The Wine Merchant issue 106 by The Wine Merchant magazine

THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers

Issue 106, September 2021

Dog of the Month: Pippa The Flying Cork, Bedford

Will our Beaujolais Nouveau arrive on time this year? Many importers are nervous about ongoing complications in the supply chain which mean deliveries risk disruption

eaujolais Nouveau Day risks being something of a damp squib this

year due to continuing problems

in the supply chain.

Bottled wines can be released by

producers on Monday, October 11 and can be exported to the UK on Friday, October

22. But some merchants are worried this won’t allow sufficient time for wines to reach stores for the appointed day of © Richard Semik / stockadobe.com

Thursday, November 18.

Beaujolais Nouveau Day has become

increasingly popular with many indies

the terrace.

following its long spell in the doldrums.

The last pallet from Beaujolais that we

in recent years, who have seen growing consumer interest in the category

Louise Peverall from La Cave de Bruno

in East Dulwich says: “We usually import it from Domaine Penlois, and time it so that

we get a full pallet of Beaujolais and top up with some Nouveau.

“It’s been really popular over the last

few years and for the past two we’ve had a waiting list. We also sell it by the glass on

“That said, it won’t be happening this

year as it’s too hard to manage the timings. ordered in February took three months to get here as it got stuck in customs in the

Netherlands. It’s a pretty quick turnaround from the bottling to the actual day itself, and the way things are it’s unlikely we’ll

be able to manage it. It’s such a shame and another unnecessary Brexit blow.”

Tony Schendel of Hayward Bros, which

imports Jean Loron Beaujolais, shares Peverall’s concerns.

“We are offering ex-cellar customers the

wine but we are not going to ship this year,” he says.

“The reason is although shipping is fine,

if you add possible delays at LCB we cannot guarantee we will get the wine in time, and if it arrives late we will be left with it.

“Ex-cellars customers are generally

shipping straight into their own

warehouses and are saving seven to 10 days.”

Burgundy specialist Tom Innes of Fingal-

Rock in Monmouth says a delay would not necessarily be a disaster for Beaujolais Nouveau sales.

“I’m going to risk it,” he says. “Last year

I completely sold out and had to ship a Vineyards at Chénas, Beaujolais

second order super-quick, which didn’t

Continues page 2

NEWS

Inside this month 4 COMINGS AND GOINGS

From page one

A shop for Noble Rot, and Villeneuve leaves Edinburgh

Two wines that have both decided to call themselves No 4

14 terroir tourism Tivoli Wines unveils an unusual

to mind that there was a delay.

“I do share the concerns about the

timeliness of the shipment, but since

people didn’t mind last year, and I will have a much better excuse this year, I’m going to go ahead.”

Mark Isham of Richmond Wine Agencies

new revenue stream

admits there is a “possibility” of supplies

28 just williams What exactly is so amusing or detestable about wine-speak?

being disrupted but the company is doing all it can to mitigate that risk.

“Last year we ran with it and it managed

to arrive on time through all the madness,” he says. “We take pre-orders and give the

32 lightfoot wines Why locals are so fiercely protective of this tiny Rotherham independent

winery plenty of notice. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

“The issue we’re having is with the

hauliers. The winery is ready – getting

46 cabernet franc A variety that emerged from the doldrums to become a superstar

stock on a container and up to us is not a problem. Hauliers cancelling on the

morning when it’s due to be delivered

into us is a nightmare at the moment, so

that’s the challenge. Wine is in the UK but

50 make a date Three more trade tastings to put

52 supplier bulletin

arrive till a couple of weeks after the

appointed day. My customers didn’t seem

10 tried & TESTED

in your diary

‘We’ll only ship Beaujolais Nouveau if we are assured it will be on time’

hauliers getting it to us is proving really troublesome.

“We’ll only ship where we have

assurances we’re going to have it in time.

We need it a week before in our warehouse

ready for distribution and if that isn’t going to happen, I’m going to have worries and

concerns and not get behind it in terms of

pre-sales to customers because I don’t like letting people down.”

