- Speaker #0
Welcome to Wine in 5, the podcast to discover the world of wine and to develop your knowledge. Hello, my name is Beatrice Dominé, I'm the oenologist for dVine, and we are starting a new season podcast called Wine in 5.
- Speaker #1
today i'm very happy to be with alistair cooper master of wine how are you ali i'm very good thank you thank you for having me here in london so i'd like to know more about your background how did you get into the wine industry ah good question well i studied languages so i studied spanish and portuguese and i've done french up to a level so up to the age of 18 in england and I always had a passion for, my mother is a great cook, a great home cook, so I grew up around food. There was always wine being drunk in the house, but it wasn't a hugely wine-heavy household. But food for me was my number one passion, food and languages. And after leaving university, it was my father actually who said, you know, you're enjoying your wine, why don't you pursue a career in wine? And that was a surprise to me. I didn't really, had never thought living in England about having a career in wine. So I left and I went to live in Chile for, I initially went for three months and I was there for four years. So, you know, those things often happen. I worked in the industry in Chile and Argentina and then came back and ran various wine bars and restaurants and then started doing my wine education. So I did the whole WSET through to the Master of Wine. And then I got my Master of Wine qualification in 2017. So that's, that's my sort of history in a snapshot.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, so very impressive from just being interested in wine and get the MW. So it's a very, very good qualification.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, well, you know, it's wine is, and I'm sure it happened to you, wine's, it's almost like a bug once it gets under your skin. It develops such, I developed such a passion for wine, for the people, for the travel, for every aspect of the industry. And I've been very lucky. to work in in every aspect of the industry really working for wineries working in export helping you know make wine to a certain degree selling it in wholesale selling it in wine bars and now i write about wine i judge about wine so i write for chances robinson.com i cover south america in the rhone valley for her i write for decanter magazine i judge all over the world i'm very lucky to i consult in australia i consult in chile i'm very very fortunate to be working in many parts of the industry. which I think is important to have a global view and I'm very lucky to see all aspects of the channel of wine.
- Speaker #0
It's funny what you say because if I think about my career, I don't know if it's the correct word, but my background, I did work in lots of parts of the wine industry as well. So starting with education, was sort of a scientific education, math, physics and chemistry. and at one stage I was thinking of, you know, very smart job, sort of technical part. And because of my background as well, regarding to gastronomy as well, I come from a family where we love cooking, we love restaurant, and at one stage you love wine as well. And it was one day I just discovered I could be an oenologist, and that was what I wanted to do. And I never changed my opinion about it and started to work. If we remember, it was more than 30 years ago, and being a woman in the wine industry, it was not that obvious. My parents were not winemakers, so I started to work in shops, recommending wine with food. The food pairing is definitely something I really love. And then I went to your country as well, so I spent five years in England. doing buying, then doing the selling, and back to France I did some training courses, had even had a restaurant for 10 years. So you see lots of aspects about wine.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, and I think that's the wonderful thing, isn't it? That there are so many elements to the wine industry. And our journeys aren't that dissimilar actually, except you kind of ended up with the food. I sort of started off with that being the spark of the passion for wine. But Just quickly on your point of women in wine, I think it's... It's so good to see how that's changed now. I mean, all over the world, but particularly in England, I see now so many more women involved in the industry. So that's been such a huge positive for me over the last decade to 15 years as well.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, I think the industry has changed. Huge. Yeah, in sommelier and oenologist and whatever the degree you have, talking about wine, lots more and more women. And yeah, that's a very good point. so you see we are both passionate about wine we have a different career but i'm sure we will spend that new seasons of podcasts in a very very nice way absolutely okay see you soon or talk to you soon about the next subject exactly thank you very much Béatrice bye-bye
