Christopher Cannan

Born in a small village in the Cotswold Hills in the west of England in 1949, and after a boarding school education, at the age of 17 Christopher went abroad to learn languages including French, German and Spanish.

His career in the wine world began in 1970 with nine-month internships in the vineyards of France, Germany, Spain and Portugal. After three years as assistant to the export manager at Louis Eschenauer, a Bordeaux wine merchant, Christopher joined Frederick Wildman & Sons, a well-known importer in the United States. Based in Margaux, Christopher was in charge of European purchases and sales for J. Moreau & Fils, Chablis and CVNE, Rioja, two companies in which Wildman had interests at the time.

In 1978 Christopher left Wildman to found Europvin. A Bordeaux-based trading company, Europvin selects wines from top-quality châteaux and estates in all French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese appellations. The aim is to offer a service to importers with selection and logistics, as well as a service to producers with a distribution network covering 50 countries, knowledge of languages and administrative formalities for each country.

Europvin continues to operate successfully today, but in the 2000s Christopher sold the company to Emilio Lustau de Jerez and Bodegas Vega Sicilia, two of the company's main suppliers. In 1997, before selling Europvin, Christopher decided to invest in a vineyard following an opportunity to buy a few hectares at Gratallops in the heart of Spain's Priorat region. Thus Clos Figueras was born, with the help of René Barbier of Clos Mogador.

Today, the estate is one of the most prestigious in the appellation, producing 37,000 bottles exported to 30 countries and with a strong presence in Catalonia. Clos Figueras' wine tourism activities include bed & breakfast and a restaurant.

Christopher has been a member of the Académie Internationale du Vin since 2013. He has written a book about his career, "A Journey in the World of Wine", and in 1999 he was awarded the Ordre du Mérite Agricole by the French government for his services to the French wine trade.