Biography
Kyla Kirkpatrick is more commonly known as The Champagne Dame.
She travels the world speaking about Champagne and has amassed a dedicated following of Champagne lovers with over 10,000 followers on Facebook.
But life was not always champagne for Kyla.
As a young girl she grew up in regional Victoria in a working class family who did not live the champagne lifestyle. She knew she was bright and wanted a life that her family couldn’t provide, so she studied hard. Achieving the highest tertiary entrance rank ever recorded at her school, Kyla then completed a Commerce degree majoring in Economics and an Arts degree majoring in Mandarin Chinese (Kyla is fluent in Mandarin) at Melbourne University.
On finishing university, again DUX of her year, she was one of 3,000 applicants that was chosen for a role at the NASDAQ stock market in London. Kyla had no idea about fashion, cuisine or the real world. However, after she arrived in London she was very soon flying around Europe on a private jet with her boss who drank nothing but Champagne. A rapid learning curve of luxury began.
Kyla had returned from London and had continued her career in finance in Australia. But in 2005, Kyla read an article on Napoleon Bonaparte and fell in love with his story and his love affair with Champagne. She subsequently read every book she could find on Champagne and when she ran out of books she took a chance and wrote a letter to the author of her favourite book. To her surprise he wrote back to her and invited her to France to study with him.
Kyla ended her life as she knew it, buying a one way ticket to Paris. She arrived in Champagne, fell in love with the region and decided to stay. She divided her time between Paris, Champagne and the French Riviera where she had met a Saudi Arabian prince and had an incredibly life. After eight months in Champagne, she had the knock on the door by the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy empire. She was bought in for an interview and immediately recruited in Sydney as an ambassador for Krug, Dom Perignon, Moet, Clicquot and Ruinart. She has presented for many famous Australians from Kerry Packer to Elle McPherson.
Kyla has raised over a million dollars and launched what is now the largest online retailer of Champagne in Australia with Emperor, successfully making a transition from a service based business to a tech start up. She has been presented at a number of conferences including the Myriad Festival, Retail Global and more.
Testimonials
An event by Kyla Kirkpatrick is like no other, she is incredibly well informed about all things champagne, sophisticated, passionate and highly engaging. I would recommend The Champagne Dame as the perfect addition to any event, corporate or casual, given her unique ability to tailor to the audience. I am already looking forward to my next Kyla experience and hearing a few more firsthand tales from Champagne while sipping on its best!
Bronwen Bock, Vice President Macquarie Bank Australia
Your presentation was amazing and in particular you’re knowledge of champagne and its region. Sabering the champagne topped off the whole evening and you have a skill that everyone should see. I would highly recommend attending one of your champagne courses to anyone who is interested.
Tony Wakefield, Corporate Sales Manager at BMW Rushcutters Bay
Our clients and guests have been absolutely delighted to attend Kyla’s Champagne Master Class, and intrigued with her expertise and depth of knowledge of champagne, its origins and anecdotal tales. Kyla is an absolute pleasure to work with, professional, highly organised and with an ability to fully understand event and audience needs for each presentation.
Sharon Goldie – Event Director of BNP Parisbas
I attended a presentation of Kyla Kirkpatrick talking on the importance of being niche. I had heard that Kyla was an engaging presenter but engaging was an understatement. She is captivating. Her story is so incredibly unique and her business is inspirational! I would pay money to see her speak time and time again. More please.
Lara McVeigh International Marketing Director, Wearing Memories Jewellery
We engaged Kyla to present to our Business Chicks across Australia in December thinking it would be a lovely and entertaining way of celebrating Christmas. But Kyla doesn’t simply deliver an entertaining performance, she delivers an inspirational performance and our members loved it as much as I did. What a woman!
Lois Shaw, Events Executive Business Chicks Australia
