Wine and Vine
Over the past decade, Wine and Vine Personnel International has successfully placed hundreds of senior executives and managers within the global wine and drinks industry.
WHO DO WE RECRUIT?
Wine and Vine Personnel focuses solely on senior management recruitment and executive search in the wine and FMCG drinks business.
In general this encompasses the following management disciplines:
- CEO, CFO, COO and Senior Business Management
- Sales across all channels: Export ,Wholesale; FMCG and specialist Retail; DtC;
- Marketing, Communications
- Winemaking, Brewing
- Laboratory, Quality Assurance, Flavour-technology
- Viticulture/Oenology
- Operations
- Production; Logistics
- Finance, IT
Over the years we have developed an effective and fair methodology to serve the interests of both valued clients and candidates.
We also provide our clients with a range of personnel and business-related services including Employee Counselling, Psychological Profiling, Performance and salary Benchmarking, Outplacement Counselling and Guidance and other services tailored to specific client needs.
This has resulted in long relationships with both clients and candidates and the satisfaction of working with increasingly successful client companies, and individuals as they build their careers
The best candidates seldom scan job adverts. They need to be personally alerted to good roles, and convinced of the role’s career benefits and suitability for them.
Our Clients
We have worked with a diverse set of large and small clients across the globe
Chris Anstee – Managing Director
Chris joined Wine and Vine Personnel as owner and managing director in 2009. Originally trained at Geisenheim in Germany as a winemaker, he worked as an export manager in the London wine trade before moving to Australia in 1985.
Over the past 30 years, Chris has managed both family-owned and publicly-listed wine companies in Australia and the Napa Valley, USA. He has overseen the growth of several major wine brands in both Australian and international markets including: USA, UK, Canada and SE Asia, China and India. Since 2004, he has been a business consultant to companies ranging from Australian “top five” wine producers to iconic boutique wineries and distributors in several countries.
Chris has been a member of the International Committees of Wine Australia and the California Wine Institute. He has served as an international wine judge, presented Export Strategy papers at Australian Wine Industry Outlook Conferences. He has written regular consumer wine columns and continues to be a regular boardroom wine presenter and educator. For sixteen years he was a committee member of Wine Communicators of Australia.
Through regular business travel and client engagements, Chris maintains a wide range of beverage-industry contacts throughout Australia and the world. Twenty five years’ experience as an employer and ten as a specialist recruiter, have equipped him to provide exceptional client and candidate service.
Our Associates
Our coverage of major international markets, especially the Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, is maintained through Wine and Vine Personnel’s professional Associates who are based in London, Guangzhou, San Francisco and Cape Town.
Like ourselves, these associates are former senior, internationally-experienced drinks business executives who also have specialist recruitment experience.
“Chris Anstee is the best search and placement professional I have dealt with – bar none. He has a depth and breadth of relationships across all areas of the (wine) industry, but more importantly takes the time to understand what you are looking for from both a career challenge perspective and a business culture…”
Chris Pears | CEO Ara Wines Ltd. New Zealand
“I have had the pleasure of working with Chris Anstee on multiple occasions. My first experience was when we needed a Chief Winemaker and I asked Chris to simply find us the best winemaker in the world. Before commencing recruitment he started with an extensive visit to our properties to understand our business and meet the key players that the Chief Winemaker would have direct relationships with. This provided the base for a very extensive global search. Chris understands our business more than any recruiter I have ever worked with. He has an amazing network and treats all candidates with respect and ease. I truly felt like he was a direct representative of our business. Needless to say, Chris found us an incredibly accomplished winemaker who was willing to take the leap and leave Australia to join our growing wine business in British Columbia, Canada.
I did not hesitate to contact Chris immediately when we had the need to recruit a Vice President of Operations. The experience has been even more impressive with an excellent selection of candidates. I take the time to ask candidates about their experience with Wine and Vine Personnel and it is overwhelmingly positive. The feedback is incredibly consistent in that Chris is able to answer the candidate’s questions and truly understands our business. I can highly recommend Chris Anstee and he is my ‘go to’ recruiter for specific wine industry positions of all disciplines. A person I respect immensely and a true partner in our search for the best talent the world has to offer.
Darryl Brooker | President, Mission Hill Family Estate, British Columbia, Canada
“Since 2010, we have used Chris for recruitment services mostly for sales and marketing positions. His service and thoroughness in searching the market for suitable candidates has meant that he has provided Tyrrell’s with a number of high quality, long- term employees. His knowledge of our industry, and also of us, plus his refusal to put forward unsuitable candidates, has been very much appreciated by us and I would have no hesitation in recommending Chris to another wine and spirits company”.
M Bruce Tyrrell AM | Managing Director, Tyrrell’s Wines Hunter Valley, New South Wales.
“We (have) retained Chris Anstee as a business advisor to our company for several years. During this time, his domestic and international experience made a major contribution to realigning our business and enabling us to succeed in today’s difficult marketplace. In all his dealings with our company, Chris has shown great integrity, reliability and thoroughness and a commitment to working closely within our company’s distinctive culture. He has provided a wide range of effective sales and marketing advice as well as mentoring to senior executives. Chris has played a central role in the recruitment of Best’s key senior sales and marketing management and the selection and appointment of excellent distributors. In all cases, he demonstrated a systematic and professional approach together with commercial acumen which resulted in highly successful appointments.”
Ben Thomson | Managing Director, Great Western, Victoria.
“I worked with Chris Anstee over… three years on a number of client projects and as a fellow Committee member of Wine Communicators of Australia. In this time I always found Chris to be the ultimate professional, gaining respect from those working with him due to his personable nature and his valuable input gained from the depth of his experiences . Chris has a detailed, practical understanding of the international wine market and truly understands the unique challenges facing wineries of all sizes. He is a skilled communicator with a broad commercial acumen and contact base to draw upon. I would not hesitate to recommend his services. It’s an absolute pleasure working with him.”
Trish Barry| Managing Director
“Chris Anstee was contracted to identify, and recruit on behalf of our Board, a Non-Executive Director with strong capabilities in finance. His extraordinary network of industry contacts enabled him to present three highly-qualified candidates within a very short period of time. An appointment was subsequently made well in advance of a challenging deadline. The overall experience of working with Chris has been extremely rewarding. In addition to being as well-connected within the wine industry (both local and international) as anyone can be, he is a highly proactive and thorough communicator who takes enormous pride in constructing and delivering the requisite solutions. Apart from all that…you couldn’t meet a more thoroughly decent bloke! I cannot recommend him highly enough.”
Rob Remnant | Director Taltarni and Clover Hill Wines
“Chris Anstee (has) worked as a general business consultant to De Bortoli for several years, providing valuable expertise across a range of disciplines and markets, including the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA. This work included collaborating with our senior management in recruiting and appointing senior managers in both Australia and Europe. His international business experience, contacts and rigorous approach proved invaluable in enabling us to make top-calibre, successful appointments who have become long-standing members of our management team”
Victor De Bortoli | Export Director Griffith, New South Wales
Want to find out more?
Whether you are an employer or a candidate, one of our principals will gladly discuss our services in more detail with you in complete confidence.
