Judges

Panel Chairs

Joshua Castle

Head Buyer

Noble Rot

Josh is the head buyer for London based wine importer Keeling Andrew, and also the fine wine buyer for Noble Rot restaurants. Prior to that he worked at the Oxford Wine Company in retail, and before that in hospitality in Melbourne. He has done various stages in wineries around the world including South Africa, Spain, France and the UK. He is a stage 2 MW student.

Senior Judges

Julien Sahut

Head Sommelier

Sexy Fish

Julien is currently the head sommelier at Sexy Fish in London. He has worked with renowned establishments and chefs, including Susur Lee in Toronto, Hibiscus and China Tang at the Dorchester. Julien studied hospitality management in France for five years, before venturing to Switzerland, Canada, and now London. Julien also just launched Wine Picker, a wine application for smartphones. Wine Picker is defined by two main goals: to increase users' wine knowledge, particularly across the younger generations, and to help prevent restaurants from failing by improving their overall wine sales.

How is SWA judged?

To find out more about how the Sommelier Wine Awards is judged and who makes up our judging panels, follow the links below.

How the judging works
SWA 2018 Judges directory
SWA 2017 Judges directory
SWA 2016 judges directory
SWA 2015 judges directory