Nicolas Belfrage


Nicolas Belfrage MW is a British Master of Wine, a wine writer and considered one of the foremost experts on Italian wine.

Life

Belfrage was born in Los Angeles in 1940, the son of British socialist writer Cedric Belfrage and his wife Molly Castle. He grew up in New York and London, and studied French and Italian at University College London. He has worked with Italian wine, either in the trade or as a writer, since the early 1970s and qualified as a Master of Wine in 1980, the first American to achieve this honor.
Belfrage has contributed to publications such as Decanter, The World of Fine Wine, Wein Gourmet, and shared a column in Harpers Magazine with Franco Ziliani, with whom he has also collaborated on contributions to Tom Stevenson's annual Wine Report.
For several years he has contributed the Italy section to Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book as well as to the Oz Clarke Pocket Wine Book.
Belfrage has been involved commercially in wine since the early 1970s as buyer for various specialist wine merchants. In 1996 he founded Vinexus, a specialist Italian wine importer.
Belfrage's sister was Sally Belfrage, his uncle was Bruce Belfrage and his great uncle was Bryan Powley. He has two children: Beatriz Belfrage and Ixta Belfrage.
Belfrage relinquished United States citizenship in 2020.