Judges

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) brings together many of the most important people in the wine world.

Introducing the Chairmen

Four chairmen, each of them leaders in their field, have been at the helm for this year's IWC. Between them, they taste every single medal-winning wine, ensuring that only the best succeed. They are: Tim Atkin MW, Charles Metcalfe, Sam Harrop MW, Derek Smedley MW.

For 2010 we would also like to welcome onboard our International Guest Co-Chairman Victor de la Serna

TIM ATKIN MW: Tim Atkin MW is one of Britain’s leading wine writers, with more than 20 awards to his name, including the 2009 Louis Roederer Wine Columnist of the Year. He is the wine correspondent of The Observer and Wine Editor at Large of OLN (Off-Licence News). He also writes for Woman and Home, The World of Fine Wine, Decanter, The Economist’s Intelligent Life and OFM and appears regularly on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen.

CHARLES METCALFE: Charles Metcalfe’s tasting career started at university, where he captained the Oxford tasting team to victory over Cambridge two years running. He joined the Evening Standard wine-tasting team and co-founded the consumer magazine Wine International with Robert Joseph in 1983. They started the International Wine Challenge in 1984. He is also in demand as an international wine judge, and has judged in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa.
As well as writing books on Spanish and Portuguese wines, and on matching wine with food, Charles is a familiar face on UK television, presenting drinks and food items on This Morning, Taste Today, Great Food Live, Saturday Kitchen and many other programmes. His latest book is ‘The Wine & Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal’, written with his wife, Kathryn McWhirter.

SAM HARROP MW: Sam Started his career as a trainee winemaker at Villa Maria Wines in his native New Zealand. After arriving in the UK, he became a wine buyer for Marks & Spencer, where he stayed for seven years and helped the company to transform its wine reputation. It also was during his time at the retailer that Sam passed the Master of Wine examinations at the first attempt.
Sam finally left M&S in 2004 to start his own consulting company. He now works with a number of wineries throughout Europe to improve the quality of wine destined for the export market.

DEREK SMEDLEY MW: Derek joined the wine trade in the propitious vintage of 1961, working for John Harvey in Bristol. He then moved on to work for Gilbeys, in buying and sales. In 1968, Derek passed the MW exam. His next stop was at Whitbread, starting as a buyer, but he then progressed to become managing director of the wine side.
In 1985, he started Smedley Vintners, as well as acting as a consultant for Antinori. Derek sold Smedley Vintners in 2000 and is now busy as a widely respected wine consultant. He assists the Mayoralty of London in purchases for official functions at the Guildhall, as well as buying for various City livery companies, Cambridge colleges and the Carlton Club. Derek also leads wine tours for Arblaster & Clarke. He joined as co-chairman of the IWC in 2002.

VICTOR DE LA SERNA: Victor is a Deputy Editor of El Mundo, one of Spain’s best national newspapers, and he has also been, for the past decade, a winegrower in southeastern Spain. He was the first Spaniard to ever graduate from the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York. For the past 42 years he has been a reporter and editor for various Spanish media – and, for more than 30 years, he has been writing about wine for Informaciones, El País, Diario 16, Decanter, Sibaritas and El Mundo.
 De la Serna has twice won Spain's National Gastronomy Award (for food and wine writing and for spreading the knowledge of Spanish wines internationally). He is a member of the International Wine Academy, of Spain's Royal Academy of Gastronomy and of the Grand Jury Européen.

Introducing the Sake Chairmen

KENICHI OHASHI: Ken Ohashi is a leading Japanese wine and Sake distributor in Tokyo with accolades from the industry. Awarded Best Wine Merchant 1999 by Japan Sommelier Association he has shown his intricate knowledge of the subject both at home and abroad. He is author of “Natural Wine” and is the online wine columnist of Japan’s national newspaper “Yomiuri”.
He holds a Diploma from WSET in London and has been recently certified Master of Sake. In addition, he has started exporting his selection of Sake and Japanese wines to the world market.

SIMON HOFSTRA: Simon Hofstra is director of Sake Europe, a company dedicated to spread the word of sake in Europe. He graduated at the Dutch Wine Academy and Gastronomy Academy in Holland during his work as sommelier in the first Michelin star awarded Japanese restaurant. As of 2000 he started to combine sake with non-Japanese food, creating a new market in Holland and Belgium. Bringing sake to the wider public he started his own sake company in 2005, which is today part of Sake Europe. Simon won the Sake Contributor Award in 2008 and became one of 22 Sake Samurai worldwide in 2009.

