Born in a great vintage (and it wasn’t 1961), Jim swopped teaching for wine writing in 1988. His greatest passion is the Loire Valley, which he covers for timatkin.com, spending three months there each year, including vintage time. He is also an award-winning investigative journalist, who looks at scams, particularly wine investment scams on his own site, investdrinks.org. He also contributes to Decanter and has been the editor of Circle Update since 1991. Jim was the IWC’s Personality of the Year in 2012.