Mere weeks since closing Toscanaccio and writing her valedictory column for The Wine Merchant, Cat Brandwood is back in the wine trade, heading up private client sales and tastings at the Alresford branch of The Naked Grape.

Owner Simon Evans, who was familiar with Brandwood via her regular appearances in our pages, explains approaching her for this role was “an obvious opportunity for us to work with someone of great experience”.

He adds: “We’ve had the shop in Alresford for 21 years, and Winchester is seven miles away, so we knew that Cat was there. But we have a respect for other independents, so we never branched out into that area to try and get more customers. You’ve got to take every opportunity, and bringing someone into our business who has got a skill set and a list of customers will benefit us.”

After a brief holiday, Brandwood says she’s glad to be back, if only to keep her wine club members happy. “They are absolutely thrilled that they’ve been able to get restarted and the first thing we’ve done is introduce them to some of The Naked Grape’s bestsellers, so they’ve got something new to try and I’ve got something slightly different to talk about,” she says.

“It’s been quite exciting to try a whole load of new things that I don’t know either, and in some cases, don’t know very much about. It’s always a good learning experience. Italian wine has always been my first love, but I’m always willing to try something new, and it’s been great to be able to do that.”