Tell us a bit about your current job.

I am a Wine Broker for Justerini & Brooks, one of the UK’s oldest wine merchants which was founded in 1749. I have been at the company for 8 years, starting in an administrative capacity and working my way up to be a broker.

My job is divided into two aspects: broking and buying. Broking is valuing people’s wine cellars and helping them to sell their collection. A lot of our clients will have amassed huge cellars over their lifetime and will either realise they can’t physically drink it all or that prices have increased so much that they’d rather sell. The second aspect is buying and involves me buying wine directly from the Chateau or sourcing rare and collectable bottles from the secondary market (e.g. purchasing from other merchants or from private clients). Essentially, I oversee the buying and selling of wine and all the processes in between from the initial authentication, photography and valuation to the final sale and delivery.

What and where did you study after school?

I studied French at the University of London Institute in Paris because it was the only French language degree where the full three years are spent abroad. The BA was pretty eclectic and covered subjects such French literature, cinema, history and linguistics. I left with a first-class degree and fluency in French which was my main ambition.

How did you get from answer 2 to answer 1?

After graduating I realised that I wanted to come back to the UK - I had initially applied for a few roles in Paris but found that my British degree carried more weight here. I wanted to work in marketing for a high-end jewellery or fashion house. Following plenty of rejections, I finally got a job offer from a jewellery brand and packed my bags to move to London. On the train journey up, I had a call from my new employer to say that my offer had been rescinded. I continued with the move, temped for a couple of months with a fashion agency and continued with the job search, casting my net further afield to include the drinks industry. This led me to call up Justerini & Brooks and ask if they had any graduate jobs available. I interviewed for a role in event planning which I didn’t get, but during the meeting was told of an upcoming role of Broking Administrator that they thought would be a good fit. I came back for another interview a few weeks later and got the job. 

How does your formal education feed into your present career (if at all)?

Being fluent in French certainly helped distinguish me from other candidates in the interview process. However, whilst another language is useful it is not essential as plenty of our European suppliers speak English. Once I started the job, my company paid for tasting and theory classes at the Wine and Spirits Education Trust which I took to the Advanced Level. This training was optional but was invaluable for me as I had no prior wine knowledge. 

What things have you learnt outside of formal education that have been helpful to your career?

Moving to a new country on my own probably had the biggest influence on my career. It gave me the confidence to look outside my comfort zone and not worry about following an unconventional path. 

What are the really useful skills for someone in your job to possess?

Another language is a plus. You must be diplomatic and have good negotiation skills. You are often working between teams and will need to manage expectations along the supply chain and be resilient if things don’t work out as planned. 

What does an average day at work look like for you?

I begin the day by checking my inbox for wine offers that have come in overnight and then confirming any sales with other wine merchants and clients. A large proportion of the day is usually spent completing valuations on my computer. The process would start with me doing due diligence to check that the wine was in good condition, from a reputable source and has been stored correctly. The market values would be discerned from a combination of current prices on fine wine trading platforms and our own historic sales data. We have wine tastings almost every day in the office as our suppliers send over bottles for us to sample, so there is usually a bottle or two open in the tasting room by midday. If it’s a really good day then I may join a colleague in the trade team (the team selling wine to hotels and restaurants) for lunch at one of their accounts. In the afternoon, clients may drop into the office to show me a bottle of theirs to value or to discuss their portfolio. I finish my day by lining up offers of exciting wine parcels to put in front of the sales team the following morning.

What’s the best thing about your job?

The lunches, dinners and trips to wineries are the absolute highlights. It really helps crystallise a wine in your memory when you are tasting with the winemaker at the winery. Sometimes they’ll pull a ‘unicorn wine’ (an extremely rare and valuable wine) out of the cellar and you’ll have to pinch yourself. As a broker you can often get stuck in the rut of viewing wine as a commodity, something that is moved from bonded warehouse to warehouse without being opened or drunk so it’s really invigorating to get to drink fine wine in a fabulous setting. 

What’s your least favourite aspect of your job?

Pivot tables and V-lookups in spreadsheets are crucial when drawing up pricing models but are my least preferred tasks.

What would you give to someone seeking a job like yours? 

Apply speculatively. The wine trade is famously old fashioned and slow. Pick up the phone and call in – you’ll be surprised how many roles are filled offline and how many websites don’t have careers pages. If you want to work in sales, then a prior job in a wine shop is almost always required.

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