I was born, educated, and subsequently tackled the first half of my working life in London. The most recent part of my professional activities has been undertaken in the county of Norfolk from a village equidistant from Norwich and the glorious North Norfolk coastline.
I now live and work closer to the North Sea than I do to a railway station, a motorway or an airport. It is this landscape that has tempered many of my early metropolitan assumptions.
Art school formed the trajectory of my formative opinions, be it the political agitation of the late ’60’s, the study for a degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, or the first inklings of a Latin outlook, courtesy of a Boise scholarship to Italy awarded by The Slade School of Art. By the mid seventies, I was encouraged to believe that the world was my oyster, but I had little idea as to how to prise it open.
During the next decade or so I worked as a scene painter in many of London’s theatres, a special effects creator for television both here and in Europe, a professional sculptor exhibiting in Cork Street and representing the UK at the Paris Biennale, and as a lecturer in art schools and universities around the country. 
Influenced by ‘loft’ life, following a visit to New York, I began the process of developing what was to become a village of studio units in a disused Victorian factory in London’s East End. Known as the Limehouse Cut, the development today houses more than a hundred artists, architects, designers and photographers.
The move from London to Norfolk occurred at the end of the ’80’s. A growing family and the desire for a more rural outlook drove the displacement. Here, in the midst of a farming environment, the early exposure to the international culture of food and wine began to develop into more than a pleasurable diversion.
It was this burgeoning passion in the early ’90’s, followed by the acquisition of a number of WSET qualifications, that became the driving force behind an initial series of tutored wine and food tastings. This quickly led to the founding of an Independent Wine Merchant and Shipping company, one that prospered for some fifteen years.
Wine consultancy followed for a period with the successful establishment of several internet projects, leading to my appointment as Wine Buyer for a range of online wine clubs – principally BUPA, RNLI, British Eventing and The RAF Benevolent Fund. The most recent contribution has been as wine buyer to the East Anglian brewer, Lacons, and the establishment of their comprehensive wine arm – Burroughs.
Following lengthy periods of selling wine, I began to spend time writing about it. I was appointed as principal feature writer at The Eastern Daily Press (EDP), filing a column on either food or wine each week for more than five years. I later published a lengthy series that was to become the comprehensive ‘EDP Wine course’ running for some fourteen weeks. Following on was the founding of an interactive wine course – ‘Behind the Label’, collaborating with the Michelin starred chef, David Adlard, at his cookery school.
Further commissioning from the EDP led to a long running series of illustrated features on untutored but enthusiastic allotment discoveries and the link to world cuisines, entitled ‘The Real Good Life’, alongside increasingly frequent appearances on BBC Radio as wine correspondent.
Meanwhile, as my activities morphed into the 21st century, I became the owner of a run-down pub. After conversion and some urgent but modest modernisation, I established one of the first gastropubs (which we’re all hoping will get a better name soon) to be awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the county. The Walpole Arms, today under new ownership, still acts as a beacon to those early epicurian stirrings, begun as a student in Italy.
I brought back the French Wines Match national trophy in 2005 for pairing wines with chef Richard Corrigan’s cuisine at the Restaurant Show in London, and I was later awarded the first Sherry scholarship in Norfolk, courtesy the Sherry Institute of Spain.
With thoughts still running along gastronomic channels, I then founded and edited the first edition of the magazine – ‘In Search of Taste’. A publication, without the influence of advertising, established to create discussion and highlight robust prose around all aspects of food and wine.
With the horizons of wine and food changing focus more rapidly than ever in our history, experienced monitoring is needed to respond and flex to the relentless exposure of exciting and original opportunities.
Email – keith@keithreeves.co.uk
Mobile – +44(0)7766 723017
Telephone – +44(0)1263 733959