Giles MacDonogh, Regional Chair for Austria and Germany
Giles MacDonogh was born in London in 1955, went to school in his home town and for a brief time in Suffolk. He continued his education at Oxford and the University of Paris, where he did research into the historical origins of the wine trade. It was during the years he lived in France that he began writing about wine. He returned to London in 1985 and has lived by his pen ever since. He was for many years a contributer to the Financial Times and has also written for The Guardian, the Times and the Evening Standard. He has been a regular columnist for Decanter and contributed to specialised wine magazines all over the world. He has also appeared on the television and broadcasted on wine in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Australia, Canada, Bulgaria and the United States. His first book, A Palate in Revolution, was published in 1987. He is the author of 14 books in all, four of which are about wine. His first love was for the wines of the Rhône Valley, but since then his gaze has wandered increasing to the far side of the Rhine, and the marvellous purity of the Riesling grape as it is expressed in the wines of the Rhine and Mosel Valleys. In 1989, he was asked to contribute to a book on the new-wave wines of Austria, which was the beginning of a close relationship that has endured to this day. MacDonogh has written two books on Austrian wine and more articles about it than he can remember.
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