Yannick Benjamin is an award-winning sommelier, wine educator, and hospitality leader based in New York City. In 2023, he was named Sommelier of the Year by the Michelin Guide New York, following his recognition as Wine Enthusiast’s 2021 Sommelier/Wine Director of the Year.
With more than three decades in hospitality, Yannick has held leadership positions at some of New York’s most celebrated dining institutions, including Le Cirque, Jean-Georges, Felidia, and the University Club of New York, where he serves as Director of Wine. He is also the owner of Beaupierre Wines & Spirits, an independent wine shop in Hell’s Kitchen dedicated to exceptional wines and education.
Yannick co-founded the acclaimed restaurant Contento, recognized nationally for its outstanding wine program and welcoming hospitality, and is the founder of Wine on Wheels, a nonprofit that brings the wine community together to support people with disabilities through education and philanthropy.
A sought-after speaker, educator, and international wine judge, Yannick has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Wine Spectator, Forbes, Saveur, and on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg. His passion for wine, service, and hospitality continues to inspire professionals and wine lovers around the world.
Alisha Blackwell-Calvert is an Advanced Sommelier and Beverage Director of Madrina Restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri. Formerly of Cinder House at the Four Seasons Hotel STL, she has received recognitions from the James Beard Foundation Awards “Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service” Semifinalist 2025, Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s 2021 “Sommelier of the Year” Wine Star Award nominee & 2018 “40 Under 40 Tastemaker”, and the 2023 Iconoclast Wine Honoree. Blackwell-Calvert has served as a mentor in the Bâtonnage Forum program and member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International. Other professional interests include wine writing, judging, educating, mead consulting, and sitting as a founding board member of the SCC Viticulture and Enology program.
Elaine Chukan Brown serves as an author, speaker, and global wine educator. Their highly acclaimed book The Wines of California, from Classic Wine Library, was released in Spring 2025. Previously, Brown served as the Executive Editor US for JancisRobinson.com, a columnist for Decanter magazine, and a contributing writer to Wine & Spirits Magazine. They contributed to the 4th, 5th and upcoming 6th editions of Oxford Companion to Wine, the 8th and upcoming 9th edition of the World Atlas of Wine, and the compilations On Burgundy and On California from Academie du Vin Library. Indigenous (Inupiaq and Unangan-Sugpiaq) from what is now Alaska, Brown has dedicated their career to the intersection of sustainability, climate action, and reducing gatekeeping in the wine industry. They co-founded the Diversity in Wine Leadership Forum, are Chair of Judges for the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards, a board member of the Wine Writer Symposium, and advise diversity initiatives in multiple countries. Brown serves as Executive Director for Batonnage Forum. They travel globally delivering keynotes and seminars, but pay rent in Sonoma, California.
Sam is the Senior Editor US for JancisRobinson.com. Based in Portland, Oregon, she also teaches WSET Level 3 and Diploma courses for The Wine & Drinks Academy.
Jessica Dupuy is a journalist, author, and communications strategist from Austin, Texas. She began her wine writing career covering Texas wine for Texas Monthly and has since expanded her work to include global wine regions—from South Africa, Argentina, and New Zealand to Italy, France, Austria, and beyond. Her journalism portfolio includes bylines in Decanter, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Imbibe, Forbes, SevenFifty Daily, and GuildSomm.
Jessica has written six cookbooks with celebrated chefs, including Uchi: The Cookbook with James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole and Tex-Mex with James Beard Award-nominated chef Ford Fry. She has also authored two culinary travel books in partnership with Southern Living on the foodways of the American South and Texas. Her book, The Wines of Southwest U.S.A. is part of the Classic Wine Library of Académie du Vin. Her latest book, Italianity: The Culture of Italian Wine explores the stories, people, and soul behind behind Italian wine with co-author, Andrea Lonardi MW.
An accomplished educator and speaker, Jessica is a regular presenter at both trade and consumer events and co-hosts the Another Bottle Down podcast with Mark Rashap of Broadbent Selections, offering engaging conversations about the world of wine and spirits.
She is currently a Master of Wine candidate and holds the Diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust. She is also a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, and a Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits through the Society of Wine Educators.
Jessica holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from Trinity University and a Master’s in Journalism and Magazine Publishing from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and is passionate about education, mentorship, and elevating the next generation of professionals in wine and hospitality.
Follow her on Instagram at @jessicandupuy.
Author, The Wines of Central and Southern Spain, The Wines of Northern Spain, Seville, and Chocolate Unwrapped
Sarah Jane is an award-winning wine writer. She became an MW in 2016, winning the Robert Mondavi Winery Award for the highest mark in the theory papers. She is a former Chairman of the IMW and in 2017 she received the WSET Outstanding Alumni Award, voted for by alumni. She has judged at wine competitions in five continents, and was Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine awards for a decade.
