Prof. Thessaly Quarrington-Bell

Biography

Professor Thessaly Quarrington-Bell directs the Institution’s long-range oenological strategy, a function she describes as “the patient arrangement of glasses toward a future that has not yet been poured.” Her strategy papers are admired for their depth and, on occasion, for their length; the 2022 Horizon Paper ran to 412 pages, of which eleven were strategy.

A former Chair of Applied Oenological Thought at the University of Northern Ashmere, she is the author of the Quarrington-Bell Framework of Four Horizons, which classifies every future into one of four categories: imminent, approaching, inevitable and decanting. She is a sought-after speaker, known for opening addresses with a pause so extended that audiences have been observed to applaud it.

Career history

• 2016–present
  Chief Oenological Strategy OfficerThe Shit Wine Guide
• 2007–2016
  Chair of Applied Oenological ThoughtUniversity of Northern Ashmere
• 2001–2007
  Director of ForesightValmere Institute of Sensory Metrics
• 1995–2001
  Senior Lecturer in Palate FuturesCollège Royal d’Œnologie Appliquée
• 1992–1995
  Research FellowHalvorsen Institute of Sensory Sciences

Personal philosophy

The future is a cellar not yet entered; strategy is the lantern, and the lantern must be carried slowly.

Professional achievements

• Authored the Framework of Four Horizons and the 2026 Strategic Vision
• Founded the Foresight Unit and its Annual Horizon Paper
• Supervised sixty-three doctoral theses, forty-one of which were completed

Industry contributions

• Principal author of the Institution’s strategic vision documents
• Founder of the Palate Futures Colloquium
• Editor, Journal of Applied Oenological Thought

Read the author’s work in the library

• The Seven Pours: A Defence of Procedure (White Paper)