Name: Aoife Curtin
Occupation & Company: Sales, Liberty Wines

Tell me about your current role?

I’m currently working on the London Sales team at Liberty Wines. We import wines from around the world and distribute them to on-trade and off-trade customers across the UK and Ireland. My role is a balance between account management for current customers and the creation of new business for the company. This means that every day of the week is different. Some days I’ll be at the desk for hours managing pricing and other days I’ll be pouring wines at trade events. On the very glamorous days, I might be found having lunch with a visiting producer or even wandering around vineyards. Every aspect of the job is as fun and challenging as the next. Well…maybe not the spreadsheets…but it is work after all!

How did you first get into the drinks industry?

My granny worked in the industry for years. Watching her fly around the world meeting interesting people, speaking languages, and tasting wines meant I always had the idea in my head that it was the trade for me. When I finished university, I began an administrative role in food buying and decided to take the WSET level 2 and level 3 exams in my free time. When the opportunity to move to London for a two-year-long apprenticeship scheme came up, I jumped at the chance. Lots and lots of learning, two harvests and many WSET Diploma exams later, I’m now working on the sales team of the same company that gave me a foot in the door.

What is your favourite part about working in the industry?

The wine industry is full of passionate people. Everybody has a story to tell, and they generally like to do so with a glass of wine in hand and good food on the table in front of them. Listening to professionals speak about their experiences always reminds me just how much I still have to learn. It’s an industry that is forever evolving.

We’re meeting up for a drink after work – what are you having?

Anything cold and refreshing! It’s a controversial opinion but I love it when light-bodied red wines are served chilled. This summer I noticed that chilled reds were being added to wine lists everywhere. If it is just a trend, I hope it lasts for a while.

You can only have one drink for the rest of your life, what’s in your glass?

Naturally, wine. The idea of choosing one wine is tough. Maybe something like Pieropan’s ‘La Rocca’ Soave Classico from Veneto. It’s got delicious ripe fruit and spice and the colour is incredible. It goes well with food but is really tasty on its own too.

It’s Saturday night, what restaurant are you going to?

London is full of amazing restaurants. I have a list as long as my arm of places I would like to visit while living here. A major benefit of working in the industry is that we have the opportunity to eat in some fantastic places throughout the week. Therefore, to be completely honest, most Saturday nights are spent cooking at home with friends and sharing wines BYOB style.

Is there a bucket list drink you want to try, or a dream drinks destination you’d love
to visit?

Rare wines are incredible. I recently had the chance to taste a Sandeman Vintage Port from 1955. However, the wines on my bucket list aren’t necessarily those that are expensive or hard to get your hands on. My bucket list wine experience is to rent a camper van and travel around somewhere like Italy, meeting passionate, quirky producers who care about the land they grow their grapes on and the people they make their wines with.

The most memorable experience of your career?

Travel is one of the biggest privileges that the wine industry offers. I mentioned above that my apprenticeship experience included two harvests. In the first year, I spent a month at a biodynamic winery in Penedès learning about the process of making traditional method sparkling wine. In the second year, I spent two months in Uruguay collecting samples from vines and sorting grapes until my hands and arms were stained red. Every moment of working in a winery is memorable but finding myself driving in a little tractor along bumpy Uruguayan vineyard paths in 30km winds before a major rainstorm blew in, was something I will never forget!

One thing you’d like to see more of in the drinks industry?

I would love to see consumers develop a healthier relationship with alcohol. Wine is great fun and drinking with friends is one of my favourite things to do! However, wine is also so much more than the ABV on the back label. I think people are gradually moving towards an approach of ‘Less but better’ buying maybe one great bottle of something rather than two good bottles. Quality over quantity is key.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a career in the
industry?

I’m still quite new to the industry myself, so may not be qualified to hand out advice just yet, but what has worked for me so far is to get as involved as possible. I would definitely recommend getting a job behind the bar if you haven’t done so already. I think for a sales role in particular, you can only understand the needs of your customer if you have been in their position before.

If you can take a course to better understand the theory and tasting elements of whatever drink you’re interested in, I would suggest you do that too. Once you have a basic knowledge of how it all works, start chatting to people. If you spread the word that you’re interested in learning more, opportunities will come your way!

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Connect with Aoife on LinkedIn and follow her wine journey on Instagram.