Joanna Simon writes and talks about wine and food for a living – wine especially, and matching wine and food as a bit of a speciality.

Joanna was the wine critic of The Sunday Times for 22 years and has received various awards for magazine and newspaper articles as well as for her books, and for five of those years she was also one of The Sunday Times' team of cookery writers (see her recipes). She is a co-founder of The Wine Gang and was wine & food editor of House & Garden, commissioning great food writers and photographers for six stimulating years.

Among current activities, she is founding editor of Waitrose & Partners Drinks Magazine (a sister publication to Waitrose Food). She is also the wine expert for the new Platinum Magazine and writes regularly for The World of Fine Wine and Decanter and has also contributed to Jamie Magazine and Conde Nast Traveller. 

She also spends time judging competitions including the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year (see her Instagram page) and the Academy of Chocolate Awards (she was also global head judge of The Great British Savoury Chocolate Challenge 2016).

For the last two years she has been a judge for the Louis Roederer International Wine Writer Awards –  and in 2019 she had the pleasure of judging the Deutz Trophy at the Festival Culinaire Bernard Loiseau.

Joanna presented the BBC Radio 4 series The Bottle Uncorked and television appearances have included tasting and explaining first-growth Bordeaux from great vintages of the 20th century to demonstrating how to open a bottle of Champagne. Over the years, she has covered everything from matching food and wine to buying rare and fine wines at auction. She started her award-winning writing career as editor of Wine magazine and before that of Wine & Spirit. Her books include The Sunday Times Book of Wine, Wine An Introduction, Discovering Wine and Wine with Food.

In between her busy schedule, she hosts tastings, dinners, masterclasses, workshops, one-to-ones, large corporate and small private events. In October 2022 Joanna will be hosting a wine tour of the Rhine and Moselle towns for Saga River Cruises.

Joanna loves to escape to a treasured spot in remote, rural southwest France whenever she has time. She also loves to visit Italian cities out of season and enjoys looking for a new “desert-island” wine at least once a month.