The 2025 Attendees

Cyndal Petty

Sommelier of Sorts

Western Australia

A hopeless romantic for wine and food, Cyndal is nearing 15 years in hospitality while still only 30. A Chef-turned-Sommelier and award-winning wine professional, Cyndal recently left a Group Sommelier role where she curated seven wine lists across multiple venues and led the wine team to Gourmet Traveller Wine Bar of the Year – just  months after opening. Now freelance, Cyndal is a wine consultant, event host, wine judge, and an emerging wine writer. Passionate about sharing wine’s story with the world, she brings a fresh voice and creative solutions to the industry. After studying and traveling through most of her 20s, she’s now based in WA’s southwest, proudly embracing her role as a WA coastal cowgirl.

Liinaa Berry
Founder - Liinaa Berry Consultancy
Melbourne

Liinaa has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry with over 10 years curating wine programmes across various venues from wine bars to fine dining restaurants in Australia and beyond. Most recently the Wine Buyer at renowned wine bar, Embla, she is now a consultant for other venues where she selects the wines and trains the staff. Her notable achievements include curating wine lists with over 2,000 references as Head Sommelier, and earning Best Wine List Awards several times. Outside of venues, she is a freelance wine writer, and a regular judge at prestigious wine shows. Liinaa was the first Australian-based ambassador for Star Wine List, starting with South Australia, and now overlooks Melbourne and Victoria – SWL is a guide to the best wine venues across the planet written by wine experts in each city. Since 2024, she has served on the board of the Committee for Sommeliers Australia playing a role in advancing the sommelier profession nationwide and making wine education more accessible and fun for consumers.

Christopher Sealy
Wine Director & Buyer - Alo Restaurant
Toronto

Christopher is a Sommelier, Wine Buyer, Wine Writer and Educator in the Toronto Market. His work is not exclusive to Alo Restaurant (1 star Michelin) and he also has an active event platform Parcelle Wine Studio that creates engagement around wine, food, DJ culture, and education. He has been in the industry for almost 20 years and has been instrumental in the building of full wine and beverage programs, being a General Manager, teaching wine education, and in the past building and opening his own wine bar & tavern, and most recently working in one of Canada's top fine dining restaurants. At the moment he also contributes wine and lifestyle adjacent articles to Quench Magazine Canada.

Yang Lu MS
Founder - TOP|SOMM Studio
Shanghai

Yang Lu is the first Chinese Master Sommelier in the world, and one of the most important wine figures in Asia. He founded Grapea & Co. Institute in 2017 (the leading education and service company in Mainland China) and TOP|SOMM Studio in 2020 (the most prestigious wine hospitality consultancy firm in Greater China). He is also the brand ambassadors for lifestyle and luxury brands such as Gaggenau, San Pellegrino and Christofle.

Bungo Matsunaga
Sommelier & Retail Sales Manager - Cellar Door Aoyama
Tokyo 

Cellar Door Aoyama is a retail ('The Boutique') and wine bar ('The Salon') space with a focus on organic, biodynamic and family-owned wineries. Bungo manages sales planning, and online sales (having previous experience in e-commerce at Enoteca, prior to taking his position at Cellar Door Aoyama when it opened in 2021) alongside his role in the wine bar, including events such as winemaker dinners and masterclasses. Bungo was awarded a JSA Sommelier Scholarship in 2018 – one of the biggest sommelier competitions in Japan for younger sommeliers (under 28). More recently, Bungo placed 6^th at the 2023 All Japan Sommelier Competition, the largest Sommelier competition in Japan, held every three years.

Suraj GC
Head Sommelier - Park Hyatt Hotel
Auckland

Suraj recently won the New Zealand Sommelier of the Year Competition for 2024. Born in Pokhara Nepal, Suraj GC first came to New Zealand as an international student studying computer engineering in Hawke’s Bay. He gained part time work as a waiter at Elephant Hill Winery Restaurant. 'My time at Elephant Hill was formative and I learnt so much working under Robert Ferbar as restaurant manager and owner Roger Weiss and his son Andreas. Over these 5 years I progressed to maitre d’ and then restaurant manager. During this time Elephant Hill was awarded Best Winery Restaurant in New Zealand and 2 hats from the prestigious Cuisine Awards. Wine became an integral part of my life and I started to study WSET and gained Court of Master Sommeliers certification'. Suraj gained permanent residency in 2016 and moved permanently to Auckland in 2019 taking the role of Head Sommelier at the Park Hyatt Hotel.

