Welcome... If this is your first time online at www.joellethomson.com, you've landed in a good place - it's all about wine, food and thoughts that connect us to both and the land that grew them. 

I'm the wine columnist for the NZ Herald magazine, Canvas, which is published weekly. My column is monthly.

I've been weaving my love of words and wine together since 1994, gaining a few wine qualification and writing awards along the way.

I am a trained journalist and began my career in newspapers, progressing into magazines at Australian Consolidated Press (ACP Media) in Auckland, New Zealand,  between 1997 and 2008, contributing to magazines on both sides of the Tasman with wine columns across several titles. 

I have since studied wine and obtained the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Diploma and have taught WSET levels 1, 2 and 3 for the NZ School of Food & Wine, along with the NZQA Certificate in Wine qualifications.

I am the author of 15 books about wine with awards for Best Wine Guide in the World (English speaking) for Joelle Thomson's Under $15 Wine Guide (New Holland publishers) and was short-listed (with photographer Andrew Coffey) as a finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for "Celebrating New Zealand Wine". 

My writing is independent.