All the details.

All in one place! 

I’m Heidi – I’m from London but have lived in Leeds and Edinburgh over the years and am currently living in sunny Grenada.

I’m a marketer by profession but I have run my own wine school in the past (random) and am now on my second career break! I’m in the Caribbean, helping out at the GSPCA (animal charity), as well as volunteering with other community projects. I’ll be out here til mid-April 2024.  

If you want to know more about my journey, then check out my medium profile where I write about what I’m up to.

‘Lees’ is a wine term. Lees are involved in the process of making Champagne, Cava and most English Sparkling Wines. There’s a full explanation of the process below but, for those of you who prefer to cut to the chase, I’m basically suggesting that I’m ageing like a fine wine!  

In winemaking, grapes are picked and the juice is extracted. Yeast is added to the grape juice whereby it eats all the sugar and turns it into alcohol. When all the sugar is consumed, the yeast die. ‘Lees’ are those dead yeast cells. The actual alcohol production is now over but, by leaving the yeast in the bottle and allowing the wine to rest on its lees, the wine ages and it gains texture, depth, complexity and flavour. From the outside it appears like nothing much is happening but, by taking time to rest, the wine is actually on its way to becoming something more refined, more flavoursome and more celebrated!  

See what I did there?! 

Back in 2014, I took a sabbatical from work and travelled around North and South America. Whilst there, I spent a lot of time on vineyards. Not only are they beautiful places to visit but usually you hear a great family story or the history of an area whilst you’re tasting the wine!

I’d always been a wine drinker but I absolutely loved the different vineyard experiences and I wanted to learn more about wine for myself. On my return to the UK, I started my WSET qualifications and, fast forward to May 2016, I was a qualified wine tutor and had opened my own wine school!

It was a wild ride and a great experience but, ultimately, the long hours, working evenings and weekends, and running the business on my own didn’t make me happy. North London Wine School ran under my ownership until August 2018 when I made a profitable exit. Now I’m back to being a normal consumer again – albeit a slightly grape-nerdy one.

Over the last 20 years (ish!) I’ve had a really interesting and enjoyable career across marketing and commercial.

With a focus on FMCG and DTC, I have a lot of experience in big, global companies like Unilever, Asda and Tesco. But I’ve also worked for some fun, high growth start-ups and tech companies like Tails.com and Trainline. I even set up my own company and completed a profitable exit back in 2018.

I’ve kinda seen it all; redundancy, recession, retail customers, as well as brands, budgets and big ideas. I thrive on a challenge and work best with a dynamic team, coming together to solve problems. When I get back from my break I’ll be looking for senior marketing opportunities so, if you think I’d be a good fit, please do get in touch!