A big, big thank you to those who have so kindly been voting for me in two leading wine publications.
In Harpers wine trade weekly, required reading for the British wine trade (especially those looking for jobs), I have apparently just been voted Most Inspiring Person in the drinks industry which is extraordinarily gratifying, and a surprise since the other nominees were all top of their various trees.
Almost concurrently I learn, initially from purple pager Patience Waddilove in members’ forum, that visitors to decanter.com voted me Second Most Influential Person in the World of Wine – another big surprise. Decanter magazine had published their own Power List 2007 in which the incomparable Robert Parker was number one, then came a host of heads of large American companies, then Michel Rolland at number 8 and me at number 9.
The readers’ poll, taken via votes on decanter.com, changed things rather, with me moving up from ninth to second place, Michael Rolland moving up from 8 to 3, Hugh Johnson moving from 17 to 4, Piero Antinori from 21 to 5 and Richard Sands of Constellation, the only American corporate figure to remain in the top 10, dropping from 3 to 6. Mel Dick of Southern Wines & Spirits on the other hand dropped from 2 to 16 while the original numbers 4 and 5, Australian Trevor O’Hoy of Foster’s and screwcap king Richard Evans of Alcan didn’t even feature in readers’ top 20.
I suspect all of these votes were determined simply by which people the voters had heard of, but I’m very grateful to have been heard of by so many. Must be because I have been around for such a very, very l-o-n-g time.