California Wines
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The California Wine Institute has announced a new trade and public relations team to head its Golden State Wines UK office. Together they hope to increase sales in the United Kingdom to $400 million by 2020.

California Wine Institute announces new UK trade team

Justin Knock MW and Damien Jackman have just been announced as the heads of the California Wine Institute’s new UK representative office. The objective for Golden State Wines UK will be to expand and strengthen the position of California wines in the UK market.

‘We are so excited to have this ‘dream team’ come together,’ said Linsey Gallagher, Vice President of International Marketing at the California Wine Institute.

‘We have a strong California Wines brand in the UK with positive trends, and we have ambitious plans to accelerate our sales to the UK in the future.’

In 2015, California wine sales in the UK reached $284 million, according to the California Wine Institute. With its new UK trade team in place, it plans to boost figures to $400 million by 2020.

R & R Teamwork will handle public and media relations, and Spear Communications will run the annual California Wines trade tasting event in London in September 2017.

The wide-reaching trade programme of the California Wine Institute now encompasses major export markets such as China, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia and Southeast Asia. It represents over 170 California wineries, and handles exports to 138 countries.

The ‘dream team’

Justin Knock MW is a former winemaker who has produced wines in Californian, Australia, France and Spain. He also has extensive experience as a wine ambassador across the UK and Europe

He is known to Decanter as one of our Decanter World Wine Award judges, a role he’s held since 2010.

Damien Jackman is a lawyer, and was previously an executive leader and general counsel at Treasury Wine Estates in the UK and Europe.

The Jackman-Knock partnership at Golden State Wines UK will work on individual and chain-based retail promotions, as well as activities with restaurants and hotels which support California wines.

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Laura Seal
Laura Seal
Decanter Magazine, Food, Wine & Travel Writer

Laura Seal is a freelance food, wine and travel writer based in London, but travelling regularly to Spain.

Besides writing travel guides, learning content and news stories for Decanter, she has also contributed to Country Life and US-based Food&Wine Magazine.

After graduating from UCL with an English Literature & Language degree in 2016, she joined Decanter as editorial and digital assistant. In 2017 she was promoted to the role of content creator on the digital team.

She worked with the Decanter design team to produce the much-loved ‘Tasting Notes Decoded’ series, which is published on Decanter.com and serialised in the magazine.

In addition, she compiles the 'A month in wine' feature for Decanter Magazine and formerly worked on MarketWatch.