Isabelle Legeron

Isabelle Legeron MW is France’s first female Master of Wine—one of only 416 MWs worldwide—and has been honored with the Madame Bollinger award for Excellence in Tasting and the Villa Maria award for Viticulture, and is also the recipient of the ‘Wine Woman of the Year’ award in Paris. Having decided to dedicate her work to helping people think about what they drink and promoting the need for transparency in the wine world, in 2012 she created RAW WINE, which has grown to become the world’s largest community of low-intervention organic, biodynamic and natural wine producers. Featuring annual fairs in London, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Montréal, RAW WINE leads the charge globally for fine, clean, low-intervention wine, and is commonly considered ‘the fair of note for artisan and natural wines’ (El Mundo) and by many in the industry as ‘showing the world the right approach to wine’ (Ottolenghi). A huge advocate of organic farming practices and proper living wines, Isabelle does not sit on the fence. For her, the world’s best wines are natural and that is all she personally drinks. Although initially considered a bit of a misfit by her industry, her work is today internationally acclaimed. She was chosen as one of the “most innovative women in food and drink” by Fortune, as one of the Dream Team of the 50 most influential French people in the world by Vanity Fair, and even as one of “the 50 most influential travellers of our time” according to Conde Nast Traveller. Perhaps best of all though, she was honoured to have won the first WSET Outstanding Alumni Award, which was voted on by her peers from across the world. Her first book, Natural Wine: an introduction to organic and biodynamic wines made naturally (published by RPS CICO), was shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Best Drinks Book as well as the Louis Roederer and André Simon awards. Described by The World of Fine Wine as “an infectious, accessible guide [that]… may prove to be the most important wine book yet written”, it is available in English, French, Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Russian, Ukranian, Korean and German.