With nearly 30 years experience in the hospitality, wine and media industries, Curtis Marsh is one the most assiduous and erudite, truly independent wine writers, commentators and presenters in Asia. Having travelled extensively throughout the vineyard regions of the world and the Asia region, food, travel and culture feature equally in his commentary.
Over a period of nine years, Curtis has worked with many Asia-based publications; most prominently he was the wine columnist for the Hong Kong Standard, Weekend Lifestyle Magazine for 3 years (2005 – 2007). Upon arriving in Singapore, he was appointed the consulting wine editor, columnist and features writer for Cuisine Wine & Asia magazine and affiliated website Asian Wine Journal, circulated to 60 countries.
Other publications Curtis’s articles appeared in include; wine columnist for Gafencu Men, published in English and Mandarin and circulated in Hong Kong and throughout Mainland China; Hong Kong Tatler; Expat Living (Singapore), Appetite Magazine (Singapore-Malaysia) and I-S Magazine Singapore.
Furthering his reach in Asia and globally, Curtis is the wine columnist and features writer for Asia Sentinel Internet-based Newsmagazine, www.asiasentinel.com with a readership of over 100,000 people and growing with its link to the International Herald-Tribune website with a readership of over 3 million.
Most recently, Curtis has begun writing on wine and food for Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest news agency featuring in their Lifestyle section. These articles reach over 1 million news publications through the Reuters news syndication service.
Apart from these publications, Curtis’s main focus is his own popular website www.thewanderingpalate.com attracting a readership spanning 44 countries. The Wandering Palate website covers wine travel, detailed profiles of artisan winemakers, wine reviews, vineyard terroirs and also embodies personal experiences, appraisals and informed advice on restaurants, wine bars, accommodation and produce worldwide.
Commentating and presenting are synergistic with Curtis’s writing and tasting career and he is perpetually involved in wine seminars, corporate events, educational wine tastings and presenting wine luncheons or dinners throughout Asia for major companies such as UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Hitachi and Asia Food Channel.
Consulting to international hotel groups and leading restaurateurs is a significant part of Curtis’s activities. Most prominently advising GHM Hotels globally with their wine requirements and coordinating direct from vineyard shipments. He is also responsible for instigating GHM’s own label encompassing every facet of production from the winemaking and selection process to design of the label and marketing. www.ghmhotels.com
Curtis also works with international celebrity chef, Luke Mangan, again conceptualizing Mangan’s own range of wines, working with some of Australia’s icon winemakers, designing the label and writing all marketing material. www.lukemangan.com
Curtis devotes a considerable amount of his time and resources to children’s charity work largely focused the underprivileged and their educational needs through the laudable Room to Read Foundation www.roomtoread.org and recently personally raised US$19,000 for an auction lot encompassing a week-long tour of the Central Otago region at the Hong Kong Gala charity dinner. He has also donated his time for the last two years as wine coordinator and presenter for the Singapore Sun Festival, with the Gala event supporting the VIVA Foundation for Children with Cancer www.viva.sg whose goal is to improve the survival rate and cure of children with cancer, especially childhood leukaemia. This lifestyle festival is held annually in Tuscany, Napa Valley and Singapore with Curtis presenting alongside celebrity chefs such as Floyd Cardoz from New York, Luke Mangan, Australia and Thierry Marx, France. |
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A New Zealand national and highly regarded Sommelier at the then famous Wellington restaurant Lavelle’s, Curtis was runner up in the inaugural Air New Zealand Sommelier of the year awards. Curtis moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1986 taking up the position of Sommelier with industry doyen Herman Schneider, at the renowned Two Faces Restaurant. Instrumental in establishing the Australian Sommeliers Association, Curtis served as its first Vice-President, even though he had evolved in to the wine industry at this juncture.
A natural progression from the restaurant front-of-house followed with Curtis consulting to many of Australia’s icon restaurants, designing wine lists and cellars, raising service standards and installing an innovative and progressive wine culture that imbued leading chef’s and restaurateurs in the evolution Australia’s contemporary dining scene.
Wine marketing, distribution and importing ensued, pioneering some of Australia and New Zealand’s most reputable vineyards and growing organically over fifteen years to a distinguished portfolio incorporating some of the most prestigious vineyards in the world, crystallizing Curtis’s wine industry career.
Having lived in Hong Kong for five years, and now based in Singapore for the last four years with his wife Lee Leng and six-year-old daughter Hayley, Curtis is firmly entrenched in Asia. He is unrelentingly committed to the vinous edification of the Asia-Pacific region, championing the artisan winemakers of the world and in a self-appointed ambassadorial and patriotic role, the ‘new world wines’ of New Zealand and Australia, albeit an enduring wandering palate.
Curtis Marsh - The Wandering Palate
Mobile +65 9388 9709 | Tel +65 6401 7898
curtisjohn@singnet.com.sg
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