30 minute read
wine freedom
Alan Irvine, Milngavie, May 2021
Wine Freedom had been going for four years when Sam Olive took the plunge with its first premises, a century-old warehouse in an industrial suburb of Birmingham, once owned by Bird’s Custard. Covid threatened to derail the company’s ambitions, but as life slowly returns to normal, the venue’s future looks bright
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There’s an inner-city grittiness to Digbeth, with its factory and warehouse buildings in varying states of disrepair, renovation or graffiti adornment. But it’s only a short hop from the main shopping district of Birmingham, a city whose self-confidence has boomed in direct proportion to the investment that has poured in over recent years.
Wine Freedom’s unit dates from the very early 20th century. “It was part of the Bird’s Custard factory estate,” says owner Sam Olive. “Our landlords own about 17 acres worth of Digbeth including pretty much the whole of the old custard factory estate, which equates to about 25% of those 17 acres. We’ve taken on an old building built by a local engineer called William J Wild and we have his name above the shutter.
“There’s not much to it and it costs quite a bit of money to keep it warm in winter. But it means we can have people in the building comfortably.
“We were open about seven weeks between both [2020] lockdowns and it was an opportunity to show people what it was like. We had fantastic feedback from customers saying they felt safe.
“We have a nice big airy interesting venue and we are selling online to the trade and retail, as well as doing tastings and we have a bar set-up. So it’s a multichannel business.”
Wine Freedom started out six years ago, after Olive finished a five-year stint with Bibendum.
“Initially it was a B2C business starting with the wine club because we had some fairly solid contacts and a small customer base,” he says.
Custard dreams
“I started to try and raise the profile of the business predominantly online and on social media, and a lot of the trade customers I was working with previously started to come out of the woodwork.
“I realised there was a bit of an opportunity in focusing on good quality handmade organic and natural wines, as that was a USP in Birmingham, or the whole of the Midlands really. There wasn’t really anyone else focusing on that side of the industry.”
What prompted you to take the business into its current orbit?
I’ve got quite a creative background and I understand that connecting wine education, which is a real passion of mine, with creative elements is something which is really beneficial to consumers. So the idea was to create a platform, hence this new venue, where we could do wine events and wine education.
We took on the lease about two years ago. I was a little bit reticent – worried, actually – about taking on a load of new overheads, rent and new members of staff until we were fairly sure we could carve an avenue out of lockdown.
What was the initial effect on the business after the Covid outbreak?
In February-March last year it looked very rosy for the B2B side of the business. We had lots of new trade customers coming on and a big amount of growth planned, and then lockdown hit.
We were faced with the very tricky situation where we had a lot more stock, nowhere for it to go because all our trade customers had closed, and a new venue which would be very difficult to get out of, so we just had to pedal pretty hard. All the consumer contacts we had, which were friends and family, we approached and said, can you buy some wine, please?
The website only had a holding page, so we had to fast-track that and we launched online at the end of May last year, which was a godsend really. It wasn’t the best website but it meant we could launch our brand and get something presentable out there.
Like a lot of indies, deliveries became an important revenue stream for you.
We had a lot of wine in keg because we had prospective business with the NEC and other customers. I’d had this idea of “house wine” kicking around for a couple of years. I put it all together and thought. we could bottle this stuff and have a kind of a milkman service and deliver it all around Birmingham.
We set up a subscription service just before Christmas and it worked really well. We created a new sub-brand called House Wine and it’s still going even though we’ve come out of lockdown. We still have about 60 subscribers and the feedback has been fantastic.
It’s been an opportunity to do more video content as well. The idea was, rather than loads of wine notes and photos of the winemaker, the customer would get a video of me doing an introduction for the four wines. It keeps things nice and personal as well as us being able to introduce the context of our venue.
Continues page 28
From page 27
Talk us through the aesthetics of the venue. You’ve gone big on pallets.
We were working with an architect and a friend of ours is a great joiner and he came up with some pretty cool ideas. The set-up fee would have been about £70,000£90,000 and I just wasn’t prepared to do that – it was too much of an expense.
