Alistair Cooper MW (right) is an independent British wine writer, judge, consultant and educator with over 18 years of experience in the industry.
Having studied modern languages, particularly Spanish, at Newcastle University, Alistair moved to Chile and Argentina in 2002 where he lived for four years, working for wineries in export management. Moving back to the UK in 2006, he ventured into all aspects of trading from managing, buying and consulting for wine bars and restaurants to importing and wholesaling wines.
Having passed the WSET Diploma in 2011 as the top student, he was awarded the Derouet Jameson Scholarship. He went on to study for the Master of Wine and in 2017 passed the final part of the examination with a research paper focused on the southern Chilean region of Itata.
Alistair now works as a freelance wine consultant and writer. He has appeared on both television and radio in the UK, Chile and US. He is a regular judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards and is a panel chair for the International Wine & Spirit Competiton, as well as President of South America’s most prestigious wine competition, the Cata d’Or Wine Awards. Alistair is in South America several times a year, judging, educating and consulting.
He also works as the consultant wine buyer for the Australian company United Cellars, Australia’s largest independent wine merchant, for whom he sniffs out wines of real interest, just as we hope he will for visitors to JancisRobinson.com.
His first article for us, Argentina's continuing ascent, is published today.
Tom Parker MW (seen above at last year's Master of Wine awards ceremony) started working in the wine industry while reading modern languages at Oxford. Following a stint at Farr Vintners during the 2009 Bordeaux en primeur campaign, he joined the Oxford University Blind Tasting Society and subsequently competed in the Oxbridge blind tasting match. He joined Farr Vintners permanently in 2011.
He is now a buyer there – though he has taken time out to work in the vineyard and winery experiencing harvests in Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Napa Valley during this time. Tom enrolled in the Master of Wine study programme in 2015 after winning the Derouet Jameson award for high achievement in his WSET Diploma (just as Alistair did). In 2018 Tom became the youngest MW in the world (he turned 30 last March) after passing all three stages of the qualification at the first attempt. In 2019 he was named the Young Achiever of the Year by The Drinks Business.
While at Farr, much of his work is focused on Bordeaux, but he has much broader tastes in wine and is keen to report on a wide range of wine styles and provenances. We will take care to ensure that his reports remain truly independent of any commercial interest or activity.
Tom's first tasting notes written on our behalf were published as part of The Place de Bordeaux spreads its wings last week.
