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Christoph Raffelt started writing about wine in 2007 on his own german blog Originalverkorkt.de. Since then, he has written over 1,000 entries. For more than ten years his written works have been appearing in such publications as Meininger’s Weinwirtschaft, Weinwelt, Sommelier, Champagne-Magazin, Schluck, Trinkmag.com and beginning in 2023, his work will also be appearing in Feinschmecker. Furth...

Erica Duecy is a freelance wine and spirits writer and editor. Most recently, she was employed as Chief Content Officer for the wine-discovery platform Pix and its online magazine, The Drop, where she co-wrote the monthly wine horoscopes column. Previously, Erica worked as Editor in Chief for the American wine/spirits publications VinePair and SevenFifty Daily. She has also led digital editoria...

San Francisco Magazine has called Alder Yarrow “The Wine World’s Brightest Cyberstar” and he is widely accepted as a pioneer of wine blogging. He has been publishing Vinography.Com daily since 2004 and was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2013. In addition to writing for outlets as diverse as the World of Fine Wine and Fine Cooking Magazine, he has been a monthly columnist for Jancis Robins...

Colin Harkness started in the wine industry in the late 1980s when he studied the WSET before opening a restaurant. Since then, he moved to Spain where he has developed a specialism in Spanish wine regions and is a frequent wine judge and the IWSC's Spanish Ambassador. Colin founded the wine column for an English-language regional newspaper group, for whom he wrote for over 20 years, and contri...

After earning a doctorate in history from Cornell and teaching at Tulane, Charlie Leary became an organic farmer and artisan cheesemaker. He was inducted into the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. He then opened a Creole vegetarian restaurant in New Orleans, directing the wine program. He managed wine programs in Costa Rica, the Dordogne, and Nova Scotia, the latter winning Wine Spectator’s Awa...

For his greatly detailed Wine Faults and Flaws: A Practical Guide, Keith Grainger has won the 2022 Prix de l'OIV for the Oenology Category. Receiving the award in Bordeaux last month, Keith shares his excitement: "I am so thrilled! And following on from my success in the Gourmand Awards for The Best Wine Book for Professionals, I am over the moon!" Congratulations to Keith! Congratulation...

Anne-Wies van Oosten, DipWSET and Registervinoloog, is a Dutch wine and food journalist, currently living in Romania. In 2022 she graduated as Weinakademiker with her thesis on the “Development and Future of Wine Tourism in Transylvania”. She spends part of the year in her house in Transylvania, from where she visits and consults Romanian wineries and importers. For the other part, she travels th...

The Circle of Wine Writers has made a yearly donation to the Drinks Trust charity towards its work supporting individuals in the UK drinks industry. Winnie Bowman, chair of the Circle, commented: "We are delighted to contribute to the invaluable work of the Drinks Trust. The hospitality sector has emerged successfully from lockdown, but with the cost of living crisis worsening many people in th...

Congratulations to Circle member Jane Anson who was announced as the winner of the IWSC's Wine Communicator of the Year Trophy on 29th September in London. "An incredibly well respected and established communicator, our judges really appreciated Jane’s ongoing drive to experiment with new formats in the world of communication to really share her message," posted the IWSC in its shortlist announ...