Judges 2026

Dimitar Nikolov has 18 years’ experience in the wine industry as a sommelier, wine buyer, wine judge, wine writer and educator. Starting his career as a sommelier for a major hotel chain and at a restaurant in Chicago, Nikolov then returned to his native Bulgaria to work for Metro Cash & Carry, firstly as the wine buyer for Bulgaria, and then was promoted to category manager for Metro Cash & Carry’s entire Russian Federation operations, which saw him move to Russia. After 6 years with the company, Nikolov was appointed to a top management position at a wine importer specializing in Hungarian wines. Upon returning to Bulgaria, he created apollowine.com, online wine shop where he offers a selection of wines from Bulgaria, Balkans and the rest of the wine world. He holds qualifications from the ISG Chicago, the WSET Level 3 certificate, and is currently studying for the WSET Level 4 he Diploma. He is the co-founder of Wine and Spirits Academy Bulgaria (WSAB) located in Sofia, Bulgaria where he is teaching WSET courses. He is International wine judge who specialises in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which helped him to get invited as the only judge from Bulgaria in the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards competition in London for the last 10 years. He is also regularly, part of the judging panel at the most influential and prestigious Mundus Vini in Germany. He has been part of the Balkan International Wine Competition judging panel for two times.