Sommelier

Jancis Robinson

Discipline: Sommelier

i. Biography

The working discipline around JancisRobinson.com is wine criticism built as reference work: tasting, editing, publishing, and public education held to the same standard of usefulness. As Editor in Chief and Main Contributor, Jancis Robinson brings together the strands of a career in which wine has been handled through disciplined criticism, landmark reference publishing, and clear instruction. A British Master of Wine since 1984, born in northern Cumbria, she has worked in the language of wine as a practical tool: precise enough for professionals, clear enough for readers, and steady enough for a field shaped by vintage, place, and changing vocabulary. Wine writing, in this register, is not mystification. The work treats wine as pleasure, but also as farming, place, technique, memory, and vocabulary. Across print, online publishing, consultancy, courses, and film, Robinson’s contribution has been editorial clarity: a way of making complex material legible without flattening it.

Coming Up

Communication came before formal wine authority. Early work as a marketing employee at Thomson Holidays gave Jancis Robinson experience with audience, appetite, and the practical business of describing desire. Wine journalism followed when she worked as assistant editor at Wine & Spirit from 1975, entering a trade in which sensory discipline and sentence discipline have to develop together. The authority that followed was built through tasting, editing, comparison, and calibrated judgement rather than performance. The Master of Wine credential marked the work as a professional language as well as an intellectual discipline. Robinson became Master of Wine since 1984, placing her among those tested on wine at a high level of breadth and precision. Reference publishing then became central through her editorship at The Oxford Companion to Wine from 1988, a role requiring architecture rather than opinion alone: regions, grapes, methods, histories, and terms arranged so that the subject can be used by others. Selection work placed the same judgement under different pressures. As wine consultant at British Airways from 1995–2010, Robinson worked with bottles that had to function within travel, hospitality, and scale. As wine-cellar adviser at Royal Household of Queen Elizabeth II, the task signalled another form of professional trust: discreet selection, exacting standards, and dependable judgement. Wine education and reference then moved across formats. Robinson became co-author at The World Atlas of Wine, a work tied to the mapping of wine’s geography, and co-author at Wine Grapes from 2012–2012, with attention on the varieties that underpin wine identity. Digital teaching followed as online wine-course creator at Udemy from 2015–2015, then documentary participation at SOMM 3 from 2018–2018, and online wine-course creator at BBC Maestro from 2022–2022. The mediums changed; the craft remained explanation, classification, and usable judgement. Current wine criticism requires both cadence and depth. As weekly columnist of Financial Times and writer and editorial-team lead of JancisRobinson.com, Jancis Robinson works in the regular rhythm of commentary while also contributing to a broader editorial archive. The continuity is the practice: taste, assess, edit, publish, and make the reasoning available.

The Practice Today

The main workshop is JancisRobinson.com, which dates to 2000, where Robinson is Editor in Chief and Main Contributor.

Career - Master of Wine (1984–present) - Weekly columnist — Financial Times - Writer and editorial-team lead — JancisRobinson.com - Marketing employee — Thomson Holidays - Assistant editor — Wine & Spirit (from 1975) - Editor — The Oxford Companion to Wine (from 1988) - Wine consultant — British Airways (1995–2010) - Wine-cellar adviser — Royal Household of Queen Elizabeth II - Co-author — The World Atlas of Wine - Co-author — Wine Grapes (2012–2012) - Online wine-course creator — Udemy (2015–2015)