SHAFTESBURY WINES - Key Persons

You are also likely to meet David's daughter Alice. Having realise career academia isn't as much fun as it sounds, Alice made the wise decision to move to sunny South Wiltshire in late 2008 and joined David in the business in 2011. Her scary ability to retain trivia about producers and processes mean she can sometimes tell you more about particular lines than David can, and she's always keen to stock the more esoteric end of the craft beer spectrum. (Sometimes other people actually want to buy them too!) Following an eye-opening trip to Germany with our friends at ABS Wine Agencies she is evangelical about the joys of dry Riesling and particularly enjoys encouraging customers to try different things. Alice has been honoured to judge beer, cider and spirits at the Great Taste Awards since 2011 alongside Pete Brown, Charles Campion, Nigel Barden and a host of other critics and producers.

David moved to Salisbury when he was about 8 years old and was later a boarder at the old Shaftesbury Grammar School back in the late '60s and early '70s. After a 4 year degree in Metallurgical Engineering and the prospect of a career in a Midlands iron foundry he took a job instead in a small independent wine shop in Rutland where his interest in wine began and where he gained a distinction in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust higher certificate. He moved to Peter Dominic (when they were still wine merchants) and then to the revolutionary wine megastore "Drinksmart" where he completed the two-year WSET diploma course. His career moved to buying wine for the Co-op and then into marketing.