Somms get the spotlight. Buyers get the headlines. But ask anyone in the wine trade what actually keeps a bottle moving from a bond in London to a customer's door in Hong Kong and the honest answer is: operations.
That was the premise behind Unsung Heroes: The Importance of Operations in Wine, an event hosted by Queena Wong and the team at Curious Vines this week. The evening brought together five operations and finance leaders from across the trade for a candid conversation about a part of the industry that, by its own admission, usually only gets noticed when something goes wrong.
The panel included:
- Jane Renwick, Fine Wine Director, London City Bond
- Andrea Ross, Director, Justerini & Brooks
- Sue French, Finance Manager, London City Bond
- Merilyn Ellis, Wine Operations / Customer Service, Davies Turner
- Moderated by Chantal Rusconi, customer support & reserves manager at Armit Wines and founder of Operationvinos
Across an hour of stories covering customs paperwork, cargo delays, administrations gone wrong and 40-year careers that started by accident, a few themes kept resurfacing.
Here were the top 10 takeaways for anyone working in operations, wherever they sit in the supply chain.
1. Visibility has to be earned before the crisis, not built during it
The panel agreed on this almost immediately: operations and finance are usually only discussed when something has already broken. The fix isn't complaining about being overlooked, but about getting a seat in the room before problems happen. That way operational reality shapes decisions rather than absorbs the fallout from them.
2. Plan for the busy season focusing on people, not just process
One panelist described running a check-in with her team about four weeks before peak season: naming that it's about to get hard, protecting lunch breaks and the importance of pushing people outside for fresh air even when there's no time for it. The logic was based in the experience a burnt-out team can't give their best work, no matter how well the logistics are planned.
3. Own mistakes immediately
Every panelist agreed that mistakes in operations are inevitable, but the real variable is how fast someone speaks up. One story stuck out: a duty-paid order released in error, caught and reversed with a single phone call, purely because someone flagged it within the hour rather than trying to quietly fix it themselves. Half an hour later, it wouldn't have been possible.
4. You don't need to be the expert, but you need to trust the people who are
Several panelists had moved into functions they'd never worked in before, from credit control, finance and warehousing. The real leadership shift was learning to trust a team's expertise rather than needing to be the smartest person in the room.
5. Explain the "why," don't just say no
When something genuinely isn't possible like a shipping deadline due to a time-zone constraint, the panel was clear that shutting a request down isn't good enough. The job is explaining the real-world limitation clearly enough that the customer or colleague understands it, rather than feeling dismissed.
6. Cross-functional experience makes better business judgement
More than one panelist credited time spent across multiple departments from customer service, credit control, logistics or finance all with making them better at representing the whole business in leadership discussions, rather than defending their own team's turf. Ensuring the overall business’ success was the key outcome over a team’s success.
7. Relationships are part of the actual infrastructure
Whether it's coordinating with warehouse partners, airlines or finance colleagues, the panel kept coming back to the same point: the wine supply chain runs on personal trust and relationships behind the scenes as much as it runs on process and paperwork.
8. Stay calm when things are genuinely out of your control
One panelist recalled a shipping partner running out of the cargo units used to load wine onto passenger aircraft, with zero warning. The fix wasn't panic; it was working the problem calmly until a solution could be identified. That, more than anything, was framed as the core skill of the job.
9. Curiosity about the wider business pays off
Buyers and salespeople who've previously worked in operations were repeatedly singled out as the ones who "thrive" because they understand how the business actually functions, not just their own corner of it.
10. Representation in the room still needs active work
The panel was candid about everyday bias that hasn't gone away. A few examples mentioned over the course of discussion included eye contact defaulting to men in meetings, a female peer automatically taking the notes in a supplier meeting rather than being treated as an equal. The honest admission: even a room full of women noticed it happening and didn't call it out in the moment. The takeaway was noticing isn't enough; it has to be said out loud, at the time.
The bigger picture
What came through most clearly wasn't a set of processes, but a shared insistence that operations is a people function first. The panel's advice to anyone starting out: be curious about how any role fits into the rest of the business, build resilience early, and don't be afraid to ask questions. As one panelist put it, nobody starts out knowing everything and the goal is to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Fero works with operations and finance teams across the drinks trade every day. We know exactly how much of the industry runs on the work described above. If you are interested in finding out more about how we make your business more efficient, book a call with us.
