As a child, leaning from my bedroom window, on a windy day I could smell the sea. My family didn’t believe me.

My first memories of wine were not from illustrious Bordeaux chateau, but sipped secretively in my grandfather’s pantry, where he kept an intriguing variety ‘wines’, made from fruits, flowers and berries, everything but grapes…

As a student, I experimented with my own home brews …best forgotten…while cultivating a more refined taste for fine art and architecture…and good food…

Following my nose, after a brief stint in fine art, I set off for Asia lured by intoxicating spices and penned my way from the floating markets of Borneo to the spice warehouses of Cochin.

Travelling was too much fun. The time came to train the ‘nose’ and the Champagne Bureau, promoting the king of fizz, seemed a good place to start.

You can’t keep a good nose down; as the new world wine buyer for a blue chip wine agent, I embarked upon a cross continental tour from Australasia to the Americas in search of great wine.

Honing the ‘nose’ I put in time round the globe, en route to becoming a Master of Wine.

Since 2005 I have specialised in Burgundian wine. Every year for June and October, I visit numerous domaines, tasting hundreds of wines from barrel to assess the vintage. And then, in November, I release a “The Burgundy Briefing”, an annual report on the latest vintage and its wines.

So that’s me… Sarah Marsh aka The English Nose…

Oh.. and I also make my own beer.