Isham says sales have been increasing in

recent years. “Five years ago we were lucky to scrape together a pallet in terms of preorders. We shipped five or six pallets last year. I think it has reinvented itself.

“It’s definitely becoming more popular

as the years go by within the indie sector. Loads of them that really want to get

behind it. Some of the Beaujolais Nouveaux that are coming out now are superb.”

Chris Piper of Christopher Piper Wines

in Devon is a Beaujolais producer as

well as an importer. He remains upbeat,

reporting that his shippers have proved to be efficient despite the current problems.

“Everything they bring in has been pretty

much on time. We had an emergency

shipment of Sancerre the other day and it came in in about 10 days, so I don’t see it as a huge problem. People who are using other freight companies because they’re

more price-sensitive, maybe, are likely to have slightly more of a problem.

“Anyone who’s got their act together

should be able to get it in pretty quickly. “We sell out every year. I only make a

certain quantity, I have to say. It’s decent

wine. We sell it throughout wholesale and retail and on our website. We’re already getting enquiries for it.”

THE WINE MERCHANT MAGAZINE winemerchantmag.com 01323 871836 Twitter: @WineMerchantMag Editor and Publisher: Graham Holter graham@winemerchantmag.com Assistant Editor: Claire Harries claire@winemerchantmag.com Advertising: Sarah Hunnisett sarah@winemerchantmag.com Accounts: Naomi Young winemerchantinvoices@gmail.com The Wine Merchant is circulated to the owners of the UK’s 963 specialist independent wine shops. Printed in Sussex by East Print. © Graham Holter Ltd 2021 Registered in England: No 6441762 VAT 943 8771 82

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 2

Noble Rot team join the retail club Mark Andrew and Dan Keeling continue to grow their business with the launch of their first shop, situated close to Noble Rot restaurant, in Lamb’s Conduit Street in Bloomsbury, central London. With its logo designed by Noble Rot

magazine’s regular collaborator, Jose Miguel Mendez, Shrine to the Vine is

instantly recognisable as part of the brand. Andrew, who worked for Roberson for

several years, says that both he and Keeling both “cut their teeth in retail,” so this

development was perhaps inevitable.

“We had always said if the opportunity

presented itself and the circumstances

were right it would be something we’d love to do,” explains Andrew. “With our import company [Keeling Andrew] being in play for three or four years, we’ve got a lot of wine. And not just the wines we import,

but from distributors including Les Caves de Pyrene, Tutto and Flint.

“Because of the lockdown and

restaurants being closed, we had this

stockholding that wasn’t moving through as quickly as it normally would and that

maybe accelerated the idea of us turning

our attention to this plan to do something in the retail sphere.

“We had looked at other areas and other

sites but then an opportunity came up on Lamb’s Conduit Street, which is probably our favourite street in London.”

Callum Edge, previously of Taurus Wines,

The signage was created by Miguel Mendez, who also works on the magazine

So is Shrine to the Vine just the first of

more shops to come from the pair?

“Well, we’re ambitious,” Andrew admits,

“and we love the print and the restaurant industries and we’re excited to pursue projects we think are worthwhile.

“Through the restaurants and the

magazine, we have a really great

community of open-minded drinkers,

people who want to discover new things

and people who are intrigued by the best wines in the world.

“For now we’ve got a lovely premises and

we’re building the online presence. We’re

really excited about all of those things and we’ll see where it takes us.”

Mancs get ready for Gob to open

Ancoats in Manchester will soon be

and renovations began during the first

week of August. He says things are on track for a September or October opening.

“I’ve had an opportunity over the past

year to take a step back and really think

about the details, costs and menus,” says

Spalding, who will be working as the head chef and leading the buying of the wine.

“Gob is a complete hybrid. It will be on-

trade and off-trade and a restaurant with room for about 60 covers.”

He says the premises on George Leigh

Street, initially built as the town’s first

municipal housing project, is “a beautiful

building with parquet flooring – but there are a lot of broken Victorian windows at the moment.

