The judges

Jane Anson

Jane Anson is Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, a weekly column for DecanterChina.com, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First growth Wines. She is also an accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux Ecole du Vin.

Sebastian Payne MW

Sebastian Payne MW joined the wine trade in 1970 at Fred May, a shipper specialising in the wines of France, Germany and Hungary. Three years later he joined The Wine Society as promotions manager, and in 1977 he passed his MW exams. Appointed as chief buyer in 1985, Payne has travelled to all of the world’s major wine regions, and is a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole in France.

Steven Spurrier

Decanter’s consultant editor Steven Spurrier joined the wine trade in London in 1964 and later moved to Paris where he bought a wine shop in 1971, before opening L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school, in 1973. Spurrier went on to stage the historic Judgement of Paris blind tasting in 1976, which pitted a selection of wines from California against classics from France.