Home Español Contact PANEL OF EXPERTS: JOURNALISTS AND WINE CREATORS     Journalists   Jancis Robinson - The Financial Times Well-known as a writer and journalist specialising in wine, she currently writes a weekly column in the Financial Times and for her own web site www.jancisrobinson.com. She is also a permanent contributor to the Spanish magazine, Sibaritas. She is Doctor Honoris Causa from the Open University and, in 2003, was awarded the Order of the British Empire, among many other awards for her literary work. Born in Cumbria in 1950. She studied Maths and Philosophy at Oxford University. After graduating, she worked for a travel company. In 1975, she started in the world of wine by working for the specialist Wine & Spirit magazine. In 1984, she was the first person to obtain the prestigious title of Master of Wine without belonging to the wine sector. She has also been a consultant to British Airways and supervised the wine cellar for Concorde at British Airways.   José Peñín - Guía Peñín Renowned journalist and writer on the subject of wine, he is currently president of the Grupo Peñín, and director of Sibaritas, the magazine for wine and other pleasures. He also created the influential Peñín Guide to Spanish Wines, a reference point for Spanish wine on a global level, whose eighteenth edition was published this year. In 1975, he founded Cluve, one of the first wine clubs in Spain, and in 1980, Bouquet, the first magazine about the country’s wines. In the same year, he published one of the first wine best sellers, the Manual of Spanish Wines. Since then, he has published over 15 books.   Víctor de la Serna - El Mundo Journalist and wine critic. At present, he is Deputy Director for International Relations at the newspaper El Mundo. He was the first Spaniard to graduate from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He has worked on such daily newspapers as Informaciones, El País and El Mundo, and has also been involved with the Association of Spanish Newspaper Editors (AEDE). Since El Mundo was launched, he has written columns on communication and journalism. He is a permanent contributor to Sibaritas, the Spanish wine magazine.   Michael Bettane - Classements des Meilleurs Vins de France Bettane co-writes in the acclaimed annual guide Classements des Meilleurs Vins de France with Thierry Desseauve. He was a main collaborator of the magazine Le Revue du Vins de France, until this magazine was bought by Marie Claire Group. Michael, a fine wine critic, he was born in Maryland and graduated in Classics, which he provided tuition from 1975 to 1991.   Stephen Tanzer - International Wine Cellar Prestigious journalist and editor of the bi-monthly magazine International Wine Cellar specializing in the world of wine, which has a great many readers in 28 countries. Each issue includes articles and in-depth interviews, as well as tasting notes on about 500 wines. In his work with the magazine, Tanzer has managed to bring together distinguished people from the industry.   Robert Joseph - Wine Business International (Germany) Editor of Wine Business International and author of The Joseph Report. In 1984, he founded Wine International Magazine with Michael Metcalfe. He has been a correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph and has also worked on Food & Wine Magazine in the United Kingdom. In addition, he has written some 27 books on wine, including the annual guide to good wine edited by Robert Parker, titled The Good Wine Guide. His recent bestseller French Wines has been translated into French, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese, and will shortly be published in Russian.   Joel B. Payne - Wine Business Internacional (Germany) Editor of the well-known German magazine Wine Business International, which recently changed its name to Meininger’s Wine Business International in honour of a former publication about European wines, published for over a century. Wine Business International is the first international publication for the wine business. It is a bi-monthly magazine with about 10,000 readers, including important figures in the wine industry.   Bob Campbell - Master of Wine He is one of the few New Zealanders to hold the title of Master of Wine. In 1990, Bob Campbell founded the Wine Gallery in Auckland based on the wine school, and more than 18,000 people have attended courses on wine and wine seminars he has led, all over New Zealand. Apart from educating people on wine, he is a fine writer and a great communicator. He is the editor of Cuisine Magazine, wine columnist for The Independent and often contributes to publications in New Zealand and seven other countries, including the benchmark magazine in the United States, Wine Spectator.   