Driven into the job - by a love affair with wine
The joys of a fine vintage has seen Robert Sleigh rise from delivery driver to running an auction house and retail shop serving the finest wines
Robert Sleigh does like a drop or two so it was a natural choice to work in a wine shop in London, driving a van to deliver wines around the British capital.
Twenty-four years on, he is still delivering wine - but not in a van. And the wines he handles are some of the most expensive from collectors worldwide.
Sleigh is now a senior director and head of wine business at Sotheby's Asia and has handled and delivered more than US$500 million worth of wine sold through auction in Hong Kong.
Sleigh started his career with Haynes Hanson and Clark, which specialised in selling Burgundy. It was just after the wine boom in Britain in the 1980s when winedrinking became more widespread. Sleigh was one such devotee.
He accepted the job which paid £7,000 a year but the shop supported him in getting training for the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) diploma.
Four years later, he was working in vineyards from Burgundy to Oregon to increase his knowledge in wine making and bottling. Then he joined Sotheby's New York in 1996 as a senior specialist to inspect and authenticate all wines offered for sale in the United States. He started to handle Sotheby's wine auctions in 2009.