DWWA judge profile: Luigi Buonanno

Luigi Buonanno is a judge at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).

Luigi Buonanno

Luigi Buonanno has worked in the catering industry since the age of 15. He began his career in Rome, where he had the opportunity to work in fine dining restaurants and discovered the role of sommelier.

He left university to pursue a sommelier diploma and then undertook a masters in sensorial analysis, considered to be the highest related degree achievable in Italy.

In 2007, Buonanno moved to London, where he worked for Prism Restaurant before moving to Caravaggio, re-writing Caravaggio’s wine list and subsequently the lists for the other eight restaurants in the Etrusca Group. Buonanno was then promoted to group sommelier and wine buyer.

Following this, he was operations manager for Bianco43 Restaurants and since 2015, he has worked for Berkmann Wine Cellars. He is now head of sales in London for them.

Since 2011, he has been collaborating with Daniele Cernilli on doctorwine.it, where he writes reviews about mainly non-Italian wines available in the UK.

Luigi was first a DWWA judge in 2013.