End of an era

I lived and worked in Paris for 6 years in the 80s. It was a time of high unemployment in the UK, and although I was ready to come back to England, I wanted to have a job to come to. In January of 1987 I had an interview with Thierry Cabanne, who ran a small winebrokers in Winchester, and by the time I had returned to my office in Paris, he had already rung my boss there to get a reference. This was a little embarrassing, as I hadn't told my boss I was thinking of leaving! I had 3 months' notice to give on my flat, so during April my brother and future sister-in-law came over in a van to take my stuff back to England. For the last couple of weeks I slept on a roll-up mattress on the floor, then packed up my final belongings and returned to Southampton at the end of the month, and started work with Thierry's and Tatham on Tuesday 4 May, after the bank holiday Monday.

The early years were great fun, and although the last few months there were traumatic because of people I won't name and for reasons I won't go into here, on the whole I loved my time at Thierry's. I met some great people, some of whom I am still in touch with 20 years later, and my five years there paved the way to further work in the wine trade, where I made more good friends.

Last night I learned that Thierry Cabanne had been killed in a car accident last week, and it's made me very sad. Although it's been 15 years since I left, the company was always there, Thierry was there, and that meant, to me at least, that a part of my history was still alive. I never knew the current crop of directors there: now Thierry has gone, so have all my links with the company, and with that era of my life.

RIP Thierry. I really enjoyed working with you when you were starting out and there were 9 of us in a renovated pub in Winchester. Happy days! The wine world will miss you, and so will I.