Prior to founding Thistledown, Giles travelled the world buying, selling and marketing wine while creating engaging new products. 

Long the driving force and visionary behind Thistledown, Giles has used his global experience to to shine a new light on what makes South Australia special. A keen, natural cook, he believes that to make great wine, the understanding of your raw ingredients is vital - and to that effect he can be reliably found walking the vineyards, talking to the growers, every day in the run up to vintage. Splitting his time between Australia and the UK, Giles has his hands in most of the pies. Working with all the growers, running harvest, creating winemaking specs and packaging, he is not one to rest easily!

The combination of year backpacking in Australia in 2003, working for a Burgundy importer in Melbourne, then doing vintage in the beautiful Yarra Valley, inspired Paddy’s passion for a full time career in wine.After holding various commercial wine sales roles and achieving his WSET Diploma, Paddy relocated to Australia in 2014 to work with Thistledown.

As Director of Sales and all around brand champion, Paddy has established Thistledown in many overseas markets and increased Thistledown’s distribution in Australia. 

Laura has worked in both hemispheres in communications and marketing roles. Having worked as Head of Marketing for it's UK distributor, Laura has long been connected with Thistledown. In fact, it was during this time that Laura, Giles and Paddy first worked together. When it was time for Thistledown to grow it's global footprint, expanding into new markets, Laura and Paddy answered the call to move to South Australia, and the rest is history!

Online and offline marketing, as well as Australian customer services, all sits with Laura — part storyteller, part problem-solver.

Trina looks after export customer service which mostly means making sure the right wine, in the right packaging, ends up on the right boat, with the right paperwork! She's been in and around Australian wine since 1995 — cellar door, export documentation, plus stints in transport and training along the way. Fluent in customs codes, allergen declarations and the fine art of a well-timed follow-up email.