The Wine Merchant issue 143

THE WINE MERCHANT.

An independent magazine for independent retailers Issue 143, February 2025

Reality check for indies as optimism levels take a hit

Despite increasing pessimism, The Wine Merchant’s annual survey finds that almost four in 10 indies expect growth

Optimism levels among indies has fallen markedly, according to The Wine Merchant’s annual survey of independents.

Just 2.2% say they are very optimistic about increasing sales in the year ahead, compared to 13% in last year’s survey. Thirty-five per cent say they are fairly

optimistic, down from 46% in 2024.

Just under a quarter of respondents say they expect to see a decline in sales in 2025, a year in which higher duty kicks in and consumer spending is likely to remain squeezed.

Twenty per cent are fairly pessimistic, double what the survey recorded in 2024,

with 4% very pessimistic, compared to 1% a year ago.

The proportion of merchants saying they are neither optimistic nor pessimistic rose from 30% to 38.5%.

Analysis of all this year’s survey results will appear in our March edition and continue in April.

Dog of the month: Monty Bacchus Beyond. Halesworth

Lela and Anton Mann pride themselves on importing all their wines from Portugal by sailing boat. Their Port O'Bristol business has now opened its first retail premises at Wapping Wharf in the city – see story on page eight.

4 comings & GOINGS

Meet the people who have taken over some famous independents

12 david perry

Wrestling with the red tape surrounding trade waste

14 shoplifting

How big a problem is it for indies?

Three merchants tell their stories

20 tried & tested

We’ve trawled the January trade tastings in search of goodies

26 Bright Ideas

Not just own-label vermouth, but own-label vermouth candles

29 The burning Question

If you could only sell wines from one region, which would it be?

32 merchant profile

Luca Dusi of Passione Vino is a force of nature in east London

50 make a date

March is a busy month for tastings, so start planning now

71 Q&A: brett fleming

The New Zealand-born Armit boss is an English cricket fan. But why?

Our 2025 judging panel is taking shape

With judging day approaching on April 14, our panel of indies is nearly complete. For more details on how to get involved, see pages 40-41

SENIOR JUDGES

Philip Amps

Amps Wine Merchants, Oundle

Hal Wilson

Cambridge Wine Merchants, Cambridge

Sam Howard HarperWells, Norwich

PANEL

Graeme Woodward Grape Minds, Oxford

Sunny Hodge Diogenes the Dog, London

Jez Greenspan The Wine Twit, London

Nic Rezzouk Reserve Wines, Manchester

Ted Sandbach Oxford Wine Company, Oxford

Tom Jones

Whalley Wine Shop, Lancashire

Kirsty McEwan Bludge!, Edinburgh

Brodie Meah Shop Cuvée, London

Jake Bennett-Day Vino Gusto, Bury St Edmunds

Sam Hanson Johns Wines, Cornwall

Jen Avina Damn Yankee, London

Dan Leak Bishop’s Cave, St Albans

Charlie Jones The Winemakers Club, London

Mikey Studer hometipple, London

Jessica Summer Mouse & Grape, Pinner

Julie Mills Vinomondo, Conwy

Dafydd Morris Cheers, Mumbles

Simon Parkinson Vin Santo, Chester

Andy Trudgill Gills & Co, Sheffield

Peter Hedges

Bacchus Beyond, Halesworth, Suffolk

Francis Peel

Whitebridge Wines, Stone, Staffordshire

Louise Oliver

Seven Cellars, Brighton

Amy Caiger Indie Wine Club, London

Stefan Botfield

The Wine Cellar, Woburn, Bedfordshire

Claire Carruthers Carruthers & Kent, Gosforth, Tyne & Wear

Gill Mann

Jaded Palates, Chagford, Devon

Stephanie DiCamillo Wine & Such, London

Arthur Lai

Wine Hub, Exmouth, Devon

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Wine Merchant is circulated to the owners of the UK’s 1,010

Keeping Densem heritage alive

A new wine shop and bar, Edward’s, opened last month in the premises previously home to Rodney Densem Wines in Nantwich, Cheshire.

Kelly Woodnutt and her partner Vasileios Kourtidis are owners of St Martha, a Greek restaurant in the town, and the wine shop seems like a natural extension to their already thriving business.

“I’ve always had a keen interest in wine,” says Woodnutt, “and I lived in Australia for 10 years, which really contributed to my enthusiasm.

“I’m originally from Nantwich and since moving back here six years ago and opening the restaurant I can see that there is a growing trend for Greek wines.

“The town has never really had a dedicated wine bar – somewhere with table service and a relaxed vibe where people can just enjoy a glass of wine. We’re not reinventing the wheel with what we’re doing with Edward’s, but it’s something we need in the area.”

She adds: “We looked at a few different sites over the last couple of years and none of them were quite right. When Densem’s was up for sale as a business we were sad to hear that it was going but we weren’t in the position to buy it, although eventually when the lease of the building came up, we just though what a brilliant tie-in. It was a well-loved local, independent business and we want to keep that heritage alive.”

Edward’s also includes a deli element, with sandwiches and coffee available throughout the day. “Come four or five o’clock, the lights go down, and then this wine bar style takes over,” Woodnutt explains. “There’s a bar snack menu of olives, meat, cheeses, dips, things like that, to accompany the drinks.”

While the restaurant serves exclusively Greek wines, Edward’s has a much broader European range and also offers wines from Chile and Australia as well as spirits and beers. “That’s by no means fixed – we just wanted to get open with a really nice selection,” says Woodnutt.

Cavavin expands into West Sussex

Cavavin is set to open in Chichester, West Sussex, at the end of this month. The French retail group, which operates a franchise model, has a network of more than 200 shops in Europe, the majority of which are in France.

More growth within the UK is expected. The Chichester store, which will be run by Paul Sinden and Ashif Mohammed, is the eighth to hit our high streets.

• Feral Pig Wines has closed. Launched by Dave Cushley in July 2023, the wine shop and bar operated within the premises of boutique hotel Llys Meddyg in Newport, Pembrokeshire. Cushley says: “In the current economic climate, continuing the business is just not sustainable.”

El Wine Guy takes on London indie

Taylors Fine Wine in Kingston upon Thames is under new ownership. The shop, established by Andrew Taylor in 2005, was sold last October.

Taylor says: “I thoroughly enjoyed running my own business and the shop has been a great success throughout the 19 years of trading. When the shop lease became due for renewal and I reached my 60th birthday, I decided the time was right to explore new options and put the business up for sale.”

The new owner, Rodrigo Vilas, is settling in and has plans to rebrand as El Wine Guy, the business name he had in his home country of Mexico.

“At the moment I’m still trading under Taylors Fine Wine, so the shop front looks the same for now,” says Vilas. “The only change so far is that I have set up a limited company. I will also widen the wine range and evaluate some of the entry-level wines because we have a supermarket just 50 metres away and you’re not going to sell too many wines in that price bracket.”

Vilas has been in the wine trade for 15 years and had two wine shops in Mexico before moving to the UK with his wife. “For the last two years I have worked in wine shops in London and was looking for an opportunity to be my own boss. Now I have sold the business in Mexico and so I can focus my attention here,” he says.

Andrew Taylor is exploring new options

The Rodney Densem store in 2015

Chichester store opens this month

Bacchus

Dry humour

Amps Wine Merchants in Oundle offered a useful rhyme for its customers last month. It should have cleared up any confusion:

Thirty days has September, April, June and November. Unless a leap year is its fate, February has twenty-eight, But all the rest have three days more Except Dry January which has five thousand, one hundred and eighty-four.

A rom-com all about us

A middle-aged wine merchant as the main character in a romantic comedy? Well, why not? The Tasting is a French film telling the story of Jacques, un marchand de vin, and Hortense, a midwife, who meet when she buys a bottle of wine in his shop. Jacques has been advised to quit drinking by a doctor who clunks through the line “with ‘Graves’ on a label, you may end up in one”. Our hero tends to take out his frustration by sniping at Steve, his young shop assistant. Will Jacques and Hortense find love in Troyes? We’ll all find out soon enough: the film is in UK cinemas now.

The name’s Meyer ...

Tuggy Meyer, owner of Huntsworth Wines, recalls how he once went full James Bond in his chasing of a shoplifter. The only difference between Casino Royale and Tuggy’s pursuit was the fitness of the two participants. When Tuggy threw himself into the back of a taxi to follow the thief, who had jumped on a bus, things were looking very Hollywood. But it wasn’t until the chase sprawled onto the streets and into a foot race that things turned a little less textbook.

With neither hero or villain in peak physical condition, periodic breathers were required, which were respected by both parties. A sporadic pattern of running and walking ensued, but eventually Tuggy’s engine prevailed, and the thief was apprehended.

Same but different for Tooting indie

As reported in the November issue of The Wine Merchant, Unwined in Tooting has changed hands and is now called Indie Wine Club.

New owner Amy Caiger completed the rebrand in time for the new year and reports a positive start. She is joined by Flavia Wright in the role of manager, who also worked at Unwined in Tooting under the previous ownership.

“It’s been really seamless,” says Caiger. “All the customers know us and I think that’s definitely helped with the transition.”

Apart from the new name and the brand colours, things that Caiger describes as “tweaks”, the business will remain pretty much unchanged.

“We’re still going to focus on small independent winemakers and we’ve always championed female winemakers, which we’re still going to do,” says Caiger. “So just more of those awesome winemakers, things that are a little bit different and from regions that are a little bit less familiar.

“At the moment our by-the-glass menu is all different grapes. There are no Chardonnays or Sauvignon Blancs –they are all completely different grapes that people may not have heard of, and customers love coming to us for those sorts of things. It’s always fun.”

Amy Caiger at the new-look store (courtesy of Tooting Newsie)

General Wine Co changes hands

The new owner of The General Wine Company has promised it will be business as usual at the Surrey indie –though more stores could open if the right opportunities emerge.

The company has been sold by Alan Snudden to Drinks21, an Ascot-based firm whose main business is beer and spirits distribution in duty-free markets.

Sara Bangert, a director of The General Wine Company, will be running the company as a stand-alone business within the Drinks21 group.

GWC is principally a wholesaler and importer, with a warehouse in Liphook, where it also has a shop. There is a second store in Petersfield, Hampshire.

Drinks21 was founded in 2008 by Steve and Gail Brogan.

“We have no intention to merge the businesses – we’re going to keep them entirely separate with different teams,” says Steve. “We will support them wherever we can. They’ve run it well enough without me for long enough, but hopefully we can help them and add some value.

“I’m not looking to change anything, really. I like what they’ve got. It adds value to our group. The plan is to get some organic growth over the next three or four years or so, so that it’s in even stronger health.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to expand the spirits range. I’d like to think that we can bring more range, and more competitive purchasing

It’s possible that the retail estate will grow.

“If there’s a really good opportunity to take a unit in the right demographic area that fits the

Final curtain for Leytonstone store

Theatre of Wine in Leytonstone, east London, will close at the end of March.

Directors Daniel and Tom Illsley have taken the decision not to renew the lease on the Leytonstone High Road premises, citing tough trading conditions.

portfolio generally, I would be open to it,”

Steve says. “But I’m not going to say we’ll open 10 new shops, because that’s not the plan. We’ll look at opportunities on a caseby-case basis.

“Petersfield is a lovely little shop. I’m hopeful that there are other shops like that in our geography that we can acquire over the next five years.

“It’s a family business, so everything has to be done organically. We want to get to know our customers better, get to know our consumers better, and then hopefully some tactical acquisitions will be in the pipeline at some point in the future.”

Alan Snudden founded The General Wine Company in a London flat in 1982, later relocating to Surrey.

“He’s helping me out until the end of February, but he’s got a big list of retirement holidays and trips he wants to do,” says Steve.

“It’s a great little business and it’s really giving me a new lease of life to be involved in something that’s quite intimate, and which has a nice team. So far it’s been a really positive experience.”

Sara Bangert adds: “We are all extremely excited about this new chapter for General Wine and the ideas and plans we are making moving forwards.

“We wish Alan all the best for his retirement. After 42 years, it’s very well deserved.”

“Things are not looking rosy for the drinks trade,” says Daniel. “First the Tories impose the most onerous duty system imaginable and then Labour hike National Insurance and business rates.

“Small businesses were once the lifeblood of the UK but it’s increasingly a fool’s errand. The message from the government is join Amazon.”

The company, founded by Daniel in 2002, has two other sites: the original store in Greenwich and the second, which opened in 2011, in Tufnell Park. Theatre of Wine also continues to grow its portfolio of direct imports.

Daniel’s son Tom Ilsley says: “We are focused on supporting our existing retail shops and driving our wholesale and ontrade division, which is thriving. We have no intention of slowing down. Quite the opposite.”

Sara Bangert and (below) Steve Brogan

Daniel and Tom Illsley

COMING DOWN THE LINE

By WSTA chief executive Miles Beale

February duty rises

This month sees the unwelcome end of the wine easement and changes to all rates of alcohol duty on February 1. You need to be aware of the abv of all your wines and remember to calculate duty based on how much alcohol is being released, not multiplying the notional bottle rate. Public notices and guidance can be found on the government website.

We expect any future changes to duty to take effect from February 1 each year, with the rates being announced in the preceding autumn Budget.

Wine merchants will also be impacted by the change in business rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses, with relief reduced from a 75% discount to 40% effective from the 2025-26 financial year.

EPR fees are an unpleasant surprise

In the run-up to Christmas, Defra snuck out a note with estimated Extended Producer Responsibility fees which were substantially more than had previously suggested.

These are still illustrative so you can’t base your costs on the £240 per tonne figure, for glass, which has been issued. We are concerned that there are still small businesses out there who aren’t aware they need to sign up for this, so we advise all businesses to look at their obligations.

The WSTA does not believe that EPR is ready to launch. Nonetheless obligated businesses need to prepare.

Obligated wine merchants will need to have already started reporting data. Those classed as large organisations will need to pay fees from October. You can check your status on Defra’s website.

Check your packaging against Defra’s Recycling Assessment Methodology for Year 2 fee modulation and estimate your PRN costs for 2025.

Whiskey caught in the crossfire

March is the negotiating deadline between the EU and the US on the steel and aluminium dispute. If there is no agreement, EU retaliatory tariffs on US whiskeys could snap back at 50%. And July 2026 could be when US tariffs of 25% on wines and spirits from the UK and EU return, if there is no agreement between the EU, US and UK in their respective WTO Boeing-Airbus disputes. Find out more at wsta.co.uk

Sails mean sales for Bristol indie

Xisto Wines has been importing wines from Portugal to Bristol since 2012 and now its owners, Anton and Lela Mann, have opened a wine bar and shop at Wapping Wharf in the city.

“We have taken on our new Port O’Bristol bar and shop to engage further with the public,” says Anton. “Its location on the harbour, where we unload the wines straight from the shop, was also a factor.”

The company prides itself on transporting its wines by sailing boats. “We have used wind-powered transportation since 2013,” says Anton, “and this method of supply typically removes 1,300 miles of road transport by diesel.”

• The new year saw a whole new identity for Grape to Grain in Prestwich, Manchester. Thanks to a swift post-Christmas refurbishment, which according to owner Tom Sneesby “got a bit out of control,” the business has now rebranded as Whole Bunch Wines, with a new logo and colour palette to match.

Closure is part of growth plan

The Woburn branch of The Wine Cellar closed at the end of December.

The decision to shut the store is part of a long-term strategy to allow the business to grow. It has shops in Olney and Stony Stratford, both in Buckinghamshire, and a farm shop concession at Browns of Stagsden, Bedfordshire.

