If you have found this online magazine and want to know more, here is a little bit of detail about my writing, wine and life.
I am a journalist, author and wine writer and live in Martinborough, a small wine town in the Wairarapa, about 90 minutes’ hilly drive from Wellington city. I trained to be a journalist on an old fashioned typewriter at Wellington Polytechnic in 1989 and have since written about design, gardens, nudist camps, sperm donors and a raft of other weird and wonderful topics for a vast number of news stand magazines as well as written for most of New Zealand’s large daily newspapers. I am the published author of 15 books about wine and hold the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s highest qualification, the Level 4 Diploma.
When not writing, tasting wine for work or enjoying it for pleasure, I love music, cooking for friends, travelling and walking in the hills.
My turangawaewae is the South Island of New Zealand.
Like all published authors, I am working on the next book…
Enough about me. If you’d like to get in touch, contact details are below.
My bio
- I am a journalist, wine writer and author and remember the first moment I fell in love with wine on a dark and stormy night, literally, when I was bitten by the big buttery Chardonnay bug at a cafe in Wellington, New Zealand, in the late 1980s.
- I trained in journalism on an old fashioned typwriter at Wellington Polytechnic in 1989.
- I currently work as a wine writer and update this website every Friday.
- I work as a wine advisor at Regional Wines & Spirits; writing and tasting wines from around the world on an (almost) daily basis.
- I am on the judging panel at the 2019 Marlborough Wine Show.
- I have judged at wine shows regularly since 1995; mostly in New Zealand and also in Australia and South Africa.
- I hold the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s highest qualification, the Level 4 Diploma.
- I write for Good magazine, NZ Winegrower, Drinksbiz, Capital magazine and www.joellethomson.com
- I wrote my first wine column in 1994 and am the author of 16 wine books (published by New Holland and HarperCollins), including 10 annual wine guides.
- I regularly host wine tastings for private and corporate groups.
- My teaching spans many years at the New Zealand School of Food & Wine in Auckland where I taught certificate wine courses (both New Zealand and the WSET – Wine & Spirit Education Trust).
If you have found this online writing portal and have ideas, need advice on wine or want to make contact, email: mailme@joellethomson.com