We had to be resourceful. I did an interior architecture degree so I know a bit about spatial planning. I thought, how do we create a space that feels comfortable and has some intimacy to it as well, but do it on the cheap? How do we create something that is flexible so that when we do start adding bits to it, we can move things around?
So we started looking at ideas with pallets. The plants are a natural green backdrop and help to give it a more natural setting. There’s an element of value to having greenery in the space.
We did engage our joiner friend, on a much-reduced budget, to create a retail area, and work on dividing the space up. We wanted the customers to feel comfortable.
I’m a bit fastidious with the way things are presented, so even though we have pallets and there’s the fairly gritty backdrop of the warehouse, we have some clean lines and a fresh white palette which sets off the more rustic elements.
When customers come in it’s a relaxed aesthetic but we have a team who have been trained in Michelin-starred restaurants so you get a really nice glass and an interaction and conversation that is proper hospitality.
Digbeth is surprisingly close to the city centre. Does it feel that way?
The estate has a long way to go in terms of encouraging more footfall from the city centre. But there are some big plans. The estate which owns our building has been given planning permission for a regeneration project so there will be some upheaval in the next seven years or so, but there is more residential planned.
There is HS2, which is on the Digbeth side of the city. The construction for that station started a couple of years ago. A lot of the commerce and new construction for the city is going to be geared towards the south east end as opposed to the north west end. Digbeth will be the place to be in the next 10 years or so and we thought, let’s build a brand now in a unit that’s reasonably priced.
Digbeth is a destination spot. You have to have a specific reason to be there. a team of 12. The majority of those are casual … we have four full-timers. It seems to work quite well.
We’ve got a great GM, Dan Bennett, and because of the dearth of hospitality staff at the moment, he has had many, many job offers on the table. Luckily he really enjoys working with us, so he wanted to stay.
I think because we have such a diversity of roles within the business it’s a great place to be if you want to learn rapidly about how a business works from both the front and back end.
What’s the shareholding structure?
Most of it has been investment from myself. The venue is a limited company and we have another limited company for the online and the events side of things,
How do your sales break down between trade, retail, and so on?
It’s 65% trade and 35% what I would call B2C, so online, retail and in the venue. The idea is to keep that split over the next two years or so.
There are a lot of new restaurants and new business venues now in Birmingham. Off the back of the pandemic, we see a lot of businesses closing, but it’s a lot of the national and multinational businesses that are going to struggle with the big heavy rents they have in the middle of the city. We work with the independents who operate in the more satellite areas around the city centre.
How big is your team?
It’s really just me heading up the trade side of things at the moment and Taylor [Meanwell] looks after the venue. We have and a limited company for the trade side of things. It means the different streams can be protected as we grow and allow for future investment.
When we are in a position to take on further investment for online it makes things cleaner and more simple. So we’ve carved it up into limited companies and it works quite well.
It’s about time we talked about wine.
Everyone wants an authentic experience when they open a bottle of wine. We cut the crap and do proper wine that is made sensitively and farmed from good quality vineyards.
We educate in a language that our customers understand which helps us connect them to the taste of the grape
From page 28
in the vineyard. It means our customers become more wine savvy.
Does it matter if the wines aren’t officially certified as organic?
No. The terminology behind natural wine is quite a difficult subject and it’s a bit of a minefield for the industry so for the consumer it’s even more complicated.
The majority of consumers don’t understand what organic is, and if you don’t understand that, you can’t talk from the perspective of organic. You’d be really surprised but lots of people don’t know what sustainable means either.
Using the word natural as an operative term is a lot more useful and understandable for most consumers. You have to put the language in consumer terms. We use the word natural perhaps a bit more freely than other merchants and wholesalers because it makes more sense
to our customers.
Once you have them in an educational environment, whether it’s a tasting or an event, you can start to pick apart the differences between how different wines are made and how they are classified. The majority aren’t classified. It’s up to us as a business to try and choose the wines we feel represent the best of a grape variety and a region.
