The new members became Masters of Wine in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The Institute of Masters of Wine ceremony celebrated the new MWs and recognised individual excellence in aspects of the MW exam.
The five new MWs inaugurated at Vintners’ Hall were, from the 2020 vintage, Pasi Ketolainen MW (Finland), from the 2021 vintage, Michael Henley MW (New Zealand) and Sophie Parker-Thomson MW (New Zealand), and from the 2022 vintage, Justin Martindale MW (UK – Scotland) and Jonny Orton MW (UK – England).
Individual awards were given to Justin and Jonny, the 2022 MWs, for exceptional performance in a particular area of the MW exam.
Jonny received the Villa Maria Award for his outstanding knowledge and understanding of viticulture and the Robert Mondavi Winery award for his performance across all the theory papers.
For his outstanding tasting ability, Justin received the Madame Bollinger Medal, and the Quinta do Noval award for the best research paper, the evolving language of minerality in wine tasting: a case study of Decanter tasting notes 1976-2019. Research papers can be downloaded from the IMW website HERE.
As well as celebrating the new Masters of Wine, the ceremony honoured members who had reached their 50th and 60th year as MWs. Robin Crameri MW, Julian Falk MW and James John MW passed the exam in 1972, and Ian Bamford MW, John Brownsdon MW and David Peppercorn in 1962.
There are currently 415 Masters of Wine based in 30 different countries.