Hotelier and owner of Levin Wines, David Levin, is a trailblazer. A Scotsman who took Australian winemaking ideas to France, he's not afraid of controversy. In 1965 he bought a pub in England, and before the term gastro pub was known, he introduced a full menu, served coffee in the bar, and promoted magnums of wine. "At that time you would be lucky to get a ham sandwich and drinking half bottles was the norm," he says.
In 1971, he opened London's first small luxury hotel, The Capital Hotel, which was a boutique property ahead of its time. It received a Michelin star for its restaurant (one of only four hotel restaurants to be awarded stars) when the first guide for Britain was published in 1974.
By the early 1980s he owned a number of businesses that required up to 10,000 cases of wine a year so he thought it might be time to make his own. He settled on the Loire Valley in France and began growing grapes in 1985.
This was already enough to ruffle local feathers, but it was only the beginning. "The area was malnourished so I decided what would work best for the land and the environment in general was to establish an organic, sustainable winery." He was also keen to make wines in a New World way (which included picking and sorting by hand, steel tanks, one tank per field and a consistent wine each year). After visiting several Australian winemaking friends, the idea began to take shape.
Back in France, architects he approached to build the winery didn't agree with his vision, which included a pitched roof for water collection, among some other environmental considerations.
"They began to annoy me with all their resistance, so the winery was designed in Australia. Every part of it, including the architects and workman to build it, came from Australia. To my knowledge no one has ever done this," he says.
Levin focuses on two grape varieties, sauvignon blanc and gamay. "We don't believe in forcing a vine to grow in surrounds that are not its natural home. We make wine that suits the area," he says.