Which suppliers do you work with?
Les Caves de Pyrene, Indigo, Swig, Basket Press and Carte Blanche, amongst others. We have a wide range of different winemakers. We will, in the next 12 months, start importing our own wines as well.
How will you find those wines?
I’m very confident with the quality of wines from certain winemakers, so I already have a shortlist of makers and consultants we want to work with.
I have a friend who has been shipping wine for a few years and he is particularly good at sourcing really good quality, accessible, natural wines that aren’t too expensive. If you’re going to start importing you need some products that are good on price but still deliver on the quality and values we need.
Do you worry about inconsistencies between bottles of natural wine?
We don’t like wines like that. If we’re not
comfortable putting them in front of our customers then we don’t have them.
A lot of people don’t like those crazy, weird and funky flavours. Some do, but the majority don’t. So it’s up to us to choose wines that our customers will like. We have had to send some wines back; they ended up being a bit mousey. You can’t serve them to a customer. I went to the first natural wine fair that Doug [Wregg] and Isabelle [Legeron] put on about 10 years ago before it split off into Raw and the Real Wine Fair. Quite a lot of the wines were faulty and I was really sad about it.
The penny dropped that something wasn’t quite right even though the intentions were good and the philosophy was there.
Do you think the quality of natural wines has improved since then?
Over the last 10 years or so I have followed many different winemakers and tasted their wines and they’ve got better.
Some of them have started to understand that some of their wines don’t taste as good in the UK as they do in the winery. So how do we bridge that gap? Les Caves as an importer has looked at this very seriously and tried to make sure their wines are temperature controlled and that variation from source to consumer is more stable.
There are problems once the wine has been bottled. How does the retailer keep it and for how long? How aggressive was the journey from A, B, C and D? What temperature is it kept at?
Even if it’s mass-produced, wine is a sensitive product – and natural wine is even more sensitive. One wine we get from Carte Blanche is one of my favourites. Fabien Jouves makes wine in Cahors and every year you can tell they get slightly better, slightly fresher. He’ll come to the UK and he’ll taste his wines in situ and he’ll take feedback and learn from it.
Tell us about your keg wines.
I really see the value of KeyKeg, especially with natural wine, because it’s a very stable environment and it cuts out a lot of the potential issues and problems you have with shipping wine in bottle.
There are some problems that might occur but, because it’s a much more reductive, stable environment, when it comes out the tap it’s much fresher. It’s cheaper and much better for the environment, so it’s a real win-win.
We’ve got eight KeyKegs and will likely increase that to another four to six over the
next year or so.
Every month we have four new wines we present to our House Wine subscribers. The guys in the bar have their favourites now so we want to keep a few of those on.
There are a few venues around town that do wine from keg, some of whom we supply, like the guys at Grace & James. We work with Rupert [Taylor] and the guys at Uncharted and we act as a kind of regional wholesaler for them.
Is there anywhere in the world you find particularly exciting for winemaking? Where would you like to visit?
I would love to go to Georgia, purely from a historical winemaking perspective. I nearly jumped on a trip a couple of years ago.
I think Greece as a country with all of its islands is fairly untapped and there’s more potential there. There is still more quality stuff to come from Spain.
I’d like to go back to New Zealand. I was there with my wife about 15 years ago. I’d like to see how the industry has evolved and changed there. The natural wine side of things is starting to take off.
What’s next for the business?
It’s education – that’s going to be the core driver for us. It will be how we build the business for the future. You get business off the back of educating people. With trade, you speak to chefs and say, if you’re bothered about what goes on the plate, you should care what is going in the glass.
We have a customer base that is really thirsty to learn more. The venue will allow us to put on various different educational experiences; tastings or big wine parties for 150 people. We’re not going to do the wine parties soon because we are conscious we need to keep things safe.
We need to get better at building the educational things online. We want to build products in Birmingham that are interesting, compelling and scalable that we can put out to the wider national market.