“Woburn was our first shop, and it’s never nice to close your first place,” says owner Stefan Botfield.

“But as we’ve grown, we’ve tried to open sites that better reflect the modern version of an independent retailer.

“Woburn is a lovely building, but it’s a tiny footprint with an outside toilet, and it’s not really geared up to do what we’re now doing. We do a lot of tasting events and the latest shop we opened [in Stony Stratford] is a hybrid.

“We opened in Stony Stratford as a precursor to closing Woburn, so we went from two to three in order to go back down to two.”

Tom Sneesby, whose refurb “got a bit out of control”

Hot topics that could impact independent wine merchants

GRAHAM HOLTER

Editorial

Some Naked truths, surveying the post-Yapp landscape, and the legacy of Dry January

merchant I think we’re allowed to describe as “beloved”, completely passed me by. (Apologies are due to Johnny Ray, who apparently wrote about it at length.)

Yapp Bros was started by Jason’s dad, Robin, in 1969, and originally occupied a site so quaint and bucolic that in some pictures it resembled a small French village, complete with central water fountain. Last year, the company decided the time had come to streamline and modernise, and moved from its home in Mere to a swish-looking unit in nearby Sparkford.

Itend to notice Naked Wines for two main reasons. The first is when a voucher – usually for something like £75 – falls out of a magazine I’ve picked up. The second is when I stumble upon a news story about how much money it’s losing.

The latest article I’ve read talks about a 10.2% fall in sales in the final quarter of last year. This was welcomed as a positive development, given that Naked’s first-half revenue was down even more than that, at 15.1%.

“Naked Wines struggled to burn through excess stock and suffered from sustained high inflation in key markets in 2023, which impacted their supply chain costs,” according to City AM

I’m not about to indulge in a bout of Naked-bashing, even if some of its marketing seems a little questionable. I’m aware of one winemaker in particular who finds it hilarious how he’s portrayed to Naked customers, given how little involvement he has in the wines that he’s said to have carefully crafted. But let’s set that to one side for now.

Actually there is something to admire about Naked, and the way it has tapped into a desire among many consumers to

It’s a truism that all wines must have a story, and Naked makes sure that they do, scattering vouchers along the way

connect more directly with the people, and the places, that produce the wines they drink. It’s a truism that “all wines must have a story”, and Naked makes sure that they do, scattering vouchers and racking up losses along the way.

It’s very common these days to see independents take on Naked and Laithwaites at their own game with monthly or quarterly wine clubs. It’s hard to compete with the sort of marketing that they’re up against, but all independents are quite used to being outspent in that regard by larger competitors. So they make a virtue of their smaller scale, their more esoteric offer and personal service, and charge a fair price without swallowing a £75 discount to get the ball rolling.

Jason, who had been working in the business since 1992, took this as his cue to retire. He’s a modest but incredibly knowledgeable character with a deep-seated affection for wine, and it seems strange to survey the independent wine trade landscape without him in it.

But of course Yapp Bros continues, under a capable team, and I’ve no doubt it will reflect the charm of its former boss for many years yet.

Who won Dry January?

I’m painfully aware that Dry January is a topic that raises many a hackle in the indie trade, and now that it’s over maybe we should avoid inflaming tensions with yet more discussion.

I’ve got talking to lots of people over the years who tell me that they buy wines from Naked. I always ask if they’ve considered switching to their local independent. “Would they do me a regular case?” is the most common response. To which my reply is invariably, “almost certainly – have you asked them?

Yapp’s quiet farewell

Some people retire with great fanfare –others quietly slide out of view, happy to get on with the next phase of their lives with minimal fuss.

Jason Yapp falls into the second category. I must admit news that he’d stepped down from Yapp Bros, a Wiltshire wine

But it’s also a good time to take stock of how indies have approached the first 31 days of the year, a period when abstinence is in good supply, and cash generally is not.

Some merchants have been poking fun at what they see as the soberer-than-thou virtue signalling of their alcohol-avoiding customers, and of course we’ve seen the usual gags about “dry white wine” being allowable within the terms of Dry January.

At the same time, I’ve noticed more social media feeds this year from indies that embrace the idea of a brief break from the booze, and entice customers with alcohol-free alternatives that merchants are happy to recommend.

I wonder which of these two approaches generated the most January revenue.

DAVID PERRY

Irregular Thoughts

Happy to recycle – but there’s a lot of wasted time wading through the admin

Trade waste has never been a huge problem for us but it is certainly a minefield, especially when the nonjobs at County Hall get involved.

I was reminded of an incidence of “bureaucracy gone mad” the other day. A while back, we received a visit from the Dorset Waste Services enforcement officer. I imagine he normally spends his time in an office in Dorchester but had decided to enjoy a day out being officious in Shaftesbury. He marched into the shop and demanded to see a copy of our duty of care controlled waste statement. I wasn’t in that day and Alice didn’t know where it was. We were given 10 days to produce it or face an undisclosed fine. I told her not to fret, I’d sort out it the next day.

I had no idea where it was, either.

But I knew they’d sent us one. To save rummaging around, I simply emailed his office asking for a copy. That was duly sent to me by return email. Once I received it, I emailed it directly back to them. Boxes ticked. Case closed.

A retailer the other end of town had a harder time. Clive is something of a character: a very large and heavily-bearded former master thatcher with a very Dorset accent and a bad temper. He now runs a

gift shop. When the officer asked him for his certificate, Clive proudly announced he didn’t have or need one. How did he get rid of his waste then? “Don’t make any! Boxes get used to pack stuff up in.” “What about things like the wrapping from your lunch then?” “Aha! I takes them home and burns them!”

The officer thought he’s got him on that one. “You can’t burn rubbish!” But Clive can, because he has a waste disposal licence for his smallholding. Not to be defeated, the officer asked him how he got the crisp packet (which changed from domestic to commercial waste once it was opened in the shop) back to the smallholding. “In my van,” says Clive. “I see,” says the officer. “Could I see a copy of your commercial waste transport licence, please?” I’m not sure exactly what happened next but he apparently left quite quickly.

Iunderstand the problem with waste and that we all need to reduce or eliminate it, but as a commercial waste producer this strikes me as quite difficult to do. At home our recycling bin fills much more quickly than the landfill bin. Apart from in the middle of winter, our green bin helps make compost every fortnight. I must confess that we have two glass recycling boxes. All our cleaning stuff is refilled in pre-loved plastic bottles from the zerowaste shop next door to me. So at home we do what we can.

If I want to recycle a bottle I have to order a skip. I have nowhere to put one and it would take decade to fill it

In the shop it is different. We generate an awful lot of cardboard. Like Clive, a lot is used to pack customer orders – so that changes from commercial to domestic waste as soon as they take it away. The remainder is collected weekly by a local company for recycling. I don’t like to leave it on the narrow pavement on Monday evenings, so I rush in early on Tuesdays and generally get it out just as their truck comes around the corner. That’s a shame because I have come to see it as a competition to see who is getting through the most stock. We get charged by the cubic metre, about £20 a month. I remember back in my Peter Dominic days we had people willing to pay us for it and fighting for the trade, but the price of cardboard

The enforcement officer checks for Shaftesbury Wines tape at a notorious flytipping blackspot

has evidently dropped.

The small amount of other waste we create is more difficult to dispose of. We have to buy special purple commercial waste bags. I have to go online to Dorset Waste Partnership where I pay a small fortune for a code. I then take the code to the local library and get my roll of bags which we use as sparingly as possible. When it goes out, on a Wednesday night, I don’t like leaving it on the pavement so I put it in the recessed doorway of the zero waste shop next door. I know what you are thinking, but I thoughtfully cover it in “Shaftesbury Wines” tape to protect Becky’s reputation.

My issue, other than the cost, with the bags is that we cannot separate our recyclable stuff. Our rubbish is usually made up of empty pop bottles, the backs of sticky labels, glossy junk mail and unrequested copies of Drinks International and Global Spirits Brands, which the cardboard people don’t want, as well as the plastic bags they come in. The rest is mainly unwanted credit card receipts, which I feel a duty to dispose of carefully.

Very occasionally there is a glass bottle, usually broken, but I imagine other wine shops generate quite a few. There used to be a few glass recycling points around town but they have all gone now (to encourage roadside collection, I am told, but really to force the local pubs and restaurants to pay Dorset Waste Partnership for their own).

If I want to recycle my bottle I have to order a skip. I have nowhere to put one and would take a decade to fill it. I can’t put the bottle in my home recycling as I don’t have a commercial waste transport licence to take it there. As it is commercial waste it is illegal to include it in my domestic waste anyway. There’s a skip at the tip. I can only visit five times a year in my van and only for domestic waste. I guiltily slip it in the purple bag and hope I don’t get caught by the Dorset Waste Services enforcement officer. Mind you, no one has seen him since he visited Clive.

David Perry is the owner of Shaftesbury Wines in Dorset

The Wine Merchant’s SURVEY OF INDEPENDENTS 2025

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to participate in this year’s survey.

We had a record response and the information you provided is now being crunched and analysed.

The results will appear in our March and April editions.

We’ll announce our five winners of Hatch Mansfield goodies in the March issue of the magazine.

HANDS OFF OUR WINE

In the year to June 2024, reports of shoplifting in England and Wales increased by 29% compared with the previous 12-month period. That’s the highest level since records began in 2003.

Independent wine merchants are clearly at risk of losing valuable stock to thieves. But how big is the problem in reality?

Tuggy Meyer, owner of Huntsworth Wine in central London, and Lucie Parker, sales director at Jeroboams, give their insight into how shoplifting is affecting indies

Interviews by Jacob Stokes

Do you think shoplifting is organised or opportunist?

Tuggy: Most of the time it’s organised and deliberate, mainly by a select few repeat offenders. A grab-and-run kind of scenario has happened in the past, but it’s unusual. There are certain situations that set off alarm bells in my head. They often appear in pairs, with the most confident one acting as a distraction by engaging in conversation, often requesting an expensive wine. They will wait until there’s an added factor, like the phone ringing or another customer coming in, for their moment to leave your sightline and pocket whatever they can see. A previous thief had multiple hidden pockets in his jacket. Lucie: A bit of both. When the person coming in grabs the first bottle they see, this is opportunistic and potentially just for drinking. When it’s grande marque Champagne, we think it is stolen to order. These thieves are brazen and experienced. They will walk in openly, fill their pockets and leave. Even when known to staff and asked to leave, they carry on regardless.

What products are targeted?

Tuggy: It depends on the shoplifter. Some will take whatever they can get their hands on and will literally go from shop to shop grabbing whatever they find.

In the case of people teaming up and having someone engage in conversation, they often target Champagne, and a real giveaway is when someone is asking about Krug or Dom Perignon, and when told we don’t have those in stock, will then jump right down to Moët & Chandon. A giveaway that they don’t care about what they’re looking at.

Lucie: Champagne is the number one product that is stolen. It’s always a wellknown brand with a widely-known value.

What measures can be taken to deter thieves?

Tuggy: It’s about being savvy and trusting your instincts. If you have suspicions about someone, don’t give them any opportunity. Lock the door so that no one else can get in. If the phone rings, don’t answer. Always stay with them. If they want something that’s downstairs or in the back, refuse. Of course, there are times when I’ll get it wrong and might lose a genuine customer. But with over 40 years as a shopkeeper, I trust my instincts for that kind of thing. Lucie: We have CCTV in all our shops. Whilst this doesn’t deter the shoplifters initially, it has led to arrests. When Champagne thefts were at an all-time high, we removed stock from our shelves and replaced it with signage saying we had the wines but had tucked them away in a safe place. The thieves saw the stock wasn’t available and stopped coming in.

We’ve also used dummy bottles. It would be great if Champagne houses provided these as a matter of course to retailers; it keeps their brand present and our stock safe. We’ve also now started using security tags on high-value stock. In the past, we’ve tried locking the shop doors, but this creates a significant barrier to customers. We always have two people working to

ensure that the shop floor is never left unattended.

Do the police ever catch the thieves?

Tuggy: No, the police can’t do anything. We must get involved ourselves if we want the crime resolving. There is a WhatsApp group chat with all the surrounding businesses: we pool any relevant information there, like CCTV images, warnings and pre-warnings of shoplifting, descriptions of culprits and so on. For example, when the local antiques shop had £12,000 worth of stock stolen, we had an image of the thief. And they’re a bit thick: he came back two days later, attempting to steal from another local shop. One of the people on the WhatsApp group had seen him and rang me. So, we converged on the shop he was at, waited

Lucie Parker of Jeroboams

Tuggy Meyer of Huntsworth Wine

There’s emotional and psychological damage, no question. I know people who have been held up at knifepoint. These experiences stay with you

outside and didn’t let him go. When the police arrived, they arrested him and took him back to his flat, but the antiques weren’t there. So absolutely nothing came of it and there was no follow-up to the lady who had lost £12,000 worth of stock. I’m afraid it’s just simply pathetic.

They [the police] ask you to upload images online and say they can’t deal with any of it in person. In other words, it’s up to us. If it wasn’t for us circulating the messages and physically catching the guy he would never have even been arrested.

Forty-two years ago, when I first owned a shop, you had a big local bobby, and you’d exchange information with him and that was useful. But all of that’s gone out of the window now. I don’t even call 999 because it just takes way too long. You must be proactive with people in your neighbourhood.

Lucie: When we file a report and provide CCTV images, some arrests have been made, but this is definitely not always the case.

What is the cost, both financially and emotionally?

Tuggy: There’s emotional and psychological damage, no question. I’ve been surrounded by people who you might expect to be carrying knives. I know people who have been held up at knifepoint. These experiences stay with you. When the door opens unexpectedly on a dark winter’s night, it takes you right back.

Lucie: The cost to our business across our 10 shops has been high, in the tens of thousands in terms of stock stolen across a

year. It also takes time to report the thefts, come up with solutions to prevent them in future and make sure our staff teams are OK. Unfortunately, we have had physical

Pthreats to our staff teams. Our advice when dealing with shoplifters is always not to intervene and to protect their own welfare. Stock is replaceable. People are not.

hil Innes is owner of Loki Wines, which has a branch in the centre of Birmingham as well as premises in Edgbaston and Solihull. He says that shoplifting has been tackled in the city with the help of some well-organised initiatives.

“We were getting targeted several times a day on some occasions,” he says. “A mixture of clearly organised stuff with snatch-and-grab thefts common as well. But we have had a success story here in Birmingham.

“I sit on the board of something called Central BID, which is a business improvement district, and recently shoplifting was the biggest concern for all members. So, we started a programme three months ago, working with the police and the council to really focus on retail crime.

“For example, in our Central BID offices, we have two police officers there permanently. Their job is only to look at retail crime and action it. And then we’ve got someone from the council side, also working full time.

“Each member of the BID pays 1.5% on top of their rates to the organisation. The funding is then collected by the council and allocated to pay for the fleet. In effect we pay for the wages of the two police officers and all the BID wardens who patrol the area – this dedicates them to this task all the time.

“We are targeting specific people. It isn’t a scattergun approach. It is a deep dive, working with our teams on the ground. Our several BID wardens, most of whom are ex-police officers, know the district well and know all the perpetrators.

“The wardens will make a citizen’s arrest and report it to our offices through our radio network. It is then logged as a crime by our police officers, and they then go to the scene and make a proper arrest.

“In these first three months, we have taken 87 people to conviction. We have gone from several instances of shoplifting a day, to not even one over the Christmas period. It proves that if you put the money there and have that official structure in place, you will get results.”

