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Institute of Masters of Wine honours MWs celebrating 50th& 60th years
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Thursday, 01 December, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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London
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The Institute of Masters of Wine honoured members who have been Masters of Wine (MWs) for 50 and 60 years at its annual award ceremony in London.
David Burns and Derek Stuart Todd, who passed the MW examination in 1956, celebrated their diamond anniversary, while Richard Bowes, Ronnie Hicks and Robin Walters, who became members of the institute in 1966, celebrated their golden anniversary.
Jane Masters MW, chairman of the institute said, “The first Master of Wine exams took place in 1953. It is a pleasure to be celebrating with some of those early Masters of Wine. The wine trade and the institute have benefited hugely from their decades of continued commitment.”
Burns joined the wine trade after serving in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in Palestine. His career began as a trainee bottling claret in the cellars of J L P Lebègue, prestigious shippers of Bordeaux and Burgundy. He became an MW in 1956 and joined Geo Idle Chapman, with the brief to develop its wine business. He was chairman of the institute in 1963.
He realised his love was in selling wine, so he set up David Burns Vintners in 1971 and purchased a small group of shops and bars in the New Forest. He realised he needed to meet the threat of the supermarkets by developing a wholesale trade with hotels and restaurants. He was amongst the first to lead promotion through wine tastings and organised a series of winemakers’ events, which enhanced the success of the company.
Burns’working career ended in 1993, when he sold his company to Grants of St James.
Todd left the Seaforth Highlanders in 1947 at the age of 21, and immediately started work with Bostock & Kimpton Wholesale Wine Merchants, specialising in sales to both Army and Air Force Officers’ Messes.
His company was taken over three times in four years (by Hatch Mansfield, Grants of St James and Allied Breweries), and it eventually landed up with Grants of St James, where he become chairman.
Todd took the Masters of Wine exam in 1954, eventually passed in 1956 and served as chairman in 1964.
During his retirement, which started over 30 years ago, he has been on the board of many companies, including Allied Domecq, Harveys of Bristol, Victoria Wine Company and Chateau Latour in France.
Bowes was born in Oporto in 1932, to a father who spent his whole career working in the port trade. After Rugby School and National Service in Cyprus and Egypt, Richard went up to Oxford, where he competed in the annual tasting match against Cambridge.
In 1955, he joined W&A Gilbey Ltd (known as wine merchants to the people), where he was principally engaged in quality control. This - clearly - was a great way to pass the MW exam, which he did in 1966.
Gilbeys merged into International Distillers & Vintners, and then Grand Metropolitan, and more recently Diageo. At one point, there were 14 MWs in the company. Bowes was chairman of the institute in 1986, and until his retirement in 1995, he managed the IDV companies in Europe.
Hicks discovered wine while drinking Spatleses during his National Service, serving in the British Army of the Rhine. As soon as he returned home, he joined John Harvey & Sons. His timing was fortuitous because the late George McWatters had just started a renowned training policy for would-be MWs and it obviously worked, as he passed the MW exams at his first attempt, in 1966.
Within a couple of years he joined another Master of Wine, Robin Don, and they built up a personal service and cellar planning business over the following three decades. They started with En Primeur offers from the 1966 Bordeaux vintage and then widened their scope to include many other areas in Europe and the New World.
Hicks is now semi-retired, though he is spending his time running down the wine storage business that he accumulated through his and Don’s trading years.
Walters joined Charles Kinloch & Co in 1960, and become an MW six years later. He became director, Courage Western, in 1968 and director (and then managing director), Saccone & Speed, in 1970.
From there he became director, and then MW, Matthew Clark & Sons, in 1985. That led, in turn, to the post of chairman, John E Fells & Sons, in 1991, a role he held until retirement in 2007.
Eighteen new MWs were inducted to the institute at the annual award ceremony, which recognised individual excellence in all aspects of the MW examination.
McCamic awarded Bollinger Medal
The Madame Bollinger Foundation, a principal supporter of the Institute of Masters of Wine, awarded the Bollinger Medal for excellence in tasting and outstanding achievement in the institute’s practical examinations to Mary Margaret McCamic MW.
Presented by Andrew Hawes, secretary, The Madame Bollinger Foundation, she received the prize at the institute’s annual award ceremony.
The Bollinger Medal has been awarded 28 times since its inauguration in 1988. The winners of the Bollinger Medal comprise 15 men and 13 women of nine different nationalities. They represent countries spread as far as Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Austria and the United Kingdom.
Etienne Bizot, chairman, The Madame Bollinger Foundation, said, “In the pursuit of excellence in wine education, the Institute of Masters of Wine is, without question, the global reference, the leading light, in its field.”
“It gives me great pleasure to see the truly international nature of today’s Masters of Wine, and to award the Bollinger Medal to McCamic, a superlative taster, in honour of Madame Bollinger,” he added.
McCamic lives in Napa, where she is currently sales manager, Screaming Eagle (one of the region’s most prestigious wineries). She is also a Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET)-certified educator and taught at the Napa Valley Wine Academy. She cut her teeth in the wine industry working in the wine department at Keith McNally’s flagship New York restaurant, Balthazar.
She sat and passed, at the first attempt, both the theory and practical parts of her MW exams in 2015. Her research paper, the final part of the MW study programme, was titled An investigation into the exceptions for wine in the Volstead Act: What impact did these exceptions have on grape growing and wine production in Napa Valley during the US Prohibition?
McCamic said, “It is such an honour to receive the Bollinger Medal. It is an achievement that I could not have accomplished without the help of so many others, including my study companions and the countless Masters of Wine who generously offered their time and knowledge throughout my MW journey.”
For winning the medal, she will receive a stock of the full range of Bollinger Champagnes, and a private tour and tasting at Champagne Bollinger.
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