Women in Wine LDN in conversation with Jancis Robinson

The last day of April 2024 saw team Women in Wine LDN host our flagship event at Vintners’ Hall, the informal home of the wine industry since 1363. As our biggest annual get together, kindly supported for another year by the Vintners’ Trade Liaison Committee, we knew we needed a speaker who could do justice to the incredible space. And that we did! 

When tickets for ‘An evening with Jancis Robinson’ sold out in under 2 minutes, we knew we needed to sort a cracking selection of wines for our thirsty community. Some fine fizz to start things off felt non-negotiable and was generously provided by Piper Heidsieck. Drinks for afterwards ranged from a nutty white Rioja, to an old vine Argentine white to a Douro double magnum. We also secured one of our favourite non alcs from our friends at REAL. Full details of the drinks served can be found below. All wines were served in Jancis’ own glassware, a collaboration with designer Richard Brendon, available here. 

The conversation was hosted by Women in Wine LDN’s very own Anjali Douglas. Together the duo covered topics ranging from pursuing a career that centres around pleasure, the lack of diversity in the world of fine wine, the changing landscape of wine writing and the past, present and future of gender inequality in our industry. Attendees needed no encouragement to put questions to Jancis, which included managing writer's block, making the wine industry less London-centric, encouraging more young drinkers to engage with the category and of course, the obligatory ‘what’s your favourite wine?’ (answer: Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947 out of magnum).

After the talk, those that were brave enough joined the building’s General Manager Steve Marcham for a Vintners’ Hall ghost tour (yes, really), whilst the rest of us filed upstairs for a glass of wine, a munch on a canape and to continue the conversation. An unforgettable evening for us, thank you to those who joined us and all who made it possible. 

Pictures below were captured by official Women in Wine LDN photographer Krishanthi Puwanarajah.

List of Wines:

Piper-Heidsieck Essentiel Extra Brut NV, Piper-Heidsieck and Liberty Wines 

El Montañista Criollas Blancas 2021, Valle de Calingasta, Indigo Wine 

Finca Nueva ‘Fermentado Barrica’ Blanco 2020, Rioja, Bancroft Wines

Niepoort ‘Drink Me’ Tinto 2017 (double magnum), Douro, Niepoort and Halo Wines

The REAL Drinks Co. Peony Blush, Dry Dragon and Royal Flush Sparkling Tea, Buckinghamshire, (Non Alc)

We provided one member of our community a paid opportunity to cover the event and hope this to be the first of many paid writing opportunities. You can read Katie Reading’s bio and piece on the event below. 

Women in Wine LDN in conversation with Jancis Robinson

Jancis Robinson and Anjali Douglas

Katie worked for five years as a buyer for online fine wine retailer, FINE+RARE, before taking a break to have a baby. She holds a WSET Diploma in Wine + Spirits and has a particular interest in Champagne and Italy.

To an audience of over 100 women (and a handful of men) at the venerable Vintners’ Hall, Jancis Robinson joined Women in Wine LDN at their flagship event, discussing her 4-decade career and issues ranging from pleasure to sexism, winewriting bug bears and more. 

After the talk, the attendees gathered for drinks (fabulous offerings from Piper Heidsieck, Pancho Bugallo, Miguel Ángel de Gregorio and Niepoort) and to discuss how evening’s star came across, wearing her “celebrity” with a natural, plain-spoken ease.

“Has this been recorded?” Jancis Robinson asked at the end of the talk, followed by a husky chortle, worried that her honesty may have led to the occasional indiscretion. When she started out, she explains, she felt complete freedom to say what she wanted – after all, who was listening? As her reach and influence increased, she has became more aware of the need for self-censorship. What hasn’t changed is that she treasures and fiercely guards her independence from any commercial ties – ensuring she keeps the interests of the ordinary drinker at the heart of her writing.

Jancis was happy to share her wine writing bugbears: primarily long lists of obscure descriptors in tasting notes. Palates are subjective, and one person’s “hickory-smoked kumquat” will mean nothing to the ordinary drinker. “Physiologists have found that we can only taste four different flavours at once”, she says, so finds listing ten different aromas “rather senseless”, choosing instead to focus on structure, texture and practical advice like tasting windows.

