Jason Millar (English, 2003)

Jason read English as an undergraduate and initially pursued a career in publishing. However, he soon found his vocation in life as a wine merchant and expert, and now works as a director of Theatre of Wine. He still uses his literary skills as a wine journalist, and in 2016 was awarded the Vintners’ Cup.

I grew up in Northern Ireland, as a child on the northern coast and then later in the Tyrone countryside. It was rural and quiet. I did a lot of reading and dog-walking, and, when I was older, arguing about politics which probably helped my tutorial skills further down the line.

I packed a lot into my time at Hertford, not all of it academic. I remember talking lexicography with Charlotte Brewer, Shakespeare with Emma Smith, and some brilliantly bizarre conversations with Tom Paulin about how John Clare’s ‘hatching Throstles shining eye’ is a rifle metaphor. Even as a devout atheist, I remember the cool darkness of the chapel to which I sometimes escaped when things got a bit much. I also remember walking into Blackwells on the day after my finals and buying a ridiculous amount of books that I’d wanted to read for years but couldn’t quite justify during my degree.

After Hertford, I had a five-year stint in publishing. It seemed the natural progression from an English degree, but in the end it wasn’t what I was hoping for. In an unexpected way, the collaborative atmosphere I had hoped to find in publishing is much more prevalent in wine, and I made the switch in 2011.

Now I am one of three directors of Theatre of Wine, an independent wine merchant, retailer and wholesaler based in London, where I am responsible for retail, restaurant and event business, as well as buying and importing directly from areas as diverse as Bordeaux and Greece. I also write a regular industry-focused column for Drinks Retailing, host wine tastings in our stores and private venues, and act as a wine judge and cellar consultant.

In 2016 I won the Vintners’ Cup for the highest mark worldwide in the top level of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust’s courses, the Level 4 Diploma. It’s a tough exam – a combination of theory and tasting – so I was chuffed to come out with the top mark despite having a hideous question about pruning methods in Champagne on one of the papers.

Although I have never really believed in inspiration, wine certainly comes close. What could be more inspiring than Dionysus? When you taste things like Madeira from the 1858 vintage and reflect that the grapes were picked before Italy or Germany existed, when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Darwin announced his theory of evolution, it is a profound aesthetic and cultural experience.