Group. He also sits on the Council of the Institute of Masters of Wine, and chairs the Membership Committee.
Cathy Huyghe
Co-founder, Enolytics LLC
Cathy Huyghe is the co-founder of Enolytics LLC, a big data services company for the wine industry, whose clients range from the California Wine Institute and Wines of Chile to Marchesi Frescobaldi and Bollinger Champagne. She is also a columnist for Forbes.com (on wine) and Inc.com (on entrepreneurs), and she contributes bi-weekly to A Balanced Glass, a community dedicated to wellness in the wine industry.
Hugh Johnson OBE
Historian and writer, UK
Hugh Johnson has written a series of ground-breaking books on wine, from Wine in 1966 to the forthcoming 8th edition of his World Atlas of Wine (which he now shares with Jancis Robinson).
Candace Johnson
President, Johnson Paradigm Ventures, UK
Candace Johnson is a global infrastructure, network and innovation expert and entrepreneur. She is co-initiator of SES/ASTRA and architect of SES Global, one of the world’s largest satellite systems. ...
Richard Jones
PhD candidate, Cambridge University, UK
Richard is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of History, and research the economic, financial, and public policy history of nineteenth-century Britain.
Robert Joseph
Editor, Meininger's Wine Business International
Robert Joseph has a broad experience of the international wine industry. He discovered the basics of wine service at a young age in his parents’ hotel in the English countryside.
Guillaume Jourdan
Vitabella, France
With over 20 years of experience, from Luxury Cosmetics at Clinique (Estee Lauder Group) to the Media at Lycos (Bertelsmann + Telefonica) including the financial industry as Communication adviser for listed companies’ CEOs & CFOs, Guillaume Jourdan worked both agency-side and in-house.
Christoph Kammuller
Director Communication Torres, Spain
Christoph Kammüller has been Director of International Communication at Familia Torres in Spain since 2011. Since 1998...
Vladimir Kaufmann
Editor-in-Chief, La Revue Viticole Internationale, France
Vladimir Kauffmann is editor and director of the RVI, a leading economic magazine for wine, spirits and distribution companies in France and internationally.
Bruno Kessler
International Federation of Wine and Spirit, France
Bruno is a very active figure in the unknown world of Wine politics. He is the General secretary for the FIVS, a worldwide organisation designed to serve all sectors of the alcohol beverage industry, including wine, beer and spirits...
Karissa Kruse
President, Sonoma County Winegrowers association, USA
Karissa Kruse is President of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, a marketing and educational organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Sonoma County as one of the world’s premier grape growing regions. Since taking over the top leadership role at the Sonoma County Winegrowers, Karissa has guided the strategy and implementation of Sonoma County’s commitment to become America’s first 100% certified sustainable wine region. Her forward thinking approach has helped Sonoma County Winegrowers gain global recognition for their efforts.
Bruno Le Breton
Founder, BLB Vignobles
11 years ago, Bruno Le Breton bought and took over the estate he worked in as a wine maker since 1995: Domaine de La Jasse near Montpellier. He created BLB Vignobles to carry his own project.
Ronan Lieugard
Président du Cabinet IN VINO VIVA&TERRA, France
Avec une expérience de 25 ans à l’international en sommellerie et en commerce/marketing des vins, renforcé par un MBA en 2013, Ronan Lieugard a acquis des compétences de terrain couplées à une vision et une compréhension stratégiques Globales.
Andrea Lonardi
Chief Operations Officer, Bertani Vineyards, Italy
Zelma Long
Recently awarded Lifetime Achievement for Innovation in Winemaking at the Innovation and Quality Conference in Napa Valley, Zelma Long has shepherded ideas, people, grapes and processes through winemaking and winegrowing, in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, the Cape of South Africa, Germany, France (Chene Bleu), Argentina, Italy, Oregon and Washington.
Camilla Lunelli
Ferrari Trento, Italy
Camilla Lunelli is Communication & PR Director of the Lunelli Group, which includes Ferrari Trento, leader in the production of luxury sparkling wines in Italy, Surgiva Mineral Water, Segnana Distillery, Tenute Lunelli, which produces still wines in Trentino, Toscana and Umbria and Bisol Prosecco Superiore.
Anne & Antoine Malassagne
AR Lenoble, France
Sister-and-brother owners Anne and Antoine Malassagne are the great-grandchildren of Armand-Raphaël Graser who founded AR Lenoble in 1920. For nearly a century, AR Lenoble ...
