Biography

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About The Burgundy Briefing

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Sarah Marsh

Biography

With a BAHons degree in Medieval Studies and English from Exeter University in 1988, Sarah Marsh joined Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers, moving on to establish an antique furniture business and to write about period interiors for Traditional Homes magazine. Writing has been a constant theme throughout her career. She has contributed on a freelance basis to national newspapers and many magazines over the last twelve years on travel, design, food and in the past few years on wine, including Decanter, Wine International, Harpers wine trade magazine, The Times, Traveller, Condé Nast Traveller, Sunday Business, The Independent, The European and The Illustrated London News.

She became fascinated by wine in 1994 and began her wine career in PR at Peretti Communications (The Champagne Bureau and Côtes de Roussillon) in 1995. She gained her WSET Diploma with distinction in 1997 and made her first trip to Burgundy, which instilled a curiosity about the region and its wine. Her path then took a New World turn as she went on to consult on such projects as the launch of The Vineyard at Stockcross (top flight Californian wine).

Over the following three years she travelled widely in the New World interviewing producers and writing articles to develop a global knowledge of wine. She worked vintages in New Zealand (with Dr. Neil McCallum at Dry River in Martinborough), and in Burgundy developing her love of Pinot Noir. She joined John Armit Wines as their new world buyer in 2000 with the enviable task of developing a New World portfolio.

Over the period of 2000-2003 Clive Coates became Sarah Marsh's MW tasting mentor (with Phil Tuck of Hatch Mansfield mentoring her theory studies). As an MW student she helped with Clive Coates' Master Classes in Burgundy and Bordeaux - the dogsbody work being rewarded by tasting the wine, discussion after the tasting with Clive, and blind tasting other wines he generously provided. In 2003 she passed her MW exams and decided to refocus on the Old World by spending February and March 2004 in Burgundy to research her MW dissertation on the Pinot Noir clones of the Côte d'Or. This work gained a Distinction (only the fourth to be awarded) and she became a Master of Wine in 2004.