Buzz words in press releases and wine labels that get overused to the point of losing all meaning are equally irritating to Jancis: ‘passion’, ‘saline’ as the new ‘mineral’, ‘curated’, ‘limited edition’, ‘picked at optimum maturity’, everything done ‘gently’.

Jancis touched briefly on the divisive issue of wine scores, considering them herself to be a necessary evil, but highlights they are not as ubiquitous in the UK, as in the US, where every wine shelf is plastered with them.

Her tip for aspiring wine writers is to find a niche to get established – from NFTs to Romanian wine – and then to run a mile from the specialism to not be pigeonholed. Her advice in general for anyone building a career in the wine industry is “be nice to people”, “be assertive rather than strident”, and “try to enjoy it”.

To Jancis, a career in wine was always about pleasure combined with intellectual stimulation, ignoring assertions that working in wine or food was a “shocking waste of an education” for this Oxford graduate. Though her initial career aspirations are surprising, “cooking lunches for directors”, she is clearly proud of her food critic husband and restaurateur son.

She says food and wine differ, however, in that “anyone can say something about food, whereas many people don’t dare to express an opinion about wine without some education”. This is expected perhaps by certain, predominantly, men lurking in the FT.com comments section. She is glad she didn’t join the prestigious Oxford Wine Circle with other members such as Oz Clarke when she was a student, as she feels the more confident men would have beaten it out of her to pursue a wine career.

Her advice on pay inequality is to expose it if you can - ask for transparency and make a rightful claim to be paid the same as a male colleague doing the same job. Even Jancis, though, discussed feeling awkward about asking for more money and needed to be encouraged by her husband to increase her speaking fee. She came round, conceding that especially when bankers and lawyers take up her precious evenings, “they can jolly well pay!”.

Jancis says she was “shocked but not surprised” by allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that have been particularly pernicious in the hospitality industry in recent years and though she was no stranger in her early career to hearing things like “I say, do you come to these things to taste for your boss?”, she hasn’t felt being a woman held her back in her career.

And what a career it is, spanning four decades - becoming a Master of Wine in 1984, writing for the FT since 1990 and authoring essential wine texts, including the Oxford Companion to Wine. Her latest venture is her own glassware, which she eventually agreed to because she liked designer Richard Brendon and his team so much.

Whilst she champions the future generation of wine writers (her website’s annual Wine Writer of the Year competition has just gone live), she says she has no intention of stopping just yet: “when they ask me to move, I’ll move”.

Judging by the level of appreciation from Women in Wine LDN’s audience, none of us want Jancis to go anywhere anytime soon.

Masters of the Napa Valley "In Concert"

From left: Diana Snowden Seysses, Rosemary Cakebread, Cathy Corison and Women in Wine LDN’s Regine Lee MW

In Berry Bros & Rudd’s Sussex Cellar, St James, London

The latest Women in Wine LDN event, hosted with Pol Roger Portfolio, spotlighted three masters of Napa Valley winemaking.

Cathy Corison, Rosemary Cakebread and Diana Snowden Seysses were in London to show their collaborative blend, Lot 23 “In Concert”. Produced for the Premiere Napa Valley auction, whose proceeds fund programs to promote, protect and enhance the Napa Valley, it was actually created during the pandemic over Zoom, also with Dawnine Dyer. One thing was important from the start - each winemaker would contribute an equal amount to the blend, bringing together wines from estate vineyards in St Helena, Oakville, Diamond Mountain and Spring Mountain. Only 240 bottles were produced and then bought by Pol Roger Portfolio. We were really honoured to have been able to taste it and to meet the inspiring winemakers.

The outstanding Lot 23 “In Concert” is an inky-coloured wine, complete with complex aromas and a delicate edge. We also tasted Corison Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Cakebread’s Gallica Red 2017, and Snowden Cabernet Sauvignon 2017; all incredibly different yet sharing a common elegance and powerful texture. Many of us agreed that rarely had we tried Napa wines like these. They were vibrant and bright, whilst maintaining the true beauty of the grapes used.

