FEATURES ARCHIVE

Do you remember your first experience with wine?
When I was 14 my dad gave me a wine making kit so my first true experience was with homemade elderberry wine - not the sort of thing we usually sell at Christie’s!

Sounds delicious. How long did it take you to make it?
Well the picking of the elderberries took a long time because they are so small. But the fermentation didn’t take that long. It fermented over the winter, and I helped it along by adding quite a lot of sugar. It practically turned into port it was so strong, and the small size of the berries meant that there was a high skin to pulp ratio giving the wine a very deep colour. My parents could always tell when I had been drinking it because my tongue would go bright purple.

So how did you go from homemade elderberry wine to becoming such a knowledgeable Wine Specialist at Christie’s
My first career was in investment banking, but I took a break to go travelling in South America and ended up spending a lot of time in Mendoza (lots of Malbec and great steak!). I took a sommelier course there and my interest in wine was reignited. I thought it would be a fantastic industry to work in, so upon my return to England I enrolled for an MBA in Wine Business Management and took it from there. I have been working at Christie’s for almost five years now and am currently studying to become a Master of Wine.

Which wine would you most like to take home from the upcoming sale?
Which wine wouldn’t I like to take home?! There are so many to choose from. For me the highlights would be the very rare J.L. Chave’s Cuvée Cathelin, in particular the 1990 and 2003 vintages which Robert Parker scored 100 points, and a case of Château La Mission Haut-Brion 1945, a very rare war year and a fabulous vintage which is still drinking very well now.

What advice would you give someone who is uncertain of the value of their wine?
Christie’s offers a free valuation and appraisal service for anyone who is interested. As a specialist I just need the name of the wine, the vintage and the quantity for an initial valuation. I don’t need to physically see them at an early stage so an email or phone call will be sufficient. We tend to sell well established names with a long tradition of excellence, like the Bordeaux First Growths or Burgundy Grand Cru.

Have you come across many great wine collections in and around London?
We find anything from the odd few bottles to larger collections, the latter being more common on the outskirts of London. A few years ago we found an incredible collection of Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s Hermitage La Chapelle in South West London. They had been given to the current owner who had little knowledge of wine and was delighted when a case of the 1961 vintage went on to sell for over £120,000 at auction.

Favourite hang-outs in London:
Anywhere with a good wine list and good food to match. I like the Capital Hotel, the Ledbury and Fino/Barrafina.

Words to live by:
Life is too short to drink boring wine.

Go-to culture fix:
Cirque du Soleil.

Person you most admire:
Her Majesty the Queen, she’s very dignified.

Dream travel destination:
Italy. Particularly Tuscany and Piedmont. And Burgundy…too many to choose!

Bottle of wine you’d pick for a month on a desert island:
A Hungarian sweet wine called Tokaji Essencia. Once opened it would keep for the month and has health-giving qualities so I think a spoonful a day would see me through, like an elixir of life.