“Each member of the BID pays 1.5% on top of their rates. In effect we pay for the wages of two police officers”

With Flying Füchs

1. According to EU data, Italy, France and Germany were the biggest producers of sparkling wine in 2023. But in what order?

2. In which English county would you find Leventhorpe and Ryedale vineyards?

3. What mysterious fault has affected many white Burgundies since around 1996?

4. Basil Fawlty remarks that most of his guests wouldn’t know a Bordeaux from a what?

5. Which business bought Bristol wine merchant Averys in the early 2000s?

nswers on page 29

by Brett

Château Thébaud Jardin d’Edouard 2018

Château Thébaud is one of Muscadet’s 10 crus communaux, the best sites that Nantes has to offer. By law this wine ages for 36-48 months on its lees. Extremely refined and gastronomic. An angular minerality with a rush of pithy limes and salted walnuts. Crying out for fresh Atlantic seafood.

RRP: £29 ABV: 12.5% Wine Story (07921 770691) winestory.co.uk TRIED & TESTED

Calmel & Joseph La Magdeleine Val de Dagne 2020

A high altitude, single parcel of Pinot made with 20% new oak. Sweet, smoky oak simmers beneath wafts of indulgent fruit. Dried cranberries and mulberry jam dusted with cinnamon and cocoa. Fresh, tight and serious on the palate with a strong spine of acid and a gentle wash of black tea tannins.

RRP: £30 ABV: 13%

Daniel Lambert Wines (01656 661010) daniellambert.wine

Emil Bauer Roter Veltliner 2023

Located in Wagram, just north west of Vienna, the family-owned Bauer winery is now firmly devoted to the region’s native varieties – including Roter Veltliner, referred to as “the diva” due to its demanding nature. An arresting, mineral-streaked wine cushioned by 10% maturation in small oak barrels, with stone-fruit richness and a sprinkle of bitter herbs on the finish.

RRP: £19.70 ABV: 11.5%

Delibo Wines (01993 886644)

delibo.co.uk

Blackbook Winery Painter of Light Chardonnay 2021

Sergio Verrillo, who sources fruit from Essex and makes his wines in Battersea, confesses that this Chardonnay was once “astringent and reduced”. Did his technique improve, then, or did the fruit? Neither – he’s talking about this exact same vintage, which has acquired gorgeous tropical complexity with bottle age.

RRP: £30.25 ABV: 11.5%

Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722 538) hnwines.co.uk

Niepoort Tiara 2021

Lemons crushed between coastal chalk. Grapefruit drying out on a slab of flint. Scorched blossoms and smoked sea salt. More chalk. Graceful and intricate. Long and masterful. A wine that could give any similarly priced Chablis a run for its money. Amazing intensity and tension for its modest 11.5% abv. This is a proper world beater.

RRP: £42.50 ABV: 11.5%

Halo Wines (020 3633 0310) halo-wines.co.uk

Gérard Bertrand La Forge Corbières-Boutenac 2020

Predominantly Carignan from a Demeter-certified site, where some vines are over 100 years old. Astonishing fruit purity: sun-drenched brambles, black cherries and blueberries combine with subtle sweet cedar, dill and cacao nibs for hedonistic depth. Remarkably wellmannered for a wine with such big muscles.

RRP: £72 ABV: 15%

Walker & Wodehouse (020 7449 1665) walkerwodehousewines.com

Pyramid Valley Angel Flower Pinot Noir 2022

As is observed elsewhere in these pages, some Kiwi Pinot is so delicate as to be rather thin. But here is a North Canterbury masterclass in how to make a wine that’s exciting as well as ethereal, using biodynamic fruit from one of the coolest Pinot vineyards on the planet. Faint sour cherry, a whisper of truffle: superb.

RRP: £90 ABV: 13.5%

Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722 538) hnwines.co.uk

Chevalier Delaude Languedoc 2022

This stunningly good value GSM blend is sourced from an estate between Corbières and Minervois. There’s a lot going on: its earthy base supports rich black coffee notes, cloves and cinnamon, leather and smoke, and it’s all held together by a fragrant, floral freshness. Powerful but food-friendly.

RRP: £11.99 ABV: 15% Cachet Wine (01482 638888) cachetwine.co.uk

ben lindsay

On the Road

Ben is Lanchester Wines’s regional business manager looking after both the on and offtrade in Cumbria and the north west

I was born and bred in Carlisle. I’m always around Cumbria and the north west so I’m available to help out with tastings and staff training. This means I can regularly meet face to face with customers, which I really enjoy.

After graduating from Northumbria University with a business management degree I went to Majestic, which at the time offered a graduate scheme. It gave me a solid grounding in retail management as well as wine. We were trying wines every day and we had to gain WSET Level 3 within a year to be an assistant manager. I quickly went from not knowing much about wine to being a huge fan.

Not long after joining Lanchester Wines last August we visited Famille Moutard in Champagne. Aside from their very impressive Champagnes, the wines from their Burgundy domaine are really indie-friendly. And their Burgundy sparklings are ideal for customers who like the Champagne style and quality but don’t always want to go up to that kind of price point. They also make pét nats – Pet’ Mout’ Pétillant-Naturel Chardonnay is all citrus on the nose with floral and mineral notes; and the rosé version, made with Pinot Noir, is deliciously tart and has a dark pink colour.

We have a long relationship with McPherson Wines in Australia. We have a good chunk of their portfolio and in particular the Don’t Tell Gary Shiraz does really well. It’s always good to have things that pop on the shelf in terms of labelling. Apart from being a great wine, the bottle looks cool and it has a genuine story behind it. That’s really important for independent retailers.

accounts has their own-label Moutard Champagne which they use in their hampers.

Working with the indies is really refreshing. A lot of wine lists in the ontrade have contracted since Covid, with restaurants cutting down on choice. For consumers wanting to find cool and quirky things and make new discoveries, their local independent is the place to go. It’s easier to pitch our more interesting wines from our portfolio to independents because they have the staff who understand the products and they are happy and confident to talk to their customers about them. The same wines on a wine list can be a harder sell.

I’m a big Newcastle United fan. I’m into fitness and do quite a bit of running. I’ve done the Great North Run and The Great Cumbrian Run in the last two years. I also have two young daughters, who keep me busy.

There’s a growing trend for wines made from known varieties but from more unusual places. For example, we’ve just brought in a new range from Australia called Omrah. It’s got really good branding and an interesting story and they have a fantastic Tempranillo. You don’t see that too often – it’s a variety synonymous with Spain, but from Australia.

We have the facility to do bespoke labels for our customers through our Create Back Label Only range. This is an attractive option for retailers who want to strengthen their own brand. We even offer Prosecco and Champagne – one of my

For more information, visit

Viva Vino Vero

Vino Vero's second branch opened in time for the Christmas trade. Located in Thorpe Bay, Essex, five miles from the original store in Leigh-on-Sea, owner Jaime Fernandez describes it as “very different to our Leigh shop, but the customer base is very different too, so it works out well”.

The striking table that takes centre stage has a quartz top. “It’s non porous and we have special cleaning stuff so hopefully we can keep it stain free,” says Fernandez.

A bar area for the new premises is scheduled to be completed this month.

The gorgeous Georgians

Georgia is known to be the first country to ever produce wine. For nigh on 8,000 years, winemaking has been an integral part of their culture. This beautiful country at the intersection of Europe and Asia lays claim to more than 525 indigenous grape varieties planted across 30 different PDOs and makes some of the most interesting wines on the planet.

It’s one of the reasons Boutinot is fiercely proud to represent them in the UK. We talk and taste regularly and, every time, come away uplifted by their energy and optimism.

Salome Mosidze sums up the spirit of Teliani, where she is head of marketing.

“For Georgians, winemaking is an act of resistance and a gateway to the soul –defiant and defining,” she says. “Sharing and tasting wine forges a direct connection to the unspoilt land and to history, where the whole world of wine is a gateway to an inner peace, an awakening of the soul. Transcendent stuff.

“Teliani is at the very forefront of Georgian wine. The roots of the business are in the personal sacrifice of cuttingedge winemakers pooling their passion and resources to make great wines. The

founding winemakers had both worked in the state-owned Soviet wine factories. Together they sweated and toiled with no income for years to build up the independent winery. They did it to make the wines they had always wanted.

“We aim to make wines that dazzle. They work with all types of food but especially the kind of mezze, spicy, herby, sharing type of eating that sits at the heart of all good community and good times. There are gutsy reds, delicate and refreshing whites and flinty amber wines.

“Some are qvevri: skin contact wines made in earthenware amphorae in the way Georgians have made wine since the time of Noah. We like to think our wines are an invitation to awaken your soul, laugh and love like a Georgian, change the way you look at the world, and be just a little more Georgian.”

Dynamism, modernity, tradition

In 1997, a young and enthusiastic team of winemakers created Teliani Valley and used modern stainless steel equipment borrowed from the staterun winery. They were given the freedom to select grapes from fantastic vineyards and produce wines that are satisfyingly approachable.

Epitomising this approach, this wine is 100% Saperavi, a grape variety indigenous to Georgia, and sourced from the Kakheti region in the east. Saperavi is often compared to Malbec, Cabernet Franc

and even Gamay depending on how it is made. This is dark, juicy and fresh, beetleblack in hue, rich and full.

Glekhuri series

Glekhuri translates as “peasants”, which reflects the artisanal approach to how these wines are made.

The grapes are hand-picked from selected vineyards and fermented in qvevri. Once the qvevri are filled with whole bunches, they are buried underground for an average of six months where the grapes naturally ferment. The subterranean climate maintains a stable temperature of 13-15°C, creating a perfect, nurturing environment for this unique method of wine production.

In 2013 UNESCO inscribed the ancient Georgian traditional qvevri winemaking method on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Amber, the original orange

Glekhuri Kisi is made fom the native Kisi grape grown in the villages of Akhmeta district in south west Kakheti, grown in clay and stone soils. Fermented in qvevri for six months, this is translucent amber with a distinctive flavour and mildly tannic structure. Only 6,500 bottles are made. Don’t serve it too chilled, as this brings tannins forward at the expense of the lovely flavours.

Salome Mosidze of Teliani

Rising Stars

Natasha was once a regular visitor at Mr & Mrs Fine Wine – not to buy, but to sell advertising space for the local newspaper. Owners Chris and Gosia Bailey recognised her potential and were quick to offer her a role.

“When Tasha applied for the job we already knew her as this bubbly and enthusiastic professional so we didn’t have any qualms about employing her,” says Chris. “And we’ve been proved right. She’s been with us for over four years and she is incredibly professional, very conscientious, hard-working and passionate about wine.

“It’s interesting to see her progress. Listening to her talking to customers now, she has profound wine knowledge, which is very impressive, and customers engage with her because she is as enthusiastic about the wines as she is about selling to people. She is fantastic.”

Before her role at the local paper, Natasha was a baker and cook, running the kitchen in a bistro. “I did that when my children were small,” she says. “I’d always had an interest in wine and been to a couple of tastings in a social capacity, but never worked with wine professionally.

“I was intrigued but I didn’t realise what a big thing it was, how complex it could be, and how many parts of the world were making amazing wine. Starting at Mr & Mrs Fine Wine, I was at the beginning of a huge journey of discovery and it’s been extremely exciting.

“Chris and Gosia are so great. I see how hard they work and how much they care about what they do, and they’re so knowledgeable. I’ve learned from them along the way and about a year ago they put me through WSET Level 2.”

When university is two decades in the past, formal education can feel somewhat alien. “To do an online course was a new thing for me, although my teenagers were like, ‘well that’s the way it is, you have to get used to it,’” Natasha says. “It was interesting because there were students from all around the world doing the course. I love the global aspect of the wine trade, and that was cool. I got a distinction. I really enjoyed doing that qualification.”

Natasha has been out and about at tastings and also took the initiative to visit one of the store’s winemakers while on holiday in Provence last year. But she doesn’t

Natasha Pearson Mr & Mrs Fine Wine, Southwell, Notts

see herself making any career changes.

“I pinch myself every day to think this is what I do for a living, because I just completely enjoy it, and I look forward to coming to work,” she says. “I’m really happy where I am, to be honest, because I feel like no two days are the same. Because we’re a hybrid business, we have the wine bar side and the shop side. It’s a nice mixture of the two, seeing people enjoy themselves, tasting a few wines, and then there’s also the other side, where you’re helping people choose wines for a special occasion or something like that.

“The products are changing all the time and that also keeps it interesting as there’s always something new to learn. I want to do more of the same, really, and just explore as much as I can.”

Natasha wins a bottle of Akitu A2 Pinot Noir courtesy of Mentzendorff

If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com

In a nutshell: Make an impact with ownbranded goods. As well as generating favourable profit margins, they increase brand recognition and showcase your creativity as an independent.

Tell us more.

“Initially we were a restaurant that turned to retail, so branded products seemed like the next logical thing. Because of our background in hospitality, a branded drink really resonated. It was about taking the feeling of how happy people are when they come to see us in one of our venues, and then bottling it.

“It’s that moment where you’re with your friends, having a good time, not taking yourself too seriously, but drinking delicious stuff. I think that really sums who we are as a business.”

Just how hands-on are you?

“It helps that in my previous life I was in research and development for a drinks company, and I worked for Heston Blumenthal; I was in charge of the cocktail programme at The Fat Duck Group. That experience of developing recipes enabled us to do it in-house and we built up a micro-production line, including bottling.

“We make it from absolute scratch. We buy a high-proof neutral grade spirit and macerate all the herbs and everything. It’s not easy, but we get it done in the restaurant. The last production was 2,500 bottles. We do wholesale it to

some key customers and we’re hoping to set ourselves up with a more scalable production this year so we can do more of that.”

The labels look fun.

“There are six iterations of the label. They look similar but they depict different characters with the intention that they represent a group of friends. We came up with the concept in-house and an old friend of mine, Ryan, did the artwork for us.”

How well does it sell?

“We’ve been doing it for four years now and over last Christmas it was one of our top 10 best-sellers. It retails at £25 and over the last quarter we’ve sold approximately 780 bottles. Customers

Brodie Meah Top Cuvée, London

just love it and it’s perfect for that aperitif moment because it gets your palate going, ready to have dinner or open a nice bottle of wine.”

We see you also offer vermouth-scented candles. Tell us about those.

“A local company called Evermore approached us to do a collaboration based on our house vermouth. As it was a busy time I sent them a bottle and thought I’d let them get on with it, and when we went to smell the samples I was like, ‘oh my god, you guys are amazing’.

“That was supposed to be just a little one-off, but it’s been so popular, we’ve done five production runs in the past year. It’s an artisanal product: each candle is individually hand-poured, so they’re not cheap, but I will say the margin is better than wine, which isn’t difficult in this climate. We retail them at £32.”

Hand-poured candles sell for £32

Brodie wins a WBC gift box containing some premium drinks and a box of chocolates.

Tell us about a bright idea that’s worked for you and you too could win a prize.

Email claire@winemerchantmag.com

Vermouth is made from scratch in-house

Favourite Things

Richard Ballantyne

Noble Grape, Cowbridge

Favourite wine on my list

Viña Tondonia Rioja Reserva is one of my favourite wines. I love its complexity and its unashamedly 19th century style. The 2010 is one of the best I can remember.

Favourite wine and food match

I am not that big on food and wine matching, but I do love Cantina Tramin’s Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer with our Saturday curry.

Favourite wine trip

Australia and New Zealand back in 2015. The highlights were flying above the McLaren Vale in a biplane and helping fill the press on the first day of vintage in Marlborough at Seresin Estate. The greatest wine experience, however, was tasting from the barrel with Gianfranco Soldera in Montalcino in 2000.

