Sam Linter

The Path

Training at Plumpton College and a long run at Bolney Wine Estate define the line of work here. Sam Linter has been Managing Director and Head Winemaker at Bolney Wine Estate since 1995, a role that places estate management and cellar decisions in the same hand. Since 2019, Sam has also served as director of Wine GB, extending that remit into sector governance.

The Work Today

The work now reaches beyond one estate. Sam Linter’s own line — “The change has been radical!” — is a compact way of measuring how far English wine has moved. In her case, that change can be read in the shift from a small number of commercial vineyards and a few thousand vines in the ground to a mature sector where education, estate leadership, and industry governance now overlap.

In Their Words “When my family first started in 1972, there were just a handful of commercial vineyards, and when I say commercial I don’t mean the sizes of today – there were just a few thousand vines in the ground.”

Acclaim

Sam Linter’s training at the college and her current leadership role there sit alongside a second-generation producer’s long tenure at Bolney Wine Estate, making the position more than an academic label. Taken together, those roles map a career spent in the vineyard, in the winery, and in the institutions that shape English wine.