Wine merchant dies after skydiving incident

Luke Jacobs Monday, September 24, 2012
3:34 PM

A skydiver who was killed after a collision with another man near Peterborough yesterday is reportedly one of the country’s leading wine merchants.

Patrick Sandeman, 53, from Putney, is said to have been pronounced dead at the scene of the incident at Sibson airfield at around 3.45pm.

The other man, believed to be a 28-year-old Frenchman, is still in a critical but stable condition at Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) said.

The two men reportedly came into contact about 50 feet above the ground.

Mr Sandeman, was a partner in Lea & Sandeman, the fine wine merchants with premises in west and south-west London.

Jancis Robinson, a wine critic who writes for the Financial Times, paid tribute to Mr Sandeman, saying “a very bright light has been extinguished”.

She wrote on her website: “I’m sure I am not alone in having found Patrick one of the most appealing and entertaining characters in the wine business.

“A total ornament to the British wine trade, he was a member of the Sandeman family of port and sherry fame, managing to be devastatingly handsome but not intimidatingly so. Charming but not oleaginous. Well informed but engaging.”