Our growing membership of accredited Wine Judges includes men and women from the Ontario communities of Toronto, Ottawa, London, Kitchener, Hamilton, Niagara, Prince Edward County and New York as well as certified judges in Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. Our accredited WJC judges are in demand across Canada and the U.S., where their skills contribute to the growing knowledge of wine and winemaking. (Highlighted names link to Bios)
Steven Gillespie
EXECUTIVE MEMBER – CHAIR
Jean Farrall
EXECUTIVE MEMBER – Secretary
Jean has been making wine since the ’70’s and drinkable wine since the ’90’s. She is a graduate of the Algonquin College Sommelier program and became a WJC-certified judge in 2010. She has acted as Registrar for the annual AWO judging event for many years and became WJC Secretary in 2023.”
Craig Fleming
EXECUTIVE MEMBER – TREASURER
Craig is a Certified Wine Judge with Wine Judges of Canada and a past winner of “The Wine Tasting Challenge”. Craig shares his passion of wine through the creation and presentation of wine education seminars, including Kosher Wines & he has led several seminars at the “Gourmet Wine & Food Show” in Toronto. Craig has judged amateur and commercial wine competitions in Canada and United States. He has achieved the Advanced Certificate from Wine and Spirit Education Trust, is an amateur winemaker, former “Director of Events for the Ontario Wine Society” and has been a Certified Wine Judge since 2010. Craig took on the WJC Treasurer position in 2020.
Gary Collins
EXECUTIVE MEMBER – COMMUNICATION/ INQUIRIES, WEBSITE
Gary Collins has been an Award-winning Winemaker/Cider Maker since 1998. He was recruited by “Wine Judges of Canada ” in 2002, and is an active Member, Regional Director, Communications Director Web Master and former WJC Chair. In 2015 Gary took his talents to a startup Cider company KW Craft Cider, became their Cidermaker, Product Developer, going from 1000 liters to almost 80,000 liters in just 3 yrs. Gary has judged in the U.S. GLINTCAP international Cider competition, The Canadian Commercial Cider Competition, Fruit wines of Ontario, Ontario Amateur Winemakers Ontario comp. Amateur Winemakers of Canada Annual comp and many Ontario, and Canadian Wine Competitions..
OUR JUDGING TEAM
Stephen Gillespie – Chairman
Jean Farrall – Secretary
Craig Fleming – Treasurer
Gary Collins – Communications, Webmaster
Patti Polfuss – Past Chairperson 2023/24, Training Director, Regional Representative – KW Chapter
George Pikor -Director, Regional Representative – Eastern Ontario Chapter
Jim Casey – Director, Regional Representative – Hamilton/Niagara Chapter, Sommelier
Nick Petruzzella – Director, Sommelier
Ellen Kareckas– Director, Chief Steward
Dominic Lausic – Director
Vadim Chelekhov– Director palatinehillsestatewinery.com
Victoria Grech – Social Media
Nelson Abreu – WSET Dip www.3050imports.com
Francois Belisle – FWS – French Wine Scholar Francois Belisle winescholarguild.com
Mat Vaughan – Hounds of Erie Winery.com
Lorne Weyers – https://www.rosehallrun.com
Dave Gillingham- domaine-darius.com
Terry Rayner – Bonnie Heath Estate .com
Vic Harradine – Sommelier and Publisher www.winecurrent.com
Bruno Meneguzzi – Sommelier
Werner Lichtenberger
Anthony Figliano
Carolyn Zhao
Tim (TC) White –
Chris Bell
Francois Cote
Joe Dale
Peter Ferguson
Dominic Ierullo
David Kroetsch
Sebastien Mailloux
Alan McClelland
Don Panagapka
Steve Quast
Dan Stevenson
John Tummon
Alan Uffelmann
Steve McDonald – Regional Representative – B.C.
Rick Schofield (Honorary)
David Male (Honorary)
Sheila Lauzon -(Retired)
Peter Pigeon (Honorary)
Steve Gunning (Honorary)
Bill Thornton (Honorary)
Steven Elphick (Honorary) – www.stevenelphick.
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