Pamela Geddes,

Creator/ winemaker of La Pamelita and co, manager director of Lobban Wines S. L. and all other positions within this one person company.

I used to be sparkling winemaker for the largest sparkling producer in the southern hemisphere ss(www.southcorp.com.au ); now I am one of the smallest sparkling producers in the northen hemisphere. I do know of a smaller one in the southern hemisphere, Hacienda El Condor near Curico in Chile where I make the Millaman Sparkling Rojo. ( www.millaman.cl)

So how did an Aberdeen-born, Bridge of Allan-bred and University of Strathclyde-educated lass start making sparkling red wine ? Most people seem to find it impossible to equate the two words scottish and winemaker; start talking red bubbles and they find it even more impossible. But to me my career has taken a fairly straight course as I travelled the world a good few times pursuing a dream. Let me briefly recount my life so far.

I am one of four children and I have to say that I am very lucky to have such a supportive family ; they are always there to taste new wines and offer praise or constructive criticism. My parents never once blinked an eyelid when my dream of working in wine started to take shape even though they knew it would mean leaving Scotland. They even offered me adresses of wineries they had visited in California to get me started.

I studied Microbiology at Strathcyde University and after completing a 2 year medical research project, I started work at Pentlands Scotch Whisky Research Ltd in Edinburgh - analysing samples of fermenting wort was much more pleasant than the samples of pus I had had to deal with at The Western General in Edinburgh. I had cut my wine drinking teeth like anyone else of my generation on wines such as Lutomer Riesling, Hirondelle and even rising to Piat d'Or for that special ocaision - all white of course. At the age of 18 as I was refusing a special glass of Bordeaux in the home of family friends, the host bet me that I would be a red wine fanatic by the time I was 21 and if not he would give me a fur coat - suffice to say I never did get that coat although my love affair with reds came slightly later.

As I worked in the whisky industry I learned the science of yeast and bacterial fermentations, the arts of blending and sensory evaluation and I obtained a Masters degree from Heriot Watt University by research which I carried out on the effect of lactic acid bacteria on the flavour of Scotch Malt Whisky. I was also exposed to quality wines at various social gatherings and slowly I began to see that I could apply the forementioned skills to work in wine.

A visit to Barcelona in the mid eighties set me thinking that this would be a perfect place to live - there were vineyards almost at the edge of the city and plenty of wine and Cava on tap. However
I decided firstly to learn about wine in my own language and then to tackle Spanish. So off I went to Australia to work as Microbiologist with Penfolds Wines in the Barossa Valley where I tasted evrything that came my way and asked as many questions to the winemakers that I could. Within weeks of arriving I enrolled in a short wine tasting course in Adelaide and was shocked one week when the teacher announced that the following week we would be tasting "red champagne" - would these Ozzies stop at nothing I asked myself - not only using the term champagne for wine produced outside of that region in France but also for having the audacity to make fizz from red wine - I thought of the cheap Lambrusco that I had oft declined at home.

But to my amazement, that first sparkling red, Seppelts Sparkling Shiraz, took me to a new level in taste sensations - one sniff, one sip, one spit and I was hooked. Here started my love affair with this style, full bodied spicy red wine made in the champagne method. I tried many, many more wines with and without gas from the tops to the bottoms in my first australian sojourn but I will never forget that memorable tasting class. I worked at Penfolds for 2 years and decided it was time to try out Barcelona. I found temporary work with the great Torres company , as vintage microbiologist and again set myself the task of tasting all wines that Spain could offer. But despite asking all and sundry in very bad spanish, I couldnt find any red fizz. Neither could I find permanent work so when I was offered a temporary position as Sparkling Winemaker for Seppelts I packed my bag and headed down under once more.

Yes, there I was, working in the cellars that have produced Sparkling reds for over 100 years.
I stayed three and a half years in this "temporary" position whch actually did become permanent after 18 months. Seppelts was part of the giant Southcorp group of wineries and and we were consolidating sparkling production at Great Western. Every day semed to be bring new challenges and I made every type of sparkling wine possible, bubbles galore. I was very privileged to be able to taste some of the great old sparkling shirazes from the forties onwards and my love and respect for this wine style grew stronger and stronger.

However much I loved the wines there, I felt it was time to be nearer to home and in July 1996 off I set for new horizons and the life of a flying / contract winemaker. I based myself in Barcelona as by this time I was a partner in a restaurant El Salon (www.elsalon.net) with Jan Gormally, excellent chef and great friend, and for the following 7 years I worked vintage in Spain from September to November and then vintage in Chile from February to May. The rest of the time was mine and this is when I created La Pamelita.

My first contract was at Bodegas Castaño in Yecla, Murcia working for Australian winemaker David Morrison's company Winemakers and there I discovered the delights offered by the grape variety Monastrell. As I was working a tank of ripe red monastrell one day , I decided that this was undoubtedly sparkling red material and somehow managed to convince Ramon Castaño to let me make some red fizz. The first stage of tiraging is relatively easy in terms of equipment and no investment was neccessary but when it came to disgorging we had to buy traditional equipment in order to disgorge the wine. The first La Pamelita finally hit the UK in October 1999 through Moreno Wine Importers and reached Australia in September 2000 thanks to Ultimo Wine Cellars. But La Pamelita was my jam - I still had to have bread and butter and I made all sorts of wines for various markets. My Chilean contract is still ongoing as I am Projects Winemaker for Viña Millaman in Chile where, not surprisingly, I make a sparkling red from old vine Malbec and some much younger shiraz and monastrell.

To conclude this career history I am finally devoting time to get La Pamelita and Lobban Wines up and running; I have rented winery space near Girona and I am working in every part of the company - my skills now include purchasing, accounting, sales, marketing and cleaning up after myself. All going well, I hope to have my own little sparkling facility within the next few years and maybe even a patch of vines somewhere in the beautiful countryside It seems an uphill struggle at times trying to turn people on to the joys of sparkling red but I'm trying my best.