There are four levels of judges, these are:

Panel Chairmen

The Panel Chairmen role is crucial - they control the individual tasting panels to ensure that the quality, potential and typicity of every wine is fairly, professionally and consistently assessed. The Panel Chairmen are in attendance for the full 10 days of judging and like the Chairmen, are the IWC's core group of tasters.

There are 20 Panel Chairmen and the 2010 team is as follows: 

Christine Austin: Christine is a wine writer, broadcaster and a wine judge for several international wine competitions. She has a technical background and spent five years as a buyer for a major supermarket before moving to wine writing. She writes for The Yorkshire Post, Dales Life and organises the York Festival of Food and Drink. She has won both the Lanson and the Roederer prizes for wine writing.

Richard Bampfield MW: Richard spent the first 10 years of his wine life managing wine shops in Manchester and Chester. He became a Master of Wine in 1990 and then managed Australian company Brown Brothers' UK office for 8 years. He now works in public relations for Yvon Mau in Bordeaux and Albert Bichot in Burgundy, and also works with Leiths School of Food and Wine and the English Wine Group.  

Tom Cannavan: Tom Cannavan, Louis Roederer International Online Wine Writer of the Year 2008, has published wine-pages.com since 1995. Tom presents a weekly wine slot on Scottish television. Tom also writes for Off Licence News, World of Fine Wine and Decanter, and
judges at the world's major wine competitions in Australia, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France and the UK. He Chairs the Georgian National Wine Competition.

Robin Crameri MW: Robin entered the wine trade with importers Brown Gore & Welch on Tower Hill as a student bottling, blending and tasting wine. After working in France a short while he joined brewers Greene King PLC in 1958 as wine buyer and continued in this capacity for 40 years. He passed the MW examination in 1972. Now semi-retired he acts as a consultant.

Ian D'Agata: Ian D'Agata is a Research Professor of Enology at the University of New Mexico and was the recipient of the "Best young Italian wine journalist 2007 " award by the Comitato Grandi Crus d'Italia. He is in charge of the Italian section for Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, but will also writeon Bordeaux. He is the Co-author of the annual D'Agata & Comparini Italy's Best Wines guide, and the author of the Ecco guide to Italy's Best Wines published by Harper Collins USA. He is also Director of the International Wine Academy of Roma.

Joanna Delaforce: Was born in Portugal and is part of the Delaforce family. She has been involved with Port since 1983 when she helped set up Churchill’s Port in the UK. She has been in the Wine Trade since then and is now a Consultant to Mentzendorff and Co as their Port Ambassador and is also Brand Manager for Henriques & Henriques Madeira for Mentzendorff & Co. She has judged and tasted at all bar one of the IWC tastings, indeed a founding taster! She was also Chairman of the WSA (now WSTA) from 2003-2005.

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.

Conal Gregory MW: Conal qualified as a Master of Wine in 1979. He consults for major airlines and cruise operators and several estates. He writes for The Times and The Scotsman. He was Conservative MP for York 1983-92. His awards include the Mercier Champagne Scholarship. His books include The Cognac Companion and A Caterer's Guide to Drinks.

Susan Hulme MW: Susan Hulme became a Master of Wine in 2005. She was awarded the 2005 Bollinger Tasting Medal, an award not given every year, for the best tasting papers in the Master of Wine exam. She set up her company Vintuition Ltd in 2000 to run courses for both the general public and trade. She is a former Chairman of the Association of Wine Educators and is the current editor of their newsletter. 

Neal Martin: It was Neals passion for Bordeaux wines that helped motivate a career in wine writing. His independent website, wine-journal.com, launched his career in 2003 and it soon developed a cult following of over 100,000 readers. Three years later the most influential wine critic in the world, Robert Parker, requested his penamnship and he is now a reviewer for RobertParker.com.

Jane Masters MW: Jane currently runs her own consultancy business Mastering Wine advising wine companies on strategy. Having graduated with a degree in Biological Chemistry, Jane did a postgraduate diploma in Oenology in Bordeaux. In 1992 she joined the wine buying team at Marks & Spencer and subsequently ran the drinks business. Jane became a Master of Wine in 1997.