Tom Fahey
Owner, Chef, Sommelier - Terrace Rooms & Wine
The Isle of Wight

Tom was a restaurant guidebook writer for 15 years then, four years ago, ended up running a restaurant for his family. While learning everything he could about wine buying, pricing, storing and positioning, Tom put his extensive consumer experience to work in creating the sort of wine list he had always wanted to drink from. Tom eventually discovered trade tastings and was consistently drawn to New Zealand wines as having the best price-to-deliciousness ratio. Tom has completed over 70 stages in Michelin-level kitchen so cooks once a week for a small group of guests with wine pairings which he also created.

Amber Rill
Assistant Beverage Director - Corkbuzz Wine Studio
New York

Amber is the Assistant Beverage Director at Corkbuzz Wine Studio in Union Square & Chelsea Market and is responsible for Corkbuzz consumer wine classes, private classes, and participates in curating the wine list. In 2017, she earned her Diploma in Wine & Spirits through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and passed the Certified Sommelier exam with the Court of Master Sommeliers-America. Amber has twice participated as an Associate Judge for the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC), serving on panels judging wine and spirits alongside Master Sommeliers and Masters of Wines in London. She currently sits on judging panels for Wine & Spirits Magazine, critiquing and scoring wines for consumers and enthusiasts. In March 2020 Amber was an instrumental part in pivoting an on-premise beverage programme into a thriving online business, creating dynamic online classes, and reimagining Corkbuzz as an online wine marketplace. To date, Corkbuzz has seen more than 3,500 guests take online classes since March 2020. Amber is currently enrolled in the Master of Wine program, as a Stage 2 student and candidate. Aside from teaching about wine, you can usually find her at her favorite yoga studio, and then hosting dinner parties with friends and sharing outlandish stories from her adventures in more than 40 countries.

Jenna Isaacs
Sommelier - Verse
Los Angeles 

Jenna originally aspired to be a chef and her dad would take her to great restaurants for inspiration. Now being a Sommelier is her calling and her favourite part of the job is that there’s connection, meaning and beauty. Wine lists curated by Jenna focus on small producers whose stories we know and love, and who are focused on soil health and chemical-free practices in the vineyard.

Cameron Douglas MS

Cameron is New Zealand’s first and only Master Sommelier – An experienced wine writer, commentator, judge, reviewer, presenter and consultant. He lives his life around his enthusiasm for all things beverage - writing, travelling, tasting and speaking. He judges and presents wine regularly in the USA, UK, Australia and Asia. Cameron is the Wine & Beverage Feature Writer for MiNDFOOD & Style magazines and contributes to a number of other publications. His reviews of wines are available through his website, as a courtesy to the industry and interested public. Cameron is the Group Beverage Manager for Rodd and Gunn & The Lodge restaurants – A position that encompasses their global operations, currently focussed on New Zealand and Australia.

Stephen Wong MW

Ex-sommelier with an unused law degree, Stephen found his place in wine through hospitality and education; advising restaurants and hotels on their wine programmes, providing training courses for industry and running masterclasses. Since gaining his MW in 2016, he has been active on the Institute’s education committee and is currently co-chair of their Diversity and Transformation Committee as well as the 2026 MW Symposium Committee. He judges several wine shows a year, speaks at conferences and writes for Cuisine and The Real Review, as well as being the New Zealand ambassador of the VDP. His passion for education led to the creation of the First Year Fundamentals in Wine paper for Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand’s Bachelor of Culinary Arts and Business degree and he helps teach WSET. Stephen’s interest in taste, language and communication resulted in him co-founding Stompy and TasteMPR, a digital taste intelligence algorithm which maps wine taste and customer palates. He has an on and off relationship with natural wines, being a co-organiser of the Budburst festival and Nouvelle.

 Plumm stemware and antipodes water is used at Sommit