Steven Spurrier was a British wine expert and merchant who was described as a champion of French wine. Spurrier organised the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which unexpectedly elevated the status of California wine and promoted the expansion of wine production in the New World. He was the founder of the Academie du Vin and Christie's Wine Course, in addition to authoring and co-authoring several wine books.
Andy Fickman is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, television director, television producer, and theatre director. His credits as a theater director include the premiere of the Reefer Madness! musical, the first Los Angeles production of the play Jewtopia, and the Los Angeles, Off-Broadway and London productions of Heathers: The Musical.
Voss is a Norwegian-based bottled water from the village of Vatnestrøm in Iveland municipality, Agder county. Contrary to popular belief, the water is not bottled in the municipality of Voss, which is more than 400 kilometres (250 mi) from the bottling site. It is available in both still and sparkling forms.
Established in 1857, J.P. Wiser's Whisky is one of Canada's oldest continuously produced Canadian whiskeys. Hiram Walker & Sons Limited currently produces it at their Windsor, Ontario, distillery. Since 1935, J.P. Wiser's has been the majority shareholder of Corby Spirit and Wine. Both companies came under ownership of international liquor company Pernod Ricard in 2005.
Patricia Gastaud-Gallagher was a director at the Académie du Vin, a impetus, with Steven Spurrier, behind the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting event and participated as one of its eleven judges. She was also on the Copia panel that oversaw the rematch on The Judgment of Paris 30th Anniversary. She is one of the few non-French natives to have won the distinguished Chevalier du Mérite Agricole given for distinguished service to the French Wine industry. She was also academic director and director of the wine department of the famous LE CORDON BLEU school of cuisine and pastry. She is a co-author of the book Le Cordon Bleu Wine Essentials: Professional Secrets to Buying, Storing, Serving, and Drinking Wine.
Emeril John Lagassé III is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his self-developed "New New Orleans" style. He is of Portuguese descent on his mother’s side, while being of French heritage through his father.
Negin Farsad is an Iranian-American comedian, actress, writer, and filmmaker based in New York City.
Eric Esrailian is an American physician at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an Emmy-nominated film producer and is active in charity and community service activities in Los Angeles. He served on the Medical Board of California from 2010 - 2011 after being appointed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Paula Pell is an American writer, actress, comedian, and producer. Pell is best known for her work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2020. For her work on SNL, she was recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program and seven Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2019, Pell was honored with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence.
Randy Lennox is a Canadian music and media executive.
Somm is a 2012 American documentary following the attempts of four candidates to pass the extremely difficult Master Sommelier examination, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. Directed by Jason Wise, a sequel, Somm: Into the Bottle, was released in 2015 and a third film, Somm 3, came out in October 2018. A TV series based on the movie launched on the Esquire Network in November 2015. In 2019, SOMM TV was launched by creator Jason Wise with original shows.
Peter Neptune is an American wine expert and educator as well as a former television and NY stage actor. He is one of only 147 Master Sommeliers in North America, as of June 2015, and is the founder of the Orange County, CA-based Neptune School of Wine. He appeared on and off Broadway in 1984 and 1985, appeared in numerous television movies and series from 1988 through 1990, and appeared as himself in the 2013 wine documentary SOMM.
Vertigo Entertainment is an American film and television production company based in Los Angeles, founded in 2001 by Roy Lee and Doug Davison.
Wait for Your Laugh is a 2017 documentary film on the career of Rose Marie. The film was directed by Jason Wise and featured notable celebrities including Dick Van Dyke, Peter Marshall, and Carl Reiner.
Somm: Into the Bottle is a 2015 wine documentary and a sequel to SOMM (2013). The film tells the story and history of wine through ten different bottles opened throughout the film in different chapters. Directed by Jason Wise, it premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival and featured the main cast from the original SOMM film as well as additional notable people from the wine world.
Somm 3 is the third film in the SOMM documentary series, following 2013's SOMM and 2015's SOMM: Into the Bottle. Directed by Jason Wise and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, SOMM 3 centers on two tastings reminiscent of the 1976 Judgment of Paris.
The Delicacy is a 2020 documentary film about sea urchins and the divers who harvest them off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in the US. The film, directed by Jason Wise, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January 2020.
SOMM TV is a food and wine streaming network launched in 2019.
The Whole Animal is a documentary created by the streaming service SOMM TV. The film is about dishes and cultures using all parts of an animal for food.