Peter McCombie MW: Peter is a New Zealand-born, English-resident Master of Wine. With a background in sales he now operates an independent wine consultancy service, with a strong On Trade focus. He contributes to several magazines and is a popular teacher and speaker about wine.

Helen McGinn: Helen is a Director of Copestick Murray Wine Solutions, an international wine supply & distribution business.  Her wine career started with Tesco Stores in 1995, where she joined as a graduate buyer.  She spent the next ten years as a Buyer, then Product Development Manager for the Tesco Wine Team, sourcing wines from most major wine producing countries including France, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand. Helen has worked with wineries of all sizes developing products for global markets. She joined Copestick Murray in 2006. 

Alison Morris-Eisermann: Alison is a trained winemaker, viticulturist and wine educator. Over the past 12 years she has been making wine, managing a large commercial vineyard, and judging wine throughout Australia and at the IWC. Over the past 6 years she has been studying the MW program with a theory pass, and also been working as a wine and WSET educator in Sydney.

Joanna Simon: Joanna is the Wine & Food Editor of House & Garden magazine, after many years as wine columnist of The Sunday Times. She is a contributor to many other publications and is a former editor of both Wine and Wine & Spirit magazines. Her award-winning books, published all over the world, include Wine An Introduction, Discovering Wine, Wine With Food and The Sunday Times Book of Wine.

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 yougest ever International Senior Judge at The Royal Melbourne Wine Show.

Lilyane Weston: Lilyane brings a wealth of experience to the IWC's team of Panel Chairmen. A Sopexa Lecturer from 1967 to 1990, she is now a regular contributor to Hertfordshire Countryside, Buckinghamshire countryside, Life and Academie Suisse du Vin. She also judges at wine competitions in 19 different countries and is the proprietor of a Wholesale Wine Business (Wine World) in Hertfordshire.

Rupert Wollheim MW: Rupert has been in the wine trade for 30 years ever since he finished studying enology and viticulture in Florence University. He has bought wine from all over the world, including Australia, Chile and California, He currently imports from small quality French producers. He became a Master of Wine in 1990, and has judged wine in Italy and Germany as well as the UK.

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 under the tutelage of Brian Croser in the late 70's whilst reading Geology at Adelaide University. John studied winemaking at the Charles Sturt University where he was awarded the Ron Potter Scholarship. Having worked in every corner of the globe he now runs an international wine consultancy service that assists wine companies in achieving their aims.

Panel Chairmen - Sake

Toshiro Takahashi - Toshiro started his professional career in the Japanese Ministry of Finance as a sake inspector and has been a sake brewing administrator for over 40 years. Toshiro is one of the leading sake specialists in Japan and his recent contributions to develop overseas sake market are quite remarkable. He is also director of Japan Sake Brewer’s Association.

Satoshi Kimijima -Satoshi is the president (4th generation) of Yokohama Kimijimaya Co., Ltd - a liquor store/wholesale trade company based in Yokohama, dealing Japanese Sake, Shochu, Awamori, and Wine.  The company has more than 300 clients nationwide, including major hotels, top-rated restaurants and French grandes maisons in the metropolitan cities. 
He is also the owner of three restaurants in Tokyo (French, Italian and wine bar).  He gives lectures and seminars of sake/wine to professionals and amateurs, and is also a judge/supervisor of sake for the Appellation Control Committee of Nagano prefecture since 2006.

Ake Nordgren - Ake is a Diploma sommelier, founder & owner of  Akebono Unlimited AB. Founded in 1995 Akebono is today the Scandinavian leading importer and distributor of Japanese Sake. In 1990 he started to travel Japan and visit Sake breweriers to gain a deep understanding of  the process and has since then visit Japan more than 50 times.
The last nine years he has been a teacher of two of Sweden's sommelier schools and weekly been giving
lectures and seminars of sake to professionals and amateurs at university level and trade shows. He also does annually guided gourmet trips to Japans Sake breweries and the interesting Izakaya world.

Beau Timkin: Beau is one of the foremost non-Japanese authorities of sake in the world. He opened the first dedicated sake retail store outside of Japan in San Francisco, California in 2003. Along with a Master Sake Sommelier License (Kikisake-shi), Beau has been presented the prestigious and inaugural Sake Samurai title as well as the 10th Anniversary Honorary Kikisake-shi distinction. He is an educator, promoter, protector of sake who works in breweries whenever time permits.  

Senior Judges