Pallets were a lower-cost alternative than the first design, but still required a joiner’s expertise
In the land before Wine, in the cold bleach smell of Cheesetime, I had a serious sandwich habit. The daily sandwich was a “Clatty Pat”, the affectionate nickname of the niteclub across the road, Cleopatra’s, the Last Resort, which had a giant ballet mirror and barre and no clientele except on doctors and nurses night, meaning that post-Cheese, post-pints-with-fags-indoors (lest we forget), we would leap our not inconsiderable monger-heft through the disco lights and dry ice. The amazing restorative next-day sandwich was toasted ciabatta, smoked melted cheese, ham, coleslaw (plus kiwi-lime Snapple). Now that coleslaw has been infected by the Turnip Spectre I can no longer have it. That and Cappuccino’s – that mecca of the sandwich; the Dan’s Choice, the Champion, the Mega Melt – has itself melted into some shitty sitty roasty avocadoey place. Everything is in a constant state of flux, aye, sure. But not Cappuccino’s, surely. Is nothing sacred?
No, I am not a sandwicher now but I really put in the legwork in my hungover 20s. And early 30s, OK, you got me. The “Shredder” from Rottencake: sourdough baguette (topped with Razordough fins), Milano salami, grated Comte, tarragon mayo. There were joyous times when Rottencake have brought us bags full of end-of-day sandwiches, which are surprisingly good resurrected by microwave on the third day, when all the fat comes pooling out, easing the effect of the Razordough.
In my pre-salad days, which, confusingly, were my salad days, many Amazing Lunches were Amazing Caesar Wraps. Here I offer my ranking. Bottom, service station Ginsters: ratio of wrap-to-interior all wrong and, frankly, interior all wrong. Top comes somewhat predictably Waitrose (generous Grana Padano use) equal with the progenitor of Caesar wraps: Tesco’s, the daily wrap from the summer of ’99 when I was counter-intuitively filling my sixth-form sketchbooks with the thoughts which (hadn’t) gone into making my Sound and Fury graffito triptych. Tomato tortilla, generous garlic mayo splurge, some kind of white fibrous chicken breast approximation with a couple of Marlboro Lights chaser on the Castle Sands (cigarettes also taste like turnips now, go figure, another occasional pleasure ripped from my crooked, ageing hands). Laurie had one of these yesterday (the wrap, not the tabs) and attests to its continued excellence.
There was The Big Piece, of course – a daily 2x1 metre sandwich that you got a “piece” of, with “piece” also, in the Glasgow vernacular, meaning sandwich, dig? – cooked up from the brain of that coked-up genius in Partick. The filling changed daily with what was going out of date from the deli-counter but was at its best when the open textured bread soaked up the fantastically cost-inefficient fresh pesto or eye-wateringly expensive Brie de Meaux. I remember there once being a lobster mayo Big Piece, but that whole time’s a bit of a blur, tbh. Well, OK. I make one annual sandwich now. The coup de grace. The sandwich to end all sandwiches.
Scooped out sourdough. Whole packet of
St Agur coating interior, top and bottom.
Mayonnaise, obvs. Rocket, mandolined red onion, tomato and balsamic salad.
Minute steak. Fried garlic mushrooms.
Completely unwieldy. Amazing. Best served with Riesling.
10. SANDWICH
Phoebe Weller of Valhalla’s Goat in Glasgow recalls her sandwich years and the pre-salad days that turned out to actually be her salad days.
Meet a family that can claim to be true pioneers of the Prosecco category – and are proud to stay faithful to their ideas
Explore the Canella range
Kirsten, left, with co-founder Johan du Toit Prosecco DOC Spumante Extra Dry (20cl/75cl) Made from 100% Glera grapes produced in the high Marca Trevigiana. Fresh, aromatic and fruity, the wine contains 17g/l of residual sugar which is balanced perfectly with its natural acidity. Ideal as an aperitif, but also with light first courses, fish, white meat and fresh cheese.
Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Spumante DOCG Extra Dry Millesimato (20cl/75cl/magnum)
A vintage wine made from the year’s highest quality Glera grapes in the hilly area of Valdobbiadene. The classic style of Prosecco Canella, excellent as an aperitif or with delicate fish dishes.
Lido Prosecco Rosé DOC (20cl/75cl)
New to the range, this blend of 85% Glera and 15% Pinot Noir was inspired by the famous Lido di Venezia. With aromas of cherry, wild berries and delicate flowers, Lido is very food-flexible, and goes particularly well with starters, seafood or white meat.
Rosé Spumante Brut Martinotti (20cl/75cl)
100% Pinot Nero from Alto Adige. A Martinotti method sparkling wine in which the yeasts remain in contact with the wine for more than six months. With a residual sugar of just 8g/l, the wine is characterised by a pale pink colour and a classic bouquet.
Feature sponsored by UK importer Marcato Direct
For more information visit marcatodirect.co.uk, telephone 07900 115372. Visit the Canella website: bellinicanella.com Prosecco’s success story in the UK feels like a relatively modern phenomenon. But for the Canella family, the glory years began in the early 1960s.
As far back as 1947, Luciano Canella was helping his mother Giovanna at their famous country osteria near Venice when he started crafting a light, fruity sparkling wine that quickly became a hit with patrons. Soon word had spread, a proper winery was built, and Canella wines became known far beyond their native region. Various styles were produced, but Prosecco was undoubtedly the star of the show.
Canella has remained a family business ever since, and continues to work with many of its original growers in the famed Valdobbiadene area of the Veneto. Luciano’s grandson, Tommaso Canella, knows the history very well.
He says that the Prosecco grape – now renamed Glera – was “almost unknown” to winemakers when his grandfather encountered it. “He was really one of the first to focus on it, and to think of this wine as a great opportunity for the future,” he says.
Prosecco styles can, of course, differ markedly but Canella has stuck to its guns from the beginning, always preferring a drier style.
“Our Prosecco is made the same way we used to make it back in the 60s,” Tommaso explains. “Our extra dry DOCG Prosecco is our main wine because, according to our philosophy, that’s the best style of Prosecco.”
Some producers have stripped their wines right back to brut nature levels. But Tommaso does not want to go down the same path.
“In Glera we are talking about a grape that is not as rich as a Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, so chemically, when you are losing all the residual sugar, you are losing a lot of flavour,” he says. “We don’t want to lose all that taste – the flowers and the apples and so on.”
Canella is also fastidious about the quality of its bubbles, preferring to keep the fizz at a level that allows easy drinking. No doubt the wines have their place in celebratory occasions, but, like his grandparents before him, Tommaso is keen to produce wines that have everyday appeal and authentic Venetian heritage.
Many of its wines are also available in 20cl bottles, all with faux mushroom stoppers. As well as encouraging impulse purchases in retail settings, these smaller bottles have been a hit in wine bars and restaurants.
The launch of a DOC rosé Prosecco has added another string to Canella’s bow, but this is not a company that believes in innovation for the sake of it. With Prosecco facing commoditisation in some areas of the market, Tommaso believes the long-term future of the business will be secured by focusing on what it always did best in the past: making authentic and consistent Prosecco wines that remain faithful to their original aim of simply giving pleasure.
life’s a peach
If you want an authentic Bellini with a true taste of Venice, anywhere in the world at any time, the Canella family have bottled the secret
The Bellini is the classic cocktail of Venice: a blend of sparkling wine and white peaches that is simple to describe, but hard to get right.
Luciano Canella, who was one of the pioneers of Prosecco back in the 1950s, set about solving two problems. “The Bellini was only available in Venice, and only during the months of July and August, due to the life of the peaches being really short,” explains his grandson Tommaso Canella. “My grandfather’s idea was for people to drink a Bellini from the bottle all year round, and wherever they like.”
The family started to organise its own local peach production, ensuring that it was never short of a reliable supply of healthy, ripe fruit, which was blended with Prosecco and bottled under the brand name Bellini.
