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En Primeur Club
Austin Burgess — Co-founder & Editor at Large

Co-founder & Editor at Large

Austin Burgess

Austin Burgess co-founded En Primeur Club in 2020 with Emmett Haley. His role on the masthead is breadth: the editor whose volume of fieldwork makes the publication's peer-comparison work hold up. When EP Club calls a $$$ counter against the $$ alternative across town, Austin is the editor who has eaten at both.

The fieldwork behind that: 49 US states, 17 countries, 150+ cities, 568+ restaurants and 125+ Michelin stars in person, 143+ wineries visited, and 100+ of the bar programs that compete at World's 50 Best Bars level. The wine work runs on the ground across Piedmont, Tuscany, Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux in Europe, and Napa, Sonoma, Willamette and Santa Barbara on the West Coast. He comes to wine as a serious collector and engaged enthusiast, not a trade hand, and the cellar list reads on the page as a working vocabulary rather than romance.

He came in through aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle, was inducted into Sigma Gamma Tau, and led a senior design team recognized by Gulfstream. He writes from San Francisco. The LinkedIn shorthand is "former rocket scientist turned product leader."

An aerospace background brings a particular discipline to ranking work: every claim has to trace back to a verifiable source before it earns its place on the page. That is the working standard the publication runs on.

Credentials

  • Co-founded En Primeur Club in 2020 with Emmett Haley and has held an editor-at-large pen across the publication's six years in print
  • Travel record across 49 US states, 17 countries, 150+ cities, 568+ restaurants, 125+ Michelin stars in person, 143+ wineries visited, and 100+ of the world's leading bar programs
  • Wine work on the ground across Piedmont, Tuscany, Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux in Europe, and Napa, Sonoma, Willamette and Santa Barbara on the West Coast
  • Reads a cellar list as a serious collector and engaged enthusiast, not a trade hand, with the depth to call a producer at one price tier against its neighbour at the same tier rather than the headline name
  • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, aerospace engineering with a computer science and AI minor; Sigma Gamma Tau aerospace honors society; led the senior design team recognized by Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation; writes from San Francisco as a former rocket scientist turned product leader

Elsewhere

For corrections or editorial questions, write to concierge@enprimeurclub.com. The full editorial methodology is published at /editorial-standards.