About Giovanni Arpaia
Giovanni Arpaia DipWSET
Wine experience, applied commercially.
Wine To One is shaped by more than twenty years inside the wine trade, across retail, importing, private client advisory, education, hospitality, events and producer support.
The work is built on a simple advantage: seeing wine businesses from several sides of the table. Not just how wine is made, tasted or explained, but how it is bought, sold, positioned, served and understood by the people making commercial decisions.
Trade experience
Where does the trade experience come from?
My work has taken me through different parts of the wine business: independent retail, fine wine, importing, buying, private client advisory, hospitality, wine education, events, judging and producer support.
That background spans Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain’s oldest fine wine and spirits merchant, and Oddbins, the retailer that put wine curiosity into the mainstream, where I developed the wine mood concept: a way of presenting wine through experience rather than category alone.
It also includes direct experience with Spanish wines through specialist importing and building a wine division for a food distributor, from concept to execution.
I have also worked across brand management, export development, wine tourism, training, events, commercial communication and the launch of restaurants, wine bars and hybrid hospitality formats, with roles and projects connected to Italy, the UK, Portugal, France, Australia and New Zealand.
Most wine business problems do not sit neatly in one box. Positioning affects visibility. Visibility affects enquiries. Training affects sales. Range decisions affect cash flow. Hospitality affects brand perception. Data affects what gets fixed first.
Wine To One exists to connect those pieces more clearly.
Credentials
What are the formal credentials?
Qualifications
WSET Diploma (DipWSET) — Wine & Spirit Education Trust
WSET Certified Educator, Levels 1–3 — Wine & Spirit Education Trust
AIS Sommelier Diploma — Associazione Italiana Sommelier
WSA Sommelier Diploma — Worldwide Sommelier Association
Judging
Wine Judge — International Wine Challenge
Wine Judge — London Wine Competition
2,000+ wines tasted per year across competitions and independent assessments
Teaching and training
WSET programme delivery experience
Bespoke in-house training for wine trade and hospitality businesses
International context
Cross-market experience, not just language.
Being Italian and London-based has shaped an instinct to look outward — across the UK, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Australian and wider international wine markets — rather than inward. The result is a career built across those markets in different commercial roles.
This matters commercially. Wine To One can work across producer, buyer, importer and hospitality conversations with a practical understanding of how wine is positioned, priced, presented and understood in different markets.
The value is not translation. It is understanding both sides of the producer–buyer conversation.
Data and AI
Useful tools, not theatre.
Wine businesses often already have the information they need: sales reports, stock sheets, wine lists, customer enquiries, web analytics and market context. The problem is knowing what matters, what to ignore and what to act on.
Wine To One uses practical data thinking and applied AI where they are useful: to make workflows lighter, priorities clearer and decisions less dependent on guesswork.
This is not about making wine sound technical. It is about making commercial decisions easier to see.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers before a conversation.
Who is Giovanni Arpaia?
Giovanni Arpaia is a London-based wine business consultant, wine educator and founder of Wine To One, with experience across retail, importing, buying, private client advisory, hospitality, events, judging, education and producer support.
What are Giovanni Arpaia’s wine credentials?
Giovanni holds the WSET Diploma, is a WSET Certified Educator for Levels 1–3, and holds sommelier diplomas from the Associazione Italiana Sommelier and the Worldwide Sommelier Association. He has also judged for the International Wine Challenge and the London Wine Competition.
Does Wine To One work with wineries and wine producers?
Yes. Wine To One works with wineries and producers on positioning, visibility, export readiness, pricing, visitor strategy and commercial communication. The work can cover a single priority area or a broader review of how the business is positioned and communicated across markets.
Does Wine To One work with wine retailers and merchants?
Yes. Wine To One works with wine retailers and merchants on range clarity, local visibility, customer communication, sales data and commercial positioning.
Does Wine To One work with hospitality businesses?
Yes. Wine To One works with restaurants, wine bars, hotels and hospitality groups on wine list performance, team training, service standards, visitor strategy and the commercial role of wine within the business.
How is Wine To One different?
Wine To One combines technical wine knowledge, cross-market trade experience and practical commercial judgement. The work is not built around one narrow part of the wine trade, but around understanding how the different parts of a wine business affect each other.
Not sure what to do next?
Wine To One is useful when the issue is not simply a lack of effort, but uncertainty about what needs attention first.
Send a short enquiry with the business context, the problem you are seeing and what you are considering next. I will review it and tell you whether there is a clear fit.