Anne McHale MW began her career in the wine trade 15 years ago, working for companies as diverse as Mistral Wines, New Zealand Winegrowers and Berry Bros. & Rudd while studying for the WSET and then Master of Wine exams.

Chef-turned-sommelier Sandia Chang is from California. She moved to train at the internationally acclaimed Culinary Institute of America in New York, and chalked up stints at René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen and Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York before moving to London in 2010.

Kandylis was studying physics at the University of Athens, while working for some of the best restaurants in Greece, when the wine bug bit.

Larsson took over the coveted task of managing the gargantuan list at wine Mecca Hide late last year, after the departure of the restaurant’s director of wine, Piotr Pietras MS.

One of the nattiest dressers in the drinks trade, Jan Konetzki (Wine List Confidential’s 2018 Sommelier of the Year) is rarely seen without a tailored blazer, pocket square and signature round specs in a variety of shades.

“I am foremost a wine lover and wine drinker, and consider myself lucky to be able to earn a living from my passion,” says Mathieu Germond, former restaurant manager of Pied à Terre, who launched his debut solo venture, the rustic, seasonally focused Noizé in Fitzrovia in October 2017.

A staunch advocate of natural wine, Isabelle Legeron MW founded Raw Wine in 2012, which has become the world’s largest community of low-intervention organic, biodynamic and natural wine producers.

As the beverage director for the expanding empire of Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau, which includes the Michelin-starred Portland, Clipstone and Quality Chop House restaurants, James Fryer has his hands full, curating three of London’s best wine lists.

Born in St. Ives in Cornwall, Quick moved to London in 2010, and has been working for Hawksmoor ever since. Starting out as a waiter with an interest in wine, Quick lived up to his name and soon worked his way up to becoming a sommelier.

Hailing from Belgium, Desport oversees the list at three-Michelin-starred fine-dining institution Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester. Desport commands a 1,000-strong list of mostly French wines, paying particular attention to pairings, created with executive chef Jean-Philippe Blondet.

A childhood food allergy could easily have derailed Konrad Tadeusz Lassota’s career in wine, if it weren’t for his determination to overcome his affliction.

Growing up in both the Caribbean and France, Didier Catelo caught the travel bug at a young age, a passion that he would carry through into his career.