'Yorkshire has never left me' - The Yorkshire trio making waves in the wine industry across the world
Christine Austin meets a trio of Yorkshire folk who are now leading figures in the wine industry… but they all took different, and unexpected, routes into the winemaking world.
“My father was passionate about wine and there was always a bottle on the table at home in Harrogate,” said James Wood.
“I think that’s why I ended up as a winemaker, but I didn’t take the direct route into the business.”
James was calling in from his office in France, where he is a consultant winemaker in the Southern Rhône region.
In his quest to learn more about wine he has lived all over the world, but he stays grounded as a Yorkshireman by sitting on a cushion emblazoned with the Yorkshire Tea motif.
“When I left school I started with a holiday job in the shop at Martinez Wine in Ilkley, and it was there I started to get interested in wine and I passed my first wine exams.
"But I really wanted to be a ski guide, so I left and went to the mountains for the winter. From there I moved to Burgundy and worked for a wine producer which proved to be a fabulous experience.”
Over the next few years James worked in France, New Zealand and South Africa, gathering experience, and making connections across the world.
“That’s when I decided that I really needed proper winemaking qualifications, so I enrolled at Plumpton College and got my degree.
"While I was studying, I also worked at an estate in the Rhône, and the region started to feel like home. I just love the Grenache grape, and this is where it does best.”
He spent several years at Domaine Vintur, an important estate in the Ventoux, working with Grenache and bringing the estate up to international standards.
Now he has expanded his portfolio as a wine consultant across the Rhône region, currently working with American investors and planting grapes that will be able to flourish despite continuing climate change.
He also has his own vineyard where he uses classic regeneration techniques to preserve the vitality of the land and improve the quality of his wine.
“Although I now live in France, Yorkshire has never left me.
"I try to go back in August to see family, but this year on Yorkshire Day I’ll be here in France with a group of Yorkshire school friends.”
There was absolutely no chance that Cathy Marston would be born anywhere but Yorkshire.
“My father, John Oliver, was a keen cricketer, so despite my mother’s family living in Oldham, he made sure that she was safely in Yorkshire to deliver each of her three children, just in case they were boys and so they could play for Yorkshire.
"Alas, we are three sisters, so his fast driving was for nothing,” said Cathy.
Cathy grew up in and around the Leeds area but moved to Cape Town, South Africa 26 years ago, but she still thinks of herself as a Yorkshire person.
“I am fairly straightforward and down-to-earth which I think has come from being brought up in Yorkshire. That has definitely helped me to communicate clearly in my work.”
Cathy is co-owner, with her husband Kevin, of The International Wine Education Centre responsible for teaching Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses not only in South Africa but across many locations in Africa and the Middle East.
“We have had around 10,000 students attend courses over the years, and we are particularly proud of the work we do to enable previously disadvantaged people attend courses and gain a qualification.
"This can open so many doors for them. I know of many students who left school with no qualifications, and they are now working on luxury cruise liners or in hotels.”
Many students also go on to work in tasting rooms on wine estates in South Africa or in wine shops.
Some have even continued their wine education and are now teaching their own range of WSET courses as far away as The Maldives and Australia.
It is because of this work that Cathy won the 2025 WSET Outstanding Alumni Award which was presented earlier this year in London.
“I have been coming back to London quite a lot in the last year for various family reasons, but I haven’t yet managed to visit the community pub in Muker where I have a tiny shareholding.
"I will really have to come for a visit soon.”
Jacob Leadley didn’t set out to be a winemaker.
It wasn’t even thought of as a possible career at his old school in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, so he got a degree and headed to the world of finance.
It was during a holiday in South America that he started to be interested in the wine industry, so he did a few WSET courses and then took the huge step of signing up for a full-time course on viticulture and winemaking at Plumpton College.
Fast forward a few years and with hard work, experience and some investors, Jacob is owner of Black Chalk winery, with 12 hectares of Hampshire vineyard, a winery, tasting room and a fistful of medals.
“At first everyone thought that English sparkling wine should be compared with Champagne, but English wine has its own identity.
"At Black Chalk we want to show the bright delicate fruit that is in our wines.
"We build complexity in the wine in several ways, by using a number of different clones of each of the varieties that go into the wine, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.
"Then we map out the vineyard and ferment each block separately to see which soil and clone combination works best in the blend.”
Most exciting is the recent addition of a tasting room which allows visitors to wander in and taste the wine.
“We have food trucks on Friday nights and lots of people come and enjoy the wine and food.
"Another achievement has been to get Black Chalk into Rockcliffe Hall which is the Middlesborough FC hotel and training ground. As a supporter of Boro FC, that is excellent.”
And if the careers teacher at Huntcliff school wants someone to talk to students about a career in the burgeoning English wine industry, Jacob is your man.