Tom is an experienced assessor of all things liquid, having been a senior judge in wine and spirit competitions for over 25 years. He's also a respected educator, and was in charge of Vinopolis - once London's biggest wine tasting visitor attraction - for 17 years. Nowadays he provides training for hundreds of people a year - not least for culinary establishments such as Le Cordon Bleu.

Tom has been following the alcohol-free space with interest for the last four years, and has worked on WAFA behind the scenes since it started, to ensure that all of the drinks are correctly served and flighted. 

His favourite category is the vermouth/bitters sector, where he finds lots of concentration, complexity and innovation. But (perhaps because he originally trained as a chef) Tom's really looking forward to sampling the wines and wine alternatives.

'I want to see what forward movement there's been here, because I'm sure this is going to be the next big leap forward,' he says.