Maria Tzitzi is an enologist living in Athens and working for Greek and French wine companies. Her second novel, Dark cellar was awarded in Greece as the better crime novel by the Authors society and as the second best in the world crime book on wine at the Gourmand Wine books awards 2011. For Like wine she received the OIP best book prize. In 2015 she became a Knight of Agriculture in France honoured for her work on wines.