Island Life Magazine Ltd December/January 2018 | Page 47

Interview
“The Island isn’t
generally spotted as
a place where things
happen, but the fact
is that SlimLine was
built from here, is run
from here – and I’m
damn well proud of
that!”
Paul & Miriam Gidley,
founders of Slimline wine
their groundbreaking new ‘healthy wine’
brand.
A life in wine
Now aged 50, Paul Anthony can trace his
interest in wine back for over 40 of those
years, and says it was probably sparked by
his grandfather, George Gidley.
“Grandpa was actually what was known
in those days as a tea baron, but I guess
he always had aspirations in wine” he says.
“Some English families had interests in
wine, and I guess he might have had a
penny or two invested, but 40 years ago,
the Nuits St Georges and St Emilions were
alien to us in the UK – at best we might
have drunk Blue Nun.
“As a young man, I got fascinated by the
whole subject and used to go on trips with
him to Bordeaux.
“It seems to be the conversation I’ve had
all my life, and how I came to understand
Europe and geography and climate, and
how I looked at maps.”
Other elements of his early life
that were to bear fruit later on
included a Parisian grandmother,
whose influence meant that even
as a child, he was served with a
little wine and water at
the dinner table. “For
me, that took away
any mystique about
alcohol” he says.
Meanwhile, his
father Anthony
was in marketing
and early audio
visuals, and his
mother Christine a
passionate Cordon
Bleu cook and
teacher of cookery.
With such a
combination of
creative gastronomic
family influences, added
to his own personal
fascination for the grape,
it’s no wonder that by his
Dragon James Caan
www.visitilife.com
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