Meet Your Masters Of Wine

To mark our 50th Anniversary, we are excited to begin introducing you to your new consultant Masters of Wine. Together, they will continue to provide a curated range of exclusive wines to suit all occasions and tastes. In addition, the diversity of opinion and style will take your Member experience to the next level of enjoyment.

The wines from this Cellar were tasted by Louise Wilson MW, Jacky Blisson MW, Igor Ryjenkov MW and Michael Palij MW.

Jacky Blisson MW is a Master of Wine based in Montreal. She is the first Master of Wine in Québec and one of only ten across Canada. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies at Concordia University, Jacky pulled up stakes and moved to Burgundy to pursue an Advanced Masters in Wine Science and International Trade at the CFPPA de Beaune and AgroSup Dijon.

During her 11 years in France, Jacky held successive positions as UK and North

From the beginning, and for 50 years now, Opimian has relied on the expertise of a Master of Wine to ensure that only top-quality wines from around the world are offered to Members. Kenneth Christie MW started it all and passed the mantle to Jane Masters MW in recent years.

American Export Sales Manager for Burgundy fine wine brokerage Domaine Wines and major Southern Rhône Valley winery Gabriel Meffre. She also worked harvest seasons in Beaune and the Walker Bay, South Africa.

Since returning to Canada, Jacky has built a solid reputation for her high-quality written and video wine education content, and her consultancy work. Jacky tasted and wrote tasting notes for some of your Rhône Valley wines and spirits from Scotland.

Born in Russia, Igor Ryjenkov MW has a degree in Journalism from the Moscow Institute for Foreign Relations. Having settled in Canada in early 90s, his journey in wine got started with a visit to a Niagara Peninsula area winery in 1995. That was followed by a serious reading, tasting, travelling and studying binge, which took him through the WSET Certificates and Diploma and straight into the MW program in 1999. His wine study journey culminated with achieving the MW qualification in 2003, having been awarded the North American scholarship twice and Henkell-Sohnlein Award for best dissertation in the process.

Igor held progressively senior positions at the Ontario liquor board over two-plus decades, from retail floor to the person in charge of EW WINES portfolio, taking it to the half a billion mark over his tenure.

Igor joined Opimian's Master of Wine team in 2022.

He had the opportunity to taste and review wines from Chablis, Champagne, the Rhône Valley, and the German wines from our Web Pop-Up made by revered winemaker Markus Molitor.

To find out more about Michael Palij MW, who tasted the wines from Moillard-Grivot in our online Bottle Shop, and Louise Wilson MW, who reviewed wines from the Rhône Valley and Champagne, check out our Masters of Wine blog online!