About the Academy

Laura is a well-known sommelier and wine writer in Argentina and an international wine judge. She is a founder of Winifera, a company specialising in wine consulting, PR and marketing. Laura is also the co-founder of Club de Mujeres del Vino (Wine Women Club), a non-profit organisation for professional women in the Argentine wine industry. A former vice-president of the Argentine Sommelier Association and committee member at Association de la Sommellerie Internationale, Laura is a qualified sommelier and producer of Tim Atkin’s Argentine and Chilean reports and the Descorchados Argentina wine guide.

Richard’s life with wine started quite late – at the age of 30 – when one cold night, sitting in a farmhouse kitchen with the log fire in the background, one of his father’s friends started pouring him a glass of vintage Penfolds 707. “Don’t waste it on me, I don’t like wine” was Richard’s effort to stick to what he knew – beer – until his father’s friend replied: “That’s because you drink sh*t wine. Try this… it’ll change your life.” And it did. Richard went on to start his own software company, WithWine.com, which enables wineries to run “more profitable, customer centric and data driven businesses”.

Lotte is a judge at several global wine competitions, an educator and consultant as well as ‘grouplead’ in the buying department for Lidl Germany. She gained a BSc and double degree MSc in horticulture with a focus on viticulture and oenology at the TU Munich and a second MA in international wine marketing in Austria, at Eisenstadt. Since then, Lotte has travelled the globe, exploring wine regions from the classics like Burgundy and Champagne, to rising stars such as Santorini and lesser-known winegrowing regions such as Lebanon and Zimbabwe!

Tatiana is an international wine professional born in Russia and brought up in the UK. The qualified sommelier, who has degrees in chemical technology and psychology, is currently working towards her MW qualification. She used to own a boutique hotel and two restaurants in Essex, England, but is now the managing director of Simple Ltd Group’s Grand Cru fine-dining restaurant and Wine Depo bar in Moscow’s Depo food mall. Tatiana is also a committee member of the Circle of Wine Writers, a Sherry educator and wine judge.

Guillermo is an international wine broker and consultant based in Chile’s Central Valley. He founded The Contact Global Consulting company and has supplied wines from different denominations of origin to clients in China, UK and USA. He has been an associate judge at the International Wine Challenge and their ambassador in Chile since 2010.

Rob is a professional wine reviewer, author, judge and consultant with more than 30 years’ experience in the Australian and international wine industries. Admitted to the Institute of Masters of Wine in 1992, Rob is the author of several wine books including Australian Wine Vintages (editions 26 to 33) and A Good Nose & Great Legs – the art of wine from the vine to the table. A farmer’s son, Rob was brought up in South Australia’s Clare Valley and worked for nearly a decade in marketing with Rosemount Estate. In 2017, Rob established his own company and wine studio in Shanghai.

Gabrielle is a wine writer, wine critic, TV host, international keynote speaker and teacher. After earning an economics degree from La Sorbonne in Paris, she pursued her passion for wine through four years of rigorous training, gaining the diploma from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and the MSc from The International Wine Organization (OIV). As one of the biggest wine advocates in France, she gets to travel to wine regions all around the world and taste more than 4,000 wines each year.

Irina is a consultant for international companies, wineries, and institutions in the fields of wine marketing, PR, strategic communications, training, and coaching. Irina is also a wine taster, organiser of seminars, corporate workshops and team-building events as well as thematic wine trips to selected Balkan countries. After living abroad for more than 15 years, working for large corporations and NGOs as a strategic communication consultant, Irina returned to her Bulgarian roots in 2015. “My mission is to spread the word about Balkan wines,” she says.

David is a Taiwan-born Kiwi, who is also the first Bureau Français – Business France (Taiwan) gastronomy ambassador, as well as the first wine promotion representative of New Zealand Trade & Enterprises (Taiwan). The former head sommelier of Michelin-starred restaurant La Cocotte by Fabien Vergé, he is a certified sommelier, experienced international wine judge, and holds a WSET Advanced certificate. David also has three masters degrees – in biotechnology, biochemistry and international business.