“There are some really interesting

characters about and I’ve got a vision of some old dears coming in for a glass of oloroso sitting alongside the bearded

hipsters drinking natural wines. If we can

has joined the team as the digital manager.

home to a new wine shop, restaurant

scientist to see the world is continuing to

launch of Gob Manchester for some time,

permission to open a shop, deli, bar and

communicate with customers and not just

council, there were quite a few hoops to

• Cheers, the wine shop in Denmead near

“We’re very excited about that part of the

business because it doesn’t take a rocket

go with buying things online,” says Andrew. “It’s a great way to be able to

focus on a local audience but increase that reach nationwide.”

and bar. James Spalding has been planning the

pull that off, it will be brilliant.”

• Chester indie Vinological has applied for

and with his hopes pinned on a Grade II

tasting room at Brook Street in the city.

jump through.

Portsmouth, has closed. Owner Yvonne

listed building owned by Manchester city Spalding’s patience has finally paid off

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 4

Cohen is now focusing on her restaurant.

Bacchus A secret garden in Abergavenny

Crawling to St Neots

Abergavenny indie Chesters has moved from its premises in Lewis Lane to a new location a mile away in Cross Street. The premises, which dates back to the

17th century, has previously been home

to both Peter Dominic and Fosters Wine

Merchants. Its most recent occupier was a vaping retailer.

The new site features a “secret garden”

area allowing customers to enjoy their purchases on the premises.

Chesters was established in 2017 by

Lloyd Beedell and Ben Southon.

Beedell says the move will enable the

company not just to increase its drinking-in trade, but also focus more on its wholesale and online business.

“It’s a much bigger space for us, probably

treble the retail space, and the courtyard means we can accommodate about 50

The Muswell Hill branch

Managing director Harry Georgiou says:

“This store is the third we have opened

in the last 10 months, following Muswell Hill and South Kensington, reflecting the

growth ambitions we have in the business.”

Villeneuve closes Edinburgh branch Villeneuve Wines has closed its

people compared to 12 before,” he adds.

Edinburgh store after 23 years at the

was part of St Mary’s priory and there are

business will now focus on its Peebles

“We’ve poured eight tonnes of concrete

to create the patio. There’s a high wall that some lovely birch trees – it just feels like you could be in the middle of Rome.”

The famous mural of Chester the dog

which adorned the frontage of the Lewis Lane site will eventually be recreated on the front of the new building.

Capital investment for Amathus Amathus is opening its sixth London shop, bringing its estate size to eight. The new store is in the heart of Notting

Hill and it will carry “a comprehensive range of the speciality wines, spirits,

liqueurs, craft beers and other drinks” in the Amathus range, many of which the

company imports and distributes in the UK.

Broughton Street site. Owner Kenneth Brannan says the

branch, online sales and its trade division, all of which are “booming”.

He adds: “Our lease came up for renewal

and I decided it wasn’t worth renewing it. The shop always covered its costs – just –

but it is doing a third of what it was doing pre-pandemic.

“I think high street rents are the biggest

challenge for retailers – so we are a fairly

efficient and profitable small wine business which has become easier to run.

“We are having terrible problems

shipping in wine from everywhere –

just like everyone else. We won’t/can’t

continue to buy from lots of our smaller

producers and may revert to buying from UK wholesalers, which is against our

principles – but the only option available at the moment.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 5

Matt Ellis of The Smiling Grape in St Neots is one of the independent trade’s more ambitious thinkers – witness the customer trips to Transnistria and North Korea, for example. Now he’s on a mission to become a record breaker. If all goes to plan, Matt will take the official title for the most pubs visited in a 24-hour period, verified by the good people at Guinness, who have accepted his application to have a crack at the pub-crawling crown. “I have to beat the current record of 50 pubs so will start in Cambridge and finish in our home town of St Neots,” Matt explains. “The rules are to visit as many pubs as possible and 125ml of any drink has to be consumed in each venue. Some of my customers will be acting as official witnesses for payment in beer.” He adds: “The rules state that the record attempt has to be by foot or public transport only. So we will be walking or catching a bus.”

