Dan has been selling, judging, writing about and promoting wine for more than two decades.
Starting his career as a Sommelier in some of Melbourne's best restaurants, Dan was named the Inaugural Sommelier of the year 2008 by the Age Good Food and Wine Guide. A Len Evans Scholar, Dan has been a Wine Victoria board member since 2021, he spent 8 foundational years on the National Executive of Sommeliers Australia and sat on the Drinks Committee of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Dan has regularly marketed and promoted wine at events such as Melbourne Food & Wine
Festival and Good Food and Wine Show before founding and running REVEL since 2012, which has run highly successful wine events across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, (including Pinot Palooza) to a whole new generation of wine lovers.

Dan is a graduate of the Len Evans tutorial. He was awarded Best Digital Wine Communicator in 2018 by the Wine Communicators of Australia with REVEL twice receiving the Marketing & Communications Award in the Wine Industry Impact Awards (2016 & 2019).

Kim Chalmers began her career in music composition and teaching at the Elder Conservatorium but returned to her viticulture roots in 2005. Kim manages the wine operations at Chalmers, making wines from heat and drought tolerant southern-Italian grape varieties. In 2006, Kim trained with Al Gore as a Climate Project presenter and continues to be involved in working to educate and prepare Australian winegrowers for climate change through alternative varieties and sustainable practices. In 2012 Kim travelled to Southern Italy on an Agrifood Skills International fellowship researching indigenous grape varieties and viticultural techniques and their potential application in Australia.

Kim was Chair of the Victorian Government's Wine Ministerial Advisory Committee from 2016-2019 and is Brand & Project Manager of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show. Kim often presents at viticultural and wine conferences some recent presentations were at the 2016 Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in Adelaide, 2016 London Restaurant Festival in the UK and 2015 Enologica Montefalco in Umbria Italy. Kim has been integral in re-establishing her family's nursery business, personally selecting a suite of new varieties to import and establish in Australia.

Mel Chester is the General Manager and Head Winemaker at Giant Steps and the Chair of Judges for the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards.

Prior to Giant Steps, Mel was Chief winemaker at Sutton Grange, winemaker at Seppelt, Great Western and spent time working at d'Arenberg, Charles Melton and Quinta do Crasto in the Douro Valley.

Melanie has a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Adelaide. She is a recipient of the Wolf Blass Prize for Excellence in Winemaking (2011) and the David Bradley Memorial Prize (2012).

In 2014 she became the youngest Len Evans Tutorial graduate. In 2015 she was named Young Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine in 2018 received the Young Gun of Wine People's Choice award for favourite winemaker.

Owner and winemaker at Eminence Wines in Whitlands, Clare’s career in wine has evolved over almost 20 years, spanning hospitality, tourism, education, event hosting, writing and now winemaking. Her parents planted their high altitude, cold climate vineyard in the late nineties which set her on a path: a wine marketing degree from University of Adelaide first led her into marketing, retail and tourism, which then led into wine education. Her first business The Humble Tumbler was at the forefront of consumer education, developing and delivering hundreds of courses and masterclasses annually on wine, gin, whisky, beer and sake to high value consumers interested in independent insight. Known for her democratic, candid & entertaining style of teaching, her role as an educator evolved further into writing (Clare’s book Tipsy won Wine Book of the year in 2015), event design & hosting, wine judging and small business development consultancy.

In 2017 her new project was launched alongside the existing business, called Vintuition, this new venture was a start-up which offered courses and education to the cellar door industry - eventually being developed into Australia's first online course for cellar door staff.

Two years later, it was time for a change. Clare moved back to the family farm in Whitlands and took over the vineyard business from her parents, adding a winery to the mix and taking on the winemaking along her partner Peter, a regenerative viticulturalist. Eminence has evolved to be a successful grower producer and has enabled Clareto take up industry support opportunities that offer advocacy, support & advice to the local King Valley region in addition to small wine producers in general.