Michael Fridjhon - Business Day Michael Fridjhon’s strong point is South African wines. Over the last few decades, Fridjhon has made a great reputation for himself internationally as a critic, writer on wine, consultant, businessman, and jurist at international wine competitions. His articles have appeared in the national daily Business Day (where he writes a weekly column) and The Weekender.   Peter Moser - Falstaff Magazin Editor of Falstaff Magazin, an Austrian magazine specialising in cuisine and the wine industry. It is one of the most widely read magazines in Austria. Peter Moser is a journalist with great experience who specialises in gastronomy.   Eleonora Scholes - Vinnaya Karta, Gastronom Eleonora is an editorial adviser for (fine)wines, a Russian magazine for HoReCa professionals, and is on the editorial board for Vinnaya Karta, a popular monthly wine publication for Russian consumers. Although she is living in Italy these days, she continues to write for several key wine and food publications including Magnum, Enoteka and Gastronom in her home country, Russia. On the international scene, she is regular contributor to Wine Business International and has written articles in magazines such as Falstaff and Decanter. She holds an honours degree in English and psychology and also studied marketing in the Cambridge College.   Rodolfo Gerschman - Catadores Editor of the Mexican magazines Gula and Catadores. He has extensive experience in the wine industry going back to his days as a journalist specialising in other fields, such as politics. He currently writes a column for the newspaper Reforma, in the Buena Mesa supplement. Catadores is a magazine specialising in the wines of Mexico. The magazine was launched five years ago and now has a circulation of 40,000. Some copies go to Reforma subscribers, others to the Santander Serfín Bank, and others are sold to limited outlets, including Sanborns, Vips, Palacio de Hierro, some bookshops, specialist shops and wine bars.   Ernesto Gentili - L´Espresso He works on several foreign publications, such as La Revue du Vin de France, Decanter and the Japanese magazine Wine Kingdom, in addition to specialised Italian publications. After working with Slow Food Editore on the Guide to Everyday Wine and the Guide to Wines of the World, he started work on Gambero Rosso-Slow Food’s Guide to Italian Wines in 1994, eventually overseeing the Tuscany region. He later worked on some issues of the Almanacco del Berebene published by L’Espresso.   David Schildknecht - The Wine Advocate Schildknecht has worked for twenty-five years as an importer and retailer. His annual reports from Austria and Germany are well known and have been regular features in publications such as Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. In 2007, he started to work on Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, writing about wines from Austria, Germany and France. His reviews have also appeared regularly in Wine and Spirits (USA), Vinaria (Austria) and The Oxford Companion to Wine.   John Radford - www.johnradford.com Freelance writer, interviewer, reader, conversationalist and actor with a special interest in gastronomy and travelling, especially in Spain. He has wide experience in the wine and food industries and his website is highly popular with enthusiasts. John Radford has been a journalist in a variety of media for several years. At present, he is working on issues of WINE magazine, Decanter magazine and several annual publications, such as Oz Clarke’s guide to wine and the new Larousse Encyclopedia of Wine.   Pierre Casamayor - La Revue du vins de France Author of several books on wine and the aromas of wine, including L’or du vin, L’école de la dégustation, L’ecole des alliances and Les vignobles de Compostelle. At present, he is chief editor of the Hubert guide and, since 1987, the magazine La Revue du Vin de France. His expertise also makes him an outstanding jury member at international competitions. Born in Tabes in 1943, he holds a PhD in Geopsychology and a diploma in Oenology. Casamayor has taught Oenology at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse for many years. He is also the head of the French Oenologists Union.   Joshua Greene - Wine & Spirits Editor of Wine & Spirits magazine since 1986. His true passion for wine started at a very early age. He started work at Wine & Spirits as a consultant. Today, it is a specialist publication that arouses great interest, with a circulation of 88,000. The magazine is known for its reviews on wine and feature stories on travel, food, spirits and so forth. Apart from his work as editor, Joshua Greene is a critic for publications in California, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, northern Italy, Portugal, Australia and South Africa, contributing tasting notes and reviews.   