The peaches need to be far riper than would be feasible for retail sale. But it’s this soft, sweet juiciness that ensures that Canella’s Bellini requires none of the sweeteners that might be found in other versions of the cocktail.
The only other ingredient is raspberry.
“The raspberries found in Bellini have had the aroma taken out of them, so it’s just the colour matter that goes into the product,” explains Tommaso. “When you mix just the Prosecco and the peach purée, you have a cappuccino colour, so adding the raspberry creates a beautiful pink. Bellini is the name of a painter who used to paint with this kind of pink.”
Canella’s iconic bottled Bellini has become an international success. It’s sold in 20cl bottles as well as the standard 75cl format, making it a good option for impulse sales as well as by-the-glass service.
At just 5% abv, it also chimes in well with growing consumer demand for drinks that don’t pack a big alcoholic punch, especially for occasions like picnics or al fresco lunches.
Feature sponsored by UK importer Marcato Direct
For more information visit marcatodirect.co.uk, telephone 07900 115372. Visit the Canella website: bellinicanella.com
Tommaso recognises that, for some, Bellini has a retro kind of appeal. “The product comes from the imagery of la dolce vita Italiana,” he says. “We’re selling the idea of 1960s Italy, a great period for our country.”
But as a 26-year-old himself, he’s confident that Bellini’s cool branding and authentic flavour credentials resonate with his own peer group, many of whom are fascinated by cocktail culture.
Tommaso says he would “shake the hand” of anyone with access to ingredients as good as his own who could create their own interpretation of a Bellini. But very few consumers are in such a privileged position.
Bellini made its debut in the UK six years ago, when the trade response was cautious. Importer Marcato Direct has brought the product back to market because merchants have been demanding it.
“Worldwide, the consumption of cocktails is growing,” says Tommaso. “We are ready for this because in the little world of premixed products we are by far the better quality one.”
Baron Yukiwa Cocktail Shaker
Get your Tom Cruise on and mix like a pro with this cocktail shaker from Japanese brand Baron Yukiwa. Made from polished steel with distinctive gold coloured bands, this three-piece shaker will be a boost to any mixologist’s credentials. urbanbar.com, £55
Sup Insulated wine bottle and tumbler
Keep drinks at the required temperature while on the go. Pictured is the newly launched colourway, Peacock Galaxy, which has a tinted soft-touch rubber finish. This stylish set will keep wine cold and fresh for up to 24 hours. Made from double-walled insulated stainless steel, the bottles can be used to carry hot drinks too. supdrinkware.com, £39.99 for the set
Advent calendars
What could be better than a chocolate behind each advent door? Alcohol – obviously. These can be ready-filled or customers can select their own cans and bottles to fill the calendar.
The larger 24-bottle advent calendar is designed to take a selection of half- bottles of wine, piccolo bottles and 33cl and 50cl beer bottles, as long as they don’t exceed 73mm in diameter and 245mm in height. The 24-can advent calendar houses 33cl and 40cl cans (max 73mm x 150mm). It also works great with smaller bottles of spirits and pre-mixed cocktails. wbc.co.uk, RRP £13.15 and £12.32 per unit ex VAT respectively. Available from September The Moscow Mule was created in the 1940s to kick-start the career of the vodka behemoth Smirnoff, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a superb, refreshing cocktail for late summer evenings, with a bit of zest, sparkle, sweetness and bite. This twist provides an opportunity to enjoy seasonal fruit alongside other fresh plant ingredients.
6cl good quality vodka (doesn’t have to be Smirnoff) 1.5cl fresh lime juice A dozen-ish raspberries Fresh ginger Ginger beer Fresh basil
Muddle the raspberries in a shaker. Add lots of ice, the vodka and lime juice, and shake like a mad thing. Strain into a copper mug for original recipe authenticity, or a Highball or Collins glass for a more practical solution. Garnish with fresh basil and thin shavings of peeled ginger.
