Rod Smith MW

Rod is currently Chair of the Institute of Masters of Wine. He became a Master of Wine in 2006.

Originally from England, Rod moved to the south of France to work for Vins Sans Frontières – the leading wine supplier to the superyacht industry. During these years he curated collections of fine and rare wines for many of Europe’s most prominent families.

Today, Rod still lives in the south of France but now runs his own company, Riviera Wine Academy. He rates and reviews the wines of Bordeaux for Tim Atkin and is a frequent visitor to the Bordeaux region. He is also an expert on the wines of the Rhone valley. Rod is a regular judge at a large number of wine competitions around the world including London (Panel Chair, Decanter World Wine Awards, IWC), Shanghai (SIWC, Wine100), Guangzhou (Golden Bottle Awards), Dallas (TexSom), Moscow (Russian Wine Fair), and Sydney (Sydney Royal Wine Show).

Suffice to say that Rod has visited many of the leading producers in France and elsewhere in the world, and has his finger on the pulse of the industry.