Charles Metcalfe Charles Metcalfe is one of the best-known, most spontaneous and amusing wine critics in Britain. He presented drinks and occasionally food items for 12 years on the ITV programme, “This Morning”, and was the drinks expert for “Taste Today” on the Taste TV CFW channel. He has also presented many wine and food programmes on the Granada Breeze satellite channel. He is co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, the world’s biggest wine competition, held annually in London, and was one of the founders of Wine INTERNATIONAL magazine. You can read Charles regularly in “blue Wine”, and he is the UK correspondent for “Wine Business International”, a trade magazine published in Germany.   Bernard Burtschy Bernard Burtschy holds a Doctorate in Statistics and is Resident Professor at the National Telecommunications School and at the Ecole Centrale. He is also, and above all, a great wine lover, taster and much-published wine writer. Since 1993 he has been with the Revue du Vin de France as a columnist and latterly as an associate editor. He is also responsible for the wine guide Le Classement (Editions Revue du Vin de France) where he is co-editor. From 2002 to 2004 he was a director of the GaultMillau Guide and head of its wine section, Le Vin. He is author or co-author of numerous wine guides: Le guide des sommeliers, Le Larousse des vins, 1998 (written in collaboration with Michel Dovaz), La route des vins de France (Ediguides) and L'année du vin (Calman-Lévy)... Bernard Burtschy is a member of the European Grand Jury; a professor and teacher at Les Grains Nobles, the Paris School of Wine Tasting. He has been recognised with numerous awards for his articles on wine.   James Halliday James Halliday is one of Australia's most respected wine writers. In the past 35 years he has combined his career as a partner in a large national law firm (1966-1988) with that as a vigneron. James Halliday has written and co-authored over 40 books on wine since 1979 and has contributed to numerous others. His books have received numerous awards. Several of his titles have been translated into foreign languages, also maintains twice-weekly wine columns in The Australian newspaper. A wine judge since 1977, James Halliday has been Chairman of different Judges. James Halliday has been recognised at the highest level for his contribution to the wine industry.   Wine Creators   Ales Kristancic Ales Kristancic is one of the best-known winemakers in Slovenia. His family business, Movia, has been run by the Kristancics since 1920. It is probably one of the most famous Slovenian wineries of all time, and the only private winery still in operation since the days of Tito’s regime. Today, Ales Kristancic is a great advocate of biodynamics. He also has an original way of looking at work in the winery and interpreting the unique personality of his wines. These include Modri Pinot (Pinot Noir), Veloko Rdece (a montage of mature red wine with long barrel ageing) and Veliko Belo (a montage of mature, elegant white wine). The Puro sparkling wine and the single varietal wines are among the most interesting ones to come out of Slovenia.   Álvaro Palacios Álvaro Palacios is the owner and winemaker for the winery bearing his name. The winery produces about 40,000 bottles every year, 3,000 (ten barrels) of which are L’Ermita, an exceptional wine. The rest are divided between Clos Dolí, approximately fifty barrels, and Les Terrasses. Such limited production and such extraordinary fame make Álvaro Palacios wines very difficult to find, and one must resort to buying them en primeur, not as a commercial tactic but out of necessity. The autumn of 1989 brought a major change to these lands. In that year, for the first time, they really made wine. In 1979, a series of vineyards had been replanted with both the traditional Garnacha (Grenache) grapes and the imported Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah varieties, in the belief that Priorato had great potential for high-quality wines. Among the winemakers was Álvaro Palacios, who was the youngest of them all, and who, oddly enough, has been the most successful in positioning his wines throughout the world.   