The world of wine has got nine new Masters of Wine including three Decanter World Wine Awards judges and one DWWA regional chair.

According to a decanter.com report, Peter Richards, MW, has become the head of the Chile panel. He has also become a part of one of only three couples to have passed the MW exam. His wife Susie Barrie cleared the exam last year.

Alex Hunt MW, Justin Knock MW and Mel Jones MW are regular judges at the Awards.

Eleven candidates have passed the tough Master of Wine theory and tasting exams and completed 10,000 word dissertations bringing the Institute's total membership to 289 across 23 countries.

Five new MWs are from the UK. They are David Allen MW, private customer sales manager at Coe Vintners, Alex Hunt MW, purchasing director at Berkmann Wine Cellars, Mel Jones MW, a wine writer and webmaster, and Peter Richards who is a wine writer and broadcaster, as well as co-owner of Winchester Wine School.

Justin Knock is Australian, but based in the UK where he is wine buying manager for Treasury Wine Estates (previously known as Fosters).

Overseas, new MWs come from Norway, where Sebastian Bredal MW is managing director of Symposium Wines, and Belgium, where Spanish-born Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW is a civil servant at the European Commission. His dissertation examined “The EU common market organisation for wine: identification and analysis of the driving forces in the policy-making process”.

Other dissertations covered rising must weights in California, US sommelier attitudes to German Riesling, the importance of regionality in selling Australian wine in the UK, and 'Perceptions, Attitudes and Skills of Japanese Sommeliers'.

From the New World, Kate McIntyre MW is marketing manager of Moorooduc Wine Estates, in Australia's Mornington Peninsula, while from the USA Jean Reilly MW is a New York wine writer and buyer.

Chairman Josef Schuller MW said, “The Institute is delighted to welcome these nine new Masters of Wine to its membership. They have demonstrated a unique set of skills in the art, science and business of wine.”