Who we are

The Candover Brook team

The success of Candover Brook is in large part due to the wonderful team who care for the land, tend our vines, pick the grapes and see them into bottle. Some, like our Vineyard Manager Samuel Philippot, have grown up around wine; others have developed a love of winemaking through working with us at Preston where, at peak times, up to 60 people are employed on the land.

Our hope is that more of the local community will become involved in the work of the vineyard, so if you live locally and might be keen to work with us, please do get in touch at vineyard@candoverbrook.co.uk

“This valley shapes everything we do, the land, the wildlife and the community around us. Making wine here is a partnership with both place and people.”

Mark Sainsbury

	Mark Sainsbury Co-founder and owner, Managing Director	Mark split his time growing up between London and the farm at Preston Candover, and wine was part of his career long before the family planted a vineyard. He spent 25 years at the forefront of London's hospitality scene. He co-founded Moro, the celebrated Exmouth Market restaurant, alongside chefs Sam and Sam Clark in 1997. He went on to open the Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell in 2004, followed by the Zetter Townhouse, Bistrot Bruno Loubet, and the Grain Store in King's Cross.In 2008, alongside Henry Dimbleby (co-founder of Leon), Simon Heppner and Giles Gibbons, he co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association which created a global framework for sustainability in hospitality. Today, the SRA’s Food Made Good Standard guides the practice of over 15,000 food businesses worldwide. Sustainability, in other words, has long been a professional calling as much as a personal one.Mark still recalls the moment he first tasted English sparkling wine, when a glass was handed to him at an event in 2010: it stopped him in his tracks. It’s no surprise, therefore, that he leapt at the chance to work alongside his father and brother Julian to plant the vineyard at Candover Brook in 2012.Today, Mark runs the farm and vineyard alongside Julian, according to regenerative principles, and through his charitable trust – the Mark Leonard Trust, established in 1994 – he works with the JJ Charitable Trust and the Aurora Trust as part of the Climate Change Collaboration, which he helped form in 2011. His giving focuses on sustainable farming, climate change mitigation and the restoration of natural systems.Mark is particularly passionate about the role that demonstrably healthy, profitable regenerative
	Julian Sainsbury Co-founder and owner	Julian is Mark's brother and co-owner of Candover Brook, sharing responsibility for the estate and its direction. His approach has been shaped by a long commitment to systemic change – asking not just what we farm, but why and how our economic and cultural assumptions about land, food and growth need to shift. Where Mark's background lies in hospitality, Julian's is in the art world as sculptor and potter, having founded John Julian, a pottery studio in Wiltshire in 2000. In 1992, Julian founded the JJ Charitable Trust, which works with organisations tackling deep-rooted systems in education, economics and culture, with the aim of catalysing a fundamental shift towards a truly sustainable future. The Trust supports social and community experimentation around regenerative and circular economies, and is a founding partner in the Climate Change Collaboration – a partnership between the JJ Charitable Trust, the Mark Leonard Trust (Mark's trust) and the Aurora Trust, formed in 2011 with a mission to keep global warming within 1.5°C, restore the natural world and support a regenerative economy. For Julian and Mark, Candover Brook is not a lifestyle venture, but - along with the far - a living, breathing example of values they have spent decades championing. The vineyard and the farms that surround it are a tangible expression of the future they have been campaigning for.
	Lady Anya Sainsbury CBE Matriarch of the estate	Lady Anya Sainsbury is the widow of Lord John Sainsbury and the mother of Mark, Julian and Sarah. Born Ann Eltenton in Manchester in 1933, she spent her early years in Leningrad – where her physicist father worked and where Russian neighbours gave her the name Anya – before the family moved to California during the Second World War. She returned to England in 1947 and auditioned for the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, which accepted her. She joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet (which became the Royal Ballet in 1956) in 1951, dancing under the stage name Anya Linden. Progressing from corps de ballet to soloist in 1954, she was awarded the formal title of ballerina in 1958 following her acclaimed performance as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. During her career she danced all the great classical roles – Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppélia, The Firebird, Cinderella – and worked with some of the defining choreographers of the era, including Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan and John Cranko. She retired from the stage in 1965. In 1963 she married Sir John Sainsbury, later Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, with whom she founded the Linbury Trust – its name a combination of theirs – which has awarded over £200 million in grants across the arts, education, social welfare and the environment. Lady Sainsbury was appointed CBE for her services to arts education and ballet, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Winchester in 2012. She continues to be closely associated with the Royal Ballet School and Rambert School, both of which she has supported for decades. At Candover Brook, she is part of the life of the estate: the house is opened for dinners, farm visits and community gatherings that she hosts alongside Mark and Julian.
	Samuel Philippot Vineyard Manager	Samuel grew up in Montpellier in the south of France, surrounded by vineyards, their rhythm embedded in his life from an early age. After studying agronomy, viticulture and oenology in the south of France, he went to work as a cellar hand and tractor driver in Pic Saint-Loup for a season, before advancing to winemaker and vineyard manager in a 70ha organic vineyard, also in Languedoc, developing a deep interest in organic viticulture He subsequently managing the vineyard and winemaking for an estate in Bordeaux , before his curiosity led him somewhere considerably less predictable: the chalk hills of Hampshire. He joined the Candover Brook team in 2018 and has been integral to the vineyard’s shift to regenerative practices. With Mark and Julian’s support, he is constantly experimenting in the vineyard – trialling new methods to both increase quality and make our farming even more sustainable. From overseeing the shift away from compound fertilisers and the move to composting, tests with sheep’s fleeces and Johnson-Su, as well as a more efficient sprayer, Sam is our literal man on the ground, walking the vines and ensuring we produce the finest – and healthiest – fruit possible. Precise and pragmatic, his passion for our site – and the wines it produces – shines through in every conversation. His influence goes far beyond the vineyard, too, following the fruit through to the winery, where he is one of the select few to decide on Candover Brook’s final blends. Sam also manages the vines at neighbouring vineyard, The Grange, in Alresford (where our wines are also vinified).
	Craig Livingstone Director of Farming & Estates at Lockerley Estate and Preston Farms	In 2016 Craig joined Lockerley Estate (near Stockbridge) and Preston Farm (at Preston Candover), as Farm & Estate Manager and his work here brought the award by Farmers Weekly for Arable Farmer of the Year and Overall Farmer of the Year 2018. Lockerley Estate became a LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) Demonstration Farm in 2019, and in 2020 Craig was asked to join the advisory panel for the National Food Strategy. Lockerley Estate is now LEAF Marque certified and is a ‘beacon farm’ for regenerative farming practice. His relationship with the vineyard, and Sam, is inevitably close, forming part of the same ecosystem, with the teams both working toward similar goals and even collaborating on shared practices.
	Will Francis Assistant Vineyard Manager	Will's love of the land started early, spending his childhood shooting and fishing across the Hampshire countryside and learning what the landscape could give back. That connection drew him naturally into viticulture. Having completed a vineyard apprenticeship at Plumpton Agricultural College, whilst working alongside Sam, our Vineyard Manager.

