Elena Berg
Jury member Dr. Elena Berg is a Certified Water Sommelier and a full Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Joy and Edward Frieman Environmental Science Research Center at The American University of Paris (AUP), France. Elena spent the first twenty years of her career conducting fieldwork on primates and birds all over the world.
Ten years ago, she transitioned to studying beetle behavior in the laboratory. When she is not in the lab, she’s busy teaching courses in animal behavior, evolutionary biology, biological anthropology, and environmental science.
Pat Eckert
Jury member Pat Eckert is a certified water sommelier and international fine-water expert who has helped shape modern premium-water culture through his leadership of Fine Liquids since taking over the company in 2018.
Following the UK expansion with renowned London-based water technologist and water sommelier Milin Patel in 2020, he co-founded the Fine Liquids Water Boutique and Fine Liquids Art Gallery at Fulham Broadway in 2021 and launched the Fine Liquids Community, a monthly live show connecting water sommeliers worldwide.
Cameron Smith
jury member Cameron Smith @camiliasenesus has served as Maître du Fromage at the Michelin-starred restaurant, The Inn at Little Washington, in Washington, Virginia, for nearly 20 years. He wheels around a cheese trolley designed after a Jersey Cow named Faira, who offers around 30 cheeses, which he serves tableside to guests in the restaurant. He has a reputation for telling cheesy jokes and puns while he is serving the cheese to add fun and humor to the experience.
During his years at the Inn, he also puts together music for the restaurant playlists, is a Certified Tea Master and curated the tea menu, curates the coffee program, and has most recently become a Certified Water Sommelier and has made a Water Menu for the restaurant, which has been a huge success! He feels that integrating water in fine dining is the way of the future and that now everything in a tasting menu can harmoniously go together, including the water.
Ana-Maria Dragoescu
Jury Member Ana-Maria Dragoescu is a Certified Water Sommelier and hydration specialist from Romania, a country recognized for having one of the greatest diversities of natural mineral waters in Europe.
She is the co-founder of “Water for the future”, the first Romanian association dedicated to supporting and promoting natural mineral waters, education and responsible hydration culture. Her work focuses on water education, thematic events and tailor-made notoriety projects for mineral water brands, both local and international.
Michael Mascha
Michael Mascha created FineWaters in 2002 and is one of the original founders of the Fine Water Society in 2008. He helped create the premium category and tells the story that "water is not just water," that it has terroir like wine, can be matched with food, and curated by water sommeliers. In 2018 Michael co-founded the Fine Water Academy to train water sommeliers worldwide.
Michael's global audience consists of food & beverage professionals, consumers, distributors, media, and premium brands. Michael is also
the author of the acclaimed book Fine Waters called "an encyclopedia of water, a bible of water" by the London Times.
Nico Pieterse
The Fine Water Company was founded in 2021 by Nico Pieterse, an experienced entrepreneur and WaterSommelier from Franschhoek. Nico is one of only a few Certified Water Sommeliers worldwide. This has distinct advantages in so far as the market is completely untapped, primed for launch, and coincides with the wellness revolution the world is experiencing. Water is a “hot” topic, and appreciation of water is definitely on the increase.
The Fine Water Company Tasting Room and Nico Pieterse, a water sommelier, are in the perfect position to revolutionize the Fine Water industry in South Africa. The topic of Fine Water is thought-provoking and almost immediately perceived as taboo; the press loves it, critics discuss it, everybody needs it, and almost immediately, the need to prove that water has taste arises. It's intriguing and fresh, a Water Sommelier, and his tasting room is in the middle of the culinary capital of South Africa.