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Regional News

We welcome the latest news from our Chairs from the regions, Chris Ankner (Americas), Michael Tamburri (Asia Pacific) and John Nicholas (Europe Africa).

AMERICAS - Chris Ankner

The Americas just completed a highly successful Festival in Napa Valley. It was one of our best. The details are spelled out in a separate article. But it came with some disappointing news as Charles Schurhammer is retiring from the Festivals & Events Chairmanship following Napa. Charles ran both Napa and last year’s Rhine River Wine Cruise, both of which were fabulous successes. He also did much of the heavy lifting for our Chicago and New Orleans Great Weekends. Charles’ leadership will be missed.

But the good news is that Steve Greenwald will be again taking a seat on the Committee. Steve, as many of you know, put together our highly successful Bordeaux trip as well as our Festival in Willamette among many others. Right now, the Committee is working through our options going forward, but we currently expect to go back to France next year and perhaps to Burgundy in 2027. We will keep everyone appraised.

The Executive Committee, at my urging, has voted to promote John Trickett to Executive Vice-Chair. The Board will need to ratify that promotion at this Board Meeting. I think that vote will be one of the easiest tasks the Board will perform. No one on the America’s Board should be surprised at this. His work on both the Branch Development Committee and the E-Communications Committee has been stellar.

Not many people join the IWFS because they want to spend more time on insurance, incorporation and By-Laws issues, but that was our lot this year.

The America’s Board has taken on two difficult and arduous tasks. We are amending our By-Laws to allow the membership to directly elect the Board of Directors. In my opinion this is long overdue. But one seemingly simple change in the By-Laws requires changes in other places. The flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world causes a hurricane on the other side of the globe. Thank you, Lisa White, for leading this challenging project.

Perhaps even more difficult is the task I assigned the Branch Development Committee led by Peter Miao. We live in an ever more litigious world, especially in the United States. I would like to see every branch incorporated. The Committee has reached out to all the branches offering to help them incorporate. John Trickett has taken charge of this endeavor. This is a lot of work, but in the end, it will be better to have it done. Incorporation is difficult but it leads to positive changes throughout the branch, not just for legal protection.
I recently had the opportunity to meet members of the Cayman Island branch when they were in New York on a Branch trip. What a great group. I was pleased to meet Shelley White, the branch Chairperson. What an engaging, competent woman she is. The Caymans are in very good hands.

ASIA PACIFIC – Michael Tamburri

So far this year has seen the continued rebuilding of the Asia Pacific region, and most branches have either expanded their activities or seen an increase in their membership. This is pleasing to see as we are entering some form of normality.

The Asia Pacific Malaysia Festival is being hosted by our Kuala Lumpur branch from 7 – 9 November 2025 and bookings can be made at: https://www.iwfs.org/festivals/kuala-lumpur-festival-2025. A pre-tour from 3 – 7 November 2025 to Penang and Ipoh concluding in our Kuala Lumpur branch is also available at: https://www.iwfs.org/festivals/penang-ipoh-pre-tour-2025. There are limited places which remain and if you have any queries regarding the festival/pre-tour please contact our APZ administrator at: administrator.apz@iwfs.org.

The Europe Africa Rioja Festival was from 20 – 25 May 2025 and my sincere congratulations go to the festival committee on staging such an exceptional event. It was so joyous to attend the festival and to see participation from all three IWFS regions and we experienced exceptional regional wines, food and camaraderie. A highlight was how inclusive the local guides were on showcasing the various parts of their Rioja and Bilbao region.

The Asia Pacific newsletter is in the process of being finalised and is to be released soon. Our editorial team is constantly refining and updating the Asia Pacific e-newsletter and it’s evident that it’s improving members interaction with the Society. I’ve seen members participation increase with each edition which is pleasing to see. I’m also exploring how we can further enhance our publications to be translated in the various country languages. Please send any branch news to our editorial team at: editor.apz@iwfs.org.

I note that the IWFS website and control panel has been updated, and I encourage members to utilise this buy downloading the webapp and take advantage of its many features. This is also a significant opportunity to regroup and grow and I encourage members to consider inviting other like-minded people to join our IWFS family.

EUROPE AFRICA – John Nicholas

Much has happened in the first six months of 2025 - new appointments, great festivals, progress on making change happen as we move into the 10th decade of our Society.
It is with great relief that a new IWFS Europe Africa Treasurer has been found. We have again had to go outside the 850 members of IWFS Europe Africa to find Jonathan O’Brien. Jonathan and his wife Vanessa have become members of the Capital branch.

We have held our Annual festival in Rioja with 45 members, with 18 from both EA and Americas and 9 from AP, reflecting the internationalism of the Society. Many of the participants had attended previous EA annual festivals and those who had not attended before were welcomed by all and soon became part of the group. A two-day pre-festival tour of the Basque country was enjoyed by 25 of those attending the main festival. I personally had not realised how historically the Rioja region adopted the style of wine making from Bordeaux (perhaps through nefarious means), albeit with different grapes, Tempranillo and Grenache being the main ones, and that during the phylloxera crisis the Bordeaux wine merchants bought many of their grapes from the Rioja region.

Our strategic review continues. The key to the future is to increase awareness of IWFS as an organisation and brand and to provide activities and education, not just for current members but also to meet the lifestyles of the second quarter of the 21st century. Some of our initiatives are beginning to gain traction. These initiatives include:

our Instagram account iwfs_eaz which has now topped 200 followers, mostly non-members.
the launch of www.iwfsea.org as a front-end only marketing tool both for current members and potential members.
the expansion and continuing success of the Young Chefs’ competition held in May 2025, currently only attracting colleges in the North of England.
creating generic content for use by branches as well as for “public” events.

I was very pleased in April to chair the William Heptinstall Memorial Fund awards selection meeting at the Merchant Taylors Hall in the City of London. It was followed by a wonderful lunch at the RAC club for the 6 shortlisted candidates and trustees during which three bursaries were announced and a new trophy donated by the Ritz Hotel was presented to the winner. I am also pleased to say that Mimi Avery has agreed to become a Trustee continuing the Memorial Fund’s connection with IWFS.

All organisations should develop over time as the world around them changes otherwise they will “wither on the vine” (please excuse the pun). Change must come about through evolution rather than revolution. We are at an early stage in generating that evolution but expect traction to increase gradually.