The Institute of Masters of Wine has announced a record number of new Masters of Wine from 24 countries.
The Institute of Masters of Wine announced yesterday that a record number of 19 candidates have passed the Institute’s examinations and earned the title Master of Wine (MW).
The 19 new masters join the five MWs announced in February this year, to make a total of 340 MWs across 24 countries. The new MWs, 11 women and 8 men, hail from 10 countries and include a new MW from Japan, Kenichi Ohashi – who has followed in the footsteps of Ned Goodwin MW.
Location of current MWs. The most are located in the UK with 209. The second, is the USA at 38 and third, Australia at 23.
The record intake may help the Institute to rebuff critics who have claimed its marking was too stringent.
There are currently over 320 students from 37 countries enrolled onto the course, almost the same as the total number of MWs.
John Hoskins MW, chief examiner of the Institute of the Masters of Wine said: ‘Not only do we have a record number of new MWs, but we can report that the general standard of the research papers was considerably higher than equivalent papers submitted in previous years.’
There are three stages to the Master of Wine examination: theory exams on viticulture, vinification and pre-bottling procedures, as well as the business of wine and contemporary issues. These are followed by practical tasting exams where wines must be assessed for variety, origin, winemaking, quality and style.
The final section is a research paper on a topic of the candidate’s choice. Hoskins noted that the last part of the exam, ‘had in the past proved to be the most frustrating’ for students. But ‘we now have a strong pool of MWs with the experience to give students the guidance they need to tackle this last part of the exam,’ he said.
The new Masters of Wine:
Marcus Ansems MW (Canada)
Mollie Battenhouse MW (United States)
Konstantin Baum MW (Germany)
Victoria Burt MW (UK)
Wendy Cameron MW (Australia)
Lynne Coyle MW (Ireland)
Dawn Davies MW (UK)
Romana Echensperger MW (Germany)
Rebecca Gibb MW (New Zealand)
Richard Hemming MW (UK)
Yiannis Karakasis MW (Greece)
Sarah Knowles MW (UK)
Eugene Mlynczyk MW (Canada)
Kenichi Ohashi MW (Japan)
Andrea Pritzker MW (Australia)
Janek Schumann MW (Germany)
Emma Symington MW (UK)
Ying Tan MW (Singapore)
Taina Vilkuna MW (Finland)
