Andrew Jefford

Andrew Jefford (born 1956) is an English journalist, poet, and writer, the author of various books and columns on wine, whisky, travel and perfume.

Education The son of a Church of England clergyman and the eldest of three brothers, Jefford grew up in Norfolk, England. He was educated at Gresham's School, the University of Reading (where he read English, awarded First Class Honours) and the University of East Anglia, where his post-graduate studies were jointly supervised by the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Guido Almansi. At UEA he obtained an MA in the 19th and 20th Century novel (awarded With Distinction), then worked for two years on a PhD thesis on the short fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson, which was not completed. He was the drinks writer for The Evening Standard, the evening newspaper for the London region, He is one of the four co-chairs for Decanter World Wine Awards, and works as Academic Advisor to The Wine Scholar Guild.

Among his books are The New France (2002), Peat Smoke and Spirit (2004, republished as Whisky Island in 2019), Andrew Jefford's Wine Course (2008, revised edition published 2016) and Drinking With The Valkyries (2022).

On television, he has worked as a chef's assistant and has reported on whisky for Food File (Channel 4, 1996) and SCAM (Carlton Television, 2003)

Jefford has lived with his family, Paula, John and Joe, near Montpellier, France, since 2010, after 15 months spent in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was Wine Writer in Residence to the Wine 2030 Research Network and a Senior Research Fellow at Adelaide University. He is also a published poet, with work featured in The Spectator and The Independent.