AWSA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Wine of Park Hyatt Shanghai
Adrian is Director of Wine of Park Hyatt Shanghai. He is Champion of China National Sommelier Competition 2016, Advance Sommelier of the Court of Master Sommeliers & owns the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Diploma.
Master Sommelier Brian Cronin began his wine career in Raleigh, North Carolina. After studying biology in college, Brian realized that he wanted to make wine.
However, it was his exposure in restaurants to wines from all over the world and his growing passion for wine that made him want to learn everything that he possibly could. Brian then went to work as sommelier in some of the top restaurants in the country.
In Chicago he worked for Charlie Trotter as the assistant sommelier, under Master Sommelier Joe Spellman, and then worked his way up to head Sommelier. Since then, he has worked as an Educator for Southern Wine & Spirits in Hawaii, as well as the Sommelier at Gary Danko Restaurant and the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, in San Francisco.
Currently, Brian spends most of his time doing consulting and education for the public, as well as the hospitality industry. While realizing that he could never learn everything about wine, Brian spends much of his free time continually educating himself, as well as teaching and examining for the Master Sommelier Program.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Judging Panel
Brian has worked in all areas of the Hospitality Industry and held numerous additional positions including 14 years as Cellar Master and Event Consultant for The Lord and Lady Clifford of Chudleigh, and 9 years as Catering Manager for The Ministry of Defence Summer Army camps.
His consultancy clients have included The Grosvenor House, The Savoy, The Ritz Hotel, Millennium Copthorne Hotels, Hakkasan Restaurant Group in London, Corinthia Hotels Malta, the Constellation group in the US, plus Celebrity, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines, all based in the US, and Shangri-la Hotels, China. He is an International Judge for Wine, Restaurant Service, National and International Sommelier Competitions, and The Best Wine List of Australia final (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). He has won numerous awards at Gastronomic Festivals including Gold medals in culinary and cocktail competitions. He is, on a voluntary basis, a judge for National and International Sommelier competitions. This includes, over a number of years, the setting and chairing of the panels for The Best Sommelier of China, and the World finals of The Cha?ne des R?tisseurs, Jeunes Sommeliers Competition.
Sometime Chief examiner for the C&GLI and the HCIMA Food and Beverage programmes, he was a Government Inspector for Colleges and Universities until his retirement as Head of the Hospitality Management Degree programmes, University of Plymouth, UK.
In 1972 he passed the prestigious Master Sommelier Diploma and proposed the formation of the Court of Master Sommeliers, established in 1977. This has developed into a world-wide examining body providing education, training and certification in Beverage Service, Wine knowledge, and wine tasting. Brian has been Chief examiner since1990 and Chief executive since 1998. The American part of the organisation has now established its own Chapter, Brian is now CEO of the Court of Master Sommeliers Europe.
Job Titles:
- Master Sommelier / New Zealand
Cameron Douglas is New Zealand's first and only Master Sommelier with the International Court of Master Sommeliers.
He is a well known wine writer and judge of wine and sommelier competitions both in NZ and Internationally.
As a professional Sommelier, Cameron spends much of his time involved in education - academically in his position as Senior Lecturer Above the Bar in charge of the Wine and Beverage Programme at AUT University in Auckland, and ‘out in the field', consulting for the Hospitality Industry, and the interested public.
He consults to a variety of establishments, with his extensive study of wine and early experiences on the floors and in the kitchens of famous restaurants adding weight to his impressive credentials.
In New Zealand he curates the wine lists and programmes of The Langham Hotel, Meredith's Restaurant, Mekong Baby, Coco Restaurant & Wine Bar, and in New York he created and maintains the winelist for Michelin Starred Restaurant The Musket Room (a showcase for New Zealand Food and Wine)
Job Titles:
- Master Sommelier / England
Gearoid Devaney's first sommelier role was at the Capital Hotel, Knightsbridge in 1997 where he was elevated to the head sommelier position after just one year at the age of 23.
He was instrumental in the restaurant gaining its second Michelin star in 2001 and he then moved to Bordeaux for a six-month stage at Chateau Rahoul to learn about viticulture and vinification. His next move was to Paris where he was a sommelier at Pierre Gagnaire's three Michelin star restaurant before he returned to London to assist in the opening of Tom Aikens Michelin starred restaurant in Chelsea.
At Tom Aikens he was able to create a wine list from scratch, which met with great critical acclaim.
