Cathy Marston

I was born in Yorkshire, UK and after completing my degree in English at Cambridge University I worked in various jobs ending up as marketing manager for Adnams Wine Merchants in Suffolk. They put me through all my WSET courses up to Level 4 Diploma. I left Adnams in 2001 and came to Cape Town, South Africa looking for a new challenge. Along with my husband Kevin, we setup and ran the first wine bar in the city, featuring smaller wineries and quirky wines. During that time, I started running wine courses for customers and when we sold the bar in 2009, I continued to teach. I became a WSET Approved Programme Provider in 2012, the first one on the continent and I now run the largest WSET teaching business in Africa. I’ve taught in 6 different countries, 6 of my students have gone on to run their own WSET APPs around the world and 3 of my students are now also on the MW programme. Most of my time is spent teaching WSET but I also write about wine and serve on several judging panels as well.