Lynne Sherriff MW and Daniele Cernilli to lead Vinitaly’s 5StarWines 2019 panel

Lynne Sherriff MW and wine critic Daniele Cernilli will lead the cohort of 80 judges for 5StarWines 2019, the international wine selection that will take place in Verona, Italy, from the 3rd to the 5th of April 2019 during Vinitaly.

[Left to right: Stevie Kim, Managing Director of Vinitaly International; Lynne Sherriff MW, Senior General Chairman of 5StarWines 2019; Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Veronafiere]5StarWines is the annual selection of wines organised by Veronafiere and Vinitaly and held in Veronafiere’s exhibition center in the lead up to Vinitaly, the largest Italian wine fair in the world.

At its third edition, this three-day blind tasting will select wines for the new edition of the wine guide 5StarWines – the Book, which will put a spotlight on the best-performing Italian wines, chosen by a panel of highly qualified international experts, sommeliers, masters of wines, master sommeliers and wine journalists.

In 2019 the 5StarWines grand tasting will be chaired by senior general chairman Lynne Sherriff MW. Originally from South Africa, Sherriff became an MW in 1993 and was chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine from 2010 to 2012. She was nominated as one of the 50 most influential people in the world of wine by Wine Intelligence UK, and currently works as an educator and independent wine consultant, specialising in production, blending, and marketing, with a focus on Europe, Africa, and Asia.

For the first time, 5StarWines 2019 will also include an Italian general chairman in the form of wine critic Daniele Cernilli, who was also one of the founders of food and wine media outlet Gambero Rosso and the editor of Gambero Rosso’s Guida dei Vini d’Italia for 24 years.

During his long career, he has tasted, evaluated, and classified roughly 150,000 wines. He also invented the famous “Tre Bicchieri” classification system. Most recently, he created the web magazine DoctorWine.

Robert Joseph, editor-at-large at Meininger’s Wine Business International and founder of the International Wine Challenge, has been confirmed as general chairmen for the 2019 edition, alongside fellow judges Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, Vinitaly International Academy’s Italian Wine Ambassador, and Bernard Burtschy, wine columnist at Le Figaro.

Monty Waldin, biodynamic wine writer and journalist at Decanter, will serve as panel chairman for Wine Without Walls, the selection of 5StarWines dedicated to biodynamic and organic wines.

“Our panel of judges is predominantly international because we want Italian wine producers to sell their wines abroad,” said Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International.

“We want to appeal to an international palate, so this goal only becomes achievable when our wines are tasted by international experts. I am looking forward to working with Lynne Sherriff MW, whose international stand and immense expertise in assessing wines is well-known. In addition, we also felt it was time for 5StarWines to embrace an Italian General Chairman. For this reason, we are grateful to Italian wine critic Daniele Cernilli for accepting this challenge.”

The 5StarWines 2019 online registration is now open for all wineries and features early-bird fees, with a 15% discount.

For more information click here.