MEET THE SOMM | Gastón Adolfo

12 December 2025

Born in Argentina and raised in Tuscany, Gastón Adolfo arrived in London with a burgeoning interest in wine but without a word of English. Today, the Assistant Deputy Head Sommelier of the London Club has ambitions to become a winemaker…

I was born in Buenos Aires in 1988. The Argentinian economy was in turmoil at the time, and there was a lot of social unrest, so my family moved to Florence when I was still an infant. Despite living close to Tuscan vineyards, my parents weren’t at all interested in wine, and I didn’t even taste wine until I was in my mid-20s and started going to restaurants in Florence. I had a girlfriend, and I remember on her birthday, I spent £50 on a bottle, which was a lot for me. It was a Sangiovese – I don’t recall exactly what – but I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is good’. And little by little, I started falling in love with wine.

A sommelier who I made friends with told me that, if I wanted to learn more, I should study with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. The WSET wasn’t yet running courses in Italy, but my girlfriend was studying fashion and wanted to move to London, so at the beginning of 2017 I moved with her – without speaking a word of English. Somehow I got a job in a wine bar, Bedales, in Leadenhall Market (my English was still very limited, so they told me not to speak to the customers). At the same time, I began my WSET studies – by putting everything into Google Translate. Straightaway, I was hooked. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life back then, but here, finally, was something I could see myself making a career in. 

After about a year, I passed WSET Level 3 with the top score of the class, and my tutor put me in contact with the chef Tom Kerridge, who was recruiting. I trained intensely at his Hand and Flowers in Marlow. Even though it was a pub, it had two Michelin stars, so it was all about service and precision. It was very hard, to be honest, and I grew up a lot in a short space of time. After a year, I joined the opening team at his new restaurant in The Corinthia Hotel, which was also very pressurised. I stayed for a year and then joined Margot, a fine-dining restaurant in Covent Garden, which had a more relaxed, informal vibe, and was not so focused on Michelin stars. 

In the meantime, my family have become interested in wine. Well, sort of… Back in 2000, they bought some land in the DOC of Valdarno di Sopra, around 10 minutes from Chianti Classico. Valdarno di Sopra is a very old region with around 20 producers, all of them organic. My parents weren’t thinking about wine, though – they wanted to build a house – but on the spare land they planted various fruit and vegetables. I didn’t think much about it, but on my first trip back home from London, I said to my father: ‘We should plant some vines here’. He said, ‘Fine, but it’s down to you to sort it out.’ So I did a bit of research, and with zero knowledge, told him we should plant a particular clone of Sangiovese – BBS11, the Biondi-Santi clone. I didn’t even know what Biondi-Santi was, but I called up a random number I found online, and ordered enough to plant two rows. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing, but we got them into the ground.

My dad kept the vines healthy and I came back once a year to prune, based on what I learned from a book by Simonit & Sirch [the renowned authorities on vine pruning]. We didn’t even pick the grapes, let alone make wine. Then I happened to visit Feudi di San Gregorio, in Campania, and met Pierpaolo Sirch, who is director of agronomy there. He told me about a new online course on vineyard management that he and Marco Simonit were running. I was doing my WSET Diploma at the time, and the first unit was on viticulture. Most people find that boring and technical, but for me, it was the most interesting part, so I signed up for the online course too. 

At the same time, I got back in touch with my old housemate in Florence who become quite a successful winemaker, working with the likes of Tenuta Terre Nere in Sicily and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa. In 2024, he helped me actually make a wine. We made it in our garage, fermented in stainless steel, with the malolactic in a glass globe, aged for a short time and then bottled. It was just for family and friends, but Giacomo [Apolloni, London’s Clubroom Head Sommelier] came to visit and he tried it, so you’ll have to ask him if it’s any good… 

My friend was convinced that I should plant more vines, but I needed a second opinion. Nelson put me in touch with a viticultural consultant who works with a lot of different producers across Italy including Il Carnasciale and Petrolo, and he visited, took some samples, and a few weeks later sent me a report. He felt the site had really good potential to do something more serious. 

Last year, I put all my savings into planting two more plots – around two hectares in total, with a different clone of Sangiovese. I go back quite often now – I aim for every month – and am getting more and more involved. The ultimate plan is to wait for the vineyard to mature and then, in five years’ time, to move back to Italy full-time and become a winemaker.