Posted on December 18, 2023 by AHA User -
Auctioneer
Jamie Ritchie
Jamie Ritchie recently left his role as Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby’s Wines & Spirits, having been with Sotheby’s for more than 32 years. This July, he will be joining an innovative new business in the wine and spirits world.
Jamie joined Sotheby’s in London in 1990 and was responsible for setting-up Sotheby’s wine auctions in New York in 1994, Hong Kong in 2009 and France in 2021, as well as Sotheby’s Spirits category in 2019. In 2010, Mr. Ritchie launched Sotheby’s Wine, a retail store and online wine business, located at their flagship headquarters in New York, with a second location in the Sotheby’s gallery in Hong Kong. A range of Sotheby’s Own Label wines was introduced in 2019. Mr. Ritchie also initiated Sotheby’s new auction partnerships with the Hospices de Beaune (2021), The Worshipful Company of Distiller’s (2021) and the Napa Valley Vintners (2022). Under his leadership, Sotheby’s worldwide wine & spirits auction business achieved record sales of $132 million in 2021.
Mr. Ritchie is one of the world’s leading wine auctioneers, having presided over many extraordinary and record-breaking Single Owner auctions and holds the records for selling the most expensive bottles of wine and spirits: 1 bottle of Romanée-Conti 1945 for $558,000 in 2018; and 1 bottle of The Macallan Fine & Rare 60 Year Old 1926 for $1.9 million in 2019. Mr. Ritchie is a respected authority on the wine and spirits market and has been regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Forbes, Bloomberg and Wine Spectator.
Posted on December 15, 2023 by heidi.arnold -
Master Class Host
Neal Martin
Neal Martin’s career in wine began in 1996 as a wine buyer for Japan Airlines where he specialised in Bordeaux and Burgundy. In 2006 Neal was asked by the most influential wine critic in the world, Robert Parker, to join his team at The Wine Advocate where he was the first non-American to hold a position. In December 2012 Neal self-published a 600-page book, Pomerol, that became the standard text for the region, winning the inaugural André Simon John Avery Award and the Louis Roederer Chairman’s Award in 2013. He took over coverage of Bordeaux when Parker retired in 2014. In 2018 Neal accepted a position at Vinous where he covers Bordeaux and Burgundy to the present day. His reviews and scores are quoted by merchants around the world and over 25 years he has amassed considerable first-hand knowledge of mature vintages. In April 2023 he published “The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide 1870-2020” that Eric Asimov described as “what every Bordeaux lover has been waiting for” in the New York Times.
Posted on December 1, 2023 by heidi.arnold -
Chairman
George Little
A true native to D.C, George is a Partner with Brunswick Group, specializing in crisis communications, cybersecurity, reputational and public affairs matters. He also co-chairs the global Cybersecurity, Data & Privacy practice, helping clients prepare for and respond to cybersecurity incidents.
Prior to joining Brunswick, George was head of Marketing and Communications at Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading provider of management consulting, technology and engineering services to the U.S. government, corporates and non-profits. He brings extensive expertise from the highest levels of the national security and defense community, as well as the private sector. Before joining Booz Allen Hamilton, he served as Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon Press Secretary, and as Director of Public Affairs and Chief of Media Relations for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In these roles, he worked closely with counterparts from other governments to address the full range of security challenges facing the U.S., its allies and partners around the world. He also spent five years at IBM advising corporate and government clients on business and technology strategy.
In addition to his work at Brunswick, George is on the Board of Advisors for the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Terrorism, the Board of Advisors for the Masters of Science in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University, as well as the Board of Imagination Stage, a children’s theater and arts education center serving youth of all ages in the Washington area.
