At Merchants of Vino, we do much more than bringing you wonderful wines from all over the world. We also run events and provide luxury hampers and gift ideas.

If you are looking for an innovative event, we can host your corporate hospitality  event, organise the food and wine for that private party, including running a private wine tasting or hosting a wine tasting game.

Let us host and organise a fun, contemporary and customised event just for your group, whatever the size.

Your guests will enjoy tasting, learning and talking about and food & wine pairing

A great way for guests to mix and mingle with the wine providing common ground.

For further details of all the events that we run click on the following links to take you to the right pages

Corporate hospitality

wine tasting games to make that memorable party

Private wine tasting parties

Corporate teambuilding events

We also work with several organisations providing hampers and gifts for clients and staff , in addition to providing individual gift ideas for those special occasions. For more details please look at our gift pages  or have a look at our on-line store or if you would like to discuss setting up an account for regular orders or bespoke orders please contact sarah@merchantsofvino.com

Meet the team:

 

Debra Smith-Symmonds

 

Debra’s philosophy is that there is no absolute right or wrong in wine tasting, wine is a matter of personal taste, which  parallels her beliefs in her other passion – flowers . But as she knows so well, there are things that you can learn to look for when choosing a wine or selecting the best match with the food that you are providing. “when you experience the love and care that our producers put into making their wines, you understand why they taste a cut above many others that you would have tried”.

 To Debra there are so many parallels between wine and flowers, if you have an interest in them, and they give you enjoyment, you will enjoy learning and discovering so much more. The beauty and impact of flowers can be dramatically influenced by how they are presented and the same is true for wine. Believing that when people learn to recognise aromas and flavors when they taste wines, they start to enjoy the wines on a totally new level. Debra firmly believes there isn’t a right or a wrong way when it comes to choosing wine; it’s about people having the confidence to understand which wines they love and why and choosing the menu and setting in which to enjoy it at its best! …. and of course experiencing the difference when expertise, passion and care has been put into the production! 

Email Debra: debra@merchantsofvino.com

Sarah Peirce

There is no doubt when talking to Sarah about wine she is passionate about supporting small producers who create quality wines. Like Debra, she loves the thrill of discovering a new wine and introducing it to others and seeing their confidence in choosing wines grow, learning about what they like and dislike in wines and having the courage to try something new and a bit different.

 Sarah loves exploring vineyards and discovering quality wines unknown in the UK and meeting the people and their families who produce the wine.

Naturally outgoing and a seasoned social and party organiser combined together with her passion for good wine, Sarah loves to explore food and wine pairing ideas.   A keen cook, she is often found experimenting with recipe ideas and matching the ideal wine combinations to make the whole eating experience come alive, to Sarah, wine and good food is to be savoured in the company of friends.

Sarah’s other passion is developing people to their full potential. Her philosophy is that learning should be fun, and with a wealth of experience in training and development she has developed extremely popular wine tasting training workshops as well as conference teambuilding events and wine tasting games.

Email Sarah: sarah@merchantsofvino.com

Patricia Wong

Pat looks upon herself as a bit of a foodie and enjoys nothing better than settling down to a good bottle of wine for the evening. Like Sarah & Debra, Pat has fallen in love with the philosophy behind how the small family run vineyards produce their wine, where pure love and hard labour go behind each harvest to ensure the highest quality wine is produced. These vineyards would rather declare that there is no vintage on a particular year than sell sub standard wine.
As a foodie, Pat loves experimenting with different food combinations, a real seafood lover, Pat enjoys the smooth full bodied reds. 

Email Pat : pat@merchantsofvino.com