Magan is India’s first French-certified sommelier. He is also a TV show host, author and lifestyle columnist. With his team at Wi-Not, the largest educational institute for beverages in the subcontinent, Magan has helped to bring a drinking culture to the world’s largest democracy, India. Magan is also the founder of the Society of Sommeliers and the Indian Sommelier Championship. When not judging, tasting or educating, Magan likes to write about his travels and conquests, and has also authored two books on beverages – ‘Wine Wisdom’ and ‘The Indian Spirit’.

Chiara Giorleo DipWSET is a bilingual wine blogger (www.chiaragiorleo.com/en), freelance wine journalist with publications in Italy, USA and Russia and judge for the International Wine Challenge. Chiara is also a panel member of Italian national wine guides, wine educator and translator in the wine&food field, as well as working in the wine tourism sector as consultant and wine leader for Italian and international tour operators. Previously she has worked in the wine marketing and communication sector for the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto (Canada) and for Mastroberardino winery (Italy).

Akihiko Yamamoto, Journalist. CEO of Wine Report which is one of the most influential wine media in Japan. An author of 8 wine books and a judge for wine competitions. He used to work for The Yomiuri Newspaper which is the biggest newspaper in Japan ad staff writer.

Nicolas is a consultant who started his career in hospitality in Paris. There, he met the owners of Noura Restaurants and joined Nader Bou Antoun for Noura’s London venture. In the UK, Nicolas developed his wine tasting skills and became a wine judge for competitions such as the International Wine Challenge, eventually becoming the IWC ambassador for Macedonia and Lebanon. Nicolas also advises wineries on entering different markets and introduces them to relevant importers. As well as helping with wine blends, he also travels to the Caribbean to help blend cigars!

Peter McCombie is a Master of Wine. Having started out in his native New Zealand as a sommelier and worked in sales in the UK, his long experience in the wine industry gives him a unique perspective that encompasses the buyer and the seller, the consumer and the professional. He consults on and selects wines for a range of companies and sectors. Peter also judges wines and wine competitions around the world but always comes back to the world’s most rigorous wine competition, the International Wine Challenge, for which he is one of the co-chairs.

Based in Porto, Portugal, Pedro holds a joint degree in viticulture and oenology from the University of Porto & School of Agronomy in Lisbon. He also achieved a master’s degree in wine tourism from the Universities of Bordeaux & Rovira i Virgili (Spain) and a communications degree from Perth College in Scotland. He works for a Dutch food and wine company and is a consultant for Portugal Wine Experience – a wine school. Pedro, who loves to share his knowledge about wine and viniculture, is also a well-versed tour guide of Northern Portugal and Spain and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Winnie is a qualified physiotherapist, biomedical scientist, has a PhD in education (didactics) and is a Cape Wine Master. In fact, she is a former chairperson of the Institute of Cape Wine Masters and a member of its education committee. Winnie is also honorary secretary of the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers and a member of the Association of Wine Educators. She has been judging wine and spirits competitions around the world for more than 12 years and conducts wine and brandy tastings for corporate and private clients.

Patricia Mateo is a leading strategic food and restaurant consultant in Spain. A Londoner by adoption and native of Madrid by conviction, she splits her time between these two ‘foodie’ cities. In 2006, she founded Mateo&co, a strategic consulting firm for branding, marketing and communications, specialising in food and restaurants. Patricia is also the founder of Spain’s first street food market, MadrEAT, and was a partner in the International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards Spain.

Tim Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, and has a special interest in ‘the geography of wine’. In the wine world, he is probably best known for his book ‘Wine and the Vine’, first published in 1991. He continues to write and speak about wine, and has also served as academic adviser and external examiner to the Institute of Masters of Wine, as co-founding editor of the Journal of Wine Research, as a reviewer of the extension services of the Australian Wine Research Institute, and most recently as chair of the Wine Committee of the Athenaeum Club in London.

Jon is the founder and CEO of Second City Soil, a Chicago-based wine consultancy with the mission of growing Chicago’s wine culture through winery and restaurant marketing and education partnerships. Recognised as one of the top wine professionals in the USA, Jon works with different wineries, international organizations and trade festivals on marketing, education and sales advice. Jon is also an adjunct professor of hospitality management at Roosevelt University in Chicago and the owner and winemaker of Amos Cellars, a California-based wine brand.