Meet the team: Amanda Myles

Ladies and Gentlemen, Amanda Myles is back! We loved having Amanda with us for the Winter 15/16 season so much, we managed to convince her to return to the LVG fold for another winter of wine glass waggling, silly jokes and getting lost in the Alps. Fresh from a summer down South renovating her house and living la belle vie, she’s the perfect re-addition to the team and this season will be busy tasting wine (with clients of course), meeting new and existing customers and generally being a go-to gal for all your wine worries. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

We caught up with the lady herself to find out more about what makes her tick, when she fell in love with the Alps and her many years of working in the wine and beer biz…

Where I come from…

I was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands but grew up in Lancaster in the North West of England. It’s very pretty, close to the lake district and the Irish sea, but it rains a lot! Hence it is very green and has lots of fabulous pubs.

What do I do at LVG…

Essentially I drive round the Alps selling wine, along with Adam and Guillaume sometimes I may be looking for new customers but I also spend a great deal of time helping our existing customers taste and choose wines for the season.

My background…

I did a fine art degree at University but moved to London at 21 and ended up working in the wine trade post-university for Majestic Wines, I quickly fell in love with wine, all the intricacies behind the scenes, the people and the passion that drive the industry. I worked for Diageo in both sales and Marketing roles, with great brands such as Guinness and their
wine portfolio. I did my first vendanges (grape harvest) in Bordeaux when I was 23 and have travelled when ever possible to France with my various wine jobs over the years. My first holiday to the Alps was a road trip with friends to Val d’Isere, where we learnt to Snowboard, ate loads of crepes and drank copious amounts of Vin Chaud… I loved the mountain air and the sense of freedom, from that point I was totally hooked!!

I did what many do, packed up my life in the UK, gave up my career and moved to the Alps 10 years ago. I currently split my time between being a ‘builder bird’ renovating my house down South in the Languedoc and my life up here in the Alps working for LVG.

My Goal at LVG…

Is to push the wine boundaries a little, encourage our customers to try new things and be part of the LVG wine revolution.

What I enjoy most about the job so far..

The team, I work with some amazing guys, and the customers feel like friends!

What I get up to… 

I hike as often as I can and travel as much as possible, I love road trips. I love the freedom of living on mainland Europe that in just a few hours I can be in a new country eating and drinking something completely different to the day before.. I’m renovating a house so I spend a lot of spare time painting, decorating and shopping in Brico Depôt. I also love to paint canvases when I have the time and headspace. I’m a crazy dog lady, although I’m without a dog at the moment, I long for the day when I can have several huskies.

My perfect evening…

I have two 🙂

With my best friends, eating a fabulous meal with superb wines, somewhere warm, outdoors maybe by the sea but with great music in the background so we can end the night dancing on the tables. Or camping under the stars, somewhere high, looking down on the crazy world below.

My secret karaoke song…

I once sang Paradise city by Guns n Roses on a Karaoke night in a Northampton pub.

The first thing I’d do if I won the lottery…

I would make sure my family had everything they need then I would buy a Renault 4l 4×4, find a co pilot and drive round South America.

The best wines in the world…

From the Languedoc, I’m biased as I live down there but the region is seriously on the up, with young, dynamic wine producers popping up everywhere, there is so much innovation going on down there it’s hard to keep up.