Old ideas for Nouveau

Beaujolais Nouveau Day has got a bit too bogged down in logistical admin for the liking of Robert Boutflower at Tanners. “We’ve got to think outside the box, and I say that the French mustn’t release a single bottle until midnight on Thursday, November 18,” he declares, waving a dismissive arm at the fourweek shipping window. “Then let the mad-cap race of olden days be re-run: classic cars full of Champagne Charlies, peleton pushers dragging ergonomic carts crammed with bottles, and madmen in Montgolfier balloons who will probably end up in the Alps instead. All must run the gamut of British Customs, test negative for Covid at least five times and still present a breakfast glassful to Boris with his kippers at the Ritz! Oh the good old days, eh?” Not everyone shares Boutflower’s enthusiasm for Nouveau, especially not French-born Derbyshire merchant Pierre Hourlier. “It’s a quickly-made wine, quickly drunk and quickly forgotten,” he scoffs.

Kazakhstan and Russia join forces Bakeries which also have a specialism in wine are a small but growing breed. The latest is Irene in Camberwell, south London, which opened last month. Owner Andrey Gusak admits the wine

element of the scheme came a bit later as initially the project consisted of just the

bakery, headed up by his wife Maria. “We decided to join forces,” he says, “and now

it is a family business with Maria’s parents

helping out with investment and her sister doing the graphic design.”

Gusak’s love of old-world wine was

honed during a year spent in Paris and fine tuned during a recent stint at Albertine in Shepherds Bush, from where he is buying

Kazakhstan where the hospitality culture

with close friends in Wallingford, has loved

from many places. We are borrowing the

will remain “broadly the same” as the

is very strong. We consider ourselves to be international and we take our inspiration best things from every culture that we love.”

The new business has been well received

service when they will be able to buy wine by the glass and enjoy some cold cuts.

“Camberwell is quite residential, and

it feels very relaxed with a nice local

feel,” he adds. “So far the shop has been overwhelmingly successful.”

Grape Minds opens second site

Italy and Spain,” he says, “mostly organic

nearby market town of Wallingford.

want to limit myself, but for now these are

decided the time is right to grow their

wines from small producers and wines that are a true reflection of their terroir. I don’t what I know best.”

The name Irene honours Maria’s mother

and “represents her spirit of hospitality, but it also reflects our home countries,” explains Gusak.

“I am from Russia and Maria is from

Summertown shop.

are keen for couple to begin their evening

This month Grape Minds is expanding

“I am focusing on wines from France,

The pair say that the wine range

by Camberwell locals, who, reports Gusak,

some of his range. Sip Champagne is another supplier.

the town for many years.”

The firm did well with outside events

Twisted Cellar is a Covid casualty

beyond its home at Summertown in

The Twisted Cellar in Bishops Stortford

Oxford to open a second shop in the

has closed.

After three years of trading, owners

Graeme Woodward and Michael Jelley have brand.

“I have had some previous experience

selling wine in south Oxfordshire, mainly

for delivery,” says Woodward, “and always felt there was a gap in the market for an

independent merchant in the area. Michael,

Established in 2018 by Joe and Sharon

Grice and most recently managed by

Iain Allcott, the business cited the Covid pandemic as the primary reason for its closure at the beginning of August.

Part of the message on the shop website

reads: “We tried everything we absolutely could but the devastating effect of the pandemic in the end was too much.

“Despite hope that an ease in restrictions

over the last few months would generate

a much-needed upturn in trading income,

it has become apparent that low customer numbers, uncertainty around trading,

mounting creditors and rent arrears have left us with no alternative.”

The premises, inspired by a French

vineyard house, combined a retail and bar area.

• Raffles, the wine shop in Nailsworth in the Cotswolds, is on the market. See the advertisement on page eight for more details.

Irene in Camberwell is a wine shop as well as a bakery

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 6

AUTUMN PORTFOLIO TASTING Wednesday 29th September 2021

The Music Room, South Molton Lane, London W1K 5LF. 10.30-18.00.

