New Masters of Wine announced

Friday, 02 November 2007

Seven new Masters of Wine (MW) were announced last night at the Institute of Masters of Wine Annual Reception including a Tesco buyer, two Australians and the first MW from Sweden.

Pierpaolo Petrassi, 42, senior product development manager at Tesco, with specific buying responsible for Australia, New Zealand and Italy, won the Robert Mondavi Winery Award for the best result in the overall theory section of the exam, and the Via Errazuriz Award for his Business of Wine paper.

The other new British MW is Peter Mitchell, 35, who sells wine to the restaurant trade for Laytons Wine Merchants.

South African, Greg Sherwood, 35, general manager of fine wines for London wine merchant Handford Wines, owned by James Handford MW, also becomes a MW.

The new Australian MWs are Craig Drummond, 56, partner in Garland Wines in Mount Barker, Western Australia and
David Le Mire, 36, of Pronto Vino, a brand management consultancy and wine education services for winery clients in South Australia.

Barbara Philip, 41, is the first female MW from Canada. Philip is a senior instructor and department head for the International Sommelier Guild.

Ulf Sjodin, 41, marketing manager for V&S Wine in Stockholm, is the first MW from Sweden. Ulf also received the Madame Bollinger Medal for excellence in the Practical (tasting) part of the exam, together with the Tim Derouet Award, awarded to an outstanding candidate, for excellence in all parts of the exam, and the Villa Maria Award for excellence in the Viticulture paper.

Harding awarded

The Noval Award for Communication went to Julia Harding MW, who works alongside Jancis Robinson on her website and her books. It is awarded to a recent MW who has excelled in communicating about wine. She wins a prize of a 1,000, a trip to Quinta do Noval and a mixed case of Noval port.

Joanna Locke MW, chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine, said: "I'm delighted to welcome seven such talented and diverse individuals to membership of the Institute. I'm particularly delighted by the success of our first Swedish Master of Wine, who lights a beacon for students from all over Europe, especially Scandinavia. I would also like to congratulate Julia on this significant achievement. Communication is a vital part of being a Master of Wine, and being recognised for excellence in this area is a true achievement."

Martin de Rusett said:

	Well done to these 7, what an achievement. It would have been interesting to know how many MWs there now are, worldwide. Perhaps the Press Office at the Inst*tute could be asked to add that information in future?
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