Carlo Ferrini Ferrini was born in 1954. In the 1980s, he was the Chianti Classico Consortium’s technical director. This job gave him the opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with the Tuscan wine industry. He began with Sangiovese and other grape varieties that produce the best fruit, and managed to adapt viticultural methods to Chianti Classico's different terroirs. He also made several contacts in this area (Chianti Classico). Carlo Ferrini left the consortium in 1990 and began to work as a consultant to different estates in Tuscany. He achieved success at Castello di Fonterutoli and Castello di Brolio, both in the Chianti Classico zone. Ferrini has managed to combine tradition and innovation. Some of his wines are: Siepi (Castello di Fonterutoli), La Gioia (Riecine), Casalferro (Castello di Brolio); Lupicaia (Tenuta del Terricio), Chianti Classico Giorgio I (Fattoria La Massa), Montepulciano Viña Asinone and Le Stanze (Poliziano); Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino; and many more.   Denis Dubourdieu Denis Dubourdieu is a scientist and a winemaker. Educated as an agricultural scientist, he has been a professor of oenology at the University of Bordeaux since 1987. His research studies have concentrated on aromas, yeasts and colloids. He is considered to be a top specialist among winemaking experts, placing emphasis on the ageing of white wines. Dubourdieu’s team has also contributed to furthering knowledge about red wine aromas. Dubourdieu is a winemaker and consultant to numerous wine producers in France and abroad.   Jean-Claude Berrouet Jean Claude Berrouet, the veteran winemaker for Chateau Petrus, retired after the 2007 harvest. He was the technical director of Etablissements Moueix and winemaker for Petrus, Château Magdelaine and Château Trotanoy. His legacy at the Moueix winery includes forty-four wines, with the 2007 being his last one. Berrouet had worked at Petrus since 1963, when he introduced Jean-Pierre Moueix, father of the current owner Christian Moueix, to the wines of the world, always seeking to make “a wine that is the true expression of its terroir, with real elegance and subtlety”. Famous for the new style of Bordeaux wines, Jean Claude Berrouet plans to continue working as a consultant for the Moueix family and concentrate on helping his son at Vieux Château Saint André in Montagne Saint Emilion.   Michel Rolland Michel Rolland was born on 24 December 1947 in Libourne, France. He is a very influential winemaker in the Bordeaux region, with hundreds of clients in thirteen countries, and has had an impact on wine styles around the world. The signature traits of his wines are the prominent fruit and the oak influences, a predilection shared by the wine critic Robert Parker. In 1973, Rolland and Dany, his wife, bought into a wine laboratory. They took full control of it in 1976, and expanded it to add tasting rooms. By 2006, Rolland’s lab had hired eight technicians to analyse samples from nearly 800 estates in France. Dany anfd Michel have two daughters, Stephanie and Marie, also they work at the laboratory.   Olivier Humbrecht Olivier Humbrecht practically grew up in a winery. The owner and winemaker of Zind-Humbrecht comes from a family in which grape growing goes back twelve generations. In 1959, his parents joined their properties, which became known as "Domaine Zind-Humbrecht". Their vineyards grow on steep hillsides and turn out very powerful white wines, produced from such great aromatic varieties as Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris. Humbrecht moved to London, where he began preparing for the Master of Wine exam; he became the first Frenchman to pass it. After returning to his estate in France, he took over the running of the day-to-day operations. He also began to experiment with biodynamic viticulture, which treats each vineyard as a self-sustaining system that should be in harmony with its natural surroundings. This is extraordinary, considering the number of varieties he works with and the range of places where they are grown.   Paul Draper At 64 years of age, Paul Draper, the CEO of Ridge Vineyards, is a living legend in the world of wine. He is an accomplished, philosophical, self-taught winemaker, a pioneer in the great internationally renowned New World Cabernets thanks to his famous Monte Bello, a defender of the typical Zinfandel variety, a champion of single-estate wines and an advocate of elegance over fireworks. After 32 harvests and 750 wines launched onto the market, Draper is still one of the most influential men in California’s wine industry. In the complicated panorama of American winemaking and marketing, Draper shows amazing farsightedness and good sense. He overturned the belief that great California Cabernets had to come from the warm Napa Valley with a wine born in the cold Santa Cruz Mountains to the south of San Francisco (an area that, at the time, had no repute whatsoever), and managed to position it among the world’s leaders.   