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)

Patti Polfuss

EXECUTIVE MEMBER – CHAIR

Patti became a Certified Wine Judge of Canada in 2009, judging wines and ciders at local, provincial, national and international levels. She became Vice Chair of the Wine Judges of Canada in 2019 and the Training Director/Program Designer for the WJC Certification Course in 2020. Patti’s Master’s Degree work in Curriculum Design at Brock University allowed her to adapt curricula for training judges across the province. Patti is Past President of Amateur Winemaker’s of Ontario, and is a Grand Master Cider Maker and Ultimate Master Vintner. For 26 years she owned and operated a Ferment on Premise, Simply Fine Wine, where she offered training in making Meads, Ciders and How to Make Wine

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

 Patti Polfuss – Chair, Training Director, Regional Representative – KW Chapter

Craig Fleming – Treasurer

Jean Farrall – Secretary 

Gary Collins – Communications, Webmaster

George Pikor -Director, Regional Representative – Eastern Ontario Chapter

Jim Casey – Director,  Regional Representative  – Hamilton/Niagara Chapter, Sommelier

Nick Petruzzella – Director, Sommelier

Bob Stalder – Director, Chief Steward

Tim (TC) White – Past chair, Regional Representative – GTA Chapter

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

David Sykes

Stephen Gillespie

Debbie Templeton –  Sommelier

Werner Lichtenberger

John Peters 

Chris Bell

Francois Cote

Joe Dale

Jeff Dawkins

Dominic Lausic

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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