Sarah Jane studied Classics and Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University. She lived in Spain before university and began her lifelong interest in the country. For her work in Spain she received the Spanish civil decoration of the Officer’s Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella la Católica. Today she still travels widely in the country, consulting, giving masterclasses and researching books and articles.
Sarah Jane was Associate Editor of BBC Good Food magazine, and during that time was Chairman and then President of the Guild of Food Writers. She began her career in book publishing, and has now come full circle as a Series Editor (along with James Tidwell) for the Classic Wine Library, and Trustee for the Andre Simon Book Awards. Aside from her wine life, she’s a Board member of the Academy of Chocolate.
Based on New York, Christy Frank is a freelance writer and a leader of the independent wine retail scene. With 25 years’ experience in the wine and spirits industry, she has held positions in all tiers of the US wine trade from large, global drinks firms such as Moët Hennessy USA, to small, boutique distributors to on- and off-trade retail. Her freelance writing focuses on the commercial aspects of selling wine within this convoluted system. A 2024 Fellow for the Wine Writers’ Symposium in Napa Valley, her writing has appeared on Sevenfifty Daily, Wine Review Online, JancisRobinson.com, and her blog, Bending Elbows. She holds a WSET Diploma, is an educator, blind tasting competition coach, provides subject matter expert review for genre fiction writers, and is the founder of Copake Wine Works, a wine shop in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires and Hamlet Hound canned cocktails.
Tim Gaiser is an internationally renowned wine expert and lecturer. He is one of less than 300 individuals worldwide to ever attain the elite Master Sommelier title. He is the former Director of Education and Education chair for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas, and an instructor for the Napa Valley Wine Academy.
Over his 30-plus year career, Tim has taught thousands of students in wines and spirits classes at every level as well as developing wine education programs for restaurants, winery schools and wine distributors. He has experience in all phases of the wine industry: online, wholesale, retail, winery, and restaurants.
Tim has written for a number of publications including Fine Cooking Magazine and the Somm Journal and also writes for numerous wine and spirits clients. He has served as the author and lead judge for the Best Young Sommelier Competition and the Top Somm Competition.
Prior to developing his wine expertise, Tim received an M.A. in Classical Music. He played classical trumpet as a freelance professional and as an extra with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. He currently lives with his family in New Mexico.
Chris Gaither is a San Francisco based Master Sommelier. He is co-founder of Ungrafted Restaurant with his partner, Master Sommelier Rebecca Fineman. He also serves as wine director for Maroon by Chef Kwame Onwuachi at the Sahara Las Vegas. He’s a girl dad and lover of anime, as well as great music.
Sixth-generation Winemaker Johann Henschke (1983) is the eldest of Stephen & Prue’s three children and grew up at the family winery. With a natural curiosity for science, he later decided to continue the family winemaking tradition. In 2005 he completed his winemaking degree in Adelaide, Australia, before turning his focus to viticulture, completing his Masters degree in 2012 in Geisenheim, Germany. He gained extensive experience in his field, working with winemakers such as Leeuwin Estate in Australia, Felton Road in New Zealand, Isole e Olena in Italy and Arietta in the USA.
While studying his Masters, he met his now wife, Angela Penalba de las Heras, who has a Masters degree in Dentistry and comes from a family of long winemaking tradition, Torremilanos, in Ribera del Duero, Spain. In 2013 Angela and Johann based themselves at the family winery, as Johann began working closely with his parents. After starting their own family, Angela and Johann suffered personal tragedy, and are now based in Madrid, Spain. Johann continues his work from afar with Henschke, now in the role of Business Development Manager. He employs his broad experience to guide the family business as it transitions from the fifth to the sixth generation.
Tom is a freelance wine writer, photographer, and educator living in Chicago and specializes in Italian wines, having made 90 trips to wine regions in the country. Tom has written three books on Italian wine, with the most recent being “The Wines of Campania,” published in June, 2026.
Elaine has over twenty years of experience in wine, with roles that have spanned retail, distribution, logistics, marketing, teaching, fine dining, and hospitality. She is based in Portland, Oregon, where she is happy to be just a short drive from the Willamette Valley or Columbia Gorge. When not at work overseeing the F&B division and wine program of The Allison, she may be found teaching WSET courses at Linfield University or studying for the Stage 2 Exam of the Masters of Wine program.