Join us to discover the latest additions to our award-winning portfolio. Highlights include the debut of 6 new agencies, 3 winemaker masterclasses and over 150 wines to try.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 7

We’re hiring! We’re looking for a new, full time member to join our lovely team in East Dulwich. You will be helping with the day-to-day running of the shop floor and terrace. Retail experience and an interest in wine is essential. Please apply to info@lacavedebruno.com for more details

WE’VE GOT A RHINO! Many thanks to Bruce Evans of Grape & Grain in Crediton who has kindly adopted a black rhino at Paignton Zoo on behalf of The Wine Merchant.

NOT YOU AGAIN!

customers we could do without

27. Robin Fotherage Now I think someone’s getting in a bit of a muddle … the girl who filled glass number one said that was the Syrah, but then when we started tasting you said glass two was the Syrah, so I switched them around, but I’m pretty sure that’s actually the Pinot Noir, which I think is supposed to be wine number four … now I thought that was the one you said was corked, so I poured it into what I thought was a spare glass, which I now understand was supposed to be for the Grenache, which I didn’t get … the confusing thing is that I think I actually got two glasses of the Carignan, so I gave one of them to my wife, but she put it on the mat where the Grenache was supposed to go and ended up with seven wines instead of six … I only had the slightest dribble of the Cabernet Sauvignon, but the girl topped it up with what I think was the Merlot – whoever heard of a blend like that? – so that went in the spittoon and now I’m told the bottle’s empty … well, good luck with the video feed from the vineyard, I hope you manage to get a connection with José or Gonzalo or whatever his name is … we actually have to make a move now … cheerio!

Supplier of wine boxes and literature • 12 Bottle carrier box with dividers • 6 Bottle carrier box with dividers • 12 Bottle mailing box with dividers • 6 Bottle mailing box with dividers • 4 Bottle mailing box with dividers • 3 Bottle mailing box with dividers • 1 Bottle mailing box with dividers

01323 728338 • sales@eastprint.co.uk • www.eastprint.co.uk

Congratulations to the five Wine

Merchant reader survey respondents

whose names were drawn at random

AM ANAand TIaMCoravin, GRwho E courtesy of each win

ournames partnerofHatch Can you unscramble the theseMansfield. UK wine importers? If so, you win a ping pong ball signed by Sade. Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York

1. New SiltyBorges, Brie The Wine Centre, Anthony 2. Chef Halts Admin Great Horkesley, Essex 3. Dromedary Nylons Zoran–Ristanovic, City Wine Collection, 4. Caned Severe Yelps 5. Bedlam Latrine London Daniel Grigg, Museum Wines, Dorset Riaz Syed, Stonewines, London

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 8

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

SANCERRE JOINS THE FAMILY Family-owned Domaine Vacheron is a great fit for Pol Roger Portfolio. Not only does it fill an important gap in the range, but the owners share a winemaking philosophy with their new stablemates

ol Roger Portfolio has ventured

into Sancerre for the first time by welcoming Domaine Vacheron to

its line-up.

The 50ha estate includes 38ha of Sauvignon Blanc and 12ha of Pinot Noir

This family-owned operation is one of

the region’s foremost producers, making

exceptional white, red and rosé Sancerre. Jean-Dominique and Jean-Laurent

Vacheron, two cousins who represent the fourth generation, are currently at the

helm of the historic estate, located in the medieval heart of Sancerre.

Under their direction, the Domaine has

embraced sustainable practices, converting to biodynamics in the early millennium

and achieving certification in 2005. The rejection of chemicals, coupled with

hand-harvesting of the grapes, means that

yields are typically low. Their no-shortcuts

approach in the vineyard pays dividends in the winery; even in the most challenging

of vintages, they reliably produce wines of exacting quality.

The estate comprises 70 hectares, with

a combination of agricultural land, forest and 50 hectares of vineyard, 38 of which are planted with Sauvignon Blanc and

12 with Pinot Noir, including some of the most coveted parcels in the appellation.

Unusually for Sancerre, parcels are vinified separately.

