Douglas Wood is owner of Scottish independent merchant, WoodWinters. They have has two retail branches but the majority of business is through wholesaling to restaurants and hotels covering all of the UK, its own agency arm importing and distributing wines and its own award winning range of single cask whiskies.
Ruth Spivey has set up the speed tasting night FLIGHT CLUB, opened her own street food wine bar, STREET VIN and created an ongoing series of consumer tastings – WINE CAR BOOT.
Piotr Pietras MS is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) and an independent wine consultant.
Jason Millar is the Retail Director at independent retailer and importer Theatre of Wine, responsible for operations across three stores, as well as managing buying, training and private clients.
Michele Longo writes for the magazine Barolo & Co and is the curator of WineCult.it, a wine and food website.
Aldo Graziani is the Sommelier, Owner & Manager of Aldo’s Vinoteca Restoran, the Casa Cruz Restaurante Bar and the Bebop Jazz Club as well as being a wine writer.
Ben Gubbins is a Manager at Vagabond Wines.
Allan Cheesman spent over 30 years as Trading Director at Sainsbury’s. Now semi-retired, he is a non-Executive Director of Vindipendents buying group and member of the WSET Awards Supervisory Board.
Jane Boyce MW is the Fine Wine Manager at James Nicholson Wine Merchant.
Yves Desmaris MS works at The Arts Club Mayfair, overseeing the wine training programmes for sommeliers and service.
Gareth Ferreira is Head Sommelier at Core by Clare Smyth.
Rémi Cousin is Head Sommelier at Michel Roux Jr’s Michelin-starred Le Gavroche.
John Baum is the owner-director of The Winemakers Club, an independent importer of artisan, small scale wineries from around Europe and Australia.
Lukasz Kolodziejczyk is Head of Fine Wines at Cult Wines.
Vincent Gasnier MS is Managing Director of his own wine consultancy company, VincentGasnier.co.uk, through which he is a wine buyer and sommelier for many hotels and restaurants, and also manages cellars for private clients, hosts events and appears on TV shows.
Mathias Camilleri is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).
Rut Cotroneo is a wine consultant for the two Michelin-starred Mauro Colagreco and his Menton-based Mirazur restaurant on a worldwide project.
Beverley Blanning MW is an independent wine journalist and the author of Wine Tasting and Biodynamics in Wine.
