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Over the 25 years I have been at Weavers, I have studied and worked hard at immersing myself into wine, winning the Champagne Academy, the Vintners Travel Bursary amongst others. I have also been fortunate enough to have travelled the world through the wonderful lens of wine which has only increased my love for this amazingly diverse drink.
I am passionate about sourcing and supplying brilliant wines at a price point that meets the needs of our customers. I truly believe wine should be an inclusive, enjoyable experience that doesn’t require you to take out a second mortgage! I would like to make a special mention of our Chilean Ladera Verde wines which I think epitomise just this. I love working with independent, family-owned producers. I have found over the years that these are the producers who throw their passion into their wine and I truly respect them for it.
I am also hugely proud to say that we are in total control as to what goes on our shelves. We make sure that every wine and spirit comes from good people making amazing products. This means that it must look the part, taste fantastic whilst also being delivered at a price that is fair for our customers. We can truly say that we handpick all of our wines and as such, the whole team knows about each and every product we sell.
I must also take this opportunity to speak about my latest adventure into the world of gin. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be creating a gin recipe, designing gin labels and even foraging for acorns! The impetus behind this idea was that over the years we noticed that there was very little that tourists could take away with them that was from Nottingham. I therefore used my experience of tasting wines and sourcing gins to create my own recipe. The result is the Castle Gate Collection that has acorns from Sherwood Forest at its heart. The first in the story is our classic dry Castle Gate and this is followed up with a fruiter style in the form of a strawberry and lavender Castle Gate Gin. Both have proven to be hugely popular and I love it when people come in and tell me that they gave it as a present or they drank it at the weekend with friends and family. The fact our gin has reached people all over the world, including Europe, South Africa, South America and Australia, is incredible; it really is what it is all about.
Finally, just to say that working in a family business is a team effort, and everybody here at Weavers is here to help, so please do come and see us as we love talking to you all. My daughter Katie has recently started working at Weavers in a similar fashion to the way I started, so who knows, maybe we have the 6th generation in the making!