Toby Spiers

Toby Spiers, Australia

Toby Spiers has been in the wine industry in the UK since 2005, with experience covering winemaking, sales, marketing and as a sommelier. 

Toby began his career by delving into grape growing and winemaking, spending three years obtaining a BSc. (Hons) Viticulture & Oenology from Plumpton College whilst broadening his knowledge of the trade as a sommelier at the Hotel du Vin, Brighton. 

It was whilst working as a sommelier with an extensive wine list that he first saw the brilliance of old vines. He noted that those wines described as “vielles vignes” from France had an extra edge and quality to them, not to mention an additional romance.

Toby then moved into the London wine trade, into sales for various wine merchants including Bibendum before specialising in Australian wines.

Toby has now spent a decade in the UK and European markets working commercially for the likes of Penfolds, Wynns, Coldstream Hills, St Hallett, Petaluma, Grant Burge, Hardys and House of Arras. He is keen to showcase the spectacular old vine stock in Australia, and the World class wines being made from them by growers that are in their sixth or seventh generations of tending the same vines.

Toby also has a toe in the burgeoning English wine industry with a weekend vineyard, winery and cellar door at Downsview Vineyard, High Weald with his wife Katy. They are very keen to save and protect the tiny quantity of old vines on the UK shores and are making a Downsview Vineyards Old Vine range from the old vines they can save.