We discussed the challenges each winemaker had encountered, whether they were a result of the vintage or counteracting the opinions of others. Climate change consistently came to the forefront of discussion, specifically the erratic weather events that have gripped California. 2011 was a challenging year for Napa, the cool weather slowed ripening and heavy rain left an increasing risk of rot; Cathy described her concern about whether she would even make a vintage that year. Canopy management played a key part in overcoming this challenge, stripping the leaves more so than usual to ensure the grapes had the best chance of ripening. In contrast, 2017 was an intensely hot year, with temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius; this is a year that is hard to disassociate from the October wildfires. As a result, the challenges were not only in the vineyard, but also in the community. Rosemary described how her head was in winemaking, but her heart was in helping her community and team members that had been affected. This testing year and the difficult decisions it took to navigate it, inspired Diana to increase her own involvement in climate change activism, proclaiming that truth-based power is key.

As three female winemakers, they confirmed their experiences had not been exempt from doubts born out of gender. Cathy’s response of ‘watch me’ when told by a professor she would never work in Napa Valley, was both empowering and inspirational; the lesson being obstacles do not have to be the end of long held ambitions. Diana advised us to not sweat the small things, to find your individual power and to focus on that. This was echoed by Cathy as she described how she always had a wine in her, waiting to get out, it was something she just had to do, no matter what she was told.

One thing was abundantly clear, these women had created an incredibly strong support network and leaned on each other when needed. The saying ‘it takes a village’ couldn’t be more true in the wine industry, whether you are working in the vineyard, sales or hospitality. This is a notion all women in wine can hold close, supporting one another going forwards.

A big thank you to Pol Roger Portfolio for sponsoring the event, Berry Bros & Rudd for hosting and to both for supporting women in wine.

Spotlight on: Jane Anson

We were delighted to host Jane Anson at the Farr Vintners office on 16th May 2022. WIW LDN’s Hannah Van Susteren led the discussion on her foray into wine journalism, how she established herself as one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on Bordeaux, and her outlook on Bordeaux’s future.

Jane also talked about how she built her career and her brand, giving us advice on having a specialism, and that “the harder you work, the luckier you get”. She bootstrapped her publication of “Bordeaux Legends, a history of the 1855 First Growth wines” which elevated her profile as an authority on the region. She discussed the generosity of each chateaux in letting her into their inner sanctums, which led her to be Bordeaux correspondent for Decanter Magazine. The Covid pandemic, which threw the industry and wine journalism for a loop, provided the impetus for her to strike out by herself and establish her own website (janeanson.com) and consultancy, which has become successful and profitable within its first year. Jane also created a mentorship scheme, bringing young wine trade members to Bordeaux to meet key people in the industry and have a first-hand experience tasting wines at the chateaux.

Speaking about her newest book, ‘Inside Bordeaux’, she talked about new discoveries about the region, primarily the insights into terroir mapping and sustainability. Jane said that to keep Bordeaux relevant for the next generations she spoke about the need to keep being open-minded and outward looking.

Thank you so much to Jane for meeting with us, and to Farr Vintners for your generosity hosting us and supporting women in wine!

What's Shaking Up the Wine Job Market? Q&A with Vinokelly Search

On 1st March, we hosted a Zoom call with Elizabeth and Gareth O’Kelly, co-founders of drinks industry recruitment firm, Vinokelly Search.

We had a fantastic conversation about the Covid pandemic’s effect on the job market. Candidates are increasingly requesting flexible working, even in back office roles which tended to be exclusively office-based, and employers are having to concede and face the challenge of creating a hybrid working policy across the board. Elizabeth and Gareth also mentioned employers have really noted the importance of customer services, logistics/supply chain, and B2C e-commerce skills in the face of companies having to pivot their business models during lockdown.

We spoke about how to negotiate a compensation package, and they provided recommendations for women such as utilising recruitment agents, asking for a base pay review after a contract starts if an offer is a bit lower than desired, and being upfront about salary expectations at the beginning of the process. The O’Kellys talked about the significant increase in start ups in the wine industry post-pandemic, which tend to engage in technology and/or have an irreverent, fun approach to wine, and how to navigate potentially working for them. On an optimistic note, they’ve observed that generational shifts in senior management at wine companies has led to progress in recruiting for a diverse workforce.

Thanks so much to Elizabeth and Gareth for a fascinating talk!

