Speaker Meeting

Members of Bexhill Rotary Club were treated to an enlightening look into the world of the international wine trade when David Carr Taylor came to talk to them at their monthly speaker meeting on 21 July at the Cooden Beach Golf Club.

Right from the start, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a simple tale of planting, picking and treading grapes, as David began with eye- popping tales of growing up in India.  His early years there were spend looking out at many thousands of acres of land dedicated to the growing of Darjeeling tea, which his father was largely responsible for introducing to the British. Close encounters with the local rat population and a sea of dead centipedes gave the young David a rather interesting take on life. He was not, therefore, unduly troubled when, arriving at Mumbai railway station, as a young boy, he had to walk around the dead and dying bodies of dozens of locals involved in heated religious conflict.

Though not a star pupil at school, David became interested in engineering and with his “can do” hands-on approach, he quickly progressed to be running a local engineering firm by his mid twenties, handling contracts with local and national authorities and getting to know how business worked. He then decided to have a go at something different – wine growing. The experts told him that Westfield was too un-French for it to work and after tasting the first production batch, he was inclined to agree. Fortunately, when tasting the apparently bad batch, he noticed that the cork had popped out of the bottle as soon as the foil was removed. He realised that they had created a decent sparkling wine that not only helped him clear the overdraft but led to the business picking up over 180 awards for their wine.

David was not, however, one to sit still. A chance meeting with a lady student led him to consider going back to India and selling his wine there. We were told a lot about the way things are done in India – or, more accurately, the way things are not done. Over years, David got to know the system and the people to turn to. As a result of his determination and with help from the student who went on to become his business partner, he is now planning to grow the business in India and without giving away any commercial secrets, told us how he is using modern technology to help him stay ahead of the competition.

From what we heard, it looks like David will not be dicing with the rats and centipedes that occupied his time in India as a child, though he may still have to keep an eye open for some of the sharks out there in the Indian commercial world.

Rotarian Graham Dawson proposed the vote of thanks and members all agreed they had had a thought-provoking evening.