Question? How to help wine lovers, new and old, trade, retailers and wine growers bring back ‘older wines’ into ‘sharper focus?’ This is a long term ‘communication’ task.
So, we started to build a disciplined non-profit Foundation in the UK, where much highly informed communication about wine takes place. In this we were helped by old friend Christopher Burr, a Master of Wine. (As often remarked ‘More people have been into space than passed the Master of Wine Exams’) Christopher Burr worked at Hedges and Butler founded in 1667, the then largest wine distributors in the UK on the highly successful growth of Remy Martin in the UK. He was then MD of Robert Drouhin’s UK distributor; then MD of Menzendorff, long established UK fine wine distributors, owned by Bollinger. He left to take over from Michael Broadbent as International Head of Wine at Christies, managing fine wine auctions all around the World, but importantly in London, New York, Los Angeles, Zurich, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
For this non-profit, limited liability, construct, we knew we would need three founding directors of three key different disciplines. Dominic Buckwell – a qualified sommelier, director of WineGB and commercial lawyer agreed to join the board. James Belton, a very experienced management accountant and now an independent, worked successfully with one of the largest bottlers of wine in the UK as well as a host of smaller wine projects is to look after the administration of the finances.
We are very appreciative of the excellent work of marketing specialist Fran Bridgewater working with Bristol designer Lesley Lee in the creation of the elegant logo for the Libération-Tardive Foundation. And also for her extremely valuable contribution for the role of social media in our communication goals and strategy.
We are now interviewing for this third director of this foundation. With extensive expert wine knowledge, a fine reputation in the wine world, global awareness and a passionate communicator for the highest quality.
The team covers already all areas of expertise and authority to embark up on the complex communication programme and global contributors necessary for this long 10-to-20-year initiative, starting in 2023.