Meet the team
Andrew
After leaving school at 14 I joined the family business full time. My first memories of the wine trade are the biggest sellers Emva Cream, Babycham and Spanish Chablis. I have been lucky enough to go all over the world. Some of my favourite trips were to South America, South Africa where I planted some vines, twoweeks in the Rhône Valley where I intended to make my wedding wine but didn’t, I got offered a ‘better deal’ and two weeks in Italy with my wife Isabel, where I finally fulfilled my dream of making a wine. My favourite wines are mainly Spanish, but my favourite go to meal has to be homemade steak and kidney pie with a good bottle of Côtes du Rhône. I have now reached retirement age but can still be found in the shop passing on my wealth of knowledge to the next generation.
Philip
Imagine me back in 1969, a skinny kid aged just 13 taking out groceries for D. Byrne & Co. on a massive oversized delivery bike, just starting out in the wine trade. But in the here and now I can be found at our Brewery store room sending wines far and wide by motorised transport and dreaming of warm vineyards. Wine has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and being in a family business runs in your blood, it isn’t just a job, it’s your life. Always a Francophile at heart with a particular passion for the wines of Burgundy, I’ve been fortunate enough to drink some of the finest wines with some of the greatest producers of the region. When not wine buying, I’m never happier than at a good music gig with a pint in my hand.
Joe
It’s in my blood. Literally! Not many 8 year olds are given blind tastings and expected to know which was Cabernet and which was Merlot. Part time from age 7 and upon leaving school this was the only career I wished to pursue, coming second in a whisky nosing competition aged 13 I suppose it was inevitable. I’m regularly asked what is my favourite wine, whisky, gin etcand for me this is a very hard one to answer. South Africa is certainly one of my passionsas this was the first area I was given freelance to expand our range and of course whilst honeymooning there in 2019, my wife Lindsey and I paid quite a number of visits to various wineries. For me the real joy is finding new, exciting wines and spirits. If they offer value for money that’s my main ethos and you’ll find me on the shop floor passing on these findings to customers.
Kate
One might say I was weaned on wine, being Philip’s daughter and one of the fifth generation of Byrnes to be found in the shop. I suppose it’s unsurprising that I’ve ended up working here full time, with childhood holidays consisting of trips to French wineries, and some of my earlier memories involving riding a tricycle around the cellars of the King Street shop and drawing the spiders that lived amongst the bottles. With a degree in Illustration at Manchester School of Art I’m responsible for the more creative side of D. Byrne & Co, and whilst you’ll occasionally catch a glimpse of me working on the shop floor, I’m usually found up in the office, brew in hand, working busily away on our Newsletter, which I design and produce. I’d really struggle to pick a favourite region, however if you are after a richer white or a full bodied red then I’m probably a good person to ask.
Simon
A Music Graduate (RWCMD Classical Guitar), I’ve been with D. Byrne & Co. full time since 1999. I love wine, music, cooking, and walking. I once played darts against the late Jocky Wilson. Not long after I’d started, a customer gave me a bottle of 1996 Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin Clos St.Jaques, saying, “Try this, it’ll change your life.” It did. Something I’ll never forget. Whilst I can’t really pin myself down to one particular style of wine I’m a lover of Burgundy, Nebbiolo, Syrah, and Riesling, if I had to name a few.
Judith
I’m the one you only see at wine tastings, usually wearing two pairs of glasses and accompanied by a little white terrier. The rest of the time they hide me in a Dickensian office preparing the books and accounts for D. Byrne & Co. If asked what my role in the company is I usually look stern and say “I write the cheques!” Originally trained as a Graphic Designer in the 1980s, I married Philip in 1989 and have been part of the family firm since the birth of our three children in the early 90s when I learned to juggle both a baby and an abacus. My greatest achievement (other than the juggling) is to drag D.Byrne & Co. into the 21st century with the beginning of our mailing list, newsletter and social media presence. I am also official ‘Keeper of the Shop History’ and researcher of Byrne genealogy.