Managing your career: How to optimise the recruitment process

On 1st August, 30+ members of Women in Wine London enjoyed an insightful presentation with Gary and Elizabeth O’Kelly, of Vinokelly recruiters at WSET, Bermondsey Street.

This husband and wife duo set up Vinokelly just three years ago. Gary worked in fine wine sales for a number of years and Elizabeth in financial recruitment, and they recognised a gap in the wine market for recruitment which they filled by combining their experiences.

We discussed different approaches to applying for jobs. Elizabeth and Gary said that often women don’t feel qualified because they don’t fulfil all points in a job spec. It is important to remember, however, that many employers don't expect any one candidate to have all their requirements (and certainly not fulfilling each criteria doesn't prevent men from applying). Instead, employers are taking a more fluid approach to hiring and such specs are just a starting point. They are really looking to see what individual candidates can bring to a role holistically.

Across the informative hour long discussion we covered the following topics:

Writing your CV and cover letter:

• Use statistic to illustrate what you have achieved. For example: sales figures, margin targets, operational KPIs, ROI, budgets managed.
• Cover letters aren’t as important as they may seem but make sure you tailor it to the role nonetheless; write three great points about why you are good for the role
• Use bullet points and don’t use any funny fonts or alignments.

LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn is a really useful tool, more hiring managers use it to find candidates than you think
•  Keep it updated and current (the content as well as your picture)
• Get as many high quality endorsements and quotes as you can

Working with Headhunters:

• Trust your instincts: if you don’t like the recruiter or don’t think they are working in your best interest (and especially if they ask for money to place you), walk away.
• If you change your mind about an interview or an offer that’s fine, just let the recruiter know. Often candidates just stop responding which shows a lack of professionalism.
• Ask as many questions as possible. Voicing any concerns and queries is going to make the process much smoother for all parties.
• As frustrating as it may be, don’t expect too much feedback. In most instances, recruiters are just told by their clients that the candidate just isn't a good fit.  

Negotiating your package:

• Make sure you outline all of your current package including salary, pension, bonus, transport/technology and wine/drinks package. Forgetting these will make negotiations more difficult.
• Ask for what you want. Be honest. If you don’t get the salary, see if there’s a way to write an increase into your contract.
• Often there is more in ‘the pot’ than you may think, it’s always worth asking for but be prepared for the answer.

London Wine Fair panel: 'Diversifying Thought Leadership'

From left: Regine Lee, Anne Jones, Joe Fattorini, Alex Ririe

On 22nd May, Women in Wine LDN hosted a panel discussion at the London Wine Fair’s Industry Briefing area.

We were invited by Hannah Tovey, the first female director of the London Wine Fair, who joined us on stage to give an inspiration introduction about her own journey through the industry.

Titled ‘Diversifying Thought Leadership’. The aim was to discuss whether the wine industry is reaching its female wine consumers effectively and creatively – a burgeoning topic in the UK, given that over 55% of consumers are female.

London Wine Fair 2018

We were incredibly pleased to have such a notable line-up of panellists, as follows:

Alex Ririe
Managing Partner, Strategic Development at Coley Porter Bell / Ogilvy, UK member of the WSET Alumni Advisory Board

Joe Fattorini
Wine expert, writer and presenter of “The Wine Show”

Anne Jones
Waitrose Category Manager, Wines, Beers and Spirits

Chaired by Regine Lee, co-founder of Women in Wine LDN

We talked about a range of topics including consumer research into preferences by gender, wine marketing, and flexible working and gender diversity in the workplace.

The success of Prosecco among female wine consumers was considered and debated as a barometer of larger themes around gender and wine marketing and producer development. Alex mentioned that so much of Prosecco’s success is about the framing; it has become the go-to for everything from just a ‘treat’ to a ‘special occasion’ wine. Yet, it was a need that was filled – and any other drink could be a strong competitor with the right frame. Anne commented that, although Prosecco is seen as a ‘wine for women’ it is a more nuanced view of the statistics is required in terms of understanding.  

We had some fantastic questions from the audience ranging from the relative importance of educating the consumer, ‘gendered’ tasting notes, and whether boosting female consumers’ confidence in wine should be focussed on food/wine matching.

General consensus was that and inclusive, diverse industry was not just better for the structure of companies but would also improve the relevance to the consumer.