Michelle Symeonidis is originally from Colchester, Essex, UK and moved to Australia after completing her 'A' Levels and fell in love with the country. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in the UK, she was seconded to Melbourne, where she worked in auditing and corporate finance.

She served as CFO and director of a publicly listed FMCG company before joining McPherson Wines Pty Ltd in the early 2000s. Over 18 years, Michelle established key policies, reporting protocols, and governance procedures, and was appointed Group CFO in 2018.

Currently, a Wine Victoria board member, Michelle is respected for her analytical expertise, strategic vision, and ability to transform financial data into actionable insights.

Her ethical integrity, resilience, and approachable leadership style make her a trusted partner in achieving long-term success.

Ben is a dispute resolution lawyer and Special Counsel at the boutique firm, Willon Legal.

Ben has a general practice, but has experience in partnership and shareholders disputes, competition and consumer law, contractual disputes and matters arising from the Corporations Act.  Ben also has extensive experience in the wine industry, acting for clients big and small in both South Australia and Victoria.

In addition to his role with Wine Victoria, Ben is also the current Treasurer of the Australasian Chapter of the International Wine Law Association.

Katherine is the fourth generation of the Brown Family and has worked in the family business since 2009. She has completed a Business Degree (RMIT, 2004) and then went on to specialise in wine through completing Master’s Degree’s in the areas of Wine Business (Adelaide University, 2009), Oenology (winemaking) and Viticulture (Charles Sturt University, 2013). She has held marketing, winemaking and public affairs roles at Brown Family Wine Group. Most recently she has been working in corporate affairs and advocacy with Brown Family Wine Group managing a successful campaign to hold government off on signing the FTA in 2023 which ensured that Australia could continue to use the grape variety of Prosecco. She is an experienced board member and has had extensive experience working with Federal, State and local government bodies.

Katherine has played a role in the greater wine industry, sitting on the Victorian Government Wine Ministerial Advisory Committee and the current Victorian Wine Strategic Plan Steering Committee. Recently Katherine was nominated in the Top 50 “Young Guns” of winemakers in Australia. Katherine is the vice-chair of the Next
Generation committee of ‘Australia’s First Families of Wine’ acting with the aim to maintain longevity and success of family owned wine businesses.

Scott Burton is a high-achieving strategic marketing, branding and sales professional offering 20+ years of progressive experience in the international wine industry. Following a post-University stint as Assistant Winemaker in his native Western Australia, Burton relocated to Europe where he spent a decade in a variety of marcoms roles within the wine industry, working with global retailers such as Tesco and M&S, wineries and brands including Concha y Toro, E&J Gallo, United Wineries, Caviro and Spier, to name a few, as well as key industry associations including Wines from Spain, Wines of South Africa, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto and Washington State Wine Commission.

Relocating back to Australia in 2011 Burton assumed the role of Global Marketing Director at Australian Vintage Limited, overseeing the global marketing of the portfolio including McGuigan Wines, Tempus Two, Nepenthe Wines and the Barossa Valley Wine Company, a position he held for 10 years through to 2021. A commercially driven strategic decision maker and operational problem solver with an exceptional ability to develop successful programs that drive company growth, Burton established is own consultancy in late 2021 and joined the Wine Victoria Project Control Board for Trade in early 2022 before being appointed to the Board in November 2022.

Craig is the Sales & Marketing Director at Rathbone Wine Group, and has over 25 Years Liquor industry experience, more than half of that specifically in the Wine industry, all at the Executive Director level, across companies Treasury Wine Estates, Accolade, Diageo, Fosters, Metcash Liquor and the Rathbone Wine Group. 

Born and educated in Adelaide, and now calling Melbourne home, finding his way into the Wine Industry was probably inevitable. He is a graduate from the Australian Institute of Company Directors and his experience is extensive across Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Operations and Tourism both within the Australian Domestic and Export markets and across multiple channels (On premise, Retail and Direct to Consumer). With experience in Government lobbying, he brings a wealth of industry experience and functional expertise.