The soils are equal parts limestone

(caillotte) and flint (silex), with 10%

cretaceous marl. Limestone contributes to balanced acidity in the grapes, whilst flint

provides attractive aromas and minerality and marl brings a unique texture.

The Vacheron wines now sit alongside

the outstanding range of family-owned

producers represented by Pol Roger

winemaking, unique to family-owned

comprises Bodegas Artadi, Maison Joseph

standards.”

Portfolio. Together with Champagne

Pol Roger, the agency wine range now Drouhin, Domaine Josmeyer, Robert

Sinskey Vineyards, Staglin Family Vineyard, Abreu, Gallica, Kinsman Eades, TOR Wines and Grand Tokaj as well as Glenfarclas Highland Single Malt.

James Simpson MW, managing director

of Pol Roger Portfolio, says: “We are

thrilled to welcome the Vacheron family

and their wines this summer. Their bright and balanced, fruit-forward wines typify the very best of Sancerre.”

Laurent d’Harcourt, CEO of Champagne

Pol Roger, adds: “On meeting the

Vacherons, it was immediately clear to

me that we share the same approach to

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 9

producers; a commitment to honouring tradition and upholding the highest

Jean-Laurent Vacheron says: “We are

delighted to join Pol Roger Portfolio and

establish a quality distribution network,

both for our existing customer base and to

reach new customers in the UK. This move will strengthen an historical connection with the UK market.”

For more information visit www.polroger.co.uk or call 01432 262800 Twitter: @Pol_Roger

TRIED & TESTED

Busi-Jacobsohn Cuvée Brut 2018

Crusoe Treasure Sea Soul No 4

Read the back-story of the Swedish-Italian family

All wines need a story and if that story involves 15

industry as parochial. This is a classy, accomplished

What exactly does immersion in 20m of Cantabrian

months of ageing in the ocean, consumers are likely

behind this fabulous Sussex fizz, only in its second

to sit up. There are barnacles to confirm the claims.

vintage, and you’ll never think of the English wine

sea contribute to this Syrah from the foothills of the

sparkler, with Chardonnay in the driving seat. Pastry,

Pyrenees? It’s hard to be certain, but there’s a cool (as

hazelnuts, gooseberries, apples, citrus ... all these

opposed to hot) and silky character that seems nautical.

elements and plenty more are present and correct. RRP: £38

RRP: £65

ABV: 12%

ABV: 14%

Flora Fine Wines (020 7286 2398)

Busi-Jacobsohn (07590 181718) busijacobsohn.com

florafinewines.co.uk

Villa Mottura Primitivo del Salento 2020

Maurizio Garibaldi Sauvignon Blanc 2018

Put your fancy food matches to one side for a moment:

Maurizio’s Italian emigré grandfather had been

it’s a wine that puts a hand on your shoulder and lets

Continuing the family legacy after experience at Villa

some wines are just made for Saturday nights, and this is certainly one of them. Simple, fruity and dark edged, you know that it’ll take things from here. That’s what four generations of winemaking expertise gets you. RRP: £13

ABV: 13%

happily making wine in Colchagua for decades before

his land was confiscated in 1973 by Pinochet’s goons. Maria and Veuve Clicquot, Maurizio has crafted a loveable, leesy SB from his Casablanca base. RRP: £17.99

ABV: 12.5%

Propeller (01524 737100)

Vindependents (020 3488 4548) vindependents.co.uk

propeller.wine

Tapanappa Whalebone Merlot Cabernet Franc 2017

Domaine la Provenquiere Grenache Gris ‘Pur’ 2020

Look, nobody is actually saying that the presence

This estate near Bèziers is keen on biodiversity and

... but maybe it doesn’t hurt. It’s more likely, of course,

purity is clearly the aim here and that target is hit,

of a 35 million-year-old whalebone in Tapanappa’s

Wrattonbully vineyard makes the wines taste better

that Brian Croser is a genius. A beautifully cushioned blend, with hints of violets, roses and blood. RRP: £44

