Jennifer Docherty is the first ethnically Chinese and Mandarin speaking Master of Wine. She grew up in a traditional Chinese household despite being born in Vancouver, Canada. Docherty was a fashion designer in New York before making her way to London. Her love of gastronomy led her to pursue part-time WSET wine courses, which inspired her to change careers from fashion to wine, where she eventually achieved the Master of Wine in 2015.
Jennifer worked in the UK wine trade in commercial capacity for over 12 years in sales, fine wine and buying. For over six years, she used her acute palate, which enabled her to pass her tasting exam on the first attempt, to select wines for Liberty Wines' award-winning portfolio as their wine and sake buyer. Jennifer was responsible for selecting wines from France, Spain, South Africa, China and Germany, in addition to many other countries, for importation into the UK and Ireland for distribution into restaurants, independent retailers and multiple retailers. She now resides in Hong Kong in order to be closer to the dynamic Asian wine market and to further her career using her Mandarin, in addition to her French language skills. Jennifer also judges wine and sake competitions including Decanter World Wine Awards, and writes a wine lifestyle column for DecanterChina.com.