Favourite wine trade person

If it were an all-time favourite, I’d have to nominate the late great Nick Belfrage MW, my former boss and mentor and an absolute legend. If it were a current favourite, I’d go for Jancis Robinson MW.

Favourite wine shop

Lea & Sandeman stand out for their consistently excellent selection. I could spend hours in Hedonism, with their breathtaking range. If I were to go for a small independent like mine, Hay Wines in Ledbury has a fantastic range, both broad and deep.

Vineyard workers face deportation

Vineyards in Napa Valley are worried that President Donald Trump’s increased deportations of illegal migrants will devastate their workforce.

Just before Trump took office, a US Border Patrol raid in Kern County, over 300 miles away from Napa, targeted farm workers in and around the town of Bakersfield.

After news spread that 78 people were taken into custody, the citrus industry in that area of California reported that 75% of their workforce haven’t been showing up.

Napa Valley wine producers who also heavily rely on immigrant labour now fear they’ll face a similar fate if Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids begin in northern California.

Daily Mail, January 29

Megadeth wine made in Nashville

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has launched a new wine brand, House of Mustaine, with the rest of his family.

The project will blend music, culture and fine winemaking and will see the singer work alongside his relatives Pamela Mustaine as president, Electra Mustaine as vice president and sommelier and Justis Mustaine.

Bordeaux

shop embraces 0% abv

Belles Grappes, a shop dedicated to dealcoholised wine and other alcoholfree drinks, has opened in central Bordeaux.

“We have all types of visitors,” said coowner Anne Kettaneh. “Each week I have winegrowers who come into my shop to ask to try a new dealcoholised wine.”

Producers supplying Belles Grappes, which is located near the city’s St-André cathedral, include those in the wider Bordeaux vineyard region, as well as in Provence, Germany and Austria.

Similar shops exist elsewhere in France and Kettaneh said she has been contacted by people interested in establishing their own businesses in other towns.

Decanter, January 29

Torres goes big on zero-alcohol wine

As demand for low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks continues to rise, one of Spain’s leading producers is making a significant investment in the category.

Based in Nashville, House Of Mustaine will draw grapes from vineyards in Italy, California and emerging regions around the world and will make use of “purist techniques” alongside “modern innovation”.

NME, January 25

Familia Torres has announced it will invest €6m (£5,074,110) between 2024 and 2026 in a new winery, dedicated exclusively to non-alcoholic wines, at its headquarters in Pacs del Penedès in Catalonia. Half of the total amount will be spent in 2025, making the project the largest line item in the company’s annual budget.

Decanter, January 27

Gusbourne cuts out middle man

English winemaker Gusbourne relied on its direct-to-customer sales to boost revenue last year amid tricky trading conditions in both the on and off-trade.

Total net revenue was up 1% to £7.1m for the year to December 31 thanks to improved website sales and its on-site wine tasting experience.

Direct-to-consumer sales made up a third of its revenue for the year after income grew 19% to £2.4m.

By contrast, trade sales in the UK fell 9% to £3.1m amid difficult trading conditions.

The Grocer, January 30

Wine and spirits sales fall at LVMH

Profits from LVMH’s wine and spirits business tumbled by 34% last year.

The luxury goods giant, home to brands including Hennessy Cognac and Glenmorangie whisky, reported that revenues from wine and spirits were down 11% year on year and by 8% on an organic basis.

Just Drinks, January 29

QUIZ TIME

Answers to questions on page 26

1. Italy (638m litres), France (312m litres) and Germany (88m litres)

2. Yorkshire (West and North)

3. Premature oxidation

4. A claret

5. Laithwaites

? THE BURNING QUESTION

If you could only sell wine from one region, which would it be?

�I just can’t get enough of the wines from the Loire, and often find they are all I want to drink these days – from the crisp, cold purity of a Muscadet to the complexity and depth of an aged Savennières. And what about a honeyed, voluptuous Vouvray, with a nice lick of residual sweetness? Yum. Then you have the fun and fresh pét nats and mouthwatering crémants. Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Romorantin too.”

Verity Sessions H Champagne winner H Palate Bottle Shop, Shoreham, Sussex

�Mendoza has the capacity to offer wines at every level to compete with most of the world’s wine regions, old and new. I have visited Argentina’s pristine landscape and tasted the elegant wines of Patagonia, the juicy rich wines of Mendoza and the powerful red wines of Salta in the north. If I wasn’t so involved in retail, I would have considered owning and running a vineyard in Mendoza.”

Tariq Mahmood

Wine Raks, Aberdeen

�I could happily, and easily, fill the shop with the wines of Italy. Customers are very happy to be taken on a journey of discovery, towards the Italian hills and valleys for, as yet, hardly known but highly attractive wines. Each of the regions can be seen as distinct, with many representing varieties unique to that area, or shared only with neighbouring regions. One of the exciting elements of Italian viticulture is the resurgence of varieties that were almost extinct, like Timorasso.”

Alan Norchi

Orlando’s Wines & Spirits, Plymouth

�It would have to be Rhône Valley for me. This region has a huge diversity of wines across the full price range including the shortodds bet for my personal favourite red, white and pink. Happy memories for me are family holidays in Vaucluse – the icing on the Rhône valley cake.”

Peter Hedges

Bacchus Beyond, Halesworth, Suffolk

Champagne Gosset

The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584

DUNCAN MCLEAN

Northabout

Our forebears made booze out of pretty much anything. It was probably horrible

Ipicked up an interesting looking pamphlet in a charity shop recently.

The battered white cover featured a photo showing an old wooden table spread with ancient bottles, demijohns and tankards, as well as a teapot and biscuit barrel. The title was Here’s Tae Thee, and the very exciting subtitle Drinks & Curses

Except, when I got the booklet back to the shop and looked at it properly, the subtitle was actually Drinks & Cures. I have to admit I was disappointed at not having found a compilation of old Orkney curses, but we don’t have any customers sufficiently annoying right now that I’d want to curse them, so I’ll live. And so will our customers.

The first half of the booklet features the drinks. The recipes were compiled in the 1990s by a local man called Allan Taylor, most of them dating back to when he was a boy 60 years earlier. At that time it was common – in the country, pretty much universal – to give children weak beer to drink, that being safer than water. An old acquaintance of mine remembered well the mug of beer his mother would give him for breakfast before he set off to walk the two miles to school.

Allan Taylor’s recipe for “Orkney’s favourite liquor – Good Home Brew” explains that, after the first brewing of ale, “the malt wis used a second time. This made a waaker liquid cald smaa-beer, that is whit bairns could drink an enjoy”.

As well as traditional home brew, we get recipes for some intriguing but not very

attractive variations: treacle ale, nettle beer, and beetroot beer. You have to make your alcohol with whatever you have to hand, so there are recipes for wines made from carrots, parsnips and broom. “Green Grape Wine” advises the addition of six large potatoes.

More unexpected (though not any more appetising) are the recipes for “Sakki Wine” made of rice, raisins and demerara sugar, and “Clary-wine” which calls for “two gallons of Clary flowers stripped from the stems, just as the flowers are beginning to fall”. Two gallons of anything seems like a lot, and the work in collecting two gallons of small blue flowers seems out of proportion to the likely reward. (Though if it ended up blue, the labour might be justified. “Orange wine? So last year. Give

me a glass of your finest blue.”)

The recipes remind me of stories from prisons or dry countries, where people desperately ferment anything with sugar content to get an alcoholic hit: it’s easy to laugh at our forebears of a couple of generations back. The nobler reaction would be to appreciate the modern miracle of all the wonderful wine arriving at our shop, fresh from Mendoza, Patagonia and Marlborough.

We sell kits, ingredients and equipment for both home brew and fruit wine making, still a popular hobby here. On some of the smaller, more isolated islands, without a pub or shop, home brew is still the main drink for many. When I was younger, I went through a phase of making my own beer, but I gave up ages ago. Yes, it was cheap, but it was also horrible. The customers who buy from the home brew shelves always go on about how little it cost them; none mention it tasting good.

I felt I should try at least one of Allan Taylor’s recipes, and opted for “Sherry Wine”. I’ll copy the full recipe here in case anyone feels like giving it a go: “Put 1 teacupful of milk and 1 lump of sugar into a pan. Bring to the boil, add ½ cupful sherry. When curdled, strain and serve.” The choice of sherry is yours; I opted for a favourite, Fernando di Castilla’s Classic Amontillado. The result was … well, cast your mind back to Christmas. Did you have a sherry trifle? And was there, when you’d finished dishing it out, some liquid in the bottom of the bowl – a bit fruit-juicy, a bit creamy, a bit sweet sherry-ish? That’s exactly what this tasted like. But warm.

As for the cures in the second half of the book, some look bland but palatable (Leek Milk), some verge on the repellent (Mutton Restorative Custard) and some are downright weird (“For toothache, lay roasted parings of turnip, hot as may be borne, behind the ear.”) One, to cure whooping cough, is undoubtedly illegal, as it involves swallowing a live Orkney vole. And to think some complain about sulphites in their wine!

Duncan McLean is proprietor of Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall

Most modern wines are made without potato

Luca Dusi (right) with manager Stefano Marro

a gentleman of verona

Thousands of people first noticed Luca Dusi when his outspoken social media monologues started to go viral.

But the Italian has been a force of nature in east London for more than two decades. Jacob Stokes meets him

Luca Dusi hails from Verona but is about as close to an honorary Londoner as you can get. His company, Passione Vino, has prided itself on bringing Italy’s latest and greatest wines to the capital since 2003.

A bolt of blue in a Shoreditch side street, Luca’s exhibitionist space has a split personality. Is it a shop, a bar, a restaurant? In fact it’s all three, and you sense the order can change according the whims of its charismatic and outspoken owner.

Connected by a tangle of step-downs, tiny corridors and creaky staircases, the numerous rooms in the building can be vaguely categorised as a carnival of versatile spaces for dining, meeting, tasting and exploring.

Luca was “surrounded by wine from a young age, because Verona is one of Italy’s biggest winemaking towns”, he says.

“When I was around 16 years old, my friends and I would bunk school, jump straight on a bus to the city centre and go to this wine bar that was open from nine in the morning.

“We were all big lads and didn’t look particularly

“Normally in Italy, people are not as openminded as here in London”

innocent, so back then they would serve us a glass of wine. I just remember enjoying standing in there, listening to the many wine stories that the owner would share with us. When I would challenge him on trying wines from California, for example, he used to say to me: ‘My dear Luca, you have just begun your journey in wine. You might go and taste wine from all over the world. You may fall in love with wines from the craziest areas, and with some of the most beautiful grape varieties around the world, but you will always come back home.’”

This early grounding sparked Luca’s curiosity so, as an aspiring 20-year-old, keen to discover more, he came to England. “Moving to London as a young Italian, it was obvious for me to go straight into restaurant work,” he says.

“I started as a kitchen porter, and as I picked up some English I moved on to the floor where I really started to get a taste for wine. Normally in Italy, people are not as open-minded as here in London: people only tend to drink wine from the specific region they are from.

“For example, in Verona, often you wouldn’t

even get as far as bottled wine, it would just be local bulk sfuso, which is essentially like a farmer’s wine – super-honest, straightforward wine. And then suddenly in London, I had this ‘wow’ moment because I could easily access wine from all over Italy and all over the world.”

Tell us about those early days in London. My first job was in a greasy spoon. I moved to London in the November and went straight into working in this basement kitchen from seven in the morning till five in the evening. It was dark when I started and dark when I finished.

Looking back, I didn’t see the sunlight for those first three months. I’d spend the Saturday recovering, then out clubbing on the night … then, as you can imagine, spending the Sunday recovering again. It was a tough introduction to London life, but something about it resonated with me.

I quickly learned that London is a bit of a beast, like a drug. It magnifies what you feel inside. If you’re feeling great, it doesn’t matter if it’s raining, foggy and the trains are packed, it is the most amazing place to live. If you’re in a bad mood, though, you don’t even want to wake up, it’s too overwhelming. So, finding your balance with London is essential. It’s a give-and-take relationship.

So how did Passione Vino start?

Naturally, spending my first 10 years in various bars and restaurants, I met lots of Italian tourists and the story was always the same: “London is dirty, London is complicated, London is expensive, and the food is shit.”

Of course this wasn’t true at all: if you go to Pizza Hut expecting proper pizza then bless you. They were barely scratching the surface of London, not seeing the real offering.

So in the end I just stopped talking to Italian tourists, until one night when I was working at a bar in Soho. I served two guys speaking my language, my exact dialect from Veneto, and straight away we clicked. One was a winemaker looking to expand into the UK and the other was looking to invest in something new.

Three months later they set up a limited company and employed me as an agent. I was travelling with them, understanding producers, production and so on. Then in 2003, I decided I had to do my own thing, so I joined forces with my now ex-business partner and created Passione Vino.

“We come to the table with three bottles and the customer gets to taste them all free of charge and decide which one suits them best”

How has the business model changed?

Initially we were purely importing and wholesaling to bars, restaurants and hotels. It wasn’t until 2014 when, in the hunt for a bigger office, we found this place and realised it had enough space for a bigger office in the back and at the front we could try having a hybrid selling space.

At that time, we had 300,000 bottles in bond so we put some shelves up and thought, if we sell five bottles, very good, if we sell 10 bottles, even better – it will pay for the toilet paper for a month.

When we started here it was nothing like what it is now. We literally had one table with four chairs right in the middle of the shop. At six o’clock we would just open a few bottles, catch some passersby and they would try some wine. Then gradually we started adding other elements. It was a long process.

Today we are now the most specialist Italian wine merchant and bar in the UK. We have an operation with 14 full-time members of staff doing 100-120 covers every night. Some customers just want a glass of wine, others want a full meal, some might want a full-blown party. We can cater to all those people.

No wine list?

No. Every wine we have in the shop is available by the glass but there is no list. The big difference between Italy and everywhere else in the world is that Italy has some 1,200 different grape varieties, 21 regions and god knows how many appellations. So, if I give my customers a wine list, they will always order within their comfort zone, whether that be through what they recognise or how much they want to pay.

We have a mission of extending people’s comfort zone, exposing the many wines of Italy that they do not yet know.

So, to do that we thought: fuck the wine list. We are going to be the ones asking questions. When a customer comes in and sits down, through various questions they, without mentioning names, varieties, appellations or similarities, but through the mood they’re in and the types of flavours they want to experience, tell us exactly what they want to drink.

Then, with that information, we come to the table with three bottles and the customer gets to taste them all free of charge and decide which one suits them best in that moment.

Have you had any backlash with this system?

When I am set on something, and I gamble my reputation, there is no way I’m going to stop. Of course, in the beginning people would say, “you don’t have a wine list? Are you crazy?” Maybe I am crazy, yes, but I need you to try wines that you would never have tried otherwise.

Sometimes when people first sit down and realise there’s no list, you can get some highbrow reactions. But once we present three wines for them to try, everyone relaxes.

For me, there’s an element of conviviality but it’s also about knowledge. With wine, consolidated knowledge only comes by tasting. You can read, watch and study all you like but if you don’t taste as much as you can, your knowledge will never reach that deeper level.

With all of this said, if someone comes in demanding a Chianti, perfect, of course they can have it. I’m not going to force them into something

“Maybe I am crazy not to have a wine list, but I need you to

try

they don’t want. In this business you must understand psychology too.

But, in keeping with extending and delivering knowledge, the focus will then switch to: what kind of Chianti? Do you like your Chianti on steroids like the Americans? Do you want something more traditional? Do you love the purity of Sangiovese or something that has been blended with international grape varieties? And so on.

