Cork Talk

Elizabeth Gabay MW was born in New York, grew up in London and has lived in the French Alps for the last 20 years. Following a mixed early career in...

Rod Smith began his working life as an illustrator but moved into wine after landing a part-time job at Oddbins. After a brief spell in the fine wine world in...

Brought up on a sugar cane farm in Kwa-Zulu Natal, where her parents were teetotallers, Praisy Dlamini got a bursary from the Department of Agriculture when she was 16 and...

Roman Roth was brought up in the Black Forest, where his father was a cooper, but decided to become a winemaker in his teens. After vintages in California and Australia,...

Tom Gilbey’s family has worked in the wine and spirits trade since the mid-19th century – they had a famous gin and owned a Bordeaux château – so it was...

Dawn Davies is a Master of Wine who also specialises in spirits. Originally a top sommelier at restaurants like Zuma and The Ledbury, she moved into retailing at Selfridges and...

Growing up in Las Palmas, Carmelo Peña Santana’s dream was to have his own restaurant.  But after working as a sommelier for a year, he became a winemaker instead, travelling...

Leo Erazo has made wines on five different continents, but these days he’s exclusively associated with the Itata Valley, Chile’s most historic wine region. I caught up with him from...

Gus Zhu started out studying horticulture at university but caught the wine bug when he attended a tasting class given by one of his professors. Since then, his rise has...

Noel Young’s dad ran a pub, so you could say he was born into the booze trade. He brewed his first beer at the age of 15 and set up...

Kelli White’s love of wine was sparked by a trip to Paris as an undergraduate and a student job in a Boston retail store. After working as a sommelier in...

Chris Blandy of the Madeira Wine Company is the seventh generation of his family to live and work in the wine trade on this volcanic island. A native with a...