Meet the team
Zoë Ayling
Customer Accounts Manager
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? Since 2004
How did you get here? Via Spain and South America but hey, everyone
has ghosts in their closet.
Favourite wine? Just one? Let me sleep on it.
Worst wine experience? Life's too short – if it ain't good, order
a beer
Signature dish? Cheese on toast with a parmesan foam and a tepid
chutney jus.
Favourite restaurant? Cal Pep, Barcelona
What one thing would improve the quality of your life? Tall, dark,
handsome, oh, and rich...
Favourite film? Ferris Bueller's Day Off – not my fault, I'm a
child of the 80s!
How do you relax? By pouring myself a large g&t and forgetting
about wine.
Cameron Christie
Retail Manager
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? Since 2006
How did you get here? Via Paris, Beaune, Napa, US Virgin Islands but spent my non–legal drinking years on the windswept Canadian prairies.
Favourite wine? Just one? Malconsorts, Sylvain Cathiard.
Worst wine experience? A man in a white linen suit, a slippery decanter of Cannubi Barolo and a nearly–fired waiter (me).
Signature dish? Ragout improvisee...
Favourite restaurant? Le Chateaubriand, Paris; Taylor's Refresher, St. Helena, CA; Romano's, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
What one thing would improve the quality of your life?An inexhaustible supply of Eurostar tickets.
Favourite film? Apocalypse Now and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
How do you relax? Hammocks and beer.
Edward Eastwood
IT Consultant & General Dogsbody
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? My father had me stuffing envelopes
with Christmas price lists at the age 11.
How did you get here? Oh, the conventional route: I worked for
my father and BRL Hardy; then dabbled with becoming a rocket scientist, then exhibitionist;
IT support; musician; then back to the wine trade. A spot of organic farming kept
me busy in my spare time.
Favourite wine? The next one. Bring it on.
Worst wine experience? I found the world's worst Merlot in deepest
rural Bulgaria... I think that might not have been an actual wine experience.
Signature dish? Slow roasted hand of pork with braised fennel.
Favourite restaurant? Club Gascon scratches my fois gras itch wonderfully.
What one thing would improve the quality of your life? I have to
say I'm really quite content currently but a 26 hour day would help.
Favourite film? A toss up between Dr Strangelove and Kind Hearts
and Coronets.
How do you relax? Anything involving scrap metal and a funky beat
will do.
Jim Griffen
Sales Director
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? 20 years.
How did you get here? Couldn't get a proper job.
Favourite wine? Margaux
Worst wine experience? Anything that involves a courier.
Signature dish? Roast partridge.
Favourite restaurant? Le Columbier in Chelsea.
What one thing would improve the quality of your life? New kitchen
(I wear them out)
Favourite film? Repo Man; anything with Harry Dean Stanton.
How do you relax? I don't.
Andrew Rae
Purchasing Director
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? Over 20 years, if we include managing
a hotel bar belonging to a prominent international chain at 16 (and looking 12),
which the proper manager was too lazy to do. Demanding proof of age was always tricky.
How did you get here? Lucky escape from Oddbins
Favourite wine? 1990 Clos des Papes. Though I've never tried the
`78.
Worst wine experience? My own – vintage 1992, appellation Exeter
University, from a kit
Signature dish? Porridge au chocolat Valrhona
Favourite restaurant? L'Anima, 1 Snowden Street, Broadgate West,
EC2A 2DQ
Though I always pick up a bottle or two from here first and take advantage of their
excellent corkage service
What one thing would improve the quality of your life? More daylight
Favourite film? Rita, Sue and Bob, too. Pure class.
How do you relax? Reading. As in a book. Not Services.
Colin Wills
The Wine Educator
Current favourites
How long in the wine trade? Can it really be 33 years since I first
pinned the haemorrhoid badge on my lapel? Of course in those days wine knowledge
was strictly an optional extra...
How did you get here? Left Oddbins in a huff and, after a short
period of, ahem, self–employment (or was it consultancy?), found myself making the
tea here.
Favourite wine? Used to be Amarone (still up there), now probably
anything from Grivot, Barthod or Fourrier
Worst wine experience? A corked bottle of Champagne one Christmas
day, after a particularly gruelling December and staying miles from anywhere.
Signature dish? Risotto, or Osso Buco, or petit pot au chocolat
Favourite restaurant? Porto Palio in Verona – a proper local in
a deconsecrated chapel with mad staff, good food and a great atmosphere. The Company
Shed in West Mersea for only doing one thing and doing it brilliantly. I Gelsi in
Baschi for its stunning (if fluorescent) prawn rice pudding
What one thing would improve the quality of your life? Not thinking
so much.
Favourite film? Don't really do film, but Kagemusha.
How do you relax? Reading the Saturday paper over a full English
on Sunday morning. I don't like surprises.