Find out about our Decanter World Wine Awards 2014 Austria judging panel with biographies of the Regional Chair Andreas Larsson plus Andreas Wickhoff MW, Antony Moss MW, Caro Maurer MW and Mark Savage MW.
Regional chair: Andreas Larsson
Larsson’s hospitality career started at the age of 16, when he entered chef school. Later, he was attracted by the wine industry and dedicated a great deal of time to visiting the world’s wine regions and tasting thousands of wines. After winning several Best Sommelier of Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe titles, he was crowned Best Sommelier in the World in 2007. Today, Larsson divides his time between the restaurant PM & Vänner in Växjö, Sweden, where he is the wine director (in charge of more than 25,000 bottles and 3,300 references from around the world) and acting as a wine judge, lecturer and consultant around the world.
Judges
Andreas Wickhoff MW
Andreas Wickhoff MW is the managing director of Premium Estates of Austria, an association of the country‘s leading wineries, which he established in 2004. As the coordinator of this selection of growers, Wickhoff mainly promotes the group’s wines and spirits worldwide but also assists in the production process. Prior to settling in Austria, Wickhoff worked as a sommelier and wine buyer in Corsica, France and the USA. He holds degrees in tourism and hotel management from Bad Gleichenberg, Austria, and in food and hospitality management from Martin College in Brisbane, Australia. On receiving his MW in 2012, Wickhoff won four awards for excellence in particular areas of the exam.
Antony Moss MW
Antony Moss MW is director of strategic planning for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). His current role covers long-term business planning and new product development, and he was previously responsible for the WSET’s textbooks and other education materials. Moss has worked for the company since 2004 and was the author of Wines & Spirits: Looking Behind the Label. Moss joined the wine industry in 1998 as a part-time sales advisor for S.H. Jones in Leamington Spa, and completed his WSET diploma in 2003 while working for Sainsbury’s supermarkets. He won the Austrian wine marketing board’s prize for both his WSET diploma and MW, and he is now a member of the education committee for the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW), supervising one of their two European second year residential programs.
Caro Maurer MW
Caro Maurer MW is a wine writer based in Bonn, Germany, who currently shares her time between the General-Anzeiger, the daily newspaper in Bonn, and two magazines, Der Feinschmecker (The Gourmet) and the German edition of FINE. With a writing career spanning almost 20 years, Maurer’s previous positions include working as a correspondent in New York and Los Angeles, as a staff editor for the German edition of Forbes magazine, and at Die Welt (The World), a German daily national newspaper. Maurer is also a wine educator, and judges at international wine competitions.
Mark Savage MW
Mark Savage MW was born in Uganda and classically educated at University College, Oxford, where he was also president of the university’s Wine Circle. He gained early wine trade experience with Moët & Chandon, Harrods, OW Loeb & Co, and Tanners before establishing his own business in 1975 after receiving the Vintners Scholarship and the inaugural Champagne Ruinart Bursary in order to research the wine industry in the USA Pacific Northwest. Savage became a Master of Wine in 1980. As owner and managing director of Savage Selection Ltd, he works with about 50 small wine estates in a dozen countries, and has been the UK representative of Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf in St Emilion since 1982. Savage is the author of The Red Wines of Burgundy and an occasional contributor to The World of Fine Wine and The Drinks Business.
Written by John Abbott
