Dr. Caroline Gilby
"I love the way that wine is such a great lens in a glass, bringing together the history and culture that has shaped it, the people, the soils, the climate and the grape variety. And nowhere is this written larger than in the story of Malvasia and how it is so closely linked to the history of the Mediterranean.
I am honoured to be a Malvasia ambassador and to continue to share the story of Malvasia and the wonderful wines it makes in its various guises".
Dr. Caroline Gilby MW, freelance writer and consultant, has a passion for the wines of Central & Eastern Europe. Caroline initially studied plant biology, in which she holds a doctorate, but abandoned life behind the microscope for a career in wine soon after winning the Decanter-Macallan Malt Whisky Taster of the Year Award while still a student.
Gilby passed her Master of Wine in 1992 and has been visiting and tasting the wines of Central & Eastern Europe, the Adriatic and the Balkans for over 30 years. Prior to her career as a writer, Gilby spent seven years as a senior wine buyer at Augustus Barnet off-licences, where Europe and Yugoslavia were among her first buying responsibilities.
Since 1995, Caroline has been freelance: she is panel co-chair at Decanter World Wine Awards, president of judging at Vinistra in Croatia and at Wine Vision by Open Balkan in Serbia. She is co-organiser of the UK's biggest wine event devoted to the region "The Ultimate Central & Eastern European Wine Fair".
In July 2018, Caroline’s own book "The Wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova" was published. Among others, she currently contributes to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, The Oxford Companion to Wine, and the World Atlas of Wine, and magazines/websites including Decanter, Jancisrobinson.com, Guild Somm, Vino i Fino, Revija Vino and Vinum.IN
She is working on "Serbian Wines - a new chapter" along with Igor Luković, due out in April 2026.
