Our story
Our knowledge is personal.
With our extensive travel, we design for the places we have been, stayed and experienced. That's also our reference point for curating selections beyond that.
Tracey Delaney, Founder
A life lived from Japan to France
A relationship with Japan spanning decades.
Her relationship with Japan began in the late 1980s, when she was selected to represent her school in an exchange programme between New York City and Tokyo junior high schools.
She spoke little Japanese. Her host family spoke little English. Yet the experience felt remarkably natural. Japan was intriguing and unfamiliar, but at the same time she felt an unexpected sense of familiarity and an insatiable curiosity to discover the culture, language, place and people.
She returned to Japan through university to develop her fluency in Japanese. She spent a year at Waseda University, followed by work as a Coordinator for International Relations in Yokohama. She later built a management consulting career with Deloitte in Tokyo.
Those experiences gave her more than destination knowledge through years of travel and living. They shaped her understanding of cultural context, communication and the importance of seeing a place on its own terms.
From Japan to sake.
Years later, questions from friends and fellow travellers about Japanese sake made her realise there was another part of Japanese culture she wanted to understand properly.
In 2017, she studied for the SSI International Kikisakeshi (Sake Sommelier) qualification in London. What began as a desire to answer questions about sake became a genuine love and admiration for its diversity, craftsmanship, history and modern expression.
Since then, she has qualified as a Sake Scholar, Certified Sake Professional and visited breweries, led tastings and talks, and co-founded the world’s first brewery dedicated to sparkling sake, The Sparkling Sake Brewery.
Sake has reinforced something she has come to value about travel: the more you understand the people and traditions behind something, the richer the experience becomes.
The lens of the best service brands.
Before Maison V, she spent 15+ years at American Express, one of the world’s leading service brands, leading brand and marketing teams globally. That experience shaped her understanding of what makes an experience truly remarkable: the attention to detail, the quality of service, the thoughtful touches and the feeling of being genuinely valued.
Through her career, she gained exposure to an exceptional portfolio of hotels, travel experiences and service standards, and developed an acute sense for the value of travel, not just in monetary terms, but in the joy, perspective and lasting memories it brings. It also gave her a profound understanding of credit cards, loyalty programmes, points, benefits and travel partnerships, knowledge that informs the way Maison V approaches every journey.
She now spends her time between France, USA and Japan, fluent in English, Japanese and French and deeply rooted in the regions and cultural fabric of each place.
Why Maison V: The Founders
Maison V brings together this personal history with the complementary experience of her fellow founders, Lachlin and Chris: both seasoned travellers and erudite wine and sake scholars. Chris is one of the world’s few Master Sommeliers and Lachlin is a WSET Level 3 in Wine and Sake Scholar.
Together, they draw on their knowledge of Japan, France, wine, food, hospitality and travel to help clients make thoughtful choices about where to go, where to stay and how to experience a place.
They do not believe every journey needs to be elaborate, expensive or planned down to the last minute. They believe it should reflect the person taking it.
Sometimes that means a specialist introduction to a person or a place as specific encounters bring a region to life. Sometimes it means choosing a less obvious place to stay. Sometimes it means knowing when to use a benefit you already have, or when to leave a day unplanned.
That is the spirit behind Maison V.
Travel with provenance. Places understood, experiences chosen with care, journeys designed around you.
Tracey Delaney, Founder
Interviews and features
Tracey talks about Japan, sake and premium service in these interviews and features:
- The Kokoro Files: Tracey Delaney, Yamato Magazine
- The Sparkling Sake Brewery, Sake On Air
- The beauty of nature: The Sparkling Sake Brewery, Sugidama Podcast
- Crafting premium brand and customer experiences: Lessons from Japan and Amex, Evolve Voices on Spotify
Lachlin Miller
Founder
Lachlin, an Australia native, had a 15-year career in capital markets in Hong Kong coupled with a sustained love for wine, collecting it, learning about it and gaining his WSET Level 3 qualification. In the years that followed, a move to the USA, an Executive MBA and an entrepreneurial desire to bring together his years of experience and his passion for wine, sake and exceptional hospitality was the genesis of Maison V together with Tracey.
Chris Tanghe
Founder, Master Sommelier
Chris isn’t just someone who has mastered wine though, he has a long pedigree in, and passion for, hospitality. Chris is a New England native who made his foray into hospitality at 13 years old. He started as a dishwasher at a country club and eventually attended the Culinary Institute of America in NY. It was during the wine course that the magic of pairing food, wine and its rich history drew Chris in. His career then took him to restaurants all over the US, attaining coveted wine qualifications culminating in the ultimate achievement, Master Sommelier (MS) in May 2013. Following this achievement, he was awarded Food & Wine’s Sommelier of the Year and continued to expand his career and relationships heading up distribution teams and as Director of Education at GuildSomm. Chris most recently launched Upwell Wine and Coffee and Walter’s Wine in Seattle. Chris brings to Maison V his connections in the wine world, a profound understanding of what makes a hospitality and restaurant experience phenomenal.