It involves lots of interaction with customers. How do you explain wines to your clients? The way that we talk about wine is never too technical or analytical. We have broken down the barriers on wine.

wines that you would never have tried otherwise” Winemaker portraits adorn one of the many multi-purpose rooms in the building

Most of the time if you go to a shop, wine bar or restaurant, the customer is the one asking questions. If you’re lucky, you might find a less miserable shopkeeper or sommelier who is kind enough to share some knowledge. The snobbery

of “if you don’t know, then go back to the pub”. Fuck that!

We are the complete opposite. We are so glad to meet to our customers, we are so proud to speak about our producers and their wine. We have the pleasure of being able to say, “we were there with them last week getting our hands dirty, then we got drunk trying all the vintages”.

All the wines that we have, we import ourselves, so we know them inside out. This means that we can extrapolate all the wow factors of that bottle, whether it be about the producer, area, variety or vintage. We try and convey the things that make a wine’s identity so powerful.

It is a unique model that relies on having a close, insightful relationship with our producers.

The shop looks great. How did you design it?

My friend, Toby Sanders, is a fantastic Londonbased product designer from Scotland. Sometimes I have an idea, and I can visualise the result, but I don’t know how to get there. Toby is the only person I’ve met in my life who can get me there.

So, I told him: “I want bold and eye-catching without being pretentious. Something that feels alive, something that people won’t be able to resist.”

He said: “OK, for the next week we will go through whatever we can get our hands on, whether it be magazines, newspapers, websites etcetera and collect anything that triggers our interest.”

We met on the Friday afternoon to go through the whole lot. We drank four bottles of wine and explored lots of options, but nothing really stuck. The week after we did the same thing with the same result. On the third week of the process, I found this Wallpaper magazine and there was an advertisement in there about some fabric dealer –he had covered his full office in fabric patchwork. As soon as I saw that I thought, “fuck, that’s it, we have to go with that”.

Funnily enough, on the next page of the very same magazine, there was an article on a Dutch wallpaper designer called Ellie Cashman. It showed her extreme, romantic flower-patterned wallpaper that gave the impression of being hand-painted. At this point everything clicked: we combine the big bold floral wallpaper with the patchwork technique. The bold wallpaper also inspired the idea of clear glass shelving. The glass-on-glass effect creates this sense of delicacy and fragility. Every wine feels precious.

More winemakers in the frame

Are there any other arms to your business?

Yes, we do ecommerce. I’d always been very snobbish about ecommerce because I always thought it was just about well-known wine from big brands at cheap prices and of course we are the exact opposite of that. So, I never really invested into it. And then Covid hit. Woah … we changed the website immediately. Before Covid the website was very artistic and poetic, more of an exhibition than something practical.

I believe that wine is all about personality, a wine is an extension of the personality of the winemaker which is then an extension of their terroir and grape varieties which should all also be reflected in the label too. Therefore, if Passione Vino is all about highlighting the personality of wine, then the website should be following suit.

So, it took a few years and a few different website designers to come to something that we liked. We wanted it to feel convivial.

“Before Covid the website was very artistic and poetic, more of an exhibition than something practical”

In terms of functionality, when Covid hit, we realised the huge gap that was left by us not being able to ask questions to the customer. We had to get that function into the website. So, we wrote down all the possible questions and answers, creating a huge tree of possibilities.

Then together with the website designers we put all that information into this kind of video game called Wine Flight where you enter the shop virtually, and within 42 seconds of questions you are then presented with three options that would

be the exact three options that we would suggest in the shop.

It was something crazy, like 1,500 questions for 1,600 different options. It took around eight months to create. Typically, it went live exactly when Covid restrictions lifted. So I would say that our Wine Flight hasn’t been fully discovered yet.

What’s your process for choosing your producers and how has it changed over the years?

I think that Italy develops in certain ways because of our influence. We don’t follow any trends. We create trends.

When I go to Italy to taste, in my mind I have a triangle: its three tips represent three fundamental elements that wines must meet for us to import them. The first element is when I drink the wine, I need to feel that energy; the wine must be alive and singing. Commercially-made wines never sing, everything is muted. We want wines that are free, wines that are unchained. You feel it straight away.

The second element is the winemaker. Even though most of our suppliers have become great friends over the years, it’s not necessarily about friendship. I just need to see that the wine is an extension of the winemaker’s personality. If a wine is full of personality but the winemaker doesn’t reflect that same energy, something isn’t right.

The third element is the winery and the area. Not because I need to see a spick and span modern winery, but because I need to understand what the

“If a wine is full of personality but the winemaker doesn’t reflect that same energy, something isn’t right”

wow factors are for this wine. Can I create a market for it? Is there a story to tell? Are people going to turn to me and go “where the hell is this wine made?”

If all these elements come together 100%, it’s business.

Two years ago, we started investing a lot in Sardinia because it seemed like those wines were disappearing. It was all about boring chunky, rubbery red wines and tropical Vermentino.

So, we started exploring Sardinia, like we do, and found this tremendous, fucking unbelievable area in the mountains. You think of Sardinia as palm trees, flip flops and crystal-clear water, and of course, there is all of that. But in the Moro County, right in the middle of the island, there is this place called Barbagia.

The name comes from the Roman word Barbaria because the inhabitants were wild people, they all live up in the mountains and make these wines which are incredible. All granitic soils … the wines are so mineral. The main indigenous variety, Granatza, is just like lemon, chalk and salt.

Another example is what we have done with Valtellina. We created the market for Valtellina in the UK back in 2005 with Marco Fay, then in 2007 with Dirupi, then with Mario Lanzini and now with, in my opinion, the most formidable of them all, Marco Ferrari. It’s an area that even the Italians don’t know that well, but it is sensational.

So yes, the stock changes but the mindset for finding it stays the same.

Is it viable for all independent merchants to be importing rather than using only distributors?

The thing is, if you are only a shop, it will be difficult to organise the stock. Brexit has made everything slower, and you need a dedicated member of staff to deal with the logistics and paperwork. The amount of time you would spend as a shop owner, dealing with red tape and all the rest of it, would be time better spent holding tasting events and creating other streams of revenue.

A bolt of blue in a Shoreditch side street

I don’t blame people who use distributors at all. It costs a fortune to import on your own. Many Italian restaurant start-ups would tell me in their early days: “We don’t need you, Luca, we are going to import ourselves.” Slowly you would see their wine offering reduce and reduce and then, lo and behold, a few weeks after, they would be ringing me asking for wine.

What has been your toughest moment with Passione Vino?

The 2008 credit crunch. That was insane. The loss of value in the pound was so damaging for us. We went from a team of seven back down to two.

It was painful. The exchange rate to the euro went from 1.44 to 1.01 so we lost all our profit just in the decline in exchange rate.

It would be nice to have 15 years without an Armageddon. Every five years there is something. Credit crunch, then Brexit, then Covid and now Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.

It demands us to restructure and recalculate in different ways. The credit crunch was like, “fuck, there is no more money, shrink yourself like a porcupine and hope you weather the storm”. But Covid, even though I have my strong views on it, did oblige us to think deeply about how we do business. How can we be more proactive? How can we invest more efficiently? In that way it was great.

Let’s talk about social media. It’s a successful channel for you. How did you get to where you are now?

Our success seemed to just happen. For the first few years it was just me taking pictures and writing a quick caption.

Then we thought, let’s open the door to people who don’t know who we are yet. So, we started talking about who we are, where we are from and what we do. Simple stuff.

“A bin-end gives you only negative messages – either that we have made a mistake in buying, made a mistake in selling or the producer has made a mistake making the wine”

But a major turning point was when an exmanager of the shop, who has now gone back to Italy, had placed some wines in a bin-end section. One rule for me is avoiding negativity in the shop and a bin-end gives you only negative messages –either that we have made a mistake in buying, made a mistake when selling or the producer has made a mistake when making the wine.

She was pushing me, saying, “but Luca, we need to sell these bottles”, blah blah blah. So, I grabbed a bottle, took my jacket off and said “film me”. This was the first video for Passione Vino. I pulled the cork, poured a glass, spoke about the wine, the perfume and so on, said that this week it would be discounted. Within 60 seconds, it was done and uploaded. By the end of the week, we had sold all the remaining 50 bottles.

That’s when we realised there was something there. So, every week I would record a video, speaking about a wine, its story and all its wow factors. Which then became “the wine of the fucking week”.

Through Covid I was on Instagram every day because I had nothing else to do. People told me they would look forward to the videos. All I would do is joke around, drink some wine, tell the story and so on. It was at this time when we saw the Instagram go above 10,000 followers.

I love and hate social media. But whether you like it or not, social media is the new way of communicating so you must have it. You can be against it, but it doesn’t matter. You can choose

Glass shelves are intended to convey a sense of delicacy and fragility

how you communicate; you can still choose to communicate that you hate social networks, but through the social networks. You must let the world know that you are there and alive and doing X and Y.

There are also some extremes with people who are sick with social media … you can see they’re so deep into it that they can’t stop. They are in the turbine of having to spend their full lives on it, which is quite sad because it creates a situation where it is a battle to make the biggest noise, competing for the loudest voice with the strongest flavours and brightest colours and so on.

We simply open the doors of Passione Vino for a few minutes each week and everyone is welcome to come inside, and that has seemed to work for us.

What’s the most exciting region in Italy?

Oh god. If you would’ve asked me three years ago, I would’ve said Valtellina, two years ago I would’ve said Campania. Now I would say Sardinia. It keeps on moving but I love all the wines of Italy.

The diversity and dynamics of Italy is both its strength and its weakness. Italy is amazingly diverse and colourful with wonderful flavours and perfumes. But for non-Italians, understanding our food and wine is complicated and hard to market. It’s a labyrinth.

Away from wine, I think the most exciting region to visit would be Sicily. You can ski on Etna, you have beautiful beaches, beautiful food and the people there just love tourists. They’re so welcoming.

And what’s the most exciting region outside of Italy?

I’m very much looking into Greek wines; I’m drinking them with real pleasure at the moment. I love their acidity and flintiness.

I’m a big fan of Syrah too. I drink a lot of Cornas and enjoy the little hint of carbonic maceration they seem to have. I think Barbera is to Italy what Syrah is to France, very similar in taste.

I’ll tell you a secret. Of course, I’m 100% Italian. I believe Nebbiolo and Sangiovese are the two greatest red varieties in the world along with Trebbiano and Garganega for whites.

But the wine that got my brain to strive for the perfection of wine was an Australian Shiraz. It was Penfolds Grange 1995 in magnum which my friend and I consumed very happily without any food. It was insane.

What’s your desert island wine?

My grandfather would never forgive me for saying this but the greatest wines on earth ... they’re French. It has to be Romanée-Conti, no doubt.

What plans do you have for the future?

To find the perfect wine, which probably will never happen. But that’s the beauty of this job. My great friend and chef Alberico Penati once told me, “it’s a pity to die, because you stop learning”.

“I

love and hate social media. But whether you like it or not, it’s the new way of communicating so you must have it”

But more practically, I’d be more than happy to open shop number two in west London, where they absolutely need us! They’re so stuffy down there. We were very close to opening in Notting Hill Gate but it would’ve been too expensive, and the last thing I want to do is sacrifice our style and model for revenue.

I am a wine guy, on a wine mission, and if we open elsewhere that focus stays the same.

The indies' wine competition

The Wine Merchant Top 100 is back, and we’re now calling for entries from any business that supplies great wines to the independent trade.

To us, “great” doesn’t have to mean expensive. Our judges – all of them independent merchants – are looking for wines that offer superb value, whether they are priced £10 or £100. Our list of winners regularly includes wines from a broad price spectrum, and they’ve all impressed in their own way.

The Wine Merchant Top 100 judging is a blind tasting, conducted over two rounds. It involves around 40 independent wine merchants, including a senior panel which

Enter your wines now

aims to ensure consistency. These senior judges are often called upon for guidance or a second opinion by our teams of judges.

How do you select your judges?

The panel is changed every year. We try to make the group representative of the independent trade in all its forms, with indies from across the UK and representing different types of wine businesses, from traditional shops to the coolest hybrid stores. You can see the list of 2025 judges taking shape on our website.

Can indies enter their own directlyimported wines?

Email Claire Harries (claire@winemerchantmag.com) to request an entry form or visit winemerchanttop100.com. We need completed forms by March 14; the deadline for sending wines (four bottles per entry) to Sensible Wine Services is March 21. Wines cannot be on sale in any multiple (including Majestic and Waitrose) and must be available to independent merchants from UK stock.

Definitely, and we’d love to see more of these wines in the competition.

Where does the judging take place?

Our new home, since 2024, is Big Penny Social in Walthamstow. We made a short film about last year’s event that you can check out on our Instagram page.

How do the judges arrive at their decision?

Judges are split into teams and blind-taste flights of wines. A percentage of these wines go through to the second round, at which point the teams are reshuffled and the remaining wines re-flighted and tasted afresh, this time with scores and notes being submitted by the judges. The highest-scoring wines emerge as the Top 100 winners, with all other wines that made it to the second round being Highly Commended.

Find out more at winemerchanttop100.com

Judges will put this year’s wines through their paces on April 14

Why enter The Wine Merchant Top 100?

There are dozens of reasons to get involved. Here are nine that spring to mind

A PROVEN TRACK RECORD

The Wine Merchant Top 100 has been running since 2013. Independent merchants recognise it as “their” competition and trust it to deliver a credible annual list of wines that deserve their attention. Many retailers organise customer tastings featuring a selection of winning wines.

IT’S A RIGOROUS TASTING PROCESS

To be a winner in the Top 100, a wine has to impress two sets of tasters over two rounds of judging, as well as our four-strong senior panel. As many as 10 palates can be involved in that process. It’s why we’re always happy with our list of winners.

EVERY INDIE HEARS ABOUT OUR WINNERS

In July, we’ll publish our annual Top 100 Winners Supplement. Written by chairman of judges and Observer wine writer David Williams, it gives full details of all our winning wines, including those that just miss the cut and are Highly Commended.

OUR TASTERS ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS

Our main point of difference from other competitions is that all our judges are independent merchants. We ask them to assess wines just as they would if they were buying for their businesses, taking value for money into account as well as flavour credentials.

WINNERS TAKE PRIDE OF PLACE AT OLYMPIA

All Top 100 winning wines are available at the London Wine Fair. Our free-pour stand, in the heart of the floor area, is a magnet for the independent merchants who attend over the three days of the show, as well as other trade buyers, journalists and influencers.

CERTIFICATES AND LOGOS

All winners receive a certificate, and medal logos that can be used in marketing activity. These are useful graphics to add to your website and social media channels, to create POS displays or even to apply to winning bottles. We want you to celebrate your win.It's hard earned.

THERE ARE 40 INDEPENDENTS IN THE ROOM

Regardless of where your wine finally places, it will be tasted by a number of merchants on the day. Judges regularly feed back that the Top 100 judging is one of the most useful ways of encountering new wines that they wouldn’t otherwise have discovered.

TEN TROPHIES UP FOR GRABS

Ten of the Top 100 wines are announced as Trophy winners. These are the highest-scoring red, white, rosé, fortified and sparkling wines, as well as the wines we consider to be the bestvalue winners in all those categories. We present these prizes at the London Wine Fair.

PRICES HAVE BEEN HELD FOR 2025

It costs just £80 to enter a wine into The Wine Merchant Top 100, no increase on 2024. We want the competition to be accessible to wine businesses of all sizes, not just those with big budgets. Small importers are regularly among the competition’s winning suppliers.

