With over 35 years of experience in the Wine Trade working for Lay & Wheeler, Oddbins, Bibendum and Armit, Phil definitely knows a thing or two about wine. His particular passions include Burgundy, Piedmont and Chile, where he has visited and made firm friends. For 25 years he has sold to Restaurants, which has also become a passion. He has travelled extensively through the vinous world, completing vintages in Alsace and Australia and is never happier than when he is wandering through the vineyards or tasting with the producer in their cellars whilst learning about what constitutes a great site. All this aligned with a lifelong passion for Ipswich Town Football Club, a love of family, friends and felines pretty much tells you all you need to know!

Sophie stumbled into wine while pretending to study Psychology at Edinburgh University. After attending the University’s Wine Society one night she was hooked, and made it onto the Blind Tasting Team three years in a row. During university holidays she helped run her parents’ boutique hotel in the Scottish Highlands, where she did time as Restaurant Manager and Kitchen Porter (and everything inbetween). When working for a wine shop and wholesaler in Edinburgh she helped reform the hotel’s wine list, and loved it so much she decided to continue in On-Trade Sales, joining Justerinis in London before L&S. Her particular wine passions are Burgundy, Loire, and Piedmont, but she can never say no to a glass of Champagne. When not out wining or dining, Sophie loves to host elaborate dinner parties, plays a bit of bad golf and enjoys indoor climbing. She’s also an occasional DJ, and loves to spin Classic House, as well as the cheesiest Disco tunes she can find.

Derek has been involved with wine since leaving school in 1987 with a summer job before 6th form setting him on a course of vinous delight. From stacking cases in a wine warehouse, to van driver, to Oddbins then Selfridges before heading down under for a vintage with Yalumba and 5 years selling French wine into the Sydney restaurant scene. Based in Norwich he is L&S’s man on the ground outside London focussing on East Anglia where he enjoys building solid relationships with chefs and sommeliers. A lover of all wine, a firm believer that there is only ‘good wine and bad wine’ and all fads in between are just that ‘fads’. Slightly obsessed with the wines of the Rhône Valley (Châteauneuf-du-Pape in particular), Languedoc-Roussillon, Australia and the Barossa Valley. Away from wine, its family, 3 young children and a gorgeous wife, an ancient black Labrador, the VW campervan, cooking and stand-up comedy, Norwich City Football Club and Scotland Rugby!