ABV: 14.5%

Mentzendorff (020 7840 3600)

sustainable viticulture. The Grenache Gris is grown

on north-facing slopes to encourage freshness; fruit though there’s also an enjoyable antiques-shop mustiness and toffee-apple sweetness. RRP: £13.49

ABV: 12.5%

Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722538)

mentzendorff.co.uk

hnwines.co.uk

St Laurent No 4 2018

Alta Pavina Pinot Noir Rosado 2020

Canned wines still have a credibility problem in some quarters so Ben Franks’ Canned Wine Company

A rosé with real flavour and personality? Texture,

Glatzer, it’s actually an appropriate variety for this

just a vacuous celeb. The fruit is grown high up near

deserves credit for chancing its arm with an obscure

(for most consumers) Austrian red. Made by Weingut format, with its uncomplicated juicy charms, gentle tannins and suitability for light chilling. A success. RRP: £5.50

ABV: 13%

Canned Wine Company (01344 871800) cannedwine.co

brisk acidity, fruit complexity? What’s going on?

Altitude, for one thing – and a famous name who isn’t

Ribera del Duero with help from Claude Bourguignon, vineyard manager at, er, Romanée-Conti. Superb. RRP: £15.49

ABV: 13%

Moreno Wines (020 7289 9952) morenowines.co.uk

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 10

REPS REPORT BACK

Fenella Newland On the Road

FENELLA JOINED LIBERTY WINES FIVE YEARS AGO AND IS SALES REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOUTH EAST ENGLAND, COVERING KENT, SUSSEX AND BRIGHTON & HOVE

dinner, for example, I’ll grab an apron,

I own an Alfa Romeo sports car and

– just mucking in and really being able to

I’m mindful that Liberty Wines has been

find the kitchen, and crack on with the

love a road trip, so have always enjoyed

help my customers.

carbon neutral for the last seven years, so

preparations. I love that side of what I do

the driving element of my job. However,

I was a customer of Liberty Wines

will be making as much use of my well-

prior to coming to work for them, having spent five years as a restaurant manager and sommelier. My Liberty rep was always so respectful of my time, very

flexible and prepared to work around what my business needed. She gave a fantastic impression of the company, and I was

delighted to be able to join them when I

moved into working in wine full-time. The

portfolio has always been great fun to work with and I’m proud to be part of such a professional team.

connected local train station as possible

from this autumn, to help reduce my own carbon footprint.

My customers have been impacted differently by the pandemic so I’m adapting how I maintain contact with them according to their individual needs and expectations

My customers have been impacted differently by the pandemic so I’m adapting how I maintain contact with My day-to-day activities encompass

them according to their individual

anything from helping owners and

needs and expectations. Some larger

buyers to select new listings, holding

technical tastings with them, and training their junior members of staff, through

to arranging neck tags and shelf-talkers.

Recently, I spent a couple of hours working with a customer, fitting Astroturf in a shop window for a tennis-themed display and then hanging bunting for a Portuguese promotion.

All sorts of bizarre things can happen. I recall once receiving a message from

a courier van saying that they could not

make a delivery to a customer in Mayfield

shops and sites with dedicated office space for meetings are delighted to welcome me back face-to-face, whereas smaller

shops may be struggling to find time and

physical space. I have one customer whose two-person team cannot risk attending

any of the upcoming trade tastings, so I’m

arranging a mini portfolio tasting for them

at their shop. It’s all about planning ahead, keeping the lines of communication open,

and offering alternative options where my physical presence is not practical.

It has been a joy to get back to doing

village as the road was closed for a market

live tastings though after a year of Zoom

customer, went down the hill to meet the

has been great fun introducing these to my

and festival. I happened to be in the area

meetings. We have so many new and

courier, and then pushed the barrow full of

customers, working together on refreshing

so borrowed a sack barrow from the

wine through the village to complete the delivery.

I’ve been doing this job for long enough now that I’m quite good friends with some of my customers. I know that whenever I go and host a wine

exciting additions to our portfolio, and it

their ranges for the summer and beyond.