CAT BRANDWOOD

The Long Run

I gave up on selling fresh eggs. And I’ve come close to a similar decision on spirits

Reading all about David Perry’s beer dilemma in last month’s issue got me thinking about all those things that I wish I’d never given shelf space to over the years.

Naturally, there are very few regrets when it comes to the wines. Perhaps the occasional oddity with no commercial value that turned my head, but I’ll eventually get around to drinking them myself if necessary.

Could it be the time that I sold fresh local eggs? I did have a bit of a go at a customer who tried to stockpile the eggs just as Covid hit (for the record, I didn’t let him buy them and gave him a lecture on how there was enough food for everyone if we all just bought what we needed).

On reflection I think it’s spirits that I possibly shouldn’t have delved into. When I first opened, I’d bought a few token spirits, probably about a dozen in total. I distinctly

remember that the vodka stayed on the shelves for two and a half years before I got a text while at a wedding, from employee number one, gleefully explaining that he’d finally got rid of it all. Could he have a bonus?

Around this time, we then had the gin boom – remember that? I had dozens of different gins on the shelves; I had to devote wine shelf space to them as they sold that fast. Customers would buy three or four bottles at a time. always chasing “the next big thing”.

This boom, of course, meant that

vigilance was needed in choosing products. I was once brought a sample of a gin bearing a gold IWSC medal. It was foul. Not in a “not to my taste” way. Genuinely it might be the worst gin I’ve ever tried (and that includes the non-alcoholic concoction that the team here labelled “minty bin juice”). I couldn’t understand the gold medal. In checking (maybe one day I’ll tell you the full story, but this isn’t what I wanted to talk about today) I discovered that this gin had in fact not won any medal.

Friends who used to have a wine shop found, when they closed in 2019, the document they’d written in 2016: How to Survive When the Gin Bubble Bursts With some (I suspect) bitter laughter they relayed this to me, because of course, they didn’t survive it.

By the time 2020 came around I realised that the space dedicated to spirits was a waste, as was the pitifully poor margin. A decent selection of whisky mocked me because, no matter what I actually had in stock, it was never what the customer wanted. All that money, just sitting there on the shelf, never seeming to actually improve my bank balance.

I spent a lot of time reflecting and realised that I either had to go big on the spirits or give it up. Half-arseing it wasn’t working and was creating frustration, for both me and the customers. So, these days you’ll find a very modest selection from one of the local distilleries. They don’t sell in the way they did in the glory days, but they shift, and they’re bloody good because he’s a quiet perfectionist.

No matter what whisky I actually had in stock, it was never what the customer wanted

I feel a lot lighter for all that cash being in my bank account (who are we kidding, I immediately spent it on more wine because I am a wine magpie who loves all things shiny and new). With my lesson learned (but perhaps unheeded) I have recently started selling greetings cards, taking the stock from another business on the street when they retired. Ask me in a few years whether I regret it.

Cat Brandwood is the owner of Toscanaccio in Winchester

“By 2020 I realised that the space dedicated to spirits was a waste”

Dan came to winemaking in his late 20s following a career in finance, including nine years in the UK. Now back in his native New Zealand, he heads up Cloudy Bay’s acclaimed Te Koko project, producing a style of Sauvignon Blanc that defies any Marlborough stereotypes

Te Koko was a wine I didn’t really get when I first tasted it. When I was interviewed I had to go through a blind tasting of about 20 wines and say what I thought about them. One of the wines I knew straight away was Te Koko. I politely said I didn’t really love that wine and didn’t really understand what you guys are trying to chase. And then when I joined in 2015 the chief winemaker said, “OK, well, you don’t really like that wine, so you’re in charge of it”.

Initially I said, I don’t want to change that style, because lots of people love it. Because it’s really out there. Funky. Edgy. When I tasted the old Te Kokos, especially once they got aged a bit, they presented a little bit more like a Chardonnay. So we’ve really worked quite hard since 2015 to give that wine a very varietal expression, still with a massive interest factor and complexity.

About a third of the fermentation is now in concrete. We brought that in in 2016 and, to be honest, it was a disaster. The first time we fermented it, we went with quite high solids, and left the wine for about six months of its life in concrete, and then it became super-reductive. But we learned

Te Koko Sauvignon Blanc 2021

Te Koko comes from Cloudy Bay’s older vines planted on the floor of the Wairau Valley. The wine ferments in French oak barrels with indigenous yeasts, gaining complexity over four to five months under the watchful eye of the winemaking team. The wine then rests in barrel on fine lees for 15 months before blending and maturation in Cloudy Bay’s cellars. Te Koko 2021 is expressive and complex, with a saline minerality.

Please request your sample by emailing Alexandra Dzurik: adzurik@moethennessy.com

from that. In the second year, we went with a lot less solids, and I guess that brings that sort of oyster shell character; more sort of mineral. Concrete is definitely an element that we love, and once we make the blend we put it back into the concrete to age. It just keeps the purity and freshness of what Te Koko should be.

When I talk about Te Koko, I don’t say it’s a Sauvignon Blanc to start with. I pour people a glass and see their reaction. I guess it’s a little bit of a tip to the old world. There’s oak involved there. There’s structure. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is full of aromatics and it’s beautiful. There’s lot of acidity, and it’s a lovely, fresh, drinking wine. But with Te Koko there’s a lot more complexity.

For me, Te Koko is a food wine. It should be opened on a table with friends or at a restaurant. It’s a wine that develops in the glass. By the time it comes out to consumers, it’s three years old. But for me, it’s even better once it’s five, six years old: it really gets these beeswax, honeysuckle characters. And it pairs well with great food. It can handle pork belly, something that’s got a lot of fat texture – the acidity of Te Koko cuts through that – but then it can also be Asian, because there’s lots of Asian spice flavours in the wine.

We get vintage variation. But I like to think, especially now that we’re really hitting our straps with what Te Koko is, there’s definitely more consistency. These wines come from our oldest vines from specific sites that we farm a bit differently. They are 27-year-old vines, so they need a little bit more loving and they crop lower.

As a winemaker you probably get 30 chances in your life to make something special. It’s not like beer, where you can pour it down the drain and redo it. So every year you’re going to give your best and try and make something that you are super-proud of. We’ve got a great team at

THE WINEMAKER FILES //

Dan Sorrell

Te Koko winemaker Cloudy Bay

Bay.

don’t get enough credit for what they do.

I think we should shout about Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. If you put it in a line-up with any other Sauvignons from around the world, when you put your nose in the glass, you know it’s Marlborough. There’s some exceptional Sauvignon here and people doing some pretty interesting stuff.

Clonal selection is the next big step for us, I think. There are some pretty amazing Italian clones from Friuli that we can have a look at. We’ve got some land available to plant some different things and really start working on that.

There’s definitely room to improve, always. We’ve got concrete and maybe there’s room for some amphorae, just to bring a different texture or aromatic profile. Maybe pick something a little bit earlier, to have a bit more freshness. We’re always trying something different.

Cloudy

The vineyard boys

THE KIWIS WE COUNT ON

Three indies each select three wines that stand out in their New Zealand ranges. Interviews by Claire Harries

CHRIS LOCKETT

Lockett Bros, North Berwick

“When you’ve been selling wine for 20 years, things evolve, but Sauvignon Blanc is still a hugely important part of the shop, and everybody still associates New Zealand with that. It’s something that I think people are just happy to buy over and over again, and they’re really enjoying wines from the growers that I’ve chosen to work with.”

Two Rivers Sauvignon Blanc

£15 (Antipodean Sommelier)

“The Two Rivers range has become our number one seller in this category and the price just really hits that sweet spot for us. This Sauvignon Blanc has an abundance of crushed fresh herbs, tomato leaf, gooseberry and fennel.”

Two Rivers Pinot Noir £20 (Antipodean Sommelier)

“Crushed raspberry and red cherry interlaced with forest floor, coffee bean and bramble nuances … this Pinot Noir sells really well. These wines are the backbone to that whole range right now.”

Tinpot Hut Turner Vineyard Riesling

£18 (Liberty Wines)

VIC TRUDGILL Gills & Co, Sheffield

“New Zealand may be a smaller category for us but it is a strong one. We have 300 wines in our range and around nine of them are from New Zealand.

“Our customers are adventurous, but those who may be a bit new to wine will often ask for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and I think that’s the gateway to getting customers to try other styles. As we also sell wine by the glass, it allows customers to try new things – and if they love it, next time maybe they’ll come in and buy a bottle of it.”

“The Tinpot Hut Sauvignon has been a mainstay of ours pretty much since the label came out, and then along came this joyous Riesling from Fiona Turner. It’s been a huge success for us – customers love it. It pairs well with lots of different foods but is also delicious on its own. It’s light in alcohol at 9.5% and that’s a great selling point right now as well.”

Dog Point Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc

£32 (Berkmann Wine Cellars)

“This was our fourth-best selling white wine by the bottle last year and I think it offers customers familiarity. They know what they’re going to get with this wine. It’s your traditional-style Sauvignon Blanc; crisp and fresh, with tropical fruit flavours.”

Greywacke Wild Sauvignon

£38 (Liberty Wines)

“This is perfect for customers who are looking for an extension of what they like in a traditional New Zealand Sauvignon. It offers something a little bit different and quirky. It was our third best-selling white wine by the glass in 2024.

“This will lead customers to the Greywacke Wild Sauvignon Archive, and they enjoy that exploration of something they love but with added complexity.”

Rockburn Pinot Noir

£47 (Hallgarten & Novum Wines)

“This is beautiful. It’s got a bit of depth, but it’s a nice light red and it doesn’t get better than Central Otago Pinot Noir. It’s fairly new to our shelves so it’s not necessarily a best-seller yet, and it’s possibly a harder sell because it is a higher price point, but it’s one of my favourites.”

FRANCIS PEEL

Whitebridge Wines, Stone, Staffordshire

“The thing I find fascinating about New Zealand is how organic they are. They’re very much less interventionist as they seem to be much keener on a sort of purity, which is very commendable.

“It’s still a very young industry so I think they are still finding their feet. There’s quite a lot of very innovative winemakers there; they just need to find what’s right for them and also find what’s right for the various regions.”

Mahi The Alias Sauvignon Blanc

£21.50 (Maisons Marques et Domaines)

“Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has never been my favourite. I’ve always thought it’s a bit like that Tango advert where the little orange man comes out and slaps you around the face. It is almost a wine in its own category because it is so stylistically apart from, let’s say, a Chilean Sauvignon, or a southern French Sauvignon. But I’ve been converted by Brian Bicknell [owner and winemaker at Mahi Wine]. He did a masterclass in London last spring of old vintages of his oak-aged Sauvignon Blancs and we were blown away by them.”

Te Awanga Estate Wildsong Pinot Gris

£15

(North South Wines)

“Rod McDonald makes really interesting wines. He does make a Sauvignon Blanc and again it is different stylistically as it’s from Hawke’s Bay, but he does a fantastic Pinot Gris. I really love New Zealand Pinot Gris because it has some wonderful aromatic flavours and peach fruit. This is a really good one.”

Te Awanga Estate Wildsong Syrah £18 (North South Wines)

“We think of New Zealand as being Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, but up there in Hawke’s Bay they’re very good at Syrah, and Rod does an oak-aged Syrah that is really elegant and has just a little bit more depth and roundness than a Pinot Noir. Some New Zealand Pinot Noirs can be fantastic, but some can be a little bit thin for the money.”

Crunching the NZ numbers

The UK accounted for 21% of New Zealand’s wine exports in 2024, with sales worth NZ$440m.

New Zealand Winegrowers, which reported the figures, also claims that New Zealand led the way in the UK’s still white wine category in the fourweek Christmas period, with value up 7.3% and volumes up 9.7% compared to the same period last year.

Chris Stroud, New Zealand Winegrowers’ market manager for the UK and Europe, says: “Sauvignon Blanc remains the driver for this growth, accounting for £1 out of every £2 spent on Sauvignon Blanc in the UK. However, we are also seeing increased listings and performance with other white New Zealand varieties, such as Pinot Gris, which offers an opportunity for retailers to further premiumise the category.”

Kiwi agencies for Hallgarten Hallgarten & Novum Wines has added four agencies from New Zealand to its portfolio. They are Neudorf from Nelson, North Canterbury’s Pyramid Valley, Craggy Range from Hawke’s Bay (pictured) and Spoke Winery from Marlborough. Hallgarten’s Kiwi range already includes Saint Clair, Lake Chalice and Rockburn. Portfolio director Jim Wilson says: “The common threads that tie each of these wineries together is a shared vision for producing excellent wines and their commitment to the environment and sustainability.”

B Corp for Lawson's Dry Hills Lawson’s Dry Hills, which claims to be New Zealand’s most sustainably certified wine producer, has attained B Corp status. Marcus Wright, winemaker for the Marlborough producer, says: “We join a movement of businesses committed to transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet.”

Mahi owners Nicola and Brian Bicknell

There’s a world beyond Savvy B

New Zealand’s calling card sometimes overshadows the country’s emerging star varietals, says Jacob Stokes

It’s impossible to ignore the huge impact of Sauvignon Blanc on New Zealand’s wine industry. Today the variety accounts for 60% of the country’s area under vine compared to just 8.8% in 1990.

This makes New Zealand more dependent on a single variety than any other winemaking country. And in terms of exports, the figures are even more astounding, with Sauvignon Blanc making up 86% of what New Zealand ships internationally.

Responsible for nearly 80% of the country’s total yield, Marlborough is home

to most of this production. Here 85% of vine plantings are Sauvignon Blanc.

So it’s safe to say the ostentatious passion fruit, grass and gooseberry bombs aren’t going anywhere. And despite the sniffiness of some critics, no one can deny that Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is one of the world’s most recognisable styles of wine.

But in an era where wine diversity and choice is at its highest ever level and consumer experimentation is growing among younger generations, now is the time to show the New Zealand that hides

quietly behind the cat-pee covered mask of Savvy B.

The variety that has gained the most traction after Sauvignon is Pinot Noir. It accounts for 72% of all red grape plantings in New Zealand, totalling 15% of the country’s area under vine in 2018, official figures show.

Martinborough and Central Otago wrestle for the mantle of benchmark region, but their expressions are quite different. Martinborough is more Burgundian; often elegant, lean and understated, with an earthy complexity.

Vines in Marlborough, where 85% of planting is Sauvignon Blanc

Richard Painter

Senior winemaker Esk Valley Wines

Esk Valley has built a reputation for producing some of New Zealand’s most interesting and high-quality wines, from our iconic Bordeaux blends to elegant Syrah and Chardonnay. Each year, we continue to refine and push boundaries, ensuring our wines remain sought-after.

Esk Valley is found in Hawke’s Bay and here we see free-draining alluvial plains that are framed by hillside and coastal sites providing a diverse range of vineyard areas. The region enjoys a long, warm growing season with low rainfall and is tempered by cool coastal breezes. Surrounding high country protects the landscape from weather extremes.

Our winemaking philosophy is fairly simple and has been since the beginning – making beautifully balanced, distinctive wines that speak of where they are grown. The wine industry is ever evolving and on a small scale, we trial new approaches and ideas each year to enhance our wines.

To us, “artisanal” means crafting wines with integrity, authenticity, and a deep respect for our vineyards. We take what nature provides each season and, through the skill and intuition of our winemaking team, shape wines that are expressive,

memorable, and truly reflective of their place.

Because we embrace a hands-on, minimal-intervention approach, our wines naturally evolve with each vintage. No two seasons are ever the same – our climate dictates that – but every wine retains the unmistakable Esk Valley signature: beautifully balanced, distinctive, and a true reflection of Hawke’s Bay’s diverse terroir.