Susan R. Lin is a Master of Wine and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Classical Piano and Musicology. She is Head of Wine for Belmont Wine Exchange, a San Francisco-based boutique fine wine retailer. She also creates multisensory experiences through music and wine. Her research on the interaction of music and wine has been featured in Decanter, Food & Wine, and others. Her passion for championing diversity in wine led her to found the Asian Wine Association of America, where she serves as President. She judges international wine competitions and performs music for audiences worldwide.
Christopher Martin MW is Director of Education at the Wine Scholar Guild and based in London. A Master of Wine since 2024 and formerly WSET’s Head of Educator Training, he judges internationally, including for Decanter and the Japan Wine Challenge, which he has co-chaired since 2021.
CHA McCOY, MBA, is an entrepreneur, educator, and an NAACP-nominated author. As a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, she developed The Communion, a wine dinner series that offers an inviting, accessible approach to gathering and enjoying wine. This experience inspired her to open her first brick-and-mortar, The Communion Wine & Spirits, and her debut book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond. The dinner series was profiled in Food & Wine, and Cha was named one of Wine Enthusiast’s 40 Under 40. Cha has held coveted positions, including Cherry Bombe Magazine’s first beverage director, the head of beverage for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, and a sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Portugal. Passionate about education, she spends her spare time mentoring and teaching at her alma mater, Syracuse University, where she served as an adjunct professor, educating and inspiring new wine drinkers. Catch Cha if you can in Harlem, New York—or on one of her international adventures.
Steven McDonald, MS, is Executive Wine Director for Pappas Bros. Steakhouses in Houston and Dallas, overseeing three Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning restaurants. In 2024, he received the inaugural Texas Michelin Guide Sommelier Award.
https://www.mastersommeliers.org//
Certified Cicerone. Education Director, Court of Master Sommeliers–Americas. James Beard Nominee, Best Sommelier (Philadelphia). Diverse industry experience including bartending, importing, distribution and education. CIA graduate.
Sheri became a MW in 2003. A Duke University graduate, she’s worked in a variety of fields, including marketing research & wine education. She is a Managing Director at Preferabli, the leading B2B2C discovery and recommendation software for wine, spirits and food.
After 15 years of tech startups, Ren (she/her) quit her corporate life to pursue wine. She’s sommed at Somm Time Wine Bar and Pinch Chinese, wine directed at Nin Hao, and worked as a sales associate at Flatiron Wines & Spirits. She’s currently an educator at Flatiron Wines and a candidate for the DipWSET degree.
Her most important work to-date has been with BABE Wine Bar (@babewinebar), a queer wine pop up that centered BIPOC queer women, nonbinary, and trans folks and ran from June 2024 to June 2026. BABE was featured in Bon Appétit, The Cut, Timeout New York, and Autostraddle. She also runs Sweeter The Juice (@sweeterthejuicebk), a roving QTPOC supper club.
Francis Percival writes on food and wine for The World of Fine Wine. With Bronwen Percival, he is the coauthor of Reinventing the Wheel: Milk. Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese. He is also a judge for the World of Fine Wine’s World’s Best Wine List Awards.
Chris Ramelb, MS was born Hawai’i and has spent his entire career there in distribution and restaurants, during which time he was awarded the Johnston medal for the highest score on the Advanced exam. He first passed the MS exam in 2018 and is devoted to teaching while being honest and transparent.
June Rodil MS is the CEO & Partner of award-winning, Houston-based Goodnight Hospitality. She’s passionate about restaurant operations, diversity, crossword puzzles, and dogs. In constant promotion of celebrating life on the daily, she launched her private label sparkling wine, June’s Rosé, in 2017.
Chris Struck has worked in the food & beverage industry for over twenty years and holds undergraduate degrees in Culinary Arts & Food Service Management from Johnson & Wales University, and an Executive MBA in Food Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University. He has gained industry certifications from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, Society of Wine Educators, Court of Master Sommeliers, and Deutsche Wein und Sommelierschule in Koblenz, Germany.
NYC restaurant experience has included Racines NY, Union Square Cafe, and ilili, where he served as Beverage Director. He currently represents a portfolio of iconic spirit and wine producers in the New York Metro market. In addition to working as a sommelier and consultant, Struck has taught beverage and marketing classes as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Hospitality Management Department at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) College of Technology since 2018 and at the Sommelier Society of America.
First South American male to obtain the title of Master of Wine. After three decades of experience of different sectors of the Wine Industry, he founded Vianna Wine Resources, a company that consults for wine businesses across the world. Wine judge at selected wine competitions, speaker and writer.
Debbie Zachareas is the Proprietor and Managing Partner of Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, located in San Francisco’s iconic restored Ferry Building. A highly respected wine judge, lecturer, sommelier, and guest speaker, she is recognized nationally for her influence on American wine culture.
