Two minutes with Katy Keating, Managing Director of Flint Wines:
Flint works with wine producers from around the world to bring their terroir-driven wines to the UK. What’s your favourite wine-producing region and which wine that originates from there do you admire most?
My first love is northern Italy's Piedmont, having lived there for nearly a year after university. While I was there to study cheese, it was hard not to fall in love with the local wine - not just the headliner Nebbiolo but also Dolcetto, Barbera and the indigenous whites Arneis, Nascetta and Timorasso - especially as an American, finally of legal drinking age! Flint has a super Piedmont portfolio, with particular favourites including Franca Miretti's Barbarescos from Cantina del Pino, Elvio Cogno's Ravera cru Barolo, and - when you can get your hands on them - those of Luca Roagna.
Flint supplies many prestigious and award-winning restaurants and hotels across London and the UK. How important is it for you to work alongside the leaders in Britain’s hospitality industry?
Ours is a relationship-based business where nothing matters more than people, and building connection.What excites me most are the increasing synergies between our trade arm and our private client arm: where wines we represent grace top tables in the UK only to then be sought by private clients to enjoy them again, at home. It is just so much more fun dining out in London now that I'm at Flint - a chance to learn from the best longstanding and up and coming sommeliers, at restaurants we're privileged to work with - the hospitality world is a very warm and welcoming one!
At the end of 2023, Flint embarked on the beginning of a five-year plan designed to grow and expand the business. What can we expect to see from Flint over the next three years?
Where we've just come from, since the end of 2023, is also a sign of where we're headed.Everything starts with our team, so our first step was to fill some key roles, both internally and by bringing some fabulously talented new people in.We've since been sweeping out cobwebs from every corner of the business: we refreshed our brand, released a new trade website, renovated our office, upgraded our internal system and hosted our largest portfolio tasting yet.Over the next three years, we will be building on this newly reinforced foundation, with further investments in people, in our website and in more generally expanding our UK presence to spread the good word about the terroir-driven wines made by small family-run producers from around the fine wine world that we're so fortunate to represent.