Esk Valley is committed to producing and distributing wine sustainably –enhancing the lives of our people and protecting our natural environment for future generations. Our team continues to look for ways to lead in this area. Sustainability isn’t just about the land – it’s about the people behind every bottle. We prioritise ethical business practices, fair labour standards, and strong relationships with our growers, suppliers and local communities.

The 2024-2025 season has been kind to us thus far. Our vineyards are looking excellent, and we have high hopes for a quality harvest which we will be starting in late February/early March.

New Zealand wines have enjoyed incredible success in the UK, but to maintain that momentum we need to always be listening to our consumers and evolving to meet their expectations. We believe we offer something truly distinctive – wines with authenticity, a sense of place, and a handcrafted approach that resonates with independent retailers and wine drinkers. Esk Valley wines showcase the diversity of Hawke’s Bay.

There is a wider trend towards styles that are crisp and refreshing in whites

Esk Valley is a boutique Hawke’s Bay winery, renowned for hand-crafted premium reds and elegant whites.

Wines imported by Hatch Mansfield

Esk Valley Estate Chardonnay

RRP £14.90

This is a medium-bodied and elegant style of Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay. The palate is soft and textured with flavours of peach, intermingled with hints of butter, grilled nuts and subtle oak spice.

Esk Valley Artisanal Syrah

RRP £18.90

Medium to deep red, with aromas that showcase the red fruit elements of Hawke’s Bay Syrah, including raspberries with undertones of wood spice and pepper. Soft and generous with flavours like the nose of red berries and jam, with an underlying acidity providing elegance and length.

and lighter bodied in reds, and this is echoed in the wines across the Esk Valley range. This certainly plays into the strengths of New Zealand wines which typically have refreshing acidity and vibrancy, and intensity of flavour built on a lighter framework. We are also playing around more with less common varieties in Hawke’s Bay such as Tempranillo, Grenache and Albariño.

Being named a Great Wine Capital has been a huge boost for the region. We’ve always known that Hawke’s Bay produces world class wines, and now even more people are taking notice. For Esk Valley, this recognition gives us an even stronger platform to share our story – one that celebrates the balance of tradition and innovation that defines our wines.

Esk Valley Artisanal Albariño

RRP £17.30

This wine reveals classic Albariño notes of lime, peach and an assortment of tropical fruits. Full and rich with mouthwatering acidity, with the palate weight enhanced by ageing on lees. Delicious as a young wine but will gain some complexity with time in the bottle.

New Zealand makes world-class Chardonnay. But Riesling and Pinot Gris are reaching new heights of popularity

But Central Otago, as with Marlborough and Sauvignon Blanc, unashamedly throws caution to the wind. The wines are energetic and vibrant, with a shimmering purity of fruit that represents the ripeness available in the South Island sun trap.

Syrah is finding wonderful expressions in many regions across the globe, South Africa being an obvious example. But New Zealand also has a Syrah calling card of its own: Gimblett Gravels.

This is a little 800-hectare pocket of magic in Hawke’s Bay. Most of this region is too cool to fully ripen such a heat-hungry variety, but specific conditions in Gimblett Gravels create the perfect breeding ground for world-class Syrah.

The gravelly pebbles of Gimblett Gravels have two main attributes. Firstly they act as a thermal blanket, retaining daytime heat and allowing the vine to extend its growth cycle. Secondly, the soils here are very poor and infertile, meaning that the vine must focus efforts into grape growth rather than vegetation. Both factors result in highly concentrated fruit.

It isn’t breaking news that New Zealand makes world-class Chardonnay; producers such as Kumeu River have been setting that standard for many years. But more aromatic varieties such as Riesling and Pinot Gris are reaching new heights of popularity.

Riesling currently only accounts for around 620ha of vines in New Zealand, with about 95% of it planted on the cooler South Island. Although expressions vary, generally the wines are fresh, pure and reliable, with great varietal character.

Sunnier Nelson often produces a riper, richer style with spice and stone fruit, whereas the more temperate areas of Marlborough – where off-dry styles are popular – and North Canterbury express more citrus and green fruit-led wines that are intensely aromatic with a cool streak of minerality.

Finally, Pinot Gris, an emerging antipodean sweetheart, finds a style more akin to Alsatian Pinot Gris than Venetian Pinot Grigio. The wines can be richly

textured, dense and generous in the North Island, with more linear styles flaunting tension, freshness and precision in South Island examples.

Marlborough has the most Pinot Gris under vine, with 1,238ha of the total 2,809ha, followed by Hawke’s Bay with 676ha. Quality seems to be the key focus with Kiwi Pinot Gris: native yeast fermentation, barrel integration and extended lees ageing are common, creating wines of complexity and interest.

Cape Kidnappers, a headland on the south eastern edge of Hawke’s Bay

Hello Andrew. Last time we spoke you said the excitement was just starting for the Akitu project. Is it living up to expectations?

I’m reminded of that Cajun proverb: “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s difficult to remember you came in to drain the swamp.” It is exciting, that is for sure, but it’s not all beer and skittles. Nature and the markets have presented some recent headwinds. Post Covid, in most of our markets, sales in both on and off-trade fell, along with a trend to less pricey wines – which is pretty tough for a quality-centric, family boutique winery growing Pinot Noir on the other side of the world in a marginal location. Yes, we can grow great fruit, but it’s complex and we’re not trying to grow the cheapest Pinot fruit we can. On March 1, 2023, we lost 60% of our great-looking upcoming harvest in 40 minutes in the weirdest frost we’ve ever experienced. There were some tears.

Tell us about the new A2 wine. How does it compare with earlier wines?

It’s doing great. I wanted an extremely approachable and generous wine that we didn’t need people to talk or write about. I just wanted people to smack their lips and ask for another glass. Mission accomplished.

We use less oak and much less wholebunch, which means less structure and complexity and more gorgeous, succulent Central Otago fruit. As one critic says: “Andrew, this is your happy wine.” A fabulous acid discipline and fine silky tannins in modest proportions round off what appears to be the perfect by-theglass offering. If you want a great tasting glass of Wanaka sunshine, look no further.

From a tasting perspective, what do you notice as the vines age?

Consistency and complexity. In the early days, plants, rows and blocks – not to mention clones – seemed to flip around in style from vintage to vintage: one year some jazz, the next hip-hop, the next classical.

Now, after more than 20 years’ vine age, we know that those rows of that clone in that block play jazz. It might be Miles one year and Trane the next, it might be loud or soft, but it’s

THE WINEMAKER FILES //

Andrew Donaldson, Akitu

Andrew’s love affair with Pinot Noir persuaded him to abandon a career in finance and return home to Wanaka in Central Otago

His wines are imported by Mentzendorff

still jazz. And just as the greats evolve and explore, so does the vineyard. Without any doubt, more dimensions of structure and especially secondary flavours consistently emerge. It’s quite extraordinary.

Can you separate that from mere vintage variation?

Absolutely. Vintage variation for us is really about flowering and fruit set and more generally heat accumulation. In the easy years like 2016 and 2019, when everything happens at the right time in the right intensity, our wines tend to elegant gay abandon – they are expressive, joyful and open. In problematic years like 2017, when we had variable flowering and inconsistent fruit set, we end up with darker, more tense and dramatic wines. I once showed the 2016 and 2017 side by side. All the consumers preferred the 2016, all the winemakers and critics the 2017. I asked one revered winemaker why: “Because I can taste your pain in it.” How’s that for an answer! It’s the difference between The Beatles and Beethoven, at his most melancholic.

How is the climate changing in

South Island generally?

It is changing; our long-term average date markers are all creeping in, and whilst that is very concerning in the medium term, it’s slow and manageable for now. What is highly problematic, however, are random events at wacky times, and event intensity. For example, in mid to late spring we have a lot of lovely yet fragile new green shoots and canopy development. For three years in a row at around 4.30pm on certain days, and out of nowhere, we have had severe and short-lived gales pound the vineyard. The first time it happened we lost about 20% of our new shoots in exposed blocks, meaning 20% less fruit in that block that season. We now do our first wire lift two weeks earlier to support the shoots. It mitigates losses, but doesn't eliminate them. We are getting more extremely hot days, which isn’t really a problem as Pinot plants hate that and just shut down for the afternoon, but also much more intense frosts at odd and dangerous times.

Is there any likelihood of your love affair with Pinot Noir fading?

We’re married with kids now. That seems to change things, doesn’t it?

Austrian Wine Tasting

Around 100 wineries will be represented at this year’s event, which features some 600 wines.

To request a place email markets@ austrianwine.com.

Tuesday, February 25

Science Museum

Illuminate 5th Floor

Imperial College Road

London SW7 2DD

Cachet Wine

Portfolio Tasting

The Cachet team will be pouring a selection from the portfolio including value wines from the Languedoc

and Georgian Saperavi from Giorgi Solomnishvili.

For more information and to register, contact david.archibald@cachetwine.co.uk.

Monday, March 3

Cellar Door

Wyke Way, Melton East Yorkshire HU14 3BQ

Alliance Wine Portfolio Tastings

The London and Edinburgh events will celebrate the recent acquisition of oldworld specialist H2Vin.

More than 450 wines from nearly 100 producers – over 50 of whom will be in attendance – will be on taste.

Scan the QR code on page 19 to register for either the Edinburgh or London tastings.

Monday, March 3

Mansfield Traquair 15 Mansfield Place

Edinburgh EH3 6BB

Tuesday, March 4

St Mary’s Marylebone

Wyndham Place, York Street London W1H 1PQ

Jascots Portfolio Tasting

More than 200 wines will be on display at this year’s event, with a focus on what Jascots describes as “regional hero” producers.

The Jascots portfolio includes names such as Wakefield Wines, Schloss Johannisberg, Mar de Frades, Bolney Wine Estate, Garage Wine Co and Prophet’s Rock.

To register email marketing@jascots.co.uk.

Monday, March 3

The View, Royal College of Surgeons

38-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields

London WC2A 3PE

Welsh Wine Showcase Tasting

Taste the award-winning wines of vineyards across Wales showcasing new releases and the latest vintages.

Register by emailing lauren.smith@ levercliff.co.uk.

Monday, March 3

67 Pall Mall

London SW1Y 5ES

Vines growing near Vienna – taste some of the wines on February 25

Mentzendorff Portfolio Tasting

All of Mentzendorff’s producers will travel to London for its annual tasting. These include Champagne Bollinger, Taylor’s port, Delamain Cognac, Hamilton Russell Vineyards and Bodegas Roda, among many others.

There will be three masterclasses hosted through the day:

• Champagne AYALA – The Expertise & Excellence of Chardonnay, presented by Hadrien Mouflard (10.30am-11.15am);

• Spottswoode Winery – Four Decades of Environmental Leadership (11.45am12.30pm);

• Ponzi Vineyards – subject to be confirmed (2.45pm-3.30pm).

To register, contact annaw@ mentzendorff.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 4

One Great George Street

London SW1P 3AA

Pol Roger

Portfolio Tastings

For the first time since 2019, Pol Roger Portfolio will be hosting a tasting of all

the wines in its range of family-owned producers.

The agency house, founded 35 years ago by Champagne Pol Roger to import its wines to the UK, will be pouring a number of premium fine wines and spirits.

To register contact events@ polroger.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 4

Tate Modern Levels 8 & 9

Blavatnik Entrance London SE1 9TG

Thursday, March 6

Private White VC 1 Cottenham Lane Salford Manchester M3 7LJ

Alpi Portfolio

Tasting

London-based importer Passione Vino brings together winemakers from all the regions touched by the Alps: Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, Liguria, Lombardia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto

and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

This event offers a chance to taste and explore the landscapes, traditions and craftsmanship of the Alpine wine region with many of the winemakers in attendance.

Email stefano@passionevino.co.uk.

Monday, March 10

St Leonard’s Church 74-76 Leonard Street London EC2A 4QS

Dirty Dozen

Tasting

This year sees the introduction of four fresh faces to the importer line-up, with Newcomer Wines, Modal Wines, Theatre of Wine and Vin de Vie joining the collective.

Pouring alongside them will be Clark Foyster, Howard Ripley, FortyFive10, Raymond Reynolds, Swig, Top Selection, Yapp Bros and The Wine Treasury. Registration can be requested by emailing dirtydozentasting.com.

Tuesday, March 11

St Mary’s Marylebone Wyndham Place, York Street

London W1H 1PQ

Vines in the Ligurian Alps

Maisons Marques et Domaines

Portfolio Tasting

MMD hosts its annual portfolio tasting with all its producers represented.

Highlights include a Domaines Ott masterclass exploring the ageability of its premium Provence wines.

For more information and to register, contact jamie. patterson@mmdltd.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 11

The View

The Royal College of Surgeons

38-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London WC2A 3PE

Armit Wines

Portfolio Tasting

This event highlights Armit’s portfolio from Italy and regions beyond, including Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Ribera del Duero, New Zealand, California and Oregon.

Established producers from the portfolio will be returning, including Tenuta San Guido, Bruno Giacosa and Roagna, alongside rising stars Pian dell’Orino, Vini Noüe-Marinič and Bodega Alegre Valgañon.

Highlights include two masterclass tastings, one of which will celebrate 40 years of Querciabella’s signature cuvée, Camartina.

Register by emailing events@ armitwines.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 11

One Great George Street London SW1P 3AA

Northern Lights Tasting

This annual tasting promises to be bigger and better than ever at a new venue and featuring a diverse selection of wines.

Richmond Wine Agencies, Delibo, Ucopia, North South, Gonzalez Byass and Marta Vine will be attending, along with Fells and Mentzendorff which are part of the action for the first time.

To register, contact julia@ richmondwineagencies.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 18

The Northern Ballet 2 St Cecilia Street

Quarry Hill

Leeds LS2 7PA

Thorman Hunt Portfolio Tasting

Ellis Wines Spring Tasting

New additions and firm favourites are promised at this London event.

Registered attendees will receive updates by email on what they can expect to find on the day.

Email info@ellis-wines.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 18

Camino King’s Cross 3 Varnishers Yard

Regent Quarter

London N1 9FD

The tasting will showcase more than 400 wines and spirits produced by family growers from England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Lebanon, California and Argentina. Highlights include new listing Quinta de la Rosa, Lyrarakis, Brumont, Paul Dethune, Nathalie et Gilles Fevre, Vieux Télégraphe, Bruno Sorg, Tentenublo, Talley Wines, Argiano, Durigutti, Le Soula, Jean Luc Jamet and Vincent Girardin, whose winemaker Eric Germain is pictured. Contact lucy@thormanhunt.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 18

Merchant Taylor’s Hall

30 Threadneedle Street

London EC2R 8JB

Villa Bogdano 1880: Tocai Friulano Masterclass

A masterclass tasting hosted by Sarah Abbott MW and Domenico Veronese (pictured) focusing on “Unlocking Tocai Friulano’s Potential”.

Guests will taste the bottling of a microvinification from 117 ancient vines, which produced only 300 bottles and 11 magnums in the 2020 vintage.

It marks the beginning of a broader project to study how old vines and specific terroir are reflected in a wine’s profile. Contact belinda@swirlwinegroup.com.

Monday, March 24

67 Pall Mall

London SW1Y 5ES

Vindima Tasting

This will be the first collaborative, producer-focused Portuguese trade tasting in London, curated by Raymond Reynolds and Festa Wine.

Vindima 2025 will bring together 45 family-owned and run producers and winemakers stretching from mainland Portugal to the Azores and Madeira.

