Sharing Regional Initiatives
Below are two exciting initiatives being undertaken by our regions and could be adopted by other branches or regions to further enhance their profile and potentially increase membership. Please read on and if you would like to find out more please email sec@iwfs.org and we will put you in touch with the correct person.
Americas – Young Members Circle
Things are looking bright in the Americas with the opening of the Young Members Circle (The YMC) in New York with 70+ members and two high profile events already been held. The inaugural event was on 20 September at the New York Yacht Club featuring the wines of Ch Cheval Blanc and Ch d’Yquem, followed soon after on 24 October with a Chapoutier Dinner at La Goulue on the UES (pictured). The key to its success is appealing to recent graduates who were members of a university wine club and in this case, now working in New York.
Chris Ankner, Americas Chairman, recently interviewed Alan Frishman, The YMC founder, to find out more about The Young Members Circle:
Chris Ankner: So what is the YMC?
Alan Frishman: The Young Members Circle of the IWFS, known as The YMC, is a new chapter of our society located in NYC that started this August. There was much debate about its name, with ‘Young, ‘Junior’ and Next- Gen’ all getting airtime, but Young won the vote amongst potential members who participated in brainstorming sessions. Then Cathleen Burke, who was involved from the beginning, came up with the brilliant addition of ‘Circle’, reminiscent of the Metropolitan Opera House’s dress circle, to connote exclusivity. Wow. Rose Clemson showed amazing artistic talent by designing the YMC logo with the emblem of the IW&FS framed between two semi circles.
The YMC is restricted to those aged 21 thru 39 with the subsequent objective being for its members to transition into the NYW&FS. The mission of the YMC is to be a fun, selective wine society with curated members of high caliber who are to be provided with unique opportunities to learn more about wine through frequent tastings, dinners, galas, and other events in settings of elegance and prestige. Many pending members were told to regard admissions as life-altering, because years from now, they will look back on the friendships they formed, the sophistication they gained, the depth and breadth of global winemakers they met, and the wines they experienced, and they will wonder how their life would have differed without their YMC membership.
CA: How big is the YMC?
AF: The YMC has 71 members to date. It will be capped at 120 members to fill events with minimal waitlists. By great fortune, applications have been submitted almost 50/50 by gender since the chapter started accepting candidates. Today, there are 36 female and 35 male members. The mean average age is 27.6 years with the greatest cluster being 25- to 27-year-olds with 10-12 members each. The application requests the reasons for joining the YMC amongst educational, professional, and social interests; practically all prioritize social, then educational, and then professional.
CA: What kind of events is the YMC holding?
AF: The YMC will hold ten monthly events a year, taking breaks in January and June. September featured Pierre Lurton presenting Cheval Blanc and Ch. d’Yquem, Oct was Chapoutier, and the December Gala will feature Bollinger and Guigal. Next year’s line-up includes a Riesling tasting in February, Pichon Baron in March, Kistler (hopefully) in April, Bouchard for the May gala, a port tasting in Sept, and Pommery champagne in Nov.
CA: Why did you start the YMC?
AF: The background story is simple. For the past 13 years, I have had the honor of mentoring a wine society of college seniors. Upon graduation, the members left for various cities where there was no equivalent group of peers with whom to share their passion. A similar problem faces many parents here in NYC who are members of wine societies and who wish to share and pass on their passion. Their children find the experience of attending such wine events as a guest exhilarating and extraordinary but also intimidating and deficient of contemporaries. They rarely if ever return. The YMC is the ideal solution to these shortcomings.
CA: Tell me about the current management of the YMC.
AF: The YMC’s management structure consists of an external Senior Council and five committees, including Membership, Finance, Events, Wine, and pending, Media. While the committees are composed entirely of YMC members, the Senior Council is composed of four members of the NYW&FS; Gunnar Pritsch, who runs the latter’s Events Committee, Cathleen Burke, who co-heads its Wine Committee, and my wife Lily and me.
CA: How does the YMC co-exist with the established New York City Branch?
AF: This is a great question, Chris. The relationship is symbiotic rather than zero-sum, as would be the case were the two branches pursuing the same members, sponsors, and venues. This symbiosis can be viewed through short-, medium- and long-term shared benefits.
In the short term, both chapters help each other to attract new members through word of mouth, create special opportunities for the memberships to attend each other’s events, introduce sponsors or the chance of piggybacking sponsorships over consecutive nights, help refine best practices, and support negotiations with venues through relationships and scale.
In the medium term, the chapters will be able to help each other fill events should the need arise, provide media guidance and the use of the IWFS website for events, and create a refreshing presence of new faces at joint events.
In the long term, the YMC will pursue its core mission of providing a membership pipeline to the NYW&FS while enhancing its reputation as a unique wine society here in NYC and its goodwill amongst the greater wine community.
CA: Alan, thank you very much. I applaud the effort. This is a very exciting branch, and I wish it the best.
Alan Frishman is active in the world of wine as a collector, frequent visitor to France, and highly regarded speaker at wine society events. Based in NYC, he serves on the Board of the IWFS of New York and has served on the grand Council and as Chair of the Wine Committee of the Commanderie de Bordeaux. Alan is also a member of the Côtes du Rhone Wine Society, the Tastevin Burgundy Wine Society and XXXVI, a private wine society limited to 26 members nationally. His private wine collection includes over 16,000 bottles. Alan is also a business leader – a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School, he worked for 17 years in Hong Kong as founder and CEO of Asiachem Limited, then the largest privately-held Asian chemical trading and distribution company. After moving back to NYC in 1997, Alan married Lily Wei Frishman, and is today one of two partners at ALAC International Inc., headquartered in the Empire State Building.
The YMC’s inaugural event on Sept 20 at the New York Yacht Club featuring the wines of Ch. Cheval Blanc and Ch. d’Yquem
Pierre Lurton engaging YMC members
YMC members enjoying the Chapoutier dinner event held Oct 24 at La Goulue on the UES
Europe Africa – Young Chef Competition 2025
Now in its fourth year, this competition aims to connect with budding chefs by encouraging them to be creative in their dishes and to also help build their confidence as they go through catering college and beyond. The competition also introduces the IWFS to these young students as they embark on a career in the world of food and possibly wine, so they know who we are should our paths cross again in the future.
The competition was the brainchild of branches in the north of England and local colleges were invited to take part. The focus in 2025 is ‘British Fusion’ reflecting the exciting trend to adding an international twist to traditional staple British dishes. The competition takes the form of a series of College Heats when the competitors present their dishes, then there is The Final when the winning chef and their dishes are selected and then the final, stage 3 is the Grand Awards Lunch when the winners prepare their dishes for the guests including chef judges, sponsors, fellow students and IWFS members.
The 2024 winner was Tara Hunter (pictured with her trophy) from Leeds College, for her winning ‘FREE FROM’ (gluten free) dish.
On 30 April 2025 the judging panel at The Final will be headed up by Paul Heathcote MBE (pictured above with a contestant from a previous year) who will select the winning young chef together with the front of house student whose wine pairing exhibits a real understanding and appreciation of the added pleasure. The winning names will not be known until the announcement at the Grand Awards Lunch on 16 May 2025.
To find out more about this Europe Africa initiative please visit the website: https://iwfsyoungchef.com/ or discuss this with one of the team who work on this project please email Tim Hodges or Stephen Harrision.