Our vineyard team

A crew of locals helps us in the vineyard – pruning through the cold winter months and harvesting in the autumn. Each and every one is an essential part of the team.

Our frost watch crew

Interested in volunteering? Please contact: vineyard@candoverbrook.co.uk

A group of hardy and heroic neighbours helps us during the spring, helping us protect the vines when they are at their most vulnerable. They answer calls in the night to come and light candles in the vineyard, an essential role and true community effort. We’re beyond grateful to them.

	Amanda Sinclair Head of Sales & Marketing
	Lindsey Anderson Brand Ambassador - London	Lindsey has spent more than 25 years in the wine trade. Cousin to Mark and Julian, her career began in Sainsbury's wine department before a five-year spell with the prestigious UK fine wine merchant, Armit Wines. There she and Amanda worked together, their time almost overlapping with Tory. For the last two decades Lindsey has run the leading fine wine recruitment business, working with renowned merchants and brand owners to build and retain successful teams. Lindsey joined the team at Candover Brook in the summer of 2025 as Brand Ambassador, bringing a wealth of expertise to the family project.
	Jess Bassett Direct Sales & Brand Experience Manager	Jess manages the relationship between Candover Brook and its customers - making the brand discoverable, desirable, memorable experience and compelling enough to return to. She looks after everything from private vineyard tours and events to social media, email marketing, the website and online sales. With 25 years experience as a filmmaker, director and editor, Jess has worked on everything from BBC and Channel 4 documentaries to stories filmed around the world. At Candover Brook, she brings that storytelling experience to the brand, creating experiences, stories and moments that bring to life the people, passion and magical place that make the estate so special - and help make the overall Candover Brook experience purposefully crafted & joyfully shared.
	Tory Oliver-Bellasis Administrative and Logistics Coordinator	Tory has spent over 25 years in the wine trade in sales and broking roles at Corney & Barrow, Armit and Berry Bros. & Rudd, but she'd always dreamed of working for an English Vineyard. One of her notable achivements is running the Médoc Marathon in Bordeaux, dressed as Freddie Mercury. What she loves most about working for Candover Brook is the incredible team and the whole ethos of the company.