Sequent is Al and Emily

Our story

We met after the Royal Adelaide Wine Show over a large, feisty gin & tonic at the Goody.  Al was there because his team had won the “Best Rosé” Trophy at the show.  Emily was selling raffle tickets for the Wine Communicators and was about to be named “Australia’s Best Wine Student” for her Masters in Wine Business.

Al has worked in wine his entire life and knew exactly what he wanted to do next – launch his own wine brand as the perfect culmination of all his experience.  

When he was 12, his Dad offered him a sip of 1982 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel; the rest is history.  Al read every wine book he could find and started working in a bottle shop when he was just 15, trying everything he could lay his hands on to educate his palate (as soon as it was legal…). 

He’s covered every angle - wine retail, hospitality, distribution and has also started and sold a wine brand before. Al’s gone full-circle to Sequent.  Working with the lifelong wine friends he’s collected along the way.

Emily knew exactly what she didn't want to do next.  No more investment banking, no more executive search.  She was consulting to wineries on marketing, strategy and export opportunities, but didn’t know where to begin her own project.

She fell in love with wine on a school trip to the Ahr Valley in Germany and was caught sampling the Spätburgunder when she was supposed to be measuring the speed of the Rhine tributary using an orange.  She was 11.  The 30th birthday gift of a Château Palmer (no relation, sadly) vertical tasting from her Papa set the future bar pretty high.

Emily is definitely learning on the job - as Al reminds her frequently… the extortionate Master's fees would have been better spent on more fruit!

Sparks may fly when the "instant asset write-off" purchases are tabled (repeatedly, blah blah blah), but we love working together, surrounded by talented, inspiring and fun friends. 

The results of our collaborations are far greater than the sum of the parts and we know you’ll taste it in Sequent.

P.S.

Sequent was going to be Sequel; because for both of us it was the clear next chapter. Our branding reflects the turning of a page to the next chapter in our lives.

What we (and our former trademark lawyer) didn’t realise was that the legend who was the Penfolds Chief Winemaker for 18 years (as a contract winemaker for a U.S. business) imports a small volume of wine into Australia that has “sequel’ in the stage name.  Enthusiastic American lawyers challenged our trademark application and we were re-born as Sequent just in time for our first bottling of Riesling on Wednesday, the 23rd of June 2021.