January cheers

January was just staggering on as January always does.

But then there came some great cheer!

Not our Laithwaites Party in the Town Hall which certainly lifted spirits.. but is of little interest if you missed it.

Not our SALE, which is going well, much better than last year... quite cheering under the circumstances.

No, it’s that we've just won a GREAT AWARD at the annual Wine Trade bash in The Guildhall.

We won 'Wine Educator of the Year'. If this underwhelms you, it really shouldn't. Knowing more about wine than the others is a vital cog in our machine. We train everyone here. We take them to the vineyards and cellars to learn the work. But also we just put 177 out of 697 members of staff through a WSET qualification in 2010, including people from Finance, the Gloucester Warehouse, Customer Care, I.T. - yes, unbelievably I.T. - Marketing and even... gosh, Directors. No department was spared. All this with a pass rate of 90% overall. (And Mrs Laithwaite with her 100%).

There were 400 outfits from around the world, up for this award. It’s serious!
We did well.
We also celebrated well.

Plus Matt Hampton from the Virginia Water shop and Tim Pinchin gained their WSET Diploma; a really tough qualification that takes two years and countless written and tasting exams.

And, lovely to report; our youngest Buyer, Cat Lomax, won the David Burroughs Scholarship on the Advanced Certificate, which is THE top prize for that qualification - an amazing achievement, as thousands of students complete this qualification.

More cheer just came in but ... must rush... see tomorrow.

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