Richard Bampfield graduated in French from Cambridge in 1981 and worked in retail for 8 years before spending a year getting his hands dirty in vineyards and cellars around the world. Having passed the Master of Wine Exam in 1990, he joined the Australian producer, Brown Brothers, and managed their European operations until 1999. He left them to set up his own company, specialising in public relations and offering wine consultan-cy, talks, tours and courses.

Principal clients now include Lidl, Albert Bichot (Burgundy), Santa Rita Estates (Chile) and Château Brown (Bordeaux). He is also a partner in Preferabli, the leading personalisation software for the wines and spirits in-dustry. A growing interest in sustainability has led to him becoming a founder member of a new international initiative called the Sustainable Wine Roundtable

https://swroundtable.org

He regularly guides groups of students and press on visits to Bordeaux and Burgundy, and has been actively involved in the promotion of English wines. He is now probably best known for his work writing tasting notes and evaluating wines for Lidl and is a regular presenter on 67 Pall Mall’s TV channel, www.67pallmall.tv

Richard is a past Chairman of the Association of Wine Educators and was the European Champagne Ambassador 2009.

Primary area(s) of work: Communication

Industry sector(s): Consultant, Distribution, Educator, Marketing, PR, Wine judge

Wine styles: Champagne, English sparkling wines, Madeira

Wine region expertise: Australia, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Mosel, New Zealand, UK, Western Cape

Market expertise: Africa, Europe, France, Germany, South America, United Kingdom

Specialisms: Sustainability, Distribution, Food and wine pairing, Independent retail, Marketing wine, Restaurant wines, Routes to market, Supermarket and multiple retail, Wine judging