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BBC Apprentice finalist works with local wine school

A Newcastle-based wine school group is raising a toast to success with one of this year’s BBC Apprentice finalists.

Localwineschool.com, founded by Jesmond entrepreneur Chris Powell, is working with Tom Gearing, who came second in The Apprentice this year.

Tom, who owns fine wine investment company Cult Wines, chose localwineschool.com to take on professional training after narrowly missing out on a £250,000 investment in his business from Lord Sugar in the final of the show last month.

Since Tom began his training with localwineschool.com, Cult Wines has grown to an annual turnover of £3.5m, more than doubling the £1.25m turnover Tom quoted before filming for The Apprentice began.

Localwineschool.com is the UK’s only network of independent wine schools offering public wine tastings, corporate entertainment and professional Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) qualifications – a must have for anybody wanting to progress in the wine trade.

Tom is now enrolling all his key staff on a professional WSET wine course at localwineschool.com, which has one of the highest pass rates in the country.

He said: “I chose localwineschool.com because of its reputation for no-nonsense, fun wine education, and its record of success steering students through the WSET courses.

My expertise is in French wines, but I learned a lot about wines from New World countries like California, Chile and Argentina, which I had never really focused on before.“

Chris Powell set up the first branch of localwineschool.com at Blackfriars Restaurant in Newcastle four years ago, to offer independent, informal courses for wine lovers. Since then, his business has successfully grown to become a chain of twelve nationwide franchises.

Chris said: “It’s been a pleasure to help a well recognised face like Tom learn more about wine and we wish him every success in his new venture.

“Since we opened our first wine school franchise there has been an explosion of interest in learning about wine. We now run fun and professional wine courses from Edinburgh to Brighton and the public’s thirst for wine knowledge shows no sign of diminishing, even in these austere times. I think it’s our relaxed style which focuses on tasting the wines that encourages people to try our courses.

“We’re proud to have been selected this year as a finalist for one of the most prestigious awards in the wine industry, a Harpers Award - the wine industry Oscars - along with Oz Clarke and Majestic, for excellence in delivering wine education to consumers.”

Localwineschool.com has also been shortlisted for the International Wine Challenge ‘Wine Educator of the Year’ - a renowned competition in the wine trade. The winner will be announced in September.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Uniquethinking PR team .