Originally from the Chicago area, I have spent most of my adult life living in France, the UK and now Lugano, Switzerland. For over 20 years, I have been fortunate to call the wine world my work home.
After having completed additional professional tasting courses at University of California – Santa Barbara, University of California – Davis and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, I embarked on the Master of Wine. After many years of hard work and study, I finished all elements of the program in 2014, following the successful completion of my dissertation of original research, “An Investigation of Whole Cluster Fermentation in Pinot Noir in the Côte d’Or.”
Today, I am one of only 5 Masters of Wine residing in Switzerland amongst the 517 people who have become Masters of Wine since its inception in 1953.
However, my professional life has not been only wine focused. While working at the Université de Nice as an English lecturer in the late 1990s, I changed career paths after participating in several tasting courses at Burgundy’s Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB). The inspirational experience led to a 4-month full-time professional course at the renowned Université du Vin de Suze-la-Rousse in France’s Rhône Valley, earning the diploma, “Sommelier Conseil”.
The knowledge and experience I accrued launched me into a position at Christie’s auction house in Beverly Hills, California as a wine specialist. Here, I spent four years procuring, negotiating, estimating, authenticating, educating on collection strategies and tasting from some of the most renowned wine collections.
A move to London, England led to roles as marketing manager for Fine & Rare Wines, one of the country’s top wine dealers as well as wine buyer for Goedhuis & Co. (now Goedhuis Waddesdon Ltd), an award-winning fine wine merchant, renowned for its Burgundy and Bordeaux list, whose offices reside in both the UK and Hong Kong.
Over the past 15 years, I have sourced wines and exclusive labels from producers across all categories, focusing on classic wine regions of Europe, particularly France and Italy, as well as a number of New World countries. All the while, I was developing a vast network of contacts along the way. In addition, I have composed considerable amounts of marketing material, including en primeur wine brochures, email offers, website content and innumerable tasting notes.
Outside of commercial projects, speaking and inspiring others about wine has been one of my most enjoyed activities. So over the years, I have organized and hosted wine tastings, dinners, tasting trips to wine regions, educational wine courses, and count the WSET Educator certification amongst my credentials.
Since 2021, I have been the lead educator on the terroir of Bourgogne for the Wine Scholar Guild for their Bourgogne Masters Program, and have also been leading their educational wine tours to Bourgogne. In addition since 2023, I have been working with the BIVB educating their educators about Bourgogne wines. More recently, I partnered with Fine Vintage Ltd. to lead wine tours throughout Italy, primarily to Piedmont, Tuscany and Veneto.
When time allows, I participate as a wine judge in such competitions as Decanter World Wine Awards (London, UK), Bacchus International Wine Competition (Madrid, Spain), The Balkans International Wine Competition (Sofia, Bulgaria), Mondial des Pinots (Sierre, Switzerland) and Vinitaly’s 5 Star Wines (Verona, Italy).
Furthermore, I write occasionally about the wines of Italy, Switzerland and Bourgogne for various international publications such as Decanter Magazine but also for local publications such as the Sunday edition of the Corriere del Ticino.
I am always looking for new wine adventures and opportunities to inspire others, so please reach out if you are interested in collaborating.
Cheers!
-Robin Kick MW