Tradition and Trends: The Fine Wine Market

On 14th May, Women in Wine LDN hosted ‘Tradition and Trends: The Fine Wine Market’ at Liberty Wines in Clapham.

The panel was made up of Ella Lister, founder of Wine Lister; Sara Phillips, Marketing Manager of Liv-ex; and Sara Guiducci, Senior Fine Wine Sales Executive of Corney and Barrow.

Although the discussion covered a plethora of topics, two key discussion points were the changing role of the fine wine critic and the broadening of the fine wine market.

The market no longer looks solely to Robert Parker’s scores, as it did just a few years ago. Sara Guiducci, who is also working towards her Master of Wine, says that she has seen her private clients increase their reliance on not just her own opinion, but also the opinion of other consumers. Sara cites the development of wine apps as being an important change in the market as it ‘allows consumers to talk and connect with other consumers.’ Ella Lister commented that ‘the wine trade loves wine critics because wine critics help to sell wine’ and that it is now ‘widely accepted that not just one person will replace Robert Parker’. For Wine Lister, the scoring is complicated, as they have partnerships with some of the most well-known critics, all of whom score differently, and aggregate their scores along with other key sales metrics. ‘You have to look at the different levels of generosity and map them onto a single scale….93 points is worth a different amount for each critic’, explains Ella. Both agreed that consensus among top critics is becoming more important than a score from one individual. 

Spotlight on: Bianca Bosker, author of NY Times bestseller 'Cork Dork'

Bianca Bosker, author of ‘Cork Dork’, joined us from NYC to discuss her New York Times bestselling book that's taking the US wine industry by storm. ‘Cork Dork’ is the story of her journey into the highly charged world of “obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters, and rogue scientists who taught me to live for taste”, as the title of the book describes.

Bianca’s foray into wine began only three years ago, when she heard about the World’s Best Sommelier Competition and was hooked. She left her job as a technology journalist for the Huffington Post to work her way up from cellar rat to Michelin-starred restaurant floors and sommelier competitions, with her path culminating with the Certified Sommelier exam.

Bianca shared with us some of her favourite passages of the book, which included her first experience tagging along to an elite blind-tasting group and another of how somms navigate the restaurant floor during a stint shadowing at Marea. “Most days,” she writes of her first forays into this world, “I was drunk by noon, hung over by 2 p.m., and, around 4 in the afternoon, deeply regretting the burger I’d devoured for lunch.” The obsession of top flight somms was a huge part of what drew her in, saying “obsession was makes people capable of superhuman feats” but observes that it is a “passionate and sometimes cruel world and part of that obsession comes from a demand for excellence”.

But Bianca says her main aim was to tell a story that didn’t “repeat the same inherited wisdom on wine”, and to write the wine book she (and us!) wish existed. “People want to learn about wine but we are still explaining it in the same traditional way...of telling people what to taste instead of how to taste”. As an outsider, she says, she didn’t have the same allegiances that are firmly routed in the wine world. The aim was to “examine the sacred cows” and to see the wine world as it is. This allowed her to look at “the soul, the science and the high the low” of wine. Bianca argued that the crux of the book is that “we need to get in touch with our neglected senses of taste and smell”. Regardless of whether you’re a top end somm or a wine drinker happily ignorant of a wine’s terroir, she believes that being in touch with our senses of smell and taste as a way to enjoy life is the key.

The conversation also covered wine snobbery. Following the book, she wrote a New York Times OpEd article which argued there is a place for mass market wines that are constructed with consumer taste preferences in mind, rather than our traditional notions of wine stemming from a winemaker’s singular vision. This brought on a response that was “swift and fierce and merciless” from parts of the trade and critics, but it was important debate to have. She also commented on her frustration with sexism and harassment within the restaurant industry – without HR departments, she mentioned it’s “up to [the individual] to move on out of it”, and regrettably the ability to change unacceptable practices arising from power imbalances are left to those who wield the power in the first place.

Her refreshingly candid insights, warmth, humour and fascinating answers to our Q&A made for a fantastic evening.

Thank you to all those who attended, the publishers of ‘Cork Dork’, Allen & Unwin, and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust for hosting our event.   

