A – Z
Michael Apstein
Michael Apstein is a columnist and wine reviewer for WineReviewOnLine.com. As a free-lance writer, he wrote over 300 wine columns for The Boston Globe newspaper. His writing has also appeared in a variety of US and UK publications, including Decanter, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Magazine, Wine and Spirits, and The Wine News. Michael received a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2000 and was nominated again in 2004 and 2006. In 2008, he won the Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne Press Trophy for an article about Pouilly-Fuissé. In 2010, he was nominated for the prestigious Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards in the best drinks journalist category.
Dr. Apstein judges frequently at international and national wine competitions. In 2012 he was the Chief Judge at the Challenge Millésime Bio (The Organic Wine Competition) held in Montpellier, France. He is a regular judge at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the Critics Challenge Wine Competition, and the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition. He has been a regular guest commentator on Whitley on Wine, a radio show based in San Diego and broadcast nationally.
Dr. Apstein is a well-respected wine educator who taught at the Boston Center for Adult Education for 20 years. Bon Appetit magazine chose him as one of five instructors nationwide whose “focused classes closely examine a specific wine producing region or wine style.” He has conducted tastings and seminars for numerous organizations. Dr. Apstein is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He lectures and writes frequently about wine and health. His wine columns and reviews can be found on ApsteinOnWine.com.
His wine columns and reviews can be found on ApsteinOnWine.com. He can be followed on Twitter @MichaelApstein.
Tony Aspler C.M.
Tony Aspler has been writing about wine since 1975, and has been wine columnist for The Toronto Star for 22 years. He is the author of 18 wine books, including The Wine Atlas of Canada, and three wine murder mystery novels: Blood Is Thicker than Beaujolais, The Beast of Barbaresco and Death on the Douro. In 2001, Aspler co-founded the charity Grapes for Humanity to raise money through the wine community for victims of landmines and children with disabilities. In 2007 Aspler was awarded the Order of Canada and in 2012 he was elected to the New York Media Wine Writers Hall of Fame.
Tony Aspler’s website can be found at www.tonyaspler.com.
Michael Bartier
One of the Canadian wine industry’s most recognized names, Michael Bartier is a consulting winemaker based in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. His background in wine is varied with roles in artisan wineries and large multinationals alike, ranging from sales, general management, viticulture, and winemaking; few people have such a complete perspective in the Canadian wine industry. With his brother Don, in 2009 they founded their own wine company, Bartier Bros. that has become an example of their own beliefs in the importance of sustainable farming, and the honest articulation of terroir and origin in wine. Throughout his career, so far, Michael has received countless accolades for his wines. He is considered one of British Columbia’s top winemakers and is a relentless advocate of the wines of his home, the Okanagan Valley.
Stephen Brook
Born in London in 1947, Stephen Brook studied English and philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. After many years as a publisher’s editor, in both the United States and Britain, he became a freelance writer in 1982, specialising in travel and wine. His Liquid Gold: Dessert Wines of the World won the Andre Simon Award in 1987 and Sauternes and the Other Sweet Wines of Bordeaux (1995) became the standard work on the subject. His other wine books include Pauillac, The Wines of California, Wine People, Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics, and The Wines of Germany. In 2007 his monumental work The Complete Bordeaux was published, and new editions appeared in 2012 and 2017. He also completed two comprehensive revisions and updatings of the wine encyclopaedia, the Hugh Johnson Wine Companion. His book on The Wines of Austria was published in early 2016.
He has won numerous awards, including the Wines of France award in 1995, the Bunch Award for wine writer of the year in 1996, the Glenfiddich, Lanson, and Veuve Clicquot awards for his book on The Wines of California (1999), and the Andre Simon Award in 2007. He is also in demand as a wine judge and chairs the USA section of the Decanter World Wine Awards. His many travel books have won wide acclaim. He writes regularly on wine for Decanter, of which he is a Contributing Editor, Fine Wine Magazine, and Falstaff (Austria). He has also written about food and restaurants for Food & Travel, The Financial Times, and other publications. In what spare time is left he enjoys travel, opera and theatre going, and looking at buildings, ancient and modern.
