Winemaker loses unfair dismissal claim after costing business £500,000

Winemaker who was fired after ‘monumental cock up’ ruined 2017 vintage and cost Sussex wine estate £500,000 loses unfair dismissal claim

• A tribunal found Jonathan Medard was responsible for the very costly problem
• The winery was set up in 2010 by Mark and Sarah Driver on a South Downs farm
• Mr Milanowski was made manager in 2019 as part of a company restructure

A winemaker who was fired after a ‘monumental cock up’ ruined a 2017 vintage and cost a Sussex wine estate £500,000 has lost an unfair dismissal claim. 

Jonathan Medard was responsible for the problem and was subsequently dismissed, an employment tribunal heard. 

Established in 2010 by Mark and Sarah Driver, the South Downs winery hired Mr Medard in 2012 before he was made responsible for ‘all winemaking at Rathfinny’, the London South tribunal heard.

The tribunal was told that Mr Medard was the pioneer behind the company’s decision to produce English sparkling wine.

And when it was released in 2018 the new bottle received positive reviews, the court heard. 

An employment tribunal heard Rathfinny Wine Estate based in Sussex concluded that senior winemaker Jonathan Medard (pictured) was responsible for the problem and he was dismissed

The winery was established in 2010 by Mark and Sarah Driver on a farm in the South Downs (Pictured: Co-owners, Mark and Sarah Driver)

In 2019 Tony Milanowski was hired as a winery manager as part of a company restructure. 

Mr Medrad did not agree with the change and had an uneasy relationship with the new boss. 

The Classic Cuvee was set to be put up for sale in late 2020 until a problem was found with the bottle pressure. 

At the time Mr Medard went on sick leave suffering from stress and anxiety.

Mr Milanowski carried out an investigation and found that samples were either over pressure to excessively dry and concluded this was because of errors before the bottling process.

The panel was told unless the correct amount of fermentation has occurred the wine is not drinkable or sellable.

He said some bottles had too much sugar but most had too little which affected the fermentation and added that wine should have been tested before being bottled.

The panel was told: ‘Overall, Mr Milanowski concluded that there had been gross negligence in the mixing/bottling/testing/labelling process for the Classic Cuvee 2017 Vintage.’

The tribunal was told that Rathfinny and Mr Medard successfully established the winery as a producer of English sparkling wine, and the first wine was released in 2018 to positive reviews

Owner Mr Driver was dismayed at the situation and called it ‘a monumental cock up of (Mr Medard’s) making’ and referred to three previous incidents where he felt Mr Medard had made a wine making error.

At a disciplinary meeting Mr Medard agreed the wine was faulty as a result of a problem with mixing but said Mr Milanowski’s explanation was ‘gibberish’.

In March 2021 the allegations were upheld against Mr Medard and he was fired.

Mr Medard then claimed unfair dismissal against the winery at the tribunal, but the panel rejected his claim.

The panel said the loss of revenue was £500,000 – one third of their annual turnover.

The panel said: ‘The loss of the 2017 Classic Cuvee represented a substantial lost opportunity in terms of sales, marketing as well as a serious risk to the Rathfinny’s reputation.’

The panel said Mr Medard did not take responsibility for his mistakes and sought to blame others.

They concluded: ‘He was the senior winemaker at Rathfinny. He had overall responsibility for the production of the wine and had been engaged specifically for his particular knowledge and abilities.

‘It was reasonable therefore for the Respondent to hold him to a high standard of expertise and to regard what appeared to them to be a sequence of fundamental failures as a serious matter.’

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