The irony of having failed a French O-Level at school is not lost on Jane Cranston. As financial director of Botley-based wine company Stevens Garnier, she now speaks the language fluently and visits the Loire frequently.

The transformation came in her early 20s while working for drinks legend Hennessy at their base in Cognac.

She said: “I was not allowed to sit French O-Level at school because I was so bad at it. I was even sent for three weeks to stay with a French family when I was 16 but was utterly miserable because I was convinced there would be snails or frogs in the food and regarded every sauce with great suspicion.

“Curiously, when I went to Cognac to live, it turned out I have a good ear for languages and I picked it up pretty quickly.

“The ability to speak French has been one of my most useful assets ever since.”

Yorkshire-born, she grew up in East Sussex and on leaving school, enrolled in secretarial college before joining the British Aircraft Corporation, which later became British Aerospace.

Next came Cognac and on her return to the UK, she spent two years as personal assistant to the managing director of one of former drinks giant Seagrams’ divisions.

She explained: “That was fascinating because it was a highly political and I learned more about how not to run a company. But I also learned about sales and marketing and public relations and how to treat people.”

When the opportunity to work for a newly-formed wine company arose in 1976, she not only grabbed it with both hands but became one of the directors of Stevens Garnier.

She has been at the centre of things since, helping build it into an £8m turnover business.

Early on, she discovered she had a flair for numbers, rapidly dispensed with the firm’s accountant and took over the management of the finances herself.

More change is in the air, as Ms Cranston retires in May, having sold her shares to Portugese family-owned wine company Sogrape.

The shop will be taken over by Banbury-based wine merchant SH Jones.

It will mean more time to enjoy a glass of wine at her home in Besselsleigh and for the many community projects she is involved in.

“There’s a whole mass of things to do out there and I am looking forward to getting started,” she said.