About Us

Welcome Fellow Citizens of Planet Wine ! 

This website is open to all those who SAVOUR WINE. Regardless of whether you’re a hedonist, a nerd or you just want to be entertained: are all equally welcome to read, view and listen. Only tasting notes are exclusive for paid subscribers, but there will always be plenty to read for free.

APRIL 2026 is our TRIAL MONTH during which ALL CONTENT IS FREE. An yearly Reader’s Subscription costs less than 1.5 cents per day and a yearly Professional Subscription (including a license to us use the tasting notes and ratings for PR and sales) is less than 3 cents per day.

There will NEVER be any advertising here, and NOBODY in the wine industry will ever buy space here. There is NO TRACKING of users beyond anonymous stats such as how many of you looked at which story (to help us serve you better). We will NEVER sell any data and our sole source of income is paid subscriptions.

All the material published on this website is 100% the product of natural intelligence, meaning that we NEVER USE AI.  Every text is in ENGLISH and however small, is marked with the initials of the author. Currently, the team is:

Stuart Pigott in Eppstein/Germany (SP), who is British and German

Stuart Pigott is a British-German scriptwriter and wine journalist. He began writing about wine while a student in London in the early 1980s, since when he has followed the wine industry through booms and crises, plus many fashions and technical innovations. His studies in cultural history at the Royal College of Art in London greatly influenced the perspective he brings to wine. 

Stuart’s name is often linked to German wines, largely because he’s lived in Germany since 1994. However, within Europe he also extensively explored  Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Serbia, plus wine’s new Northern Frontier in England, Denmark and Norway. He also tasted extensively right across the USA, in Canada, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and he visited the wine pioneers of China, India and Thailand.

Although Stuart founded his website in summer 2007 what you see here is totally new. Many of you know that Stuart worked for James Suckling until the end of 2025, but none of the material he wrote there has been, or ever will be reused here. His goal is to say something original and exciting about the ancient story of wine. Stuart lives and writes in Eppstein in the Taunus hill country close to Frankfurt.

Dr. Frank Ebbinghaus in Berlin/Germany (FE), who is German

Dr. Frank Ebbinghaus was born in 1960. He grew up in Dortmund and Meinerzhagen in North Rhine-Westphalia, then studied history in Freiburg im Breisgau. At the beginning of the 1990s he moved to Berlin to work on his doctorate and met Stuart Pigott. They frequently tasted together and anything from Bordeaux to Australian Shiraz might land on the table, and they learned a great deal together during this crucial period of development for German wines.

Since then Frank worked as a journalist, writing for newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Kölnische Rundschau, and for many years was speech writer for the Governing Mayor of Berlin. Frank has remained true to his first wine loves, but is filled with curiosity for the new wonders of Planet Wine. He lives and writes in Berlin.

Tim  Eichelberger in Eppstein/Germany (TE), who is American

Tim Eichelberger was born in Washington DC in 1988 and grew up in Frederick/Maryland. He he studied Philosophy and Ethics at McDaniel College in the hope of becoming a professor of Philosophy. At a conference he met Valeria, a brilliant and beautiful Italian girl who’d come to the United States from the University of Heidelberg. Later, they moved to the area of Frankfurt.

 Among the many friends Tim met in Germany was a Sommelier (and now winemaker) with whom he spent many evenings tasting at home. Tim quickly became fascinated with all things wine and visited wineries in the Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Nahe, Mosel and the Pfalz. During a visit to Georg Breuer he tasted the Riesling  Berg Schlossberg 2008; a life-changing experience! 

Tim moved to the Taunus region where, in a supermarket checkout line, he saw a face he recognized from  wine books. Yes, it really was Stuart Pigott! A conversation followed, then a friendship and Tim has been tasting with Stuart as often as possible ever since, alongside his career as an ethicist in global finance. 

Brendan Howell in Berlin/Germany (BH), who is American, responsible for IT

Brendan Howell is an artist and a reluctant engineer. He is the creator of numerous interactive artworks and inventions. Additionally, he has spent a lot of time teaching digital practices in applied and fine arts at various European higher education institutions. He is also a member of the administrative do-ocracy of the Internet collective LURK and does, appropriately enough, sometimes lurk around those places. 

Additionally, Brendan is the initiator of the Berlin Permacomputing Meet-Up 
and contributor to the Freiraumlabor gardening collective. His home is 
in Berlin, Germany but he can often be found walking in wooded areas of 
Northern Europe or enjoying pastoral life in Hacksneck, Virginia, USA 
with his extended family.

Paweł Gruntowski in Athens/Greece (PG), who is Polish

After earning degrees in English Literature and PR in his native Poland, Pawel worked as a teacher and translator. Relocating to Uruguay soon changed the course of his career, as he enrolled in a sommelier program at the University of the Republic in Montevideo.  Travels to South America's major wine regions and work at wine events inspired him to move to London in 2012. There, he worked at the International Wine Challenge and Decanter Magazine while completing the WSET Level 3 Award. In 2015, Pawel joined a renowned Spanish winery as export director, spending three years developing their Central and Eastern European as well as Nordic markets from the Berlin office.

Having enrolled in the WSET Diploma in Wines and Spirits, Pawel established the Berlin Wine School, one of the leading providers of wine, spirits, and sake qualifications. A graduate of the JSS Sake and Shochu Academy in Tokyo, he holds the WSET Level 3 Award in Sake and Certified Sake Sommelier qualification from the Sake Sommelier Association in London.

Pawel splits his time between Berlin and Athens

Wine DominatriX in Bordeaux/France (WD)…it’s complicated

The identity of Wine DominatriX must remain a secret for her protection, and for yours!

WARNING: Wine contains ethanol/ethyl alcohol, which is a drug.