Jeff Poole

I was initially attracted to the wine industry joining Penfolds Wines in Lincoln Road Henderson late 1978 as a young sales supervisor. 19-years working with key wine producers including a 10-year period in Australia holding down various sales, sales management and marketing roles with Penfolds Kaiser Stuhl, through to Southcorp days ensued. On returning to NZ with my family in 1995 I re familiarised myself with the NZ wine industry during an 18-month role as National Sales manager for Negociants NZ.

Almost 2 decades in the industry had whet my appetite to learn much more about wine. Equally, I harboured a vision to set up a wine retail business that pre-tasted every wine offered to ensure customers never had to pay for poor quality/value wines. Also, to educate our people to provide meaningful advice to customers in regard to style preferences. August 1, 1997 my wife Virginia and I founded FWD Co. from a spare bedroom at our then Torbay home on Auckland’s North Shore… the vision was born!

Tasting several thousand wines per year in a purpose-built facility at FWD Co. is the only way to deliver on our promise to our customers, we are the only retailer in NZ committed to those values! Plus, it satiates my passion for wine, and that of our team involved in tasting wine on such a grand scale. I love it and continue to learn every day!

It gives me unbridled fulfilment when customers say to me... “I’ve been buying wine from you for years Jeff, and never had a wine I didn’t enjoy”.

Tracey Hawes

It was a given I was going to fall in love with wine. I grew up with dad working in the industry almost all my life and his passion for it was of course a massive influence in our family. Long lunches and dinners were regular events in our home. Mum is where I got my passion for food. Six-course meals matched to amazing wines, it is fun, challenging and rewarding to create these experiences shared with friends and family. It was always about good people, good food and good wine, a coming together creating experiences that are lifelong memories with the people we love.
I started at Fine Wine Delivery Co formally 6-months after it began. I got to experience everything building a ground-up, entrepreneurial kiwi business and I love it. I have tasted many thousands of wines in the last 22-year as a part of the tasting panel from the start. I have had times out of the business working in the UK in fine wine retail, travelling through the wine regions of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal – it has been a privilege. Today I am the GM for our Marketing and Buying sides of the business, for me it is what I love and am truly passionate about.
From sitting in a park in Beaune eating a ham roll, drinking Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill out of a plastic champagne flute (one of my greatest wine moments), to enjoying long lunches with verticals of Kumeu River Mates Chardonnay (another magical moment), I love the role wine plays in our lives. It is about discovery, stories, sharing and passion – what’s not to love.