Peter Sisseck Pingus is Peter Sisseck, an agricultural engineer and winemaker born in Copenhagen in 1962. He has been living in Spain since 1990 and has raised his wine to the highest imaginable level of international recognition. The creation of the Dominio de Pingus winery in 1995 was a project that had been going around Sisseck’s head for some time. Before this, he had worked with his uncle, Peter Vinding-Diers, who was one of the first to initiate the “new wave” of Bordeaux white wines in wineries of the stature of Château Rahoul, in the Graves region. He also worked in California together with the winemaker Zelma Zong. When he arrived in Spain, he first worked as a winemaker with Pesquera del Duero and later at his own estate, founded in 1995 in Quintanilla de Onésimo (Valladolid), where he makes the “super wine” Pingus. Dominio de Pingus is a “garage wine”. The winery in Ribera del Duero consists of a few rows of new barrels, a simple press, a couple of types of wood and the odd stainless steel tank. Most of the time, conditions are rudimentary, but the low production means that craftsmanship and care for detail prevails in the quality of the product.   Dirk Van Der Niepoort Dirk Niepoort works at the family winery. He discovered his passion for wine while he was a student in Switzerland. In late 1987, Dirk Niepoort joined his father in starting to use more innovative techniques in winemaking, while preserving the traditional methods. One of the most important steps that Niepoort took was to buy the first vineyards that produce port wine. Dirk’s great passion for wine is based on respect for, and research into, the terroir.   Stéphane Derenoncourt A miller’s son, Stéphane Derenoncourt is a successful, self-taught winemaker. Success, however, did not come overnight. Derenoncourt made his first mark in 1982 during that year's harvest. In 1985, his work at Chateau Fronsac gave him the opportunity to learn more about vineyards and winemaking, and it was then that he relaunched his career. Stéphane began to use distinctive vinification and growing techniques. His success won over sceptics, and he began to advise St. Emilion, Clos Fourtet, Canon-Le Gaffeliére, Clos de L’Oratoire and Pavie-Macquin. He became a consultant to several wineries in France, Spain and Italy. Inspired by the Burgundy region, he learnt different ways to handle grapes and wine. Derenoncourt began to use conveyor belts to gently bring the grapes into the fermentation tanks, thus avoiding the aggressive pumping widely used in the Bordeaux region. He used the microbullage or micro-oxygenation technique. His fame was established in 1996 with Château Mondotte, the first launch of this wine. Owned by Stephan von Neipperg, an aristocrat who runs several estates in St. Emilion, La Mondotte became a model for future projects.   Riccardo Cotarella Born into a family with a long tradition of winemaking in the town of Monterubiaglio (Italy), he followed in his father’s footsteps and studied oenology and winemaking at Conegliano. Ricardo started to apply his knowledge in his home town and soon became the “wizard of white wine” because of his work with white varieties in the region of Umbría, particularly Orvieto and Lazio. Ricardo’s mastery is not limited to local white grapes; he soon started with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangioveses. Ricardo Cotarella has become a pioneer in the Italian wine industry. He is largely responsible for the improvement in quality of wines from central and west Italy and for bringing world recognition to these areas with a superior wine produced on a regional basis. Cotarella advocates an approach to winemaking that preserves the natural qualities of the grapes. This has resulted in wines with better body and varietal character. He prefers the older Italian grape varieties, such as Grechetto for white wines and Merlot for reds.   Attendees to the First International Meeting of Wine Creators: Panel of Experts: Jancis Robinson - The Financial Times, José Peñín - Guía Peñín, Víctor de la Serna - El Mundo, Michael Bettane - Classements des Meilleurs Vins de France, Robert Joseph - Wine Business International, Joel B. Payne - Wine Business Internacional, Eleonora Scholes - Vinnaya Karta, Gastronom, Rodolfo Gerschman – Catadores, Ernesto Gentili - L´Espresso, David Schildknecht - The Wine Advocate, John Radford - www.johnradford.com, Pierre Casamayor - La Revue du vins de France and Joshua Greene - Wine & Spirits. Wine Creators: Ales Kristancic, Álvaro Palacios, Carlo Ferrini, Denis Dubourdieu, Dany Rolland, Paul Draper, Peter Sisseck, Dirk Van Der Niepoort and Stéphane Derenoncourt. Tastings: wines of Ales Kristancic, Álvaro Palacios, Carlo Ferrini, Denis Dubourdieu, Dany Rolland, Paul Draper, Peter Sisseck, Dirk Van Der Niepoort, Stéphane Derenoncourt and Olivier Humbrecht.   Journalists