UK based Wine Consultant with over 25 years of experience. Working with Producers, Importers, Distributors, Hotels and Restaurants.
My Background
I’m an award winning Wine Buyer with over 25 years experience in the wine trade. I have worked in wine retail, corporate wine sales, and wine buying. I am also a skilled wine blender, consultant to wineries, presenter of wine tastings, wine dinners, wine videos, wine staff training, sales training and as a wine tourism guide.
Wine Agency Sales
1999 – 2013
Wine Buyer
2013 – 2018
Senior Wine Buyer
2018 – 2020
Wine Consultant
2020 – Present
Toby hard at work wine judging
Having managed a team which imported around 6 million bottles of wine each year for seven years has given me extensive wine importation and inventory management skills. I have managed an award winning portfolio of 1200 wines for over seven years. This included being solely responsible for wine fault analysis, diagnosis and quality control for wine importation and distribution for over seven years. I also feel privileged to have been regularly invited to wine judge and have done so in international competitions including IWC, IWSC, Concorso Bacchus, London Wine Competition, Harpers Wine Stars as well as other regional competitions around the world.
I can give advice to wine producers around the world, importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers in the UK, and hotels and restaurants in the UK. Due to my extensive experience of most aspects of the wine trade I can tailor services for these different sectors. For wine producers for example I can assist with a targeted approach to finding new distributors by coaching export managers on effective strategies to gain new distribution, tailoring labels and blends for the UK market, Brexit planning and also by directly finding them representation with UK agency houses. Due to COVID I believe there will be more demand for these kind of services in the local market as producers move to subcontract rather than fly export managers around the world at great expense. I will also be offering to represent wineries in English speaking markets for tastings, training and other activities where producers cannot justify the expense of travelling thousands of miles themselves.
For smaller UK importers, distributors and wholesalers I also believe subcontracting wine buying will become increasingly attractive, as well as outsourcing wine and sales training.
For hotels and restaurants emerging from what looks to be a harsh winter of lockdowns, it will be more important than ever to make sure their wine ranges and staff product knowledge levels are fit for purpose. I’m still surprised how many restaurants give all their business to one merchant and also let them devise and print the wine list too, effectively handing control to a supplier. I believe they’re missing a trick and I think on-trade wine sales are suffering in the face of stiff competition from other categories as a result. For this reason I’ll be offering wine list reviews, staff training and other wine related advice to help outlets take back full control of their wine offering.
I’d love to show you how I can work with you to grow your business, empower your staff, or tailor your wines to specific markets.