Luis GordonLuis GordonLuis Gordon, wine importer, publican and owner of Gordon's Wine Bar, was born in Crawley on 21 May 1933. He died of cancer in Henfield on 22 October 2002, aged 69.
Luis Gordon, owner of the oldest wine bar in London and former chairman of the family sherry shippers who for more than 200 years remained sole importers of Domecq to Britain, has died at 69 after losing a four-year fight against cancer.
Father of six, many of whom worked behind his bar located in the cellars beneath Charing Cross at 47 Villiers Street, Gordon was an exuberant, gravelly-voiced character who bought this historic watering hole in 1972 after a lifetime in the wine trade.
Gordon's Wine Bar drew literary figures like Chesterton, Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling, who wrote The Light That Failed in the room above the bar. Later its dusky vaults have hosted numerous celebs including Lord (Lawrence) Olivier and Vivien Leigh drawn by the unobtrusive atmosphere.
During his 30-year ownership Gordon preserved the Bar's special character - fine wines, old oak casks of port and sherry, memorabilia and crusting walls – even keeping the cobwebs after a six-month closure for what was supposed to have been a "revamp". A tradition that will continue to be preserved by his family who have now taken up the mantle.
After school at Downside where he crashed a gigantic model jet in a ball of flame in the centre of the 1st XI cricket pitch, Gordon gained his private pilot's licence at just 16 and joined the RAF three years later as a rear-gunner in Shackleton aircraft.
He had already experienced his first "crash". Aged 17, he was given an Avro Prefect bi-plane which he dismantled, towed home from nearby Gatwick Airport and tried to fly. He taxied around a field behind his house, but the plane was so unstable that it lifted off, then hit the deck and turned upside down. Gordon walked away unscathed.
In his early twenties Gordon joined the family sherry business Luis Gordon & Sons as a salesman and in 1971 became Chairman. The Company was sole importer of the Domecq range of sherries.
Under Gordon's reign the company became the biggest player in the fast-expanding UK sherry market with the distinction of receiving a Royal Warrant from the Queen and also from King Alfonso of Spain.
The company back in the 1960s was among the first to embrace the spirit of corporate entertainment, typically hiring a Comet to take more than 200 guests on wild trips to Jerez, an awesome combination of wine traders, publicans and journalists. Typically these three-day marathons would end with a demonstration of small-scale bull fighting - testing out young, but fierce animals - in a private ring on the Domecq estates. When Gordon judged that his watching guests had sipped enough sherry he'd invite them to have a go themselves as matadors, roaring with laughter as tipsy hacks staggered about waving handkerchiefs and diving for cover. Once he took over the rooftop of the five-star Hermitage Hotel in Monte Carlo for the annual Powerboat Race. Only halfway through lunch the claret seemed in short supply. Gordon summoned the waiter for more wine to be told: "But Sir, we have run out of Latour".
After just a year as Chairman, his company was floated on the UK stock market and Gordon moved into the retail trade, buying his eponymous wine bar.
Outside business Gordon was extremely creative with a great talent for painting and sculpting which he pursued throughout his life with vigour. Among his many commissions was a bust of building tycoon Sir Norman Longley, and a complete set of decorative furniture for couturier Anthony Price who was later photographed for Vogue by Lord Snowdon seated in one of Gordon's chairs.
Throughout his life, Gordon's dynamic entrepreneurial spirit ranged across wonderful eccentricities. They included a company well ahead of its time in the late 1970s which converted cars from petrol to LPG.
In total contrast when he lived at Outwood, Surrey, he bought the Village Stores, had it fitted out by CP Burge of Sloane Street in traditional style and showcased his extensive collection of Victorian and Edwardian period stock and gadgets like Bromo toilet paper, Sunlight soap and the real highlight, a fully operational Golden Syrup vending machine. He dabbled with an antigravity device powered by electric motors and gyroscopes. And when bored with that, thundered around the village after Sunday lunch in his Second World War tank, vintage fire engine or racing car.
His dearest love, though, was wife Wendy whom he met and fell for when he was only 15. He said that when he first saw her he knew it was not necessary to approach her immediately because he also knew he was destined to spend the rest of his life with her. They were married eight years later and during 47 years together their family extended to six children and 13 grandchildren. They started their married life at Henfield, Sussex, and returned there 12 years ago.