Charles Marsden-Smedley BA FRSA
Founder, Charles Marsden-Smedley Ltd, UK
Charles founded his eponymous museum and exhibition design practice almost 30 years ago. The firm has been associated with world class museums and landmarks such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, Windsor Castle,...
Lisa Mattson
Jordan Vineyard & Winery, USA
Lisa Mattson possesses more than twenty years of experience in writing, event planning, public relations, marketing and digital media strategy in the wine industry. She is considered a thought leader in video storytelling, social media and content marketing for luxury wines.
Elin McCoy
Journalist, Bloomberg, USA
Elin McCoy is an award-winning journalist and author, focusing on the world of wine.
Dimitri Mesnard MS
Global Brand Ambassador, Jackson Family Wines, USA
Dimitri Mesnard MS is the international brand ambassador for Jackson Family Wines, which he joined in 2008....
Christine Mevellec
Sparflex, France
Diplômée en Management et Commerce International, Christine Mevellec est aujourd’hui en charge de clients internationaux...
Jean François Michel
Director, Communications and Public Affairs, Moët Hennessy, France
Fiona Morrison
Master of Wine
Fiona Morrison is a British Master of Wine, wine author, winemaker and wine merchant who lives in Belgium and Bordeaux. She loves that her career has spanned so many facets of the wine trade both in Europe and the United States. She is married to Jacques Thienpont of Le Pin fame and manages the Thienpont family négociant business. Winner of several awards for her writing, including the James Beard Award, her latest book, “Great Wine Families” has recently been published in English and Dutch.
Dr Cecilia Muldoon
Founder and CEO, VeriVin
Cici is a doctor in quantum physics and an entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of VeriVin, a UK based company that has developed a through-barrier spectroscopic analyser for wine, spirits and other complex liquids in sealed containers.
Wendy Narby
Senior Lecturer, Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux
As senior lecturer at the Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux, Wendy specializes in training International Bordeaux tutors for the Bordeaux Wine Council and international trade education for the Medoc Wine Council. She curates exclusive wine and travel experiences in Bordeaux and other wine and spirits destinations for her private clientele.
Erica Nonni
Managing Director, Nonni Strategic Marketing
Before opening NSM as an agency for wine communications, Erica worked for 10+ years in wine, food and consumer goods marketing in the USA, the UK and continental Europe, developing trade, press and consumer campaigns to help brands and institutional clients achieve growth. An agency of one that started with wine has become a small, dynamic group of professionals who serve wine and specialty food brands, with an emphasis on wellness marketing.
Tom Price
Head of Tea, JING Tea Ltd
Tom Price is an accomplished tea taster and Head of Tea for JING Tea Ltd, supplier of specialty tea to luxury hotels and Michelin-star restaurants. He has worked with tea producers at origins including China, Japan, Sri Lanka and India and has a track record of sourcing rare teas and teas of unmatched typicity. He recently inaugurated the JING Tea Excellence at Origin Awards that aims to celebrate and reward craftsmanship in making tea at origins such as, in 2019, Darjeeling, India
Daniel Protz
CEO, Flavorwiki, Switzerland
FlavorWiki is pioneering the use of digital apps and statistical algorithms to map the sensory perception (flavor, aroma, texture, mouthfeel) ...
Madeline Puckette
Cofounder, WineFolly.com
Madeline Puckette is the cofounder of WineFolly.com. Since its creation in 2011, Wine Folly has become one of the most popular wine education sites in the world due to its extensive use of insightful articles, detailed infographics, and entertaining videos. In recognition of these efforts, the International Wine & Spirits Competition awarded Puckette with Wine Blogger of the Year in 2013, and Wine Communicator of the Year in 2019.
Cedric Raynaud
Président, Linéa Design, France
Stéphane Reynaud
Editor in Chief, Le Figaro, France
Karina Robinson
CEO, Robinson Hambro LTD
Karina Robinson is the CEO of Robinson Hambro Ltd. The firm provides Chairman/CEO Advisory services and Board Search. Karina sits on the Court of Governors of the London School of Economics and is a member of the Finance Committee. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Global Female Leaders Summit.
Nicole Sierra Rolet
Co-Founder of Chêne Bleu; Chair, ARENI Institute
Nicole Rolet is a winegrower at her family estate in the Rhône Valley in the South of France.
Xavier Rolet KBE
Ex-CEO, London Stock Exchange
A respected commentator on global economics, with three decades of experience at the peak of international finance, Xavier is known for his insights and focus on the “bigger picture” of international affairs.