Catching up with Charline Drappier
One of the eighth generation now running the famous family Champagne house, Charline discusses Wine Merchant Top 100 victories for Carte d’Or and Clarevallis, the role of still wines in the range, and why green issues are so important
Congratulations on your success in The Wine Merchant Top 100 this year. Why do you think Carte d’Or Brut was such a hit with our judges?
Carte d’Or has a very singular style and expresses the identity of our house. It combines both the vinosity of the Pinot Noir with the minerality from the Chardonnay, in a very refreshing Champagne. It’s the Champagne my grandparents created, and is still very reflective of our family style, but also has a strong personality because of its high proportion of Pinot Noir. Being quite low in dosage for a brut, it still leaves you with a refreshing finale.
Clarevallis was also a winner. Again, what makes this cuvée special, and has it been doing well in the independent trade?
We are so happy about this win too. It’s a new cuvée, and as such it’s the reflection of the new generation’s taste: my brothers Antoine, Hugo and I. It is quite peculiar because though it’s based on Pinot Noir, it’s a very vibrant and energetic style. It is also made 100% of organic grapes. A process my brother Hugo has been very much involved in.
Tell us something about Trop m’en Faut. What hopes do you have for Coteaux Champenois in the UK trade and what are the challenges of making still wines in your region?
The Coteaux Champenois Trop m’en Faut (100% Fromenteau, aka Pinot Gris) is one of our three new Coteaux Champenois. It has always been a tradition where we are in Urville. We used to make red wine, then “grey wine” (vin gris), long before Champagne as a sparkling wine ever existed. I believe that when picked with the appropriate ripeness, and vinified with precision, Coteaux Champenois can tell a lot about our region, and can provide the curious buyers with an interesting interpretation of our terroir. However, never forgetting our bubbles, we have also released a Trop m’en Faut as a Champagne.
Drappier is famously a family business. Why do you think successive generations have retained their expertise and enthusiasm – and kept the house’s reputation so intact? Not all family businesses are so lucky!
We are very lucky! However, we (the eighth generation) do not feel we have acquired expertise yet; we consider ourselves very lucky to have our grandfather André and our father Michel to guide us through our family journey. We are very united along our core values, with which we were raised: hard work, long-term vision, always trying to do new things, not forgetting where we belong, and reflecting where and who we are. But we still have a lot to do for the future generations!
Tell us more about your efforts to move to more sustainable practices and organic viticulture. Do you think it makes a difference to what we taste in the bottle or is this more a question of simply trying to be responsible as a business?
I think both, in different ways. There are two aspects in our commitments, that do not impact the quality of wine equally.
First, we are carbon neutral, meaning that since 2015, our company has a net zero carbon footprint. We produce 80% of our energy consumption through our photovoltaic panels, and we make every effort possible not to use fossil energy. This holistic approach does not impact the quality of the wine, but will eventually (hopefully) impact climate change.
Second, our organic practices and “soft vinification”: this does impact the taste in many ways, from how the soil and plant is being cared for, the lower yields and the absence of filtration in the vinification, to the low use of sulphite.
How difficult has it been for Drappier to engage with the UK market since Covid arrived and how have you managed to keep the lines of communication open with the independent trade?
We have been surprised to see that Champagne has been enjoyed, with customers engaging
even more with their knowledge of Champagne. We have been able to engage with remote tastings both for the trade, and also for retailers’ customers, through private tastings. Comfortably sat in our “salons”, we go through the history and the wines, which have been sold in a pack in advance, having also recommending some food pairings. It was a wonderful way to chat with British clients.
What do you hope to achieve in the foreseeable future – any new developments in the winery or vineyards or perhaps new cuvées?
We will keep working on new cuvées, and new variations. For instance, we will release another expression of our Brut Nature Rosé, coming exclusively from Les Riceys terroir. Positioned at the same price, it will give the consumer the choice to choose between one expression or another.
On the long run, we wish to stay strong as a family, and pass onto the next generation a house where they can flourish (and have fun!) as much as we do.
Feature sponsored by Champagne Drappier, imported in the UK by Berkmann Wine Cellars