Gearoid's wine list won awards from the AA and the Wine Spectator and he was also named Sommelier of the Year by Tatler in 2004. Other accolades followed and include Torres Quiz Master 2005, Dom Perignon Award of Excellence 2006, Restaurant Magazine Sommelier of the Year 2007, UK Sommelier of the Year 2008. In 2009 he became one of only 200 people in the world to have ever passed the Master Sommelier exams. Gearoid regularly features on Decanter tasting panels and has been a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards since 2005. He has featured in GQ magazine and he also featured in Michel Roux's Service programme. Gearoid is now at Flint Wines, importing some of the best wines in the world to the UK and recent winners of IWC Burgundy Merchant of the Year.
Kathy Morgan is a Washington D.C. based Master Sommelier, wine educator and consultant.
In 2010, she passed the rigorous Master Sommelier examination, becoming the 106th person in North America to earn that distinction.
She has 15 years of experience as an acclaimed sommelier and wine director, having gained a diverse scope of experience in restaurants such as Michel Richard's Citronelle, Bryan Voltaggio's RANGE and Aggio, and Ristorante Tosca.
Kathy is also an experienced judge. She has evaluated wines in the Dallas Morning News competition annually since 2013, the Virginia Governor's Cup competition since 2012, and the Wines of Turkey event in 2012.
Master Arnaud was born in Lons le Saunier in the area of Jura. Master Arnaud had been working for Gordon Ramsay more than 5 years as head sommelier, managing a team of 14 people and finally passed in 2015 the renowned Master Sommelier Diploma. Master Arnaud also spend as much time as possible in vineyards in order to understand the geography, grapes and everything as much as history related to each area.
Job Titles:
- Master Sommelier / England
Ronan was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and has been involved in the wine business for nearly 20 years.
His previous experience includes Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, Pied à Terre and wine merchant OW Loeb.
He worked for the Gordon Ramsay group as Executive Head Sommelier for 8 years, mainly in the 3 Michelin star Royal Hospital Road plus created the wine lists and trained wine service teams for Claridge's, the Connaught, the Savoy, Boxwood Café, Maze and several overseas operations.
He was also at the Greenhouse restaurant (which has the UK's largest wines list of 3,400 bins) and the Director of Wines and Spirits for the Hotel du Vin group (14 hotels). Also as the Head of Wines for the prestigious Dorchester Collection UK that consists of the Dorchester, Coworth Park and 45 Park Lane (with the 3 Michelin starred Alain Ducasse restaurant and Wolfgang Pucks restaurant - Cut).
Currently he runs his own consultancy and wine training company - The RS Wine Academy. Specialising in managing private portfolios, wine training to the trade and public and wine events.
He is also a Master Sommelier, previous winner of the UK Sommelier of the Year competition and competed twice representing the UK in the European Sommelier Competition.
When not drinking wine Ronan runs marathons and can be found deep diving shipwrecks from the south coast of England
Terence Wong is judge of 2017, 2018
He is an Advanced Sommelier of the Court of Master Sommeliers, currently working in Arbor Hong Kong.
Job Titles:
- Doctor De Enologia International Del Centro De La Education San Gabtiel / Wine Expert Advisor of Shenzhen Entry - Exit Inspection & Quarantine
Job Titles:
- Doctor De Enologia International Del Centro De La Education San Gabtiel / Wine Expert Advisor of Shenzhen Entry - Exit Inspection & Quarantine
Yohann Jousselin started his wine journey with Shangri-La when he joined Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong in 2014 as a hotel sommelier in charge of the hotel's cellar collection of over 1,500 references and 12,000 bottles of wines. He was later promoted to area sommelier and took up the responsibility of overseeing the wine collection at Kowloon Shangri-La, Hong Kong. In September 2016, Yohann took up the role of director of wines in charge of three Hong Kong properties and also overseeing Southeast Asian properties in such cities as Singapore, Manila and Jakarta. With this new role, he is now in charge of enhancing each hotel's wine list with fine vintages from around the world and ensuring the hotel staff receives comprehensive training on wine knowledge.
Yohann's career in wine spans over 15 years. Not only has he worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in the world including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, The Vineyards in Stockcross and Robuchon au D?me in Macau, but he has also attained under the mentorship of master sommelier Dimitri Mesnard, the ultimate professional credential in wine service - the title of Master Sommelier in 2009. Apart from that, he has received a number of prestigious accolades, including "Young International Sommelier of the Year 2009", "U.K. Sommelier of the Year 2011" and, most recently, "China's Outstanding Sommelier for Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan" at China's Wine List of the Year Awards 2015.
Under his guiding vision, Restaurant Petrus at Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong has received World of Fine Wine magazine's "Best Asia Wine List of the Year 2016" award for three consecutive years and Wine Spectator's "Best of Award of Excellence". Additionally, Yohann has organised a series of highly successful wine dinners at Restaurant Petrus, making it the ultimate place in town for premium wines and iconic wine dinners.