Judge

Led by Mr. Micky Chan, Sake Samurai, the judging panel of the Oriental Sake Awards (OSA) consists of experts in alcoholic beverages who are based in Asia, namely educators, sommeliers and professionals with relevant qualifications.

MICKY CHAN
DipWSET, CS, CSW, 酒サムライ, きき酒師
JSS Overseas Support Desk (Asia), The ‘Future 50’ Wine & Sake Winner
Co-founder of the Hong Kong Wine Academy
Principal Lecturer & Wine and Sake Educator
Sake Samurai Mr. Micky Chan is a respected wine and sake expert who has diversified roles in the industry, including Educator, Writer, International Judge, Consultant, as well as serving as the Overseas Support Desk (Asia) for the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers’ Association.
As an Educator, he has co-founded the Hong Kong Wine Academy and is actively involved in delivering courses and training in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China.
As a professional Judge, Micky evaluates a few thousand bottles of wines and sakes yearly while judging in various international competitions including IWSC, IWC, Berlin Wine Trophy & Asia Wine Trophy and more.

HARUO MATSUZAKI
Born in Yokohama, 1960. After graduating from the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University, he joined Seibu Department Store (in charge of liquor division as buyer). He started a new career as a liquor journalist and consultant in 1997. He had written several books including; “Textbook for Sake” (Doyukan), “Sake Guidebook” (Shibata Shoten), and “the SAKE BOOK (with English translation)” (Jitsugyo no Nihonsha). Judge of Prefectural Sake Appraising and Deliberating Fair. (Fukushima, Shizuoka, and Ehime Prefecture) A member of the judging committee for Protection of Geographical Identifications (Nagano and Saga Prefecture). Judge of international sake competitions; “The U.S. National Sake Appraisal” and “International Sake Challenge”. Chairman of the Sake Export Association.

MADOKA NUMATA

In November 2004, she started her career selling Japanese alcoholic beverages at City Super Group in Hong Kong. She was a Manager of purchasing Japanese sake and other Japanese alcoholic beverages until May 2015. After leaving Hong Kong in the same year, she moved to Okinawa. Currently, she runs her freelance business “sakeand” and works as an overseas sake sales, overseas sales promotion coordinator as well as sake and awamori writer. Throughout her career, she works relentlessly to raise awareness of Japanese alcoholic beverages in the global market.

Hitoshi Utsunomiya

He was born in Ehime, Japan, in 1959. He worked for 25 years in the technical division of Japan National Tax Agency. He also researched the flavor of Sake at National Research Institute of Brewing for 10 years. He established the flavor terminology and reference standards for the sensory analysis of Sake. He also studied the food pairing of Sake from a scientific perspective. He is renowned as one of the most knowledgeable persons in Japan for the technology of brewing science and tasting skills of Sake. He has been invited as a judge in many sake contests worldwide.
Currently, he is a director of Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association. He is in charge of technical issues related to Sake and Shochu and overseas promotion.

ICHISHIMA KENJI

With more than 30 years of sake brewing industry experience, Ichishima Kenji is a consultant to those entering the sake industry from other industries and overseas. He also serves as a judge for international sake competitions such as IWC. He is dedicated to making sake one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the world.

FRANK CHEN

Frank has over 8 years of experience in the sake industry and is currently a sake buyer in a major sake distributor and retailer in Hong Kong. Before joining the industry, Frank has been working in Japanese companies for years. Since he tasted sake for the first time, he has become strongly interested in it. He is the holder of the WSET®️ Level 3 Sake Certificates and the Sake Sommelier Institute of Japan (SSI) International Kikisake-shi qualifications. 

BENNY LEE

Mr. Benny Lee, who has worked as media and graduated from the Institute of Japanese Studies at Chinese University, has several professional qualifications, including JSA Sake Diploma, Sake Sommelier Institute (SSI) Sommelier, Shochu Sommelier<br>and Lecturer, SSI International Lecturer, UK Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Japanese Sake and Wine Instructor, Hong Kong’s first Sommelier of Japanese Sake Sommelier Association (SSA), etc. He is also the official trainer for “Dassai”.

MATT HUI

Matt Hui DipWSET, CS, CSW, FWS<br>Sommelier Wine &amp; Sake Education Centre Principal Educator<br>Matt Hui has been teaching WSET wine and sake courses for many years. With his strong tasting and teaching experiences students are able to learn theory through tasting. Apart from<br>WSET wine and sake qualification Matt is also a candidate for Master of Wine (MW) and judge in IWSC for years.

ANDREW LAM

Andrew has been working in the F&B industry over 14 years. He has been engaged in related work since completing the sommelier & Kikisakeshi course in 2014. Since 2017, he has been participating in various wine & sake competitions including Young Sommelier Competitions (Top 6), world Kikisaki-shi competitions (one of the HK Winner & Representative), East Asia blind tasting competitions (Finalist) etc. Now he is working in F&B company as a General Manager, managed a wine & sake menu of all outlets, he is also one of the founders of “Sake Project”.

ZACHARY YU

Zach is one of Hong Kong’s most celebrated wine and spirit experts. Zach started his career as sommelier in 2004. In 2010, he was appointed Head Sommelier / Beverage Manager at 5-star Langham Place Hotel. He built and opened the hotel’s wine room, now recognized as one of the most innovative in Hong Kong. He revamped the hotel’s wine list, and introduced ground-breaking food & wine pairings for the hotel’s Michelin starred restaurant, for which he won numerous prestigious awards, local and international.

Rebecca Leung

Rebecca, who holds a WSET Diploma, is now a WSET Certified Educator, providing professional wine tasting courses for wine lovers and industry insiders; she has her own wine tasting blog “Wine is Beautiful”, and has written wine tasting columns in many newspapers and magazines, and is also the host of radio shows.
In order to turn her interest into practical experience and knowledge, Rebecca has visited wineries in many countries in the past years, and has traveled to countless wine regions, and even served as a judge of international wine competitions.