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Ed Capper


TUNEFUL AND DOWN TO EARTH WINE EXPERT By Phil Scoble


E


d Capper leans on the counter of the Dartmouth Wine Com- pany smiling after chatting to a customer buying honey whiskey. Ed and the man chatted through the pluses and minuses of each particular brand, before a sale was made – Ed clearly enjoyed the exchange. “I love being able to chat to peo- ple about what we sell,” he said. “It’s great helping people find the drink that is right for them and perhaps for the event they are planning.” Ed’s journey to becoming a member of the Dartmouth community, manager and partner of the Wine Company and respected musician to boot, is an interesting one, which often has taken him in unexpected directions. Born in Huddersfield in 1964, the


young Ed remembers being surround- ed by music from a young age. “My mother was a very talented musician – she was a member of the


Huddersfield Choral Society - and there was always music in the house,” he said. “My sister, brother and I can all play instruments and I got really involved in music at a young age.” From the age of eight, Ed was playing in brass bands and he even joined his Uncle’s band, travelling 26 miles each way twice a week, “over the big hill!”


It was a real privilege to be in a band which played at virtually every major event in the town – Regatta, Music festival, big weddings, you name it we seemed to be there


“I’ve always loved performing mu- sic, there’s something special about it, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck,” he smiles. “You can’t beat it.” He joined Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Band Service in 1981 – he played the cornet and, as it is a requirement of the band that you have more than one instrument “I held a violin occasionally” he laughs. He was drafted to the Britannia Royal Naval College in 1986, starting his association with the town that would later become his permanent home. Ed was content to remain a bands- man, never aspiring to become band leader or move up in the Military and he came out of the Band in 1991 – ten years given to a service where he admits he “loved the music but never really liked the military stuff”. Ed chose to remain around the


South West and got a job in the Dart- mouth Vintners – and says it was here that owner Hugh Heywood started him on a new path in his life. “Hugh took me under his wing and carefully began to educate me about wine,” he said. “He started me off on Sauvignon Blanc, then to Chardonnay, helping me to understand the subtleties of flavour and how they come about – I had my eyes opened. I still remember the first bottle he handed to me to taste: a Sauvignon Blanc by the Brown Brothers. There was a complexity of taste, a layering of different sensations, which just had me hooked. I wanted to understand wine and Hugh was the man to help me do that. Before that,


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