Leonid Fadeev is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).
Leonid Fadeev
Leonid Fadeev is a Stage 2 MW student, WSET/IWSC “The Future 50 Awards” winner, Weinakademiker, DipWSET and WorldSom Magister Sommelier.
He began his wine career in March 2013 when he was tasked with running a vine growing and winemaking start-up, Cote Rocheuse, in the Krasnodar region in the south of Russia.
Leonid subsequently began his wine studies, quickly progressing successfully through the WorldSom Magister Sommelier (so far the only one from Russia), the WSET Diploma and then earning the Weinakademiker title. In September 2018, he was accepted into the Master of Wine programme. In 2019 he passed his Stage 1 Assessment exam at the first attempt and progressed to Stage 2 of the MW programme.
Leonid has judged in various prestigious international wine competitions, including the DWWA, Vinitaly’s 5StarWines, Vinagora and the Russian Wines Competition, which he himself founded and organised for the first time in 2018 to showcase the quality of Russian wines.
In November 2019, Leonid was announced as one of the winners of the prestigious, new international WSET/IWSC “Future 50” award, which recognises the next generation of top wine, spirit and sake professionals.
Leonid is the founder of vineandwine.vin website where he shares his wine knowledge and tasting experience.
He is currently Executive Director of Cote Rocheuse and is steadfastly developing the company whilst continuing his wine education, working towards the Master of Wine qualification.
He joined DWWA for the first time as a judge in 2019.
