A TASTE for wine has fermented into a sparkling career for a former dale schoolgirl. As a top sommelier for a prestigious London wine merchant, Laura Atkinson has come a long way from her childhood on a farm in Mickleton.
But even having visited some of the world’s most famous winelands and vineyards, her heart remains in Teesdale.
In fact, the young wine expert will be returning to the district for her wedding later this year.
Before that though, she will be jetting off to South Africa in February to learn more about her trade after she won an all expenses-paid scholarship.
“This was an international award presented for achievement as a ‘woman in wine’ and I am very much looking forward to it,” she said.
The six-week course is just one of a barrel-load of awards she has earned in her short career. These include twice being a Chaine des Rotisseurs Young Sommelier of the Year finalist and being selected as a judge for the International Wine and Spirits Competition.
This sees her, along with a number of other judges from around the globe, blind tasting wines and choosing those worthy of bronze, silver and gold.
She also recently qualified as an educator for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.
But how did this young woman go from working at the Rose and Crown in Romaldkirk at the age of 13 to recommending wines to a discerning client base in London? Through the Teesdale Mercury apparently.
“After leaving school I studied for A levels then found my first job, advertised in the Teesdale Mercury, for an administrative position at Corney & Barrow Wine Merchants,” she said.
“They were based in an office at Eggleston Hall so the main highlight was an easy commute rather than wine itself. In fact, I didn’t like red wine at that age.”
She was 19 at the time but quickly concluded that wine would be her career.
“With my first love being food, the extra attraction with wine was matching the flavours in food to those drinks, this has remained my raison d’etre and the reason I studied to be a sommelier.”
She was soon offered, and delighted to accept, the head sommelier position at Rockliffe Hall near Croft.
“I made the decision to move to London in 2010 as Berry Bros & Rudd was such an inspiring wine merchant, family run, Britain’s oldest yet very much up-to-date and the true authority on wine.”
“I have been there ever since and now work in the fine wine team.”
There she manages a portfolio of private clients and helps them build their bespoke cellars for both future drinking and fine wine investment.
She said: “It is imperative that I taste wines before advising my clients which to buy as they tend to be hundreds or even thousands of pounds per bottle.”
Thus every vintage she visits vineyards in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Champagne, Portugal, various parts of Spain and Italy to try wines directly from the cellar.
“My tastes are fairly traditional, in particular Bordeaux and Port, but I have found a love for (almost) everything Spanish alongside an adoration for the quirky white wines of Austria,” she said.
Her advice is: “Gruner Veltiner has such a natural affinity to food that this was always my sommelier choice.”
It is through working for Berry Bros & Rudd that she has also been exposed to celebrity and although her appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas show was her first for television, Ms Atkinson has been hosting a regular win club on BBC Radio Berkshire.
“I often film videos for Berry Bros & Rudd blogs following vineyard trips around Europe or at our cellars in St James’s Street. A highlight was with Michel Roux Jnr, a guest chef last year.”
She has also done food and wine matching with Antony Worrall Thompson on radio.
She hopes in the future to further her studies, but has put them on hold while she prepares her marriage plans.
“I will decide which exam to study towards next, my master of wine – of which there are 312 in the world – or master sommelier – of which there are 214 in the world. I am quite young to attempt either, both are notoriously difficult and indeed expensive, but a wonderful challenge to consider or the future,” she said.
For her wedding, however, she will be returning to Teesdale – an area that she gets back to as often as possible.
“Most of my friends and family are still there so I love to spend as much time as I can in the dales and I miss it very much.”
Her favourite spots are on the banks of the Tees or River Lune at her family farm. She also loves walking to High Force and her childhood was spent outdoors, near the water, at places like Cauldron Snout and Grassholme.
“When I am home, weather permitting, we take our bottle of Champagne and a takeaway and drive to the reservoirs of upper Teesdale on Sunday evening to sit, eat and enjoy the sunset. It is so blissfully quiet and beautiful there.”
Whether in bustling London or in the silent cellar of a vineyard far away, there remains for Ms Atkinson a yearning for family, friends, rural life, Northern warmth and real local pubs.
She is reluctant to admit it, but she misses chicken parmos too.
“It took me leaving Teesdale to appreciate just how special a place it is,” she said.