contributors
WFW contributing editor Andrew Jefford, the son of a vicar and eldest of three brothers, grew up in Norfolk, England. He studied English at the University of Reading, then pursued postgraduate studies on Robert Louis Stevenson with Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia, before working as an editor for Paul Hamlyn’s Octopus Group. In the late 1980s, he got the chance to combine his passions for wine and writing, and since then he has worked as a freelance drinks journalist and broadcaster. Andrew has written several books and has won a plethora of distinctions for his work, including three successive Louis Roederer Awards in 2006, 2007, and 2008, three more in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and another two in 2016 and 2017. The New France was awarded the André Simon award, Lanson award, and Veuve Clicquot USA Book of the Year in 2003. His most recent book is an anthology, Drinking with the Valkyries: Writings on Wine (Académie du Vin Library, 2022) and he is also the wine columnist for The New Statesman. Andrew lives with his family in France, after a stint as a senior research fellow at the University of Adelaide and as wine writer in residence to the Australia Wine 2030 project.
Aki Kaji is a qualified sommelier in Japan, a WSET Diploma holder, and a Master of Wine student with a deep-rooted passion for wine and its production. He began his career in hospitality at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo before moving into wine and sake distribution with retailer Yokohama Kimijimaya. Seeking to deepen his expertise, he pursued further studies in France at a wine school and the Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin at the University of Bordeaux, where his focus shifted toward viticulture and winemaking. This led to hands-on experience at wineries in Germany (Weingut Leipold) and France (Château Guilhem and Château Coutet in St-Emilion). Committed to advancing his knowledge of vineyard management and winemaking, Aki aspires to become an independent winemaker.
William Kelley studied history for eight years at Oxford, where he presided over the university’s Wine Circle, the oldest tasting group of its kind. Regular tastings with the globe’s greatest producers and visits to their vineyards drew him deeper into the world of wine. On completing his doctorate, he worked harvests in Napa Valley, the Côte de Beaune, and the Côte de Nuits. He is currently editor-in-chief of The Wine Advocate, where he reviews Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, English sparkling wine, and Madeira. He also makes a little wine of his own in Clarksburg, CA, and Chambolle-Musigny.
Benjamin Lewin MWmade his first career in science as editor of the renowned biology journal Cell. Since becoming a Master of Wine, he has published several books, including What Price Bordeaux?, In Search of Pinot
Noir, Claret and Cabs, Wines of France, a revised edition of his Wine Myths and Realities (2017),
14 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025
Sarah Marsh MW is a wine critic and writer who has contributed to many newspapers and magazines about wine but also travel, food, and design. She has a background in the wine trade, working for the Champagne Bureau and as the New World wine buyer for Armit. After writing her MW dissertation in 2004 on clonal selection of Pinot Noir on the Côte d’Or, she focused on Burgundy, launching The Burgundy Briefing website, and has since written a vintage report about Burgundy for 17 vintages. In 2017, she began making a few barrels of her own wine, with the unusual approach of buying small quantities
of grapes from well-known domaines in Meursault, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Volnay, in a bid to deepen her understanding of terroir and the role of the winemaker in translating this into bottle. Her wines are distributed through wine clubs, restaurants, and small independents.
and annual national and regional Guides to Wines and Top Vineyards covering France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal, several of which have been shortlisted for André Simon and Roederer awards. He wants wine to be regarded as an appropriate subject for popular but serious books. Benjamin’s main interest is in the classic wine regions of Europe, and he divides his time between the East Coast of the United States and London.
Richard Mayson is one of the world’s most respected authorities on Port, Sherry, and Madeira. After working at The Wine Society, he wrote Portugal’s Wines and Wine Makers, Port and the Douro, and The Story of Dow’s Port. His next book, The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal, won an André Simon award. In 1999, he was made a Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto. He writes regularly for respected titles including Decanter, Harpers Wine & Spirit, and Slow. He also lectures for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. The fourth edition of Port and the Douro was published in 2018 by Infinite Ideas, for whose Classic Wine Library he has been the series editor since its inception. Richard’s latest book on wine is Madeira.
Judy O'Kane worked the 2009 harvest in St-Estèphe and trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School on sabbatical from partnership in a legal practice. She completed a PhD at the University of East Anglia and holds the WSET
diploma. Judy won the National Memory Day Prize, the Charles Causley Poetry Prize, the Irish Post Prize, and the Listowel Writers Week Original Poem Prize. Her prose work Thirst, an exploration of terroir, a work in progress, was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Award by the Biographers’ Club. Judy has read at the House of Lords and at Pinot Celebration, New Zealand.
Michael Palij MW emigrated from Canada to the UK in 1989 and qualified as a Master of Wine in 1995, aged just 29. His first trip to Italy was as a wine buyer in 1994. He promptly fell in love with both the country and its wines and has subsequently visited Italy on more than 100 occasions, learning about its history, grape varieties, and terroir. Michael owns and runs Winetraders, the import, distribution, and retail company he set up in 1997, as well as teaching and writing on his specialist subject.
Margaret Rand is an award- winning wine writer who contributes to The World of Fine Wine,
winesearcher.com, and Gourmet Traveller Wine. Previously the general editor of Hugh Johnson’s annual Pocket Wine Book, she has
now taken the reins. She has also edited Wine magazine, Whisky Magazine, and coauthored Grapes and Wines with Oz Clarke. Her latest book is 101 Wines to Try Before You Die.
Anthony Rose contributes frequently to Decanter, The World of Fine Wine, and The Real Review online, among other publications. His specialist areas include sake, on which he writes and teaches, and sparkling wine. He is the author of Sake and the Wines of Japan (Infinite Ideas, 2018) and Fizz! Champagne and Sparkling Wines of the World (Infinite Ideas, 2022). He served as wine correspondent to The Independent from 1986 to 2016 and has won a number of awards, among them three Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year Awards and a Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year Award. A founding member of The Wine Gang, he also writes on his own website,
anthonyrosewine.com.
Nick Ryan fell into wine by getting a job with Sydney’s leading wine merchant while taking a break from loitering at university. Once in, he made no real effort to get out. He has been the wine writer for Australia’s national newspaper The Australian, a columnist for Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, and a contributor to several magazines, including The Robb Report, Gourmet Traveller Wine, and GQ. He has now succeeded James Halliday as the senior wine writer for The Australian and won the first 67 Pall Mall Award for Best Global Wine Communicator in Short-Form Writing (2024). He lives in the Clare Valley with his partner and three children, who make him grateful for his cellar, and dreams of playing for Port Adelaide Football Club
David Schildknecht trained in philosophy and worked as a restaurateur before spending a quarter-century in the wine trade. He has written regularly for The Wine Advocate, covering Austria, Germany, and much of France, and he now reviews wines from Austria, Germany, and the Loire for Vinous. He is also a columnist for Vinaria and The World of Fine Wine, as well as a regular contributor to Wine & Spirits. David is responsible for the German wine entries in The Oxford Companion to Wine.
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