Food & Wine’s 2025 Drinks Visionaries Awards

Not long ago, Cabernet and Chardonnay ruled every wine list, beer was a sea of look-alike lagers, and ordering a Negroni felt almost rebellious. In a relatively short time, a new wave of innovators has redefined our drinking vocabulary. Drinks Visionaries, Food & Wine’s newest awards program, honors 12 trailblazers who are changing what — and why — we pour.

Our inaugural class stretches across the beverage landscape. Meet a globe-roaming spirits educator who puts inclusion in every backbar, and an Indigenous bartender threading ancestral flavors into contemporary cocktails. A Florida brewer turns civic pride into crisp beers, while Lowcountry distillers revive heirloom corn for a bourbon steeped in history. Out west, an agave champion introduces wild mezcal to fresh audiences; a physician-vintner shows that sustainably farmed mountain reds can rival any classic; and a Napa duo restores vineyard soils through regenerative farming. Rounding out the list are a Riesling evangelist reframing America’s white-wine story, a biodynamic sommelier, hospitality advocates funding the industry’s future, whiskey scouts uncovering hidden barrels, and a tireless defender of traditional tequila. 

Selected from hundreds of nominations by a 60-member panel of bartenders, winemakers, brewers, and hospitality leaders, these Visionaries are showing what progress tastes like. Pour something delicious — then toast our 2025 honorees.

Danielle Goldtooth

Imagine a present in which Indigenous food and drink traditions were never disrupted. Bartender Danielle Goldtooth, who grew up in Shiprock, New Mexico, is building that future now. Through Dii IINÀ and SteamCorn Punk — a nomadic restaurant project — she champions food sovereignty and cocktails rooted in Indigenous ingredients, sparking conversations about appropriation, sobriety, and what regional drinks might taste like on an unbroken timeline.

Amanda Gunderson & Travis Nass

Founded in 2018 by bartenders Amanda Gunderson and Travis Nass, Another Round Another Rally is closing hospitality’s glaring gaps. The nonprofit raised more than $3 million in pandemic relief, then built scholarships, cultural education, and a sustainability push called Rally for Tomorrow. As policy shifts strain workers and operators, the group now offers mental health and legal support — including programs for Spanish-speaking and LGBTQ+ pros — and is planning retirement and career tools that extend beyond the bar.

Laura Catena

An ER physician and fourth-generation vintner, Dr. Laura Catena blends science and terroir to shape wine’s future. At Bodega Catena Zapata and Luca, she brings a research-driven lens to viticulture, championing moderation rather than prohibition. In 2024, she launched In Defense of Wine to decode alcohol-and-health headlines, and in 2025 helped debut Domaine EdeM, a no- and low-alcohol line. Her mission: mindful pleasure, farming communities, and a drinks culture grounded in heritage.

Max Reis

At Mírate in Los Angeles, beverage director Max Reis is redefining what an agave bar can be. Since the restaurant opened in 2022, he’s built a program that skips mass-produced tequila in favor of small, family-owned producers — think mezcals, pulque, Mexican gins, and single-barrel rums — with roughly a third of the 500-plus bottles unavailable elsewhere in the U.S. Through free classes and regular industry education, Reis channels Southern California’s agave buying power into advocacy, sharing ancestral spirits conscientiously.

Colin Asare-Appiah

Colin Asare-Appiah is the driving force behind AJABU Cocktail & Spirits Festival, a twice-yearly celebration of African drinks culture launched in South Africa in March 2024. The Brooklyn-based Ghanaian bar veteran created Ajabu to empower the trade and honor pioneers like the late Douglas Ankrah, of Porn Star Martini fame. Next up: expanding across more of Africa’s 54 countries and establishing continent-centered hospitality awards. In other words: Get involved, bruv.

Steve & Jill Matthiasson

Steve and Jill Matthiasson have long championed an alternative Napa, and now they’re leading voices for regenerative organic viticulture. Since 2003, the couple has farmed and made wine with a soil-first ethos, experimenting beyond Napa’s canon, from Chenin Blanc to amphora-aged Greco. Their newest statement is classic: a $150 Phoenix Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, grown regeneratively on the hillside above their winery to prove that better farming can taste undeniably great.

Nora Ganley-Roper & Adam Polonski

Founded in 2018 by Nora Ganley-Roper and Adam Polonski, Lost Lantern Whiskey brings Scotland’s independent-bottler model to America, sourcing barrels from small distilleries, showcasing makers, and creating unique blends. The Vermont-based duo partners with over 40 distilleries in more than 20 states. Their motto, “Shining a light on the independent spirit,” aims to introduce drinkers to world-class whiskey beyond the big names.

Pascaline Lepeltier

Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier became France’s national representative for the 2026 Best Sommelier of the World competition. But the win isn’t the point. The Chambers restaurant co-owner is reframing wine tasting as mindfulness and building a Wine Scholar Guild diploma to launch in January 2026. A champion of natural wine and Chenin Blanc, Lepeltier cemented her influence through her 2024 book One Thousand Vines and continues to shape the future of wine.

Jenna Fields

After a 2008 trip with importer Rudi Wiest, Jenna Fields dedicated her career to German wine. When Wiest Selections closed in 2019, Fields launched The German Wine Collection, transitioning his portfolio. Today, the GWC represents 22 wineries and imports 350,000-plus bottles, and is the only U.S. importer exclusively focused on German wines. Education drives her mission: showcasing sekt and dry styles, championing Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc, and getting more German bottles poured by the glass.

David Suro-Piñera

After a fire forced a two-year closure, Philadelphia’s beloved restaurant Tequilas Casa Mexicana reopened in March 2025 to cheers from agave fans. Founder David Suro-Piñera — educator, importer, and coauthor of the James Beard Award–winning Agave Spirits — has spent decades championing sustainable, tradition-minded producers through the Tequila Interchange Project, Siembra Spirits (including Siembra Azul), and the Siembra Suro Foundation. As his three children steer the refreshed restaurant — now split between fine-dining Tequilas and all-day café La Jefa — Suro-Piñera remains hands-on, connecting drinkers to Mexico’s agave culture.

Kristopher Johnson

At Green Bench Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida, co-owner and brewer Khristopher Johnson chases perfection — tasting IPAs, pulling lager from tanks, and preaching on wild fermentation with zeal. The brewery’s name nods to the city’s formerly segregated green benches, a past Johnson uses to spark conversation. Beyond the brewhouse, Johnson helped build the University of South Florida’s brewing arts program and serves on the Michael James Jackson Foundation board, mentoring future brewers.

Ann Marshall & Scott Blackwell

At Charleston’s High Wire Distilling, founders Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell treat grain as the star, not an afterthought. They helped revive Jimmy Red, a once nearly extinct heirloom corn, and in 2016 released a two-barrel bourbon that sold out in minutes. Since then, they’ve expanded plantings across South Carolina and grown to 6,000 barrels, proving that terroir-driven Southern agriculture can define whiskey — and dovetail with the region’s home-cooking traditions.