I started working in the French wine industry in 1994 as a sales person in a British wine warehouse, because I thought it would help my English! Although I did learn the difference between case (English/English) and crate (Scottish/English), I mostly learned that I had a natural understanding of wine and its varying characteristics.  

 

Shortly after, I was offered the opportunity to manage a wine shop in Normandy, and not long after that I accepted a position as a wine representative for a cognac and wine estate. This required traveling throughout France selling our products, as well as tasting wines and spirits from all over the world, which opened the door to the rest of my career.

 

I moved to Paris and continued to manage wine shops, responsible for selecting the wines as well as managing operations and building the clientele base. In Paris, I extended my network of wine professionals and those contacts are the basis for the training, knowledge and tasting skills I have today. Regularly attending professional tastings and doing the practical work necessary to train my palette and refine my taste naturally led to the opening of my own shop, where I housed the wonderful finds my experience yielded.

 

My store « LE GOUT DES VIGNES » was opened in 2003. I owned it for 10 years, building a loyal clientele, discovering their specific tastes and introducing them to mine, further developing their wine knowledge base while sharing the love of the grape. Demystifying the wine world and cultivating the tasting skills required to appreciate it made this possible, and this is what I’m proud to offer to my clients. Wine is first and foremost agriculture and should be accessible to anyone who wants to explore it. 

 

I’ve learned that to understand wine, you need to understand winemaking. Visiting the vineyards of many talented winemakers, who have shared their techniques and experiences at the source, has made it possible for me to appreciate and understand the complexity and charateristics of each and every bottle.