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Meet Greece's Master of Wine

Konstantinos Lazarakis
Konstantinos Lazarakis M.W. (born May 24th, 1970) is a wine educator, wine journalist, author and wine consultant based in Piraeus, Greece. He is the first and, so far, the only Greek to achieve the prestigious Master of Wine professional qualification, a highly regarded title that less than 300 people hold around the world. Lazarakis is also the holder of three distinctions related to the Master of Wine exam or membership to the Institute of Masters of Wine: the Villa Maria Award for an outstanding paper on viticulture, the Madame Bollinger Medal for excellence in the wine tasting exam and the Quinta do Noval Award for being the MW communicator for the year 2006.

Lazarakis studied Mechanical Engineering in the National and Technical University of Athens and Jazz Guitar in the Aeolian School of Music. He entered the wine industry in 1994, working as a sommelier for Bajazzo in Athens, the first restaurant in Greece to be awarded a star from the Michelin Guide. He relocated in London, UK in 1995, where he worked for the Oddbins retail chain and for Sir Terrence Conran Restaurants.

After seven years of studying, Lazarakis finally passed all parts of the Master of Wine exam in 2002.

Currently, he owns Wine and Spirit Professional Consultants Ltd, an educational organisation in Athens that runs the trade qualifications of the London based Wine & Spirit Education Trust. He writes for Status, a life style magazine from Liberis Publications SA, and for Ampelotopi, Greece's only wine trade newspaper, published by Vinetum Ltd. Lazarakis' articles appear regularly in the international wine press and in publications like UK's Decanter Magazine and Wine and Spirit Magazine. He works as a Wine Buyer and Imports Manager for Aiolos Ltd in Athens, while he widely consults for wineries, regional associations, wine distributors as well as the Hellenic Export Organisation.

Lazarakis is the author of The Wines of Greece, Mitchell Beazley Publishing, IBAN 1840008975, one of the four books short listed for the Andre Simon Memorial Award, in 2005.

He is married to Antonia Kyriazis, with whom he has a son, Anastassios.

Meet Canada's Matster Sommelier

John Szabo
John is Canada's first and currently only Master Sommelier, earning the title along with the Chivas Regal Trophy in 2004. Based in Toronto, he is committed to sharing his knowledge through teaching, partnering with organizations such as the Wine Council of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, George Brown and Niagara College and the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association.  

John has participated in and organized several Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory courses in Ontario and Alberta. He consults for several Toronto-based restaurant groups and offers courses, seminars and tastings for professionals as well as wine enthusiasts through his own company, The Centre for Vine Affairs. John is a member of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada, and a regular columnist and contributor to Vines Magazine, Ontario’s City Bites Magazine and The Canadian Restaurant News. He writes freelance for many other publications. To round out his experience and get closer to the land, he also owns a small vineyard in Eger, Hungary.