Ian D’Agata
Ian D’Agata has been writing and lecturing about food and wine for more than 25 years. He is currently the senior editor at Vinous and the Scientific Advisor of Vinitaly International and the Scientific Director of the Vinitaly International Academy. His book The Native Wine Grapes of Italy was the 2015 Louis Roederer International Wine Awards book of the year and is viewed as the definitive text to Italy’s native grapes and wines. He also wrote ten editions of the D’Agata & Comparini Guide to Italy’s Best Wines, for which he won the 2009 International Association of Culinary Professionals Gourmand Award for wine guides. He was named Italy’s Best Wine Journalist in 2012 (and Best Young Wine Journalist in 2007) by the Comitato Grandi Crus d’Italia. He is a frequent speaker in Italy and around the world not just on the subject of native grapes and wine, but specifically on health and wine. A medical doctor who specialized in pediatrics, pediatric gastroenterology/nutrition and liver transplants, he trained at Cincinnati University, Harvard, Univeristé de Montréal and University of California-San Francisco. In his university medical days, he won two grants for research in cellular and molecular biology, and the almost three years spent in a lab explain why Ian loves genetics, DNA analysis and enzyme/protein studies, and consequently, the identification of grape varieties and what exactly is in a bottle of wine. D’Agata spends more than half the year visiting and tasting at wineries in Italy and in other-wine producing countries. He was recently awarded the Tony Aspler Cuvee Award of Excellence for his role in furthering the aims and aspirations of the Ontario Wine Industry.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton has had a long career working as a sommelier in some of the most distinguished and acclaimed dining rooms in America. He has served wine to guests of Restaurant Daniel, Masa, and Convivio, all in Manhattan. Levi has also contributed articles on wine themes to publications such as The Art of Eating, Wine & Spirits magazine, Bon Appetit online, and Eater NY. Today he is the host of I’ll Drink to That! Talking Wine with Levi Dalton podcast.
W. Blake Gray
W. Blake Gray won the Roederer Award in 2013 for Best Blogger/Online Wine Writer in the world, taking said title from Ontario’s own Natalie MacLean. The award has since been renamed so he can apparently use it in perpetuity. He serves as California and West Coast Editor for Wine Searcher and writes for a number of other publications, as well as his blog, The Gray Report.
Cathy Huyghe
Cathy Huyghe is the co-founder of Enolytics, a new big data services firm for the wine industry. Huyghe is also a wine columnist at Forbes.com, finalist for the IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award in 2016, and author of the award-winning book, Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass. She co-founded an organization called Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food in 2009.
Kurtis Kolt
Kurtis Kolt is a Vancouver-based freelance wine consultant, presenter and writer who received the Sommelier of the Year award from the 2010 Vancouver International Wine Festival. Certified by London’s Wine & Spirit Education Trust and having credit in the winemaking program at UC Davis, Kolt’s enthusiasm and experience have resulted in a high demand for appearances, from being the subject of a Wine Enthusiast Magazine profile and appearing at New York’s James Beard House, to leading wine festival seminars and beyond. Catch him at KurtisKolt.com.
Michaela Morris
Northern Lands/VinItaly Canada – Edmonton: Wine selection committee and trade seminar co-chair
Northern Lands Festival Wine Competition Co-Head Judge and Assistant Competition Director
Michaela Morris is a wine writer, educator and presenter based in Vancouver, Canada. Besides being the weekly wine columnist for the Westender newspaper, Michaela contributes to EAT, Taste, Quench and Meininger’s Wine Business International magazines and makes regular radio and television appearances. Locally, Michaela judges wine competitions and presents seminars for festivals such as Cornucopia and the Vancouver International Wine Festival. She lends her expertise abroad speaking at conferences such as Wine2Wine in Verona and Barolo’s Collisioni Festival and judging for the Wines of Portugal Challenge and Vinitaly’s 5 Star Wines Award.
