How did you get started out in the industry?

My initial love of the wine industry came from an early beginning. My father worked in wine for many years and became a Master of Wine (MW). I started my days in retail in the old Victoria Wine shops as a sales assistant and eventually made it to head office buying which I loved - being introduced to so many producers and wines from far flung places. From there I got seduced by the world of Champagne and worked on Bollinger for 3 years where one of my claims to fame was signing up Ab Fab (sorry Taittinger!) However it was always the business side of wine that I had a huge interest in and in 1994 I set up Hatch Mansfield with Louis Jadot and Errazuriz. At that time we also represented Villa Maria and there were three of us working out of a shoe box office in Windsor. In 1998 we struck up a relationship with Taittinger and the rest, as they say, is history. Hatch Mansfield now employs 44 people and represents 16 top producers from around the world in the UK.