Email vindimaldn@gmail.com to register.

Monday, March 24

Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Street

London WC1R 4RL

Daniel Lambert

Wines Tastings

Highlights this year include the launch of Early Mountain Vineyards, the regional flagship winery from Virginia, USA, imported by Daniel Lambert Wines for the first time.

For more information and to register contact helen@daniellambert.wine.

Monday, March 24

Cheval The Edinburgh Grand 42 St Andrews Square

Edinburgh EH2 2AD

Wednesday, March 26

Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

Broad Street

Bristol BS1 2EL

Zonini 1821 UK Portfolio Tasting

Join the Zonini team for a day of tasting wines produced from the family’s Italian estates.

The line-up also includes wines from Italy, France, Spain, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand exclusively distributed by the company in the UK. Contact massimo.pighin@zonin1821. com.

Tuesday, March 25

Haberdashers’ Hall

18 West Smithfield

London EC1A 9HX

Vindependents Spring Portfolio Tasting

With 20 producers attending and 300 wines on show, the Vindependents tasting offers the opportunity for members, and those considering joining the nationwide grouping of indies, to try its range of wines.

This event features best-sellers as well as wine from new producers.

For more details and to register, email louise@vindependents.co.uk.

Tuesday, March 25

Cecil Sharpe House 2 Regents Park Road

London NW1 7AY

A volcanic vineyard on Pico Island in the Azores. Explore wines from this kind of terroir on March 24

MICHAEL WALKER

The Narrow Corner

When Austria came to Edinburgh: my day of Grüner and Riesling immersion

The view from the rooftop terrace above the National Museum of Scotland is special. Within throwing distance to the west is Greyfriars Kirkyard, whose green lawns and sandy-coloured church stand out among the dark and gloomy buildings of Edinburgh’s Old Town. To the north, the famous castle sits on its rocky perch like a sentry, and you can make out tiny figures on the esplanade preparing to head through the dark arch and into its precincts.

Towards the end of the year, I had the chance to enjoy this fine prospect thanks to my interest in Austrian wine. Before Covid, I had been to one previous masterclass in this splendid venue, when attendees were given the opportunity to taste 30 wines from Ribera del Duero. Twentynine were full-throttle reds, showcasing the tannic delights of Tinta del País. (A friend commented afterwards that he at last understood the meaning of the term palate fatigue.) A solitary rosado served as an exception. It reminded me of the time I went to a wine tasting in Gigondas, where the rosés seemed an afterthought, almost an embarrassment.

No whites were available at either of those tastings, but they were very much the showstoppers at the Austrian wine event in Edinburgh. One of the best was a Riesling from the noted vineyard of Achleiten in Wachau (Domäne Wachau, Riesling Smaragd Ried Achleiten 2021), where vines are planted on terraces above

the Danube.

Riesling is, perhaps surprisingly, a bit player in Austria, accounting for under 5% of the total vineyard area. It is reserved for stony soils which don’t suit Grüner Veltliner. As this Smaragd showed, however, it can be seriously good, and the best have the potential to last 50 years. I suggested to our host, a Master of Wine, that it had a late harvest character. She did not agree! According to her, it bore the hallmark apricot flavour of Wachau

and, upon retrying the wine, I had to acknowledge that she was absolutely right. While I drink more red than white wine, my preference is beginning to swing the other way. So I was excited to try a Gemischter Satz at the masterclass (Christ, Bisamberg Wiener Gemischter Satz 2023), for I don’t think I’d ever had this Viennese specialty before. A field blend comprising many grapes, the aroma brought to mind a chewing gum I used to have on holiday in the south of France when I was a boy (my father would only go on holiday in France). I think it was the peach variety, but I could well be wrong, given that several decades have elapsed since then. At any rate, the wine was genuinely full-bodied and delicious.

Needless to say, the heavy hitter of Austrian wine is Grüner Veltliner, which occupies about a third of the country’s vineyard area. We tasted three of those and one, made from grapes grown in Kremstal, where the loess soils are particularly well-suited to the grape, was spectacular (Wess, Krems Alte Reben Grüner Veltliner 2022). It is made using old vines (“alte reben”), some of which were planted more than 100 years ago.

There was also a lovely oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc (Neumeister, Vulkanland Steiermark Sauvignon Blanc, Grosse STK Ried Moarfeitl 2017) from the southern region of Styria, the “green heart of Austria”, according to the MW. Here grapes are grown at altitude and the climate is marginal; it gives the lie to the claim that Sauvignon is not suitable for ageing.

A field blend comprising many grapes brought to mind a chewing gum I used to have on holiday in the south of France

The one sparkling wine we sampled, a dry pét nat from a producer in Burgenland on the Hungarian border (Pittnauer, Pitt Nat Blanc 2022), proved controversial. My friend and colleague was of the view that it smelled “like industrial waste”, and he considered the palate to be only “marginally better”. The Master of Wine felt it had a “yeasty, earthy” character. I agreed that it was very aromatic – but in a good way.

Michael Walker is part of the team at Vino in Edinburgh

Vineyards in Wachau

AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL

28 Recreation Ground Road

Stamford Lincolnshire PE9 1EW 01780 755810

orders@abs.wine www.abs.wine @ABSWines

VISIT ABS AT SITT SPRING 2025

MANCHESTER

Monday 24th February • 10:30-17:00 etc. venues, 11 Portland Street, M1 3HU

LONDON

Wednesday 26th February • 10:30-17:00

The Royal Horticultural Halls, The Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PB

Come and see ABS at SITT Spring, we will be showcasing wines from Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Germany, South Africa and USA. Contact your account manager for more details.

Greywacke’s 2024 Sauvignon Blanc is here!

Greywacke was founded in 2009 by Kevin Judd, an early pioneer in Marlborough who helped put this small region on the world wine map. Aided by winemaker Richelle Tyney and his son Alex, today Kevin makes some of New Zealand’s most sought-after wines from sustainably managed vineyards with Appellation Marlborough Wine status.

2024 was a vintage where hard work was rewarded. The Greywacke team tackled spring frost and summer drought to coax the grapes through to the “superb, near-perfect” harvest. Their Sauvignon Blanc hails from several prime sites in the Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains (specifically Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura). After harvesting at night to help preserve the variety’s delicate aromatics, the fruit from each vineyard was fermented separately in stainless steel then lees aged in tank before blending. Displaying impressive structure and depth, it is an elegant Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, with the “volume turned down a notch”, say Greywacke.

The new 2023 vintage of Greywacke’s signature Wild Sauvignon is also available. This alternative “hands-off” style is fermented using indigenous yeast in French oak barriques – a small percentage being new – for well over six months. The wine has occasional lees stirring and two-thirds undergoes malolactic fermentation, before being transferred to stainless steel, where it remains on lees for a further six months prior to bottling. It is a process that rewards patience, resulting in a distinctive, textured white of considerable complexity and opulence.

020 7381 7870 sales@robersonwine.com robersonwinetrade

hatchmansfield YOUTUBE hatchmansfielduk � Hatch Mansfield

mentzendorff

The Woolyard 52 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD

020 7840 3600

info@mentzendorff.co.uk

www.mentzendorff.co.uk

Mentzendorff is delighted to announce the recent addition of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery one of Napa Valley’s most legendary wineries, to its portfolio from January 2025. Discover the range at the Mentzendorff Portfolio Tasting on Tuesday 4th March

Scan QR code to register now

richmond wine agencies

The Links, Popham Close Hanworth TW13 6JE 020 8744 5550

Mark Isham, south & London: mark@richmondwineagencies.com

Julia Langshaw, north of the UK: julia@richmondwineagencies.com

Tim Hawtin, south west & London: tim@richmondwineagencies.com

buckingham schenk

Unit 5, The E Centre

Easthampstead Road

Bracknell RG12 1NF

01753 521336

info@buckingham-schenk.co.uk www.buckingham-schenk.co.uk

@BuckSchenk

@buckinghamschenk

te Pā Reserve Collection

Based in the Marlborough Region, te Pā has a history stemming back almost 800 years. Set up by the MacDonald family whose Māori lineage goes back to 1350, the te Pā estate spreads over 400Ha of vineyards in Marlborough’s Wairau and Awatere regions.

Introducing the te Pā reserve collection to the UK, this range of unique wines is a showcase of the best terroirs within the region growing Sauvignon blanc, a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

walker & Wodehouse

109a Regents Park Road

London NW1 8UR

0207 449 1665

orders@walkerwodehousewines.com www.walkerwodehousewines.com

@WalkerWodehouse

Walker & Wodehouse are delighted to welcome Grand Tokaj. A flagship producer in the Tokaj region, Grand Tokaj was founded by the state in 1948 and is now owned by the Tokaj-Hegyalja University.

Led by celebrated winemaker Károly Áts, their portfolio includes dry wines through to traditional sweet Tokaj that the region is famous for. Grand Tokaj cultivate their own 67h of vineyards – historical first class terroirs since 1730 – for their top wines, alongside working with trusted growers from over 600ha vineyards across the region.

For more information, please contact your account manager

Grand Tokaj joins Walker & Wodehouse

Fells

Fells House, Station Road

Kings Langley WD4 8LH

01442 870 900

For more details about these wines and other wines from our awardwinning portfolio from some of the world’s leading wine producing families contact:

info@fells.co.uk www.fells.co.uk

@FellsWine

je_fells

LOUIS LATOUR AGENCIES

12-14 Denman Street

London W1D 7HJ

0207 409 7276

enquiries@louislatour.co.uk www.louislatour.co.uk

@louislatouruk

Château Sainte Roseline is a renowned winery located in the heart of Provence, France.

Established in the 14th century, it has a rich history of winemaking, blending tradition with innovation.

The estate spans over 130 hectares of vineyards, primarily producing high-quality organic rosé, red, and white wines. Known for its beautiful terroir and Mediterranean climate, the winery produces wines with a distinct character and elegance.

Château Sainte Roseline also boasts a stunning chapel, adding to its cultural heritage. The estate's commitment to sustainable viticulture ensures that every bottle reflects the essence of Provence’s natural beauty and craftsmanship.

For more information, please contact sales@ louislatour.co.uk or scan the QR code.

Château Sainte Roseline

delibo wine agencies

The Old Pigsty, Rose Cottage Church Hanborough OX29 8AA 01993 886644

orders@delibo.co.uk www.delibo.co.uk

Sustainable wines from Austria

Matthias Bauer is the proud fifth generation winemaker of the Emil Bauer estate, which was established in 1840 in the hamlet of Ottenthal, an hour north-west of Vienna.

Committed to indigenous grape varieties, Matthias carefully nurtures his 14 hectares under vine and we are delighted that he will be joining us at SITT in London on 26th February. Bis dann!

vintner systems

The computer system for drinks trade wholesalers and importers 16 Station Road Chesham HP5 1DH

sales@vintner.co.uk www.vintner.co.uk

hallgarten wines

Mulberry House

Parkland Square

750 Capability Green

Luton LU1 3LU

01582 722 538

sales@hnwines.co.uk www.hnwines.co.uk

@hnwines

top selection

23 Cellini Street

London SW8 2LF

www.topselection.co.uk

info@topselection.co.uk

Contact: Alastair Moss

Telephone: 020 3958 0744

@topselectionwines

@tswine

Looking to strengthen your German o ering? Then Nik Weis wines should be on your radar!

Nik Weis and his family have been practicing sustainable viticulture for generations in the Mosel and Saar valleys. Today, the estate covers 40h and owns vineyards in 5 VDP Grosse Lagen (Grand Cru) vineyards. Among these are famous sites such as Ockfener Bockstein, Leiwener Laurentiuslay and Piesporter Goldtröpfchen.

“It’s all about single sites and even single parcels within them...above all, it’s about old vines.“

Nik Weis

“Drinking terrific wines and eating good food is surely what life is all about”

Brett Fleming, MD, Armit Wines

Brett was born in New Zealand, where he trained as a winemaker before moving to Europe, principally France, to continue his career. He then moved into commercial roles with various wine companies before taking the helm at Armit Wines in 2019.

What’s the first wine you remember drinking?

I was lucky, the wine trade found me when I fell into a role at Nobilo in West Auckland. I had never really drunk wine before and Nick Nobilo was instrumental in teaching me the basics of wine. Müller-Thurgau, if I recall, was the poison of choice. On arriving into the UK in the mid 80s I worked at Hedges & Butler. I remember being allowed to take home a half-empty bottle of Le Montrachet ’59 from Bouchard Père et Fils. My boss at the time was a chap called Jeff Seamon and he was always letting staff take the half-empty bottles home from tastings. It was life changing in setting me on a course that has defined my career.

What job would you be doing if you weren’t in the wine trade?

Either music, cooking or golf. As I cannot sing at all that kind of killed off any ambition there. Whilst I love to cook, I am by no means a pro. However I do often think what I would have done if I had followed that path. The work involved in running a successful restaurant is extraordinary. If you played golf with me you would see why this is a non-starter.

How do you relax?

Golf. Despite it being incredibly frustrating I do relax when I play. Cooking for friends is also a key relaxing activity. Mainly because we then drink terrific wines, eat reasonable food and have a good time, which surely is what life is all about.

The best book you’ve read recently?

Shantaram by Gregory Roberts. A terrific book and I couldn’t put it down. Depicting a low-life out of Australia – a convicted bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from prison and makes his way to Bombay.

Do you have any sporting loyalties?

For some strange reason I am a fan of the English cricket team. I was fortunate to be able to sponsor two ex-England cricketers, Jason Gallian and the King of Spain, spinner Ashley Giles, and got hooked as a result. And, of course, as a Kiwi, the All Blacks. We were robbed in the last World Cup!

Who’s your favourite music artist?

I’m a fan of artists like Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers and crooners like Crosby, Sinatra, Nat King Cole etc. Embarrassingly I’m a huge disco fan. Jackson 5, Weather Girls, Bee Gees … love it. All those strings, brass and rhythm … makes you want to get up and dance, much to the horror of my sons.

Any superstitions?

Not really. I think you get what you deserve in this world based on how you behave

and treat others. You never get it right and always fall down, but being superstitious means you are allowing chance to dictate events, and I refuse to allow this.

Who’s your favourite wine critic?

One has to admire the likes of Jancis Robinson for all she has contributed to the industry, and Jane MacQuitty. I have also always admired Matthew Jukes for his focus and forthright views.

What’s your most treasured possession?

I’m not really materialistic apart, I suppose, from my wine collection. Probably my marriage certificate. For my wife to agree to marry me is remarkable and I have the certificate to prove it!

What’s your proudest moment?

The birth of my two children. Soppy answer but let’s be honest, what else can possibly top that?

What’s your biggest regret?

I don’t really have any as to try and fail is better than not trying at all.

Who’s your hero?

I’ve always admired Rishard Branson for his love and zest for life, and entrepreneurial attitude. He recognises his own failures and places others around him who are better at doing a specific task than he is. He never strikes me as being moneyfocused, just successful, and hungry for living life to the full. I’m not sure “hero” fits but certainly I admire him and I guess am envious in a good way. Also my best mate Nicolas Marlow who lives in Sydney. A true hero mate of mine.

Any hidden talents?

I can eat an entire packets of biscuits without my wife finding out, and this extends to sausage in batter on my drive home. The secret is out now though!

What’s your favourite place in the UK?

At home with my wife. I travelled extensively for years, and nothing is like coming home. My place in summer, barbecue, wine, friends, family and long weekends. It’s not the place that makes it, it’s the people.

If we could grant you one wish, what would it be?

Stop ageing so fast. Oh, and an unlimited allocation of Cru Barolo.