UK/Europe
Susy Atkins, Wine writer and communicator, Telegraph Media Group (Daily Telegraph); Delicious magazine
@susyatkins
Susy has been a wine writer for over 30 years with long-standing columns on the Sunday Telegraph and Delicious magazine. She has written/co-written 15 books on wine and drinks and has won several major awards for her wine writing. She has been on TV and radio numerous times, including 12 years as one of the wine experts on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. She also hosts wine events and tastings around the UK.
Tom Fahey, Sommelier (and owner), Terrace Rooms & Wine
@the_terrace_ventnor
Tom was a restaurant guidebook writer for 15 years then, four years ago, ended up running a restaurant for his family. While learning everything he could about wine buying, pricing, storing and positioning, Tom put his extensive consumer experience to work in creating the sort of wine list he had always wanted to drink from. Tom eventually discovered trade tastings and was consistently drawn to New Zealand wines as having the best price-to-deliciousness ratio. Tom has completed over 70 stages in Michelin-level kitchen so cooks once a week for a small group of guests with wine pairings which he also created.
Rebecca Gibb MW, Winewriter, Vinous
@rebeccagibbmw
Rebecca Gibb is a Master of Wine, business owner, award-winning wine journalist and author of Vintage Crime: a short history of wine fraud, and The Wines of New Zealand. Rebecca secured her first editorial role at wine trade magazine Harpers after being named UK Young Wine Writer of the Year in 2006, she’s gone on contribute to and edit several print and online wine titles. Rebecca is currently an editor for online wine publication Vinous, which has subscribers in more than 100 countries, publishing in-depth wine coverage and reviews. Her specialisms include the wines of the Loire Valley and New Zealand. In 2015, aged 34, Rebeccas became the 384th Master of Wine in the world. In a record class of 24 graduates, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award and the Bollinger Medal in recognition of outstanding tasting ability. Rebecca is also the founder of Puzzle Cru, a wine and spirit-themed jigsaw puzzle business.
Roger Jones, Winewriter, The Buyer
X – @littlebedwyn and Instagram – @rogerjoneslittlebedwyn
Rodger is the receipient of the 2024 Decanter Legacy Award, and has sat on the Decanter World Wine Awards for 15 years. He has also been a Senior Judge at IWSC and Ambassador to The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships. In additon to The Buyer, Rodger also writes for The BBQ Magazine (Drink with Roger Jones). He is now a retired Michelin Star Chef, and has owned The Harrow at Little Bedwyn which was rated as one of the finest Wine Lists in the World, including over 100 New Zealand bins. The Buyer has bespoke mailers in their data base of 4.9k subscribers and a social media presence of 35k followers across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The Buyer has become one of the world’s leading and most influential digital content platforms for the drinks industry – specialising in providing unique content for the premium on and off-trade and the producers and supply chain that supports it. The Buyer has a global monthly audience of around 70,000 unique users a month.
Sarah Neish, Winewriter, The Drinks Business
@thedrinksbusiness
Sarah edits The Drinks Business, the biggest source of global news for the drinks trade with more than 25,000 daily web readers. Sarah works with writers and drinks regions around the world to publish the latest news across The Drinks Business website, daily newsletter (received by 36,220 active subscribers), social media channels and in its monthly print magazine. Sarah writes, commissions and edits features, and is interested in conveying the stories around wine, frequently with an emphasis on people and places. Her articles also cover company acquisitions, marketing strategies and wider trends within the industry.
Sarah is an adventurer by nature, having previously edited magazines for a number of high-profile travel brands including Virgin Atlantic, Thomas Cook and easyJet. She has scuba-dived to retrieve wine from Croatia’s first underwater cellar, shadowed the craft beer sommelier at legendary Copenhagen restaurant NOMA, got hands-on distilling local spirit Feni in Goa, and worked the fields with lemon farmers in Madeira to craft national drink Poncha.
Helena Nicklin, Wine and lifestyle writer, The Sun, Daily Mail, Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, TalkTV, TheThreeDrinkers.com, Decanter, Club O, The Guardian, City A.M.
@helenasips
Helena ( www.helenanicklin.com) is an award-winning (Top 100 Most Influential People in Drinks 2024, Winner ‘Best contribution to wine & spirits tourism 2022’, Top 10 Women to Watch in the Wine Industry 2019 to name a few), freelance, wine and spirits writer, broadcaster, wine consultant, drinks influencer and judge for various international wine and spirits awards. With twenty four years in the drinks industry, a stint at drama school and the WSET Diploma under her belt, she specialises in communicating with exploring consumers through TV and radio appearances, live events, written articles for various titles and engaging video content. She writes regularly for major news brands The Daily Mail and The Sun both in print and online as well as for lifestyle titles such as BA’s High Life and Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. You can see her action in her returning, global, drinks and food travel series, ‘The Three Drinkers’ on Amazon Prime, which she co-produced and co-presented. At the end of 2024 Helena is launching The HelenaSips Wine Academy – a global, online members club with built-in, video-based, beginner’s wine course. There will be a steady stream of up to date videos, articles and social that go with it both for members and followers /potentnial members. Her trip to New Zealand times perfectly with potentially being one of the first guides she produces for the Academy.
Olly Smith, Wine TV presenter and winewriter, BBC Saturday Kitchen, Decanter, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Iconic Magazine
@ollysmith
Olly Smith has six award-winning wine Glass House wine bars across P&O Cruises fleet, host of A Glass With podcast (past guests include Sam Neill, Kylie Minogue), International Wine and Spirits Communicator of the Year, Drinks Writer of the Year for the Great British Food Awards and the UK’s drinks ambassador for the Food is Great campaign to China. He is listed in Debretts as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK. He is also Celebrity Drinks Ambassador for the Ideal Home Show and is one of Three Wine Men (with Oz Clarke and Tim Atkin) taking wine tasting on tour across the UK every year.
Dominik Vombach, Editor and wine writer, Falstaff
@vombachdotcom
Dominik is the Editor in Chief Switzerland of Falstaff magazine – founded in 1980 as a wine magazine in Austria. Falstaff now is an established media platform in German-speaking Europe with leading publications and websites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The Falstaff print and e-magazines make Falstaff the biggest wine, food and travel magazine in German-speaking Europe with a total circulation of around 150,000. Dominik will be producing content for all 3 editions – Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With the homepages falstaff.at, falstaff.de and falstaff.ch, the newsletters, the social media presence and the guide apps, Falstaff’s total audience and community is in the millions.
John Wilson, Winewriter (Freelance), The Irish Times plus Vertdevin, Checkout magazine
@wilsononwine
John has worked in the wine trade in various positions, before becoming a wine writer 20 years ago. John will be producing content for the The Irish Times, which has a 280k readership.
