Cover Jackie Ang MW
Jackie Ang MW
1 / 1
Seven years and a pandemic later, scientist and wine educator Dr Jackie Ang can finally add MW to his achievements. He shares his favourite wines and future plans with Tatler
When the Institute of Masters of Wine announced its first vintage of 2025 on February 21, there was a familiar Singaporean name amongst the four to earn the title of Master of Wine. The programme, considered the most rigorous and demanding in the wine world, has a passing rate of around 10 per cent. Jackie Ang joins the current cohort of 425 active Masters of Wine in the world, and is the second Singaporean to achieve the feat after Tan Ying Hsien MW in 2015.
“I was chasing a dream that I once thought was so unattainable,” he reflects, on the journey that started in 2018 upon acceptance to the programme. During this time, he had to pass three examination stages, but these were variously deferred first due to family matters and then the Covid pandemic. He also juggled full-time work alongside teaching weekend classes at his wine school, Cherwell Wine and Spirits, while raising two young children, now 12 and 5 years old, with his very supportive wife.
Even after winning a Wines of Spain scholarship which defrayed some of the exam fees, Ang estimates that he spent about S$100,000 in the region. The cost includes international travel for seminars and winery visits, wines for tasting, and expenses for the research paper. Despite some setbacks including a first failed attempt at the blind tastings and a revised research topic, he never felt like giving up, confident that he wanted to be a part of the wine community, one that he stumbled into almost by chance.
In case you missed it: Meet The Master: The First Singaporean Master of Wine Ying Hsien Tan
A head for wine
Ang is a pharmaceutical scientist and is currently head of the High Throughput Screening group at the Experimental Drug Development Centre, under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). After obtaining his Masters in pharmacology from Cambridge and PhD in medical sciences from Oxford, he returned to Singapore in 2017 to work at A*Star, where he has since been promoted twice.
Prior to studying in England, Ang had no wine interest or knowledge until encountering an eight-course wine pairing dinner as a reward for good grades. His curiosity piqued, and he started to learn everything he could about wine, including joining the Oxford University Blind Tasting Club.
The mild-mannered scientist-to-be was hailed as a ‘supertaster’ after he was named top taster—two years in a row—at the annual blind wine-tasting competition called the Varsity, held between Cambridge University and Oxford University since 1953. An article in The Economist observed his “encyclopaedic knowledge and impeccable tasting notes.”
As well as being intellectually stimulating, wine combined history, philosophy, culture and geography, all which appealed to Ang. Step by step, he found himself deeper and deeper into wine. He obtained a WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wine while in the UK, which is one of the accepted certifications for entrance to the MW programme. As a top student, he was awarded a scholarship which could be used towards the MW. He needed a recommendation from an active MW, which he obtained from Tan Ying Hsien, and to be in the wine trade for at least three years, which led him to start Cherwell.
What’s next
When asked about his motivations to become a MW, Ang quips, “I need a retirement plan once I’m done with science!” On a more serious note, he is keen to help share knowledge and improve standards of wine appreciation in Singapore, which he noticed can be deep but not broad. “There is no lack of people who like wine, but most people gravitate to the same wine, or are label drinkers. If you want the wine market to mature, we need people to explore and experience more beyond just paying money for wine,” he shares. He hopes the qualification gives him more credibility and the chance to influence wine lovers to get more out of their wine.
His favourite grapes are riesling, which he considers underrated but which can make wines of immense elegance and age-worthiness in a wide range of styles from dry to very sweet, as well as syrah which also displays the same versatility from light and elegant to big and ripe.
Two wines which he believes should be more popular are port, “world class wines with immense concentration and age-worthiness”, and verdicchio, “very high quality potential and we have only scratched the surface of what can be done with this variety”.
Alsace wins his vote as favourite wine region, with its picturesque small towns and “brilliant underpriced aromatic white wines as they aren’t that popular”. He recommends visiting Marcel Deiss, Trimbach, Domaine Weinbach and Josmeyer. Next on his travel wishlist would be Mendoza, where the sheer diversity of altitudes, mesoclimates and soils suggest unlimited potential.
Another important mission is to train the next generation of wine experts in Singapore, maybe even the next MWs. With a smaller wine scene in Asia, where the cohort of candidates are in the single digits, he missed being a part of study groups that could push and encourage each other along. What’s for sure is that he intends to stay in his scientific career for the foreseeable future. “Sadly, whether you’re writing, teaching or consulting, the wine industry here doesn’t really pay the bills—yet. Most MWs are in demand for international facing organisations, and those opportunities are fewer here.”
Other MWs based in Singapore aside from Tan and Ang are Annette Scarfe and Richard Hemming from the UK, and Benjamin Hasko from Australia, who is a rare holder of both Master of Wine and Master Sommelier titles.
