 My career in wine started shortly after I left school and joined Seagram UK (at that time part of the largest wine and spirits company in the world). While there, I studied with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, gaining my Diploma (the highest qualification) in 1986. Subsequent jobs involved running the sales office operations of two London wholesalers, selling wine to on-trade customers (hotels and restaurants) for Grants of St James’s and ultimately setting up my own wine education company called Vintastic in the South of England. While working for myself, I represented an Australian winemaker based in the South of France, worked with an inspirational winemaker in Israel, ran wine courses for adults and sold wine on behalf of the General Wine Company in Liphook. I also lectured at wine societies and clubs across the South of England. In 2003 I decided to further my own wine education and returned to study at Plumpton College (part of Brighton University) for a further 2 years. This HND course offered by the only winemaking college in the UK gave me the opportunity to put my academic knowledge in to practice, while learning skills such as pruning, planting and harvesting vines, as well as analysing, making and bottling wine with the odd bit of tractor driving for good measure. |
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 I began my working life in agriculture and prior to becoming involved in the wine business I spent several years in agricultural research. In 2001 I decided to look more closely at a subject which had fascinated me for some time, that of wine, and enrolled on the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s Advanced Certificate in Wines & Spirits. This allowed me the opportunity to take a vinegrowers course at Plumpton College in East Sussex, where I studied a range of subjects from botany and soil science to vineyard establishment. In 2004, having fortified my passion for wine, and in particular the viticultural aspect of it, I started working under the guidance of Peter Hall at Breaky Bottom Vineyard. Breaky Bottom lies in a hollow of the South Downs close to Lewes in East Sussex and is primarily devoted to the production of award winning, traditional method, quality sparkling wine, as well as small quantities of Crème de Cassis. I was responsible for the general maintenance of the vineyard, to include pruning, canopy management and harvesting. I also assisted the proprietor in the winery in all aspects of the winemaking process, from the first fermentation in tank through to the secondary fermentation in bottle. During this time I also worked part-time for a small, independent wine retailer selling specialist wines to the general public. In 2006 we took the decision to move to the Loire valley in France, a region steeped in history and having a rich viticultural heritage. We have established both a home and a business here in Cumeray, a tiny troglodytic hamlet 5 minutes from the river. |
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