Jamal Rayyis is a US-based (New York City, Baltimore, Los Angeles) wine writer, educator and consultant who has long had an interest in regions, grape varieties, and wine styles that are underappreciated or unknown by both wine consumers and wine professionals. Currently he is a critic and editor for Wine & Spirits magazine, and works as US correspondent for the French wine magazine Gilbert & Gaillard International. He is also the author of seven editions of the annual Food & Wine Magazine Wine Guide (2002-2008), and his work has appeared in numerous publications, including Wine Enthusiast, Departures, Beverage Media, and New York magazines, The New York Times, Fodor’s, and several others.

He has been a judge at wine concourses around the world, including the Catad’or and Catad’or Vinos Ancestrales competitions in Chile, the Critic’s Challenge (San Diego), Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, the Great American (Rochester), the Tbilisi International Wine Concourse (Republic of Georgia), The Hyatt Wine Awards (Argentina), and The Dallas Morning News,.

Jamal consults for various wine regions, including for Sud de France (Occitanie/Pyrénées-Mediterranée), and lectures at some of the most important hospitality management and wine business schools in the United States, including Cornell University, the Culinary Institute of America (Napa and Hyde Park), the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Houston, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Sonoma State University, Northwest Wine Academy (Seattle), and Florida International University (Miami).

He also leads seminars and wine tastings for private clients, including corporations, wine clubs, and individuals, and consults for restaurants and wine shops, as well as wine collectors.

Jamal is currently writing a monograph about the politics of wine in the Middle East and North Africa.