Bernard Burtschy, PhD in Mathematical Statistics, has spent his entire career as a Professor of Mathematical Statistics (Data Mining) for two of the elite French scientific grandes écoles: the-École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Paris and École Centrale de Paris. He specialises in large data sets and datamining.

Simultaneously, he has been a wine taster and a wine writer. First, for fifteen years for the Revue du Vin de France where in addition to writing many articles for the monthly publication, he was one of the two contributors writing the Guide of the Revue du Vin de France covering Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. Subsequently he joined the restaurant guide selection Gault & Millau for which he relaunched the wine column in the monthly magazine and created the wine selection guide covering all French regions including more than 5000 wines commented and scored. For the last fifteen years, he has been the wine columnist of Le Figaro (daily newspaper) and Le Figaro Magazine (weekly magazine). On behalf of Le Figaro, he also launched in 2011 the wine information website ‘Avis du Vin’, the most visited wine website in France. In the last two years, he writes in the economical French newspaper ‘Les Échos’.

James Button is Decanter’s regional editor for Italy, responsible for all of Decanter’s Italian content in print and online. He travels regularly to the country’s wine regions.
James began his wine career at Majestic Wine in 2006, giving him a strong grounding in the subject before completing the WSET Level 4 Diploma in 2010.
From 2014 to 2016 he managed the fine wine department of a startup wine company in London, before joining Decanter as digital sub-editor.
Outside of wine, James enjoys cooking, skiing, playing guitar and cycling.

41, from Oslo, Norway. Entered the world of wine as a writer around 20 years ago while doing WSET studies. Worked in import of fine wines from classical European regions before becoming the editor of Vinforum magazine, the leading wine publication in Norway. Writing and talking about wine, traveling a lot, meeting growers and winemakers, and reviewing thousands of wines every year. A true italophile since childhood, spending a good chunk of the year in Italy for both work and pleasure.

Cynthia Chaplin has over 20 years of experience in the wine industry. She is an Italian Wine Ambassador certified by the Vinitaly International Academy, a professional sommelier with the Italian Sommelier Foundation and the Worldwide Sommelier Association, a member of Le Donne del Vino and a Professor of Wine and Italian Culture. She is a consultant for Vinitaly International and The Old Vine Conference and host of VOICES covering DEI in the wine industry every Wednesday for Italian Wine Podcast. She is a contributing author and editor of the recently published books Wine Democracy (2022) and Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0 (2023), winner of the OIV 2023 Award. She has her own private client company, Cynthia Chaplin Wine, and designs and presents Masterclasses. at conferences and courses based on Italian wines for embassies, corporate team building, private clients, students and charity events. Cynthia is a WSET Certified Educator and Certified Educator for the Maestro course at Vinitaly International Academy. Cynthia is a wine writer featured in Italy Magazine, Bellissimo, Maze Row Voices for Gallo, winery websites and other publications, both print and online. She is a judge for international wine and sake competitions including Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, LA International Wine Competition, 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls and Feminalise in Paris. He advises restaurants and wine shops by developing comprehensive wine lists and excellent food pairings, as well as advising private clients who wish to curate personal collections of italiania wines.

Holds a DipWSET and teaches the next generation of sommeliers at Vinakademiet and WSET students in Denmark, along her position in the board of the Danish Sommelier Association.
Bonnie is founder of SommThing, doing wine talks, seminars and tastings. Freelance winewriter with monthly articles in the Danish wine magazine DinVinGuide.
Experiences wine judge in various domestic and international wine competitions/challenges for DinVinGuide, Falstaff, Concours Mondial, Vind’Alsace Denmark, German Sekt, Dansk Vinskue etc.
Has more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality business as a restaurant manager and sommelier.