Late last night the Institute of Masters of Wine announced that they have seven new members, including two people, Lisa Granik and Paul Tudor, who should be familiar to purple pagers from the your turn forum :
Essi Avellan (Finland)
Sarah Jane Evans (UK)
Lisa Granik (USA)
Geoff Labitzke (USA)
Kenneth Mackay (UK)
Rod Smith (UK)
Paul Tudor (New Zealand)
Nowdays it is not enough to pass the increasingly testing MW exams which are held every May in London, the US and Australia. Successful candidates then have to submit a dissertation and have it accepted according to an arcane approval procedure, so these seven new MWs are to be thoroughly congratulated. You may recognise the name of Sarah Jane Evans who was for many years the wine editor of BBC Good Food magazine.
The results of this year’s MW exams are also just being announced. All I have heard so far is that Pancho Campo, who was a newcomer to wine very few years ago and now runs The Wine Academy of Spain and organised this year’s Barcelona Wine Festival, has passed all but one theoretical paper at his first attempt – a great result.