Philippe Schaus
CEO, Moët Hennessy, France
A graduate of INSEAD with a degree in Civil Engineering, Philippe Schaus began his career in 1987 at J.P. Morgan Inc. in Brussels before joining The Boston Consulting Group in Germany in 1990.
Sophie Schÿler-Thierry
Château Kirwan
Sophie graduated from the University of Bordeaux (Bachelor of Economics, Institute of Political Studies) and Masters in Management in Paris. She trained with Moët Hennessy and the Besnier Group in the USA where she acted respectively as Product Manager and Sales Manager. Despite the distance she remained active in the family business in Bordeaux throughout her 15 years abroad.
Rodrigo Sepulveda Schulz
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Expon Capital, Luxembourg
Rodrigo is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Expon Capital. He is a digital native, former strategy consultant, serial entrepreneur, and well-known business angel.
Reva K. Singh
Owner,Sommelier India Wine Magazine, India
Reva K. Singh, a veteran of the Indian magazine industry, is the owner and publisher of Sommelier India Wine Magazine, the first and only Indian magazine dedicated to wine.
Dr Beverley Skeggs
International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics, UK
Dr Skeggs is one of the foremost feminist sociologists in the world, addressing the multi-dimensional nature of inequality....
Ambre Soubiran
CEO, Kaiko
Ambre Soubiran is the CEO of Kaiko, a technology company providing market data to the digital assets space, currently covering all traded pairs across 100+ exchanges distributed over the world. Kaiko’s clients are professional investors, academic researchers and start-ups in the crypto space.
Steven Spurrier
Wine Journalist, UK
Steven Spurrier joined the wine trade in London in 1964, re-located to Provence on his wedding day in 1968, ending up in Paris where in 1971 he took over a small wine shop off the Place de la Madeleine and two years later founded L’Academie du Vin, the first private wine school in France. Under l’Academie’s name he held the 1976 Tasting of California Chardonnays and Cabernets which became known as The Judgement of Paris.
Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller
Robert Bosch Senior Fellow, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution
Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller is the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Prior to Brookings, she was a senior transatlantic fellow and Berlin office director with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Her areas of expertise include transatlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security and defense policy; international law; and human rights.
John Stimpfig
Editor-in-Chief, Decanter, UK
Dr Orsi Szentkiralyi
Consultant & Sommelier, UK
Orsi is a young, dynamic wine professional living in London.
Miguel A. Torres
President, Bodegas Torres, Spain
Miguel is the president of Bodegas Torres, one of the most recognized and successful wine brand in the world. His concern about climate change and the environment has been recognized internationally, shaping the company’s firm belief in social, environmental and economic sustainability.
Sébastien Walasiak
Chef de Cave, Champagne Collet, France
Champagne possibly wasn’t coursing through Sébastien Walasiak’s veins at birth, but it was certainly in the air he breathed, the water he drank, and in the soil stomped on at the farm his Polish émigré parents tended near Oger.
Peter Weltman
Fmr Sommelier, 11 Madison Park, NYC, USA
Valerie Westrelin
Director of Dept., Marketing for Luxury Brands, ISEFAC Lille, France
Since 2010, Valerie teaches marketing for luxury brands in a business School. The brand DNA analysis, strategic luxe retailer positioning and the gen Y, X, Z behavior impact, are the favorite topics that Valerie studies.
Taotao Xing
Senior Vice President, Deutsche Börse Group
Taotao is the Senior Vice President at the Deutsche Börse Group covering institutional clients in the Equity and Index Derivatives space. She started her career as a trader in financial products for over 10 years at investment banks such as Société Générale and Royal Bank of Canada.
His Excellency Dr Alexander Yakovenko
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom
Alexander Yakovenko arrived in London to assume his duties as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Court of St. James...
Akihiko Yamamoto
Founder, Wine Report
Founder of Wine Report ( www.winereport.jp ). After writing wine columns for Yomiuri Online and Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper), Mr. Yamamoto became a freelance wine journalist. He writes frequently for wine specialized magazines such as Vinotheque and Wine Kingdom. He also writes columns on Rock music for music magazines. Mr. Yamamoto has published a number of books on wine, from wine for beginners to wine specialists.
Stephen Yiu
Blue Whale Growth Fund, UK
Stephen is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Blue Whale Capital, a London-based boutique asset management firm. The company was founded in 2016 by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Yiu. The firm currently manages over £150m in the flagship Blue Whale Growth Fund, a global long-only equity fund, and has delivered top tier performance since inception.