For wine estates, producers and brands

Wine expertise for estates, producers and brands

Burçak Desombre holding a glass of red wine in a restaurant dining room.

How I work with estates and brands

I work with wine estates, producers and brands as an independent wine consultant and educator. What I focus on is how your wines come across to the people who meet them: a visitor at the estate, a sommelier putting them on a list, a distributor’s team, a guest at a tasting or a dinner.

That work usually falls into four connected areas: education and events around your wines, a local view of how they are received, designing the visitor experience and training the team, and support that continues over time.

Brand education and activation

Most of the value here is in helping the people who represent, sell, serve or encounter your wines understand them and talk about them with confidence.

Masterclasses and guided tastings, for trade and for consumers
Producer and brand dinners
Launches and selected brand activations
Education for distributor, retail and hospitality teams
Presentations around new wines, vintages or ranges
Wine-led events where an independent expert voice adds weight

This can be a single event or an ongoing arrangement, with me working as a local wine educator for a producer or brand, mainly on the French Riviera and in Monaco, and for selected projects elsewhere.

Market and hospitality insight

My local knowledge is strongest on the French Riviera and in Monaco, with wider international experience I can bring in depending on the project. For that region, I can tell you how your wine is likely to be received by local sommeliers, restaurateurs, hoteliers and private clients, and where a tasting or an event would help most.

How local sommeliers, buyers and private clients are likely to see your wine
The guests, occasions and places where it fits best
How the local restaurant and hotel scene is likely to respond
Practical ideas for introducing and presenting it well

Visitor experience design and consultancy

How guests experience an estate is often what they remember and repeat. I can work on this as an outside review, as the design of something new, or as deeper development with training and support through the changes.

The aim is always to help an estate express its own identity more clearly.

Reviewing an existing visitor experience
- Arrival, welcome and the flow of the visit
- How the estate, the wines and the place are explained, and the story told
- Tasting structure, presentation and any food and wine elements
- Guests with very different levels of wine knowledge, including international visitors
- Clarity of the offer, guest engagement and overall hospitality
- Natural, well-placed moments for guests to taste the wines, engage with them and buy
- Relevant international benchmarks, from estates and regions I have visited in several countries
Creating a distinctive new experience
- Original visitor concepts rooted in the estate’s identity, terroir and place
- Built from production philosophy, architecture, landscape, gastronomy, history and the people
- Designed to be genuinely yours
Tasting-room and hospitality team training
- Wine knowledge relevant to your estate and range
- Presenting wines clearly and telling the story well
- Adapting the level of detail to each guest and reading what interests them
- Guiding a tasting naturally and hosting international visitors
- Service and presentation where relevant, and the team’s confidence
- Helping the team support wine sales in a way that feels natural to the guest

Ongoing education and brand support

A first project can also open into a lighter, recurring way of working together.

A seasonal review of the visitor experience
Refreshers and onboarding for tasting-room and hospitality teams
Education around new vintages and ranges
Periodic masterclasses and activations
Follow-up after changes to the visitor experience

Experience and approach

I have worked in wine since 2007. Earlier in my career I worked on the brand and distribution side; since 2011 I have worked independently as a consultant and educator through Vinipedia.

Alongside that, I have built wine education, hospitality and wine-tourism experience, visited estates and wine regions across several countries, and worked with both professionals and consumers. A large part of my work is making wine clear and relevant to the people in the room, in French, English or Turkish.

DipWSET · Certified Sommelier · World’s 50 Best Vineyards Academy Chair France

Tell me about your estate or brand

Tell me who you are, where you are based and the markets you work with, and what you would like to improve or develop. Let me know who is involved, your rough timing, and whether this is mainly about education, events, the visitor experience or ongoing support. I will come back to you with how I would approach it.

Discuss your project →