VFI welcomes new president

Oaly man John Clendennen is the newly-elected and youngest ever president of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland. Aside from his role with the VFI he runs a successful business in Kinnitty - Giltrap’s Pub and Glamping Accommodation. His aim is to highlight the huge importance of the “the Irish pub as an integral part of the Irish social fabric,” he says. Clendennen says that despite publicans showing a huge amount of “resilience and innovation” over the past few years, pubs face a “huge battle” to stay afloat and will need key state supports such as the retention of the 9% hospitality VAT rate and insurance reform.

However a recent survey conducted on behalf of the VFI showed that over 80% of publicans are confident their financial performance will be at least equal or improve in 2023 compared to last year so the mood is good as Clendennen faces into his new role.

Background

A graduate of Shannon College of Hotel Management and Smurfit Business School Clendennen spent years working in hotels across the world. He decided to come back to O aly for a couple of years in between his travels but fast forward 10 years and he admits, “Kinnity got a hold of me!”

The Giltrap name goes back as far as 1898 and his father took over the pub in 1974. As the business grew, Clendennen and his sister saw the opportunities materialise. “My sister, Eleanor was a teacher in Dublin but decided to move home and join the business. She would be the general operations manager and I would be back o ce manager and looking at what’s coming down the line,” he explains.

“I suppose I realised there was a good commercial opportunity here and also that it wasn’t a bad lifestyle. I’ve been working for the past decade on a couple of local projects to try to attract business to the area and also we’ve expanded the pub on a number of occasions and we also introduced one of Ireland’s first glamping sites,” he says. Just a few weeks ago they added to the capacity of the glamping site with now over 50 beds. “Our core market is families, hen parties and corporate groups who want to get out and about to explore O aly,” he explains. in soils, climate, vines orientation, trellising systems, altitude, and varieties. Rioja is a great combination of a rich legacy and old tradition of winemaking and the huge potential to produce the most modern, and bold wines; from vibrant whites and rosés to super attractive reds in many di erent styles. In Campo Viejo we benefit from that diversity by having vineyards all across the region that allow us to blend unique grapes to craft our wines.”

The glamping site is right across the road from the pub so they cater for groups and organise everything for their stay including meals, DJs, bike trails and treasure hunts. “One of the larger projects that we have worked on in the last few years is Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trails. That has brought significant opportunities for the village with a new co ee shop and a couple of new bike shops opening on the back of it. We are bucking the trend about rural Ireland and businesses always closing,” he proudly states.

Are the individual wineries and the producers the attraction when it comes to Rioja or is the region and its traditional styles still the main draw we wondered?

“There is place for everyone in Rioja and a wine for every wine lover. You will find the traditional style that made Rioja what it is today, but a lot of new and exciting wines are rising to show a new face of Rioja. It is a great moment for wine drinkers to be looking after Riojas wine scene, for the past, the present and the future,” says Lopez.

Trading up

Sales of Spanish wine in the o trade (which accounts for over 80% of all wine sales in Ireland) are 4th overall with an 11.8% market share of retail sales. Rioja Reserva is the most popular aged style and in 2022 sales of Reserva wines accounted for 41.5% of all Rioja wine sold here. This was followed by wines without ageing designation 35.5%, Crianza 18.4% and Gran Reserva 4.4%.

(Source: Grupo Rioja)

Consumers traded up in the o trade during Covid because they had more

TOPIC: Rioja wine sales on

Wines from disposable income as they were not able to dine out or travel. According to Cathal McHugh of McHugh’s O Licence Artane, Winner of the Irish O Licence of the Year 2023, despite consumers being mindful of spend, most of them won’t trade down after experiencing better quality wines.

Two of the key Rioja wine brands on the Irish market performed very well during this period.

Campo Viejo performed well for the period March 2021 to March 2022 moving up a position to 11th thanks to very strong volume sales during 2021/22 according to the Top 20 Wine Brands in Ireland. Overall volume sales of their range increased by 10.5%, the second highest for any brand in that time scale. Also, Faustino (14th position up from 15th in 2021) performed well and increased its volume sales on the Irish market by 0.4% for the period March 2021 – March 2022.

Nisea Doddy, hotel sommelier, The Shelbourne, Dublin agrees that quality has become more important since Covid. “So many wine drinkers were spending more in local wine merchants than usual. People certainly seem to have developed more curiosity and knowledge and will trade up more readily, having one great bottle instead of two middle of the road pricewise,” she explains.

Gutier Becheras from the French Paradox Wine Shop and Tasting Room in Dublin has noticed an increase in the average spend per bottle in the shop since Covid and says customers are definitely drawn to Rioja wines. “Our customers generally associate Rioja with medium to premium range wines,” he says.

However, Ann Moran of Gibney’s Wine Specialist Malehide is of the opinion that despite customers certainly choosing quality over quantity during Covid things have changed a bit since. “Since the reopening of travel, restaurants etc not to mention the rise in cost of living we have noticed that the spend has reduced for personal consumption, however gifting remains in the quality bracket.”

So, can consumer focused promotions help the independent o trade to encourage the consumers to continue trading up and help to create greater awareness for the more premium wines from the region? Will Mullin, managing director of WineOnline.ie explains that they ran a Rioja Festival last year and introduced consumers to new wineries making modern styles of Rioja. “There were over 100 wines shown at the consumer event. The sales that followed were not the main brands making traditional Rioja. The sales were modern styled and more expensive wines that showed a new quality and style to them. I think the key is more consumer-focused promotion rather than merely trade. The trade is aware of the changes but by creating a new demand with the consumer, the trade will react anyway, bringing consumers what they are demanding in both the on and the o trade. We saw that first hand with the consumer-focused Rioja Festival in October 2022.”

Legislation and innovation

As mentioned earlier, Rioja is going through a period of re-invention. In 2019 the region introduced new legislation that included new geographical indications, Viñedos Singulares (single vineyard wines); Vinos de Zona (regional specific wines) and Vinos de Municipio which allowed the name of a specific village to be included on the label. Sparkling wine