Jancis Robinson, OBE, who was the first person outside the wine trade to pass the rigorous Master of Wine exams, will attend New Zealand's Pinot Noir conference in 2017.
It is the biggest international wine conference held in the southern hemisphere and will be held over three days in Wellington in late January.
Pinot Noir NZ 2017 chairman Ben Glover said Ms Robinson was internationally renowned as the most powerful woman in the wine world and definitely added ''X-factor'' to what he promises will be an amazing event.
''As an opinion leader, Jancis has built an international reputation as a highly respected, disciplined and professional wine critic and writer, who is always open to new ideas and discussion.''
Her visit should get the industry ''energised'' and thinking about how it had evolved and where it saw its future, he said.
''She is a dynamic injection. New Zealand pinot noir has reached an exciting era and we need to tell our story to the world.''
Ms Robinson writes daily for JancisRobinson.com (voted Wine Website of the Year in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers Awards 2010), weekly for The Financial Times, and bi-monthly for a column that is syndicated around the world.
Speaking from her base in London, Ms Robinson said New Zealand seemed to be making better and more intricate and expressive pinot every year.
''I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with how New Zealand's different regions now express themselves through pinot noir,'' she said.
She also travelled all over the world to conduct wine events and act as a wine judge, and edited The Oxford Companion to Wine (4th edition to be published September 2015), co-authored with Hugh Johnson of The World Atlas of Wine, and co-authored Wine Grapes.
Pinot NZ is held every four years.
