Michael Fridjhon

Michael Fridjhon is South Africa’s most widely consulted liquor industry authority, an international wine judge and one of South Africa’s leading wine writers. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, and teaches in the wine business programme jointly hosted by the University of Cape Town and the University of Adelaide. He is the past chairman of the South African Wine Industry Trust – which determines strategy and administers funding associated with industry-wide business support and development projects and a recipient of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole. Chairman of the South African Trophy Wine Show, International Co-Chairman of the 2007 International Wine Challenge in London, and jury member at innumerable shows throughout the world, he is South Africa's most experienced show judge. He is past Chairman of the South African Food & Wine Writers’ Guild and a columnist for Business Day, The Weekender, WINE Magazine (South Africa), Fine Wine Magazine, Off Licence News, Decanter and Wine Business International. He is also the author of The Penguin Book of South African Wine, co-author of Conspiracy of Giants – An Analysis of the South African Liquor Industry, contributor (since the 1980s) to the John Platter South African Wine Guide, The Complete Book of South African Wine, the Hugh Johnson Wine Companion, the new Oxford Companion to Wine, the Global Wine Encyclopedia, and Icons – South Africa’s Champion Wines.