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Hail the new Masters

(by peter)

IMWMany congratulations to the twelve new Masters of Wine officially inaugurated last night at Vintners’ Hall.

These included the first Turkish Master of Wine and a serially over-achieving Master Sommelier. In alphabetical order, they are:

  • Dilek Caner
  • Cees van Casteren
  • Amy Christine
  • James Davis
  • Barry Dick
  • Alison Eisermann Ctercteko
  • Eric Hemer
  • Matthew Hemming
  • Adam Lapierre
  • Anne McHale
  • Jon Pepper
  • Demetri Waters

On a personal note, it was delightful to see several veterans of our MW bootcamp tasting weekend among this number, including Anne McHale who won not only the Bollinger award for excellence in the tasting exam but also the IMW Outstanding Achievement Award. Congratulations Anne on this monumental personal achievement.

It was also lovely that Dilek, whom I was privileged to work with briefly as a dissertation mentor, won the Noval award for best dissertation on the subject of Washington State Syrah (close to my heart given mine was on Chilean Syrah). Again, the link is coincidental – Dilek clearly excelling herself entirely on her own merit, also picking up the Villa Maria award for her outstanding knowledge of viticulture in the exams.

The awards in full were as follows:

  • Villa Maria Award (viticulture) – Dilek Caner MW
  • Errázuriz award (business of wine) – Jon Pepper MW
  • Taransaud award (maturation & handling) – Anne McHale MW
  • Mondavi award (overall theory) – Jon Pepper MW
  • Madame Bollinger medal (tasting) – Anne McHale MW
  • Noval award (dissertation) – Dilek Caner MW
  • IMW Outstanding Achievement Award – Anne McHale MW

Congratulations also to the Vintners’ Company, whose splendidly renovated hall (including stunning roof, with barrels duly floating amid a sky-blue firmament) was the other star of the evening. Along with the rather tasty Bollinger…

By way of unashamedly self-serving addendum, we’ve recently posted dates for our next MW tasting bootcamp for students aspiring to emulate the epic achievements of Anne and her 11 fellow newly minted MWs. You can find details here.