Last night I spoke at an awards dinner for the Top 100 Private Companies with the fastest growing exports.
Terrifying.
Got no work done for two days trying to write a speech. I wanted to sound like a clever businessman. But found it impossible. Simon then suggested I confess to being a hopeless manager and leader (he was a bit too enthusiastic about that, I thought) and just tell some wine stories. What I'm good at.
At the last moment, looking at my script, Barbara suggested I bin it and just wing the thing … tell them why we had gone international and anything else that occurred. So I did.
We went International a) because after nearly 40 years, things here had got a bit too comfy and we needed a shock, and b) because we saw people in America and Australia picking up our ideas and doing very well. So I we knew it could work.
Certainly did liven things up here. When you send your best guys off to the old colonies those left behind have to pedal a whole lot harder. Which included me. I'm no longer worried about boredom, just being able to keep up.
With help from Thomas I choose the Dampt brothers Chablis Vielle Vignes '09 and Hunter's Pinot Noir to go with a main course of red mullet. Enabled me to tell the stories of two of our more remarkable wine families.
They clapped. So well done those winemakers. Thanks to B for giving me the confidence and also thanks to the customers at the event – especially the lovely lady helping run the event who sought me out to shake my hand and say that we were absolutely the most wonderful Company she had ever dealt with. Thanks. And keep it up, my lot … you have a lot of fans out there.
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