Michaela successfully completed the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s (WSET) Diploma Programme in 2006. She is a WSET instructor for levels 1-3 and leads lectures on Italy, Alsace and the Local Market for the WSET Diploma. She is also a certified Italian Wine Expert through Vinitaly International Academy and is in the second stage of her Masters of Wine studies. Michaela spends much of her time traveling to wine regions around the globe specializing in Italy in particular.
Aldo Parise
Always the most curious guy in the room, Quench editor, Aldo Parise, is now in his 15th year as editor. Fronting the largest food and drink magazine in Canada, Aldo shares ample time in the kitchen and the wine bar seeking out international flavor and bringing it back home to his readers.
David Paterson
David Paterson fills the shoes of Tantalus Vineyard’s GM/Winemaker in Kelowna, BC. David is a Kiwi with a Canadian connection, having been born in Vancouver. He received his winemaking degree from Lincoln University, NZ and following time spent working in the local NZ industry he travelled the wine world gaining experience at premium wineries in Oregon, France and Australia. He landed at Tantalus in 2009 and with seven successful vintages under his belt with the winery he took on the role of GM in 2016.
Paul Pender
Winemaker, Paul Pender, joined the Tawse team in 2005 and took on the role as head winemaker in 2006. Paul is a firm believer in ‘terroir’ and that great wine starts in the vineyard. Paul has seen Tawse through the process of Ecocert Organic and Demeter biodynamic certification, and in 2011 was named Winemaker of the Year at the Ontario Wine Awards.
Rhys Pender MW
Rhys is a Master of Wine who combines his time writing, judging, teaching, consulting and dirtying his boots at his 4 acre vineyard and winery – Little Farm Winery – in the Similkameen Valley of BC, Canada. He runs a wine school, Wine Plus+, and judges wine competitions nationally and internationally such as the Decanter World Wine Awards as well as the National and World competitions for WineAlign. To make sure he eats well he has also completed a Professional Culinary Diploma and has been named by Western Living magazine as one of the “Top 40 Foodies Under 40” in Western Canada. He is a Principal Critic and Writer for WineAlign.com and a regular contributor to Canadian publications such as Macleans, Montecristo and Taste.
Barbara Philip MW
Barbara Philip MW became the first Canadian woman to achieve the Master of Wine designation in 2007. Based in Vancouver, she is a Category Manager for BC Liquor Stores and responsible for buying all European wines in the retail chain. With her husband Iain, Barb runs Barbariain Wine Consulting and works as an international presenter, journalist and judge. She has contributed to Taste Magazine, Decanter and Gambero Rosso and has been the wine columnist on CBC Radio One’s “On The Coast” for 8 years.
Will Predhomme
Will Predhomme is Managing Director of Predhomme Inc., a wine-centric communications company based in Ontario. Will’s professional background span a career based around beverage alcohol, having made his name as a professional sommelier at some of the top establishments in Toronto.
Will is a producer of wines in both Oregon & South Africa under the Pearce – Predhomme label, is the host of The Globe & Mail Wine Basics Video Series & is an educator at The University of Guelph. Will holds the WSET Diploma in Wine & Spirits & is currently pursuing the Master Sommelier accreditation. He has represented Ontario & Canada globally at the ASI Best Sommelier of the World competition.
Grant Stanley
Grant Stanley is a dual citizen of Canada and New Zealand, where he began his career working in the vineyards of Marlborough. Equipped with diplomas in viticulture and winemaking from Nelson Marlborough Institute of technology he moved to the North island where he became a willing and humble slave to the high priests of Pinot Noir in Martinborough. His A-type personality soon led him to become compulsive, obsessive and devoted to Pinot Noir. In 2003, after 15 vintages with prestigious wineries in New Zealand and Oregon’s Willamette valley he was attracted to the incredible potential for growing and making high quality Pinot Noir in the Okanagan Valley. Grant left his New Zealand home and became the head of the viticulture and winemaking team at Quails Gate Winery for a decade of excellent and award-winning vintages. In May 2013, Grant joined 50th Parallel Estate as a partner and Director of Viticulture & Winemaking, making wine with a passionate heart.