Natasha Hughes MW graduated as a Master of Wine in 2014, winning four out of the seven prizes awarded that year, including the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Natasha began her wine trade career as deputy editor for Decanter’s website but left in 2001 to begin freelancing as a journalist, specialising in wine and food. She is currently a columnist for Vinosity, the website of the Academie du Vin Library, and has written for numerous publications, including Decanter, Club Oenologique, Square Meal, Imbibe and Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine. Her online work has been published by GuildSomm, Psyche, jancisrobinson.com, timatkin.com and wine-pages.com, among others. Natasha has contributed material for a number of books, and is currently working on her first solo effort, a book on Beaujolais, for the Wine Library series.

In addition, Natasha has judged at wine competitions around the world, and was a long-term panel chair at both the International Wine Challenge and at Imbibe’s Sommelier Wine Awards. She consults for restaurants, private clients, wine producers and generic bodies. She also hosts wine events, seminars and tutored tastings for both consumers and members of the wine trade, teaches tasting and theory to Master of Wine students and leads trips to wine regions for private clients. She is currently a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine’s Council, chairs the Institute’s Trips Committee, and is a long-term member of its Education Committee. 

Prior to her career in wine, Natasha ran a catering company part-time while at university. She is an acknowledged expert on the on-trade and on the relationship between wine and food, and has written extensively about food and wine pairing. She was a section editor for Square Meal’s annual restaurant guide for many years, and worked with Wine Magazine to develop the magazine’s Sommelier Challenge.