About Cameron Douglas, MS

If you want a wine expert with unquestionable credentials who’ll pop the cork for you and suggest a perfect food pairing while telling you the story behind the bottle, Cameron is your guy.

Not only does he carry the Master Sommelier credential (only around 240 have attained this qualification since its inception in 1969, and the Masters’ Exam is deemed the hardest in the world), but he earned it as the first in New Zealand (in fact, at the time, the first in the Southern Hemisphere) and took out the trophy for the top marks – demonstrating that this Kiwi will stop at nothing to further his love of all things beverage.

Cameron is an experienced wine writer, commentator, judge, reviewer, presenter and consultant. He takes his position as unofficial Ambassador for New Zealand wine very seriously, ensuring he spends time in every wine region in the country regularly. He selects wine for and is part of the NZ Wine Navigator team – an online supplier of NZ wine in the USA.

He lives his life around his enthusiasm for all things beverage – teaching, travelling, tasting and talking. He judges and presents wine regularly in the USA, the UK, Australia and Asia.

At home in NZ he writes regular monthly columns for Hospitality Business and FMCG Business Magazines, and contributes to a number of other publications. He reviews wines and makes his notes available both to the wineries and the public, as a courtesy to the Industry. He is a member of the Masters Team – selecting for Fine Wines of New Zealand – an Air New Zealand initiative.

As a professional Sommelier, Cameron spends much of his time involved in education – academically in charge of the Wine and Beverage Programme at AUT University in Auckland, and ‘out in the field’, consulting for the Wine, Hospitality and Tourism sector, and the interested public. He is Patron of the New Zealand Sommeliers and Wine Professionals Association and consults to a variety of establishments, taking care of their winelists, wine and food pairing, and staff training matters. His clients currently include Huami at Skycity, The Lodge Bar – Rodd & Gunn in Queenstown, Oyster and Chop, Mekong Baby, Nanam Republic, Crave Café - and he curated the winelist for Merediths Restaurant during its 10 years of operation.

In New York, he created the winelist for Matt and Barbara Lambert’s Michelin Starred Restaurant The Musket Room (a showcase for New Zealand Food and Wine). The Musket Room was awarded its Michelin Star only four months after opening, and continues to excite the public. Cameron maintains a close relationship with the team.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas, and is committed to being an instructor and examiner for the MS programme both in the USA and Oceania.