Kampai's Story
Those who know us well may suggest that we started Kampai in a cunning effort to legitimise our passion (ok, addiction) to great wine and food. They may have a point. But here’s how it actually happened …
Just another online wine shop?
Oh dear we hope not. We founded Kampai to help people discover their love of wine! But not just any wine. In an industry where many talented winemakers fall behind the shadows of giant wine brands, we wanted to help everyday wine consumers experience some of the great wine being produced by our smaller boutique winemakers.
But it's not only about the wine. It’s also about the experience of sharing great wine with great friends. A Kampai in-home wine tasting lets you learn about wine, try something new (and fabulous) and find the wines that work for you before you buy. By increasing your wine knowledge, confidence and having fun along the way, we hope you’ll start enjoying wine even more than you do now. What better way to buy wines that you will love?
So thank you for visiting Kampai. We hope you like what you see and that you visit often. But most importantly, we’d love for you to get involved – by signing up for the newsletter, contributing in the community, enjoying some delicious wines at an in-home tasting and, by paying us the greatest compliment of all - telling all your friends about us.
Kampai!
Aimee & Marisa!
Our People
Marisa Bosotti
Marisa is one-half of the Kampai co-founding duo and when she’s not tasting, thinking or talking about wine, can usually be found tasting, thinking or talking about food. It must be the Italian genes, as she’s also a vocal lobbyist for the introduction of afternoon siestas and the eradication of pineapple on pizzas.
She wields an Honours degree in Psychology and before turning to wine, worked as an organisational psychologist at an international consulting firm, but later morphed into a Marketing person and held various national and global marketing roles in London, all before motherhood and Kampai brought her back to Australia.
Marisa’s favourite wine? Changes all the time! Of course there’s always room for vintage French Champagne. Or a beautiful red that goes with rich, tomato based pastas – at the moment it’s the Swinging Bridge Shiraz with mum’s lasagna.
Aimee Williamson
As well as co-founder of Kampai, Aimee is an extraordinarily talented Karaoke singer (which she will happily demonstrate for anyone, anywhere), font of 80’s knowledge and lover of all things Japanese cuisine.
Before starting Kampai with Marisa, she worked in HR in the public and private sectors and later at an organisational psych firm where she was a serious corporate-type and had impressive job titles like Managing Director and Asia Pacific Product Director. She has a wardrobe of fancy suits to show for it. She packs an MBA and a Masters degree in Organisational Psychology and if she was still in the corporate world she’d be running things properly and we wouldn’t be in this economic mess.
Aimee's favourite wine? Do I have to nominate just one? There's a time and a place for all wine I say, which is why my list of favourites exceeded 89 at last count. At the moment, I'd have to say its Riesling and the Tinja that we're stocking is in low supply as a result.
Jules Clancy
Jules is the Kampai food correspondent and the girl behind the Aussie food blog stonesoup. Equally into her food and her wine, she has somehow managed to work in both industries and has ended up with not one, but two science degrees - the first in food and the second in wine. In spite of this she likes to think that she’s not a nerd, really.
When she’s not cooking, writing about food and wine, or taking photographs (of food), Jules can be found indulging her passion for long boozy lunches, running, shiny new shoes and Irishmen (well just one actually).
Jules’ favourite wine? A big fan of Champagne, anytime, anywhere, Jules tends to be a seasonal drinker. In the Summer months it’s hard to find her without a crisp glass of Semillon or Riesling but come winter it’s all about Shiraz.
Rebecca Sutton
Chef, sommelier, wine judge-in-training, owner of her own business (olive.a.twist) and she can drive a forklift... is there anything this woman can't do?? Hang on, she's also a qualified agronomist, which is an angry-sounding job but is actually quite a lovely one, being someone who knows all about agriculture and what needs to happen to get something from the paddock to our plate.
She also knows a LOT about getting the grapes to our glass. Beck is the woman behind the wine guides on the Kampai website and in our book, is an Expert on all things wine and food related. Although she hates it when we call her that.
Beck's favourite wine? Her swansong is a 96 Dom Ruinart Bland de Blancs (a grand cru and very fancy french champagne) because "it shows maturity and elegance whilst maintaining its' wit". Much like her perfect man. What aren't her favourites are young, overly-extracted, homogenised commercial wines. Come on folks - isn't life worth more than that?! Here, here.