IMW elects first ever American chairman

Jean-Michel Valette MW has become the first ever American chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine following his appointment at the organisation’s AGM yesterday.

Jean Michel Valette MW

His first duty as chairman was to speak at the IMW and Istituto Grandi Marchi dinner at the Italian Embassy in London on Wednesday night, attended by representatives from many of Italy’s leading wineries such as Piero Antinori and Gaia Gaja.

Announcing that these were his first official words as chairman of the IMW, Valette joked, “You don’t remember many things, but you always remember the first time.”

Valette, who replaces Lynne Sheriff MW as chairman, was born in 1960 in Boulder, Colorado to a French father and a German mother, and grew up in France, Germany, and the US.

He is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard Universities, as well as being a former managing director and chairman of Robert Mondavi Winery.

He became a Master of Wine in 1992, and is currently chairman of Vinfolio.

Commenting on his new position at the IMW, he said, “It feels very special to be the first American chairman in the Institute’s history.”

The Institute also held elections for its Council, at which two Masters of Wine were newly elected to serve on the governing body of the Institute.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, who is Spanish, qualified as an Agronomical Engineer at Universidad Politécnica Madrid and has been a Master of Wine since 2010.

He speaks four languages, and is principal administrator at the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission in Brussels.

Joel Butler MW, who is originally from Denver, Colorado, is a Stanford graduate who was one of the first two Americans to become a Master of Wine, in 1990.

He has been working in the wine trade for almost 40 years, and is a noted judge at international wine competitions as well as being an author and journalist. His latest book, “Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from Genesis to the Modern Age” will be released in mid-November.

The number of Masters of Wine worldwide now stands at 300, following the announcement earlier in September of three candidates who were successful in submitting their dissertations.

A record number of candidates took the Institute’s exams in summer 2012, and the number of students in the global study programme now exceeds the number of Masters of Wine for the first time.