Meet Jamie
I didn’t come to wine through a classroom. I learned behind the counters of some of London’s best independent wine merchants, helping customers find bottles they’d love while tasting constantly with colleagues, importers and winemakers. London’s wine trade is one of the most exciting in the world — a place where extraordinary bottles from every corner of the globe arrive every day, and where curiosity is rewarded. There’s no better education than opening wines, asking questions and talking about them with people who care.
That curiosity eventually took me into wine publishing, where I edited books alongside some of the industry’s most respected writers and educators. I travelled through vineyards across Europe, worked with pioneering merchants, importers and restaurants in both London and New York, and spent more than twenty years exploring what makes wine so endlessly fascinating.
Over the years, I’ve tasted thousands of wines — from everyday bottles to some of the world’s most celebrated producers — but one thing has never changed: I’ve always believed that curiosity is far more valuable than pretending to have all the answers.
Why The Tasting Bureau?
The longer I worked in wine, the more I realised that people rarely remember the technical details of a tasting. They remember the conversations. They remember changing their mind about a wine, laughing over completely different tasting notes, or discovering a bottle they’d never have chosen for themselves.
That became the starting point for The Tasting Bureau.
I don’t believe wine needs more ceremony or more jargon. The best tastings aren’t performances or lectures — they’re conversations. My role isn’t to tell people what they should taste. It’s to create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable sharing what they taste, comparing ideas, asking questions and discovering something new together.
Whether I’m hosting six people around a dining table or sixty colleagues at a corporate event, the aim is always the same: to create an experience that feels thoughtful, relaxed and genuinely memorable.
Curiosity is the only qualification you need.
Whether you’re planning a team event, entertaining clients or celebrating a milestone, I’d love to help create a tasting that’s built around conversation, discovery and great wine.