Industry Mavericks and Creative Entrepreneurs

Artwork by Sara Hobday

In November WIW LDN hosted our Industry Mavericks and Creative Entrepreneurs panel discussion with speakers Charlotte Wilde (formerly of Sager + Wilde), Corinna Pyke (Borough Wines) and Maggie Campbell (Privateer Rum) at SW4 wine bar in Clapham. 

The evening offered an informal conversation about what led to success, the challenges they faced, their career progression and their businesses. "'Entrepreneur' wasn't a word association I ever expected, but I was always trying to increase my value as I progressed [through my career and my studies]' says Maggie Campbell, Head Distiller and Vice President at Privateer Rum, Director of the American Craft Spirit Association and Master of Wine Student. This was certainly one of the themes that resonated throughout the evening: Find your niche and develop your offering. As Charlotte explained of Sager + Wilde, arguably one of London's first and most successful modern fine wine bars, 'No one was doing it. And we thought, there's demand here. We just need to do it right'. 

Corinna Pyke, Borough Wines

Maggie Campbell, Privateer

Charlotte Wilde, Consultant

They also spoke in depth about the dedication of the teams around them, the importance of hiring - and keeping - individuals who believed in the value of the business. 'It's so important to us that our sales team is on board with the buying decisions we make' commented Corinna, who is a partner and Marketing Director at Borough Wines. Aligning their product with customer feedback and their sales teams knowledge has been imperative to growth. Charlotte echoed this sentiment saying that for her, it was the people who worked at Sager + Wilde and the customers that shaped the business to be what it is. She learned quickly that the decisions they made had to have a net positive impact: 'from the wine list to the type of loo roll we had, any decision to spend an extra pound had to benefit the customer'. 

Each highlighted key aspects for success in their business: the importance of strong distribution in the US (Maggie), the need for great communication to customers to make wine accessible (Corinna), and growing in a sustainable way (Charlotte).

They also spoke about how influenced they were by colleagues, friends and peers and how this now shaped their careers and professional outlook. Maggie spoke about a decision made by Privateer's president to delay building a tasting room at the distillery until they had stronger distribution across restaurant/bar customers. As the tasting room would have been an easy and quick revenue channel to set up, '[Everyone said] he was wrong and it was crazy and in actual fact, it was one of the soundest decisions we made. You can't grow that much in sales volume with a tasting room, but you can with better distribution; that was the important thing to focus on first. It was a learning experience [for me]'.

Thank you once more to our panellists and to SW4 for hosting us. Please watch this space - 2018 events are in the works. 

Speed Networking, Elevator Pitches and Is Wine Gendered?

On 10th August, we held a multi-faceted summer social, combining a talk on ‘Is Wine Gendered?’ followed by our first speed networking session. Over 40 women working in the London wine industry joined us at the Liberty Wines office in Clapham for a very successful and inspiring session.

Sula Richardson (WSET) and Clara Rubin (Veraison Wine Education) kicked off the evening with a reprisal of their P(our) Symposium lecture, which explored the ways in which wine marketing, communication and tasting are influenced by our conceptions of gender. They argued that a more nuanced approach is needed, taking into account the realities of both people consuming wine and working in the wine industry. View their P(our) talk here.

Networking for people who hate networking

The speed networking section of the evening was introduced to Women in Wine LDN leader, Hannah Van Susteren, as the ‘We hate networking’ portion. Recognising that ‘networking’ is usually cringe-worthy and often feels artificial, we sought to do something different. After selecting a playing card randomly from a deck, people found the three others with their same card number and practised their elevator pitch and engaged in conversation to get to know each other.

The groups switched every 15 minutes as everyone selected new playing cards and arranged themselves into new groups. Although we had questions to prompt the groups – e.g., “What are the biggest challenges in your job?”, “Whose job in the wine industry would you most like to steal?” – we found that by just by putting engaged, interesting and career-minded people together was a conversation starter in itself. Women in Wine LDN organiser Regine Lee said, “The true gauge that our speed networking session was successful was that even after I literally kept hitting a gong to get the groups to finish their conversations, pretty much all of them ignored me and continued talking to each other!”

As we received fantastic feedback, we anticipate that we’ll do another speed networking session later on, and some further events focussing specifically on professional development.