Described by former colleagues as a “wonderful character” and “absolute star,” DB is also extraordinarily unhappy to report this loss to the United Kingdom beverages exchange, having loved Simon’s jolly business enterprise and beneficiant spirit over the last long time.
According to Alan Montague-Dennis, prestige enterprise director at Mentzendorff, Simon – known as The Tank – began working for Blue Circle Cement in Cheshire. Following in the footsteps of his father, Anthony Leschallas, Simon joined Mentzendorff in 1978. He remained a director for 29 years, becoming “broadly recognized and respected for the duration of the wine alternate.
For Montague-Dennis, Simon might be remembered for working as an emblem ambassador for Champagne Bollinger. He became instrumental in forging sponsorships with the Open Golf, Royal Ascot, and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Following his departure from Mentzendorff in 2009, Simon shaped a brand new employer known as St Aubyn Leschallas Wines Ltd, particularly uploading Vondeling from South Africa and taking on a position as brand ambassador for Charles Heidsieck Champagne.
Simon became a past master of the Vintners’ Company and the Worshipful Company of Distillers and a Wine Trade Sports Club trustee. James Simpson MW, managing director of Pol Roger Portfolio and previous colleague of Simon’s at Mentzendorff, expressed his surprise at this tragic news, which reached him the day gone by. He described Simon as “an absolute celebrity,” he said that “with his death, the alternate loses another top-notch person. Simpson, like Montague-Dennis, recalled Simon’s powerful role in setting up Bollinger Champagne in the UK and also wrote the subsequent private tribute, which we have reproduced under:
“Happened to be a Lords closing night time watching the cricket once I heard; it changed into especially poignant in that, at some stage in my time operating at Mentzendorff, I had labored very intently with Simon in the Bollinger Tent at the corner of the Nursery Ground after which within the Dedans Bar. I had a few first-rate times there, starting widespread numbers of bottles, assembling some of the England cricketers, and making smoked salmon sandwiches accompany the Real Tennis.
Yesterday was additionally the first day of the Open Championships, with which Simon became associated with much of his profession. He was an excellent host of the iconic crimson and white striped Bollinger Tent; I was fortunate enough to be there with him at seven Opens during my time at Mentzendorff, from torrential rain Lytham to baking warmth up at St.
Andrews (and a dip inside the bay every nighttime). And, despite my transferring to Pol Roger, Simon continued to be an extraordinary friend and the precise function version. He associated brilliantly with all sundry he met (whether junior or senior). He had a captivating feel of humor and became a suitable Master of the Vintners’ Company to cap all of it.
