Decanter Hall of Fame and Rising Star 2026 winners revealed
Burgundy wine pioneer Lalou Bize-Leroy has been named the latest recipient of Decanter’s Hall of Fame prize, while 'Jerez mavericks' Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez have shared the 2026 Rising Star award.
Lalou Bize-Leroy, a pioneer of biodynamic methods in Burgundy who founded Domaines Leroy and d’Auvenay – and has also been co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) – received Decanter’s Hall of Fame award for 2026.
Since 1984, Decanter has each year recognised a key figure for their outstanding contribution to the world of wine.
This accolade is now accompanied by Decanter’s Rising Star award, with Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez the latest recipients of this accolade.
Lalou Bize-Leroy enters Decanter’s Hall of Fame
Born in Paris as Marcelle Leroy in 1932, ‘Lalou’ Bize-Leroy has been at the forefront of Burgundy's wine scene for most of her adult life. She trained with her father, Henri Leroy, at Maison Leroy and began buying the wines for the négociant business in 1955 – aged 23.
‘Few winemakers have had as lasting an impact on Burgundy and the larger world of winemaking as she has,’ wrote Charles Curtis MW, Decanter’s Burgundy correspondent, in an in-depth article published in Decanter magazine’s October 2026 issue, and online for Decanter Premium subscribers.
‘Her leadership on biodynamic grape-growing has influenced generations of growers,’ writes Curtis, who also highlighted her much-admired commitment to ‘producing concentrated wines through low yields and rigorous sorting’.
Her decision to create her own domaines in 1988 was a key moment.
‘Although the négociant wines Mme Bize-Leroy bought for Maison Leroy were brilliant, her lasting contribution to the art of winemaking stems from the rigour and precision she brings to grape-growing and winemaking at her two domaines,’ Curtis said.
Bize-Leroy became co-director of DRC in 1974, succeeding her father – who had acquired a 50% stake in the producer in 1942 – but she resigned in 1992 to focus on her own domaines. Perrine Fenal, Bize-Leroy’s daughter, took on the DRC role.
Domaine Leroy and Domaine D’Auvenay are today among the most sought-after Burgundy names by collectors.
More broadly, Curtis wrote that Bize-Leroy’s staying power at the pinnacle of Burgundy winemaking ‘has left us a vinous legacy that will surely stand for decades’.
Read the full article on Lalou Bize-Leroy receiving Decanter's Hall of Fame 2026 award.
Rising Stars: Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez
Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez.
This year’s Rising Star Award goes to ‘Jerez mavericks’ Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez, whose scholarly approach to the region’s history and identity has made them the face of a quiet revolution.
Ines Salpico, Decanter’s regional editor for Spain, Portugal and South America, described the duo as arguably the buen aficionados of their generation; a term reserved for particularly gifted growers in the Marco de Jerez (the demarcated area within which Jerez Sherry and brandy are produced).
‘Through painstaking research work, relentless digging into archives and informed dissent, [Ibáñez and Pérez have] inspired a new generation of producers and opened a discussion about Jerez’s history, identity and future,’ wrote Salpico, in an in-depth article and interview with the pair, featured in Decanter magazine's October 2026 issue and online on decanter.com.
Having met at university, Ibáñez and Pérez pursued their own ‘day jobs’ while jointly exploring the history of the region’s vineyards, wines and people – culminating in the rebirth of the historic De la Riva brand.
Their efforts have helped to bring context to a challenging period for the region, and for fortified wines more generally.
A key aspect of their work has been the rebirth of unfortified wines known as vinos de pasto, underpinned by an understanding of the history and profile of vineyards.
Pérez said, ‘Now we’re living in a great moment for white [unfortified] wines, but these new wines need to be connected to all the work and wines – sweet, oxidative, biologically aged – that came before. All of it is Jerez. If they are not connected to tradition, these white wines [vinos de pasto] will not succeed.’
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