About Me

COLIN GENT

Hi, I’m Colin Gent, and the letters “MW” after my name indicate that I am one of the few (currently
just over 400 in the world) to have earned the title “Master of Wine”.

For those who really want to know, this involves passing the most challenging of wine exams,
demonstrating expert knowledge of the theory and practice of grape growing and wine making, the
business and marketing of wine, and of course all those devilish blind tastings…36, to be precise !
This does not mean I already know everything there is to know about wine. On the contrary, because
the purpose of this site is to share with you the new insights and understanding I learn every time I
visit a vineyard, exchange with a producer and taste a wine.

Originally from London, I studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, before my
nascent fascination with wine dictated my choice of career. Since then, I have worked as an
apprentice winemaker in California and in Provence, in retail and wholesale in the both the UK and
France, in the on-trade in Paris, in wine education in Japan, and in worldwide export distribution with
a specialist Bordeaux negociant that also happened to be a national US importer. I have attempted to
sell Australian wine to the French, and later attempted to sell French wine to Australians. Now, I
prefer to sell my expertise, working from my base in the Bordeaux region as a freelance wine
business consultant. I am a lead lecturer in the wine business Masters programmes at Kedge Business
School, and I teach WSET level 4 at the leading Bordeaux wine school WiSP.