I’m completely obsessed with sherry and

am off out shortly to do a sherry, vermouth and quina tasting with a customer in Hove. I love sharing my passion for fortified

wines – it’s such a diverse category yet so often overlooked.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 11

Feature sponsored by Liberty Wines For more information, visit libertywines.co.uk Call 020 7720 5350

project management

The industrial vibe of the shelving, which is made from scaffold boards and poles, is softened by the addition of velvet chairs

Eventually the front of the bar will also have cork cladding. “We’ve got a lot more bottles to open,” says Kavanagh

An inventive use of chalk boards and presentation boxes has quadrupled malt whisky sales

A re-fit doesn’t have to cost the earth, as Kevin Kavanagh at The Blue Glass in Bedford can testify. “The project wasn’t that expensive,” he says. “I didn’t have an architect or an interior designer, but I subcontracted the plumbing, electrics and decorating and project managed it myself. I designed it and picked the finishes. “The theme is glamorous industrial. We wanted it to be a place to listen to a bit of jazz, have a nice glass of wine, a charcuterie board and chill out with family and friends.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 12

A virtual tour of Hungarian wine

Join us for a special Zoom event on Tuesday, October 5 at 11am when we will be tasting 14 wines from seven award-winning producers

he year 2021 will go down as a

time when Hungarian wine truly

came of age. Known for some while

now as the last best-kept secret of the old world, Hungarian winemakers burst into prominence with over 90 winners at the

Decanter World Wine Awards, including a highly coveted Best in Show for St Andrea Winery’s Egri Bikavér Grand Superior Nagy-Eged Cru 2017.

There is undeniable quality

and some excellent value to

find in Europe’s eighth largest wine-producing country, and

Best of Hungary would like to

invite independents on a journey of

conditions for creating wines of real

seven award-winning wineries, focusing

eminent wine producers until the

have been selected for their potential to

character.

Hungary was one of Europe’s pre-

phylloxera vine epidemic. Since the fall of

the Iron Curtain in 1989, wine production has undergone a rapid revival, aided by the expertise of older generations and

the youthful energy and entrepreneurial spirit of up-and-coming

winemakers, who look to the latest trends

and technologies for

inspiration.

Hungary has 22

distinct wine regions growing

on native grape varieties and the legendary blends of Aszú and Bull’s Blood. The wines appeal to today’s discerning customers,

always on the lookout for something new to excite their palates.

Featuring a carefully curated selection,

this sommelier-led tasting distils the

wide range of Hungarian wine

into a concise story. The event will include food pairing suggestions and special

festively themed labels and

gift packs in preparation for

Christmas.

discovery across this land of a thousand

around 45 different native, and over 50

the sheltered Carpathian Basin – a mostly

as its main challenge.

organised by The Wine Merchant in

approach make Hungarian wine such an

com. Argon-sealed 100ml samples will

terroirs.

Hungary is located in central Europe, in

flat or moderately hilly area surrounded by tall mountain ranges. Its temperate climate and gently rolling hills, with a variety of soil types including clay, limestone and volcanic bedrock, provide the perfect

international grape varieties. This diversity is the industry’s greatest strength, as well

To register for this 90-minute webinar,

quantities produced using an artisanal

email charlotte@winemerchantmag.

Boutique wineries with limited

intriguing proposition for independents.

The tasting will include 14 wines from

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 13

association with Best of Hungary, please

be sent out a few days before the event.

terroir tourism Tivoli Wines in Cheltenham sells an awful lot of Brtish wines, ciders and spirits. Now it wants to take its customers to meet the producers. Owner David Dodd explains the plan to Claire Harries

The Bradford on Avon shop was previously known as Ruby Red Wine Cellars

“

premium drinks tourism will become huge in this country over the next five to 10 years. i view what we’re doing as an evolution of the hybrid model

ivoli Wines in Cheltenham is loud and proud about

its love of English (and Welsh) wine. It lists just over 140, after all. But owner David Dodd is no longer

content with just selling them. He’s developing a new arm to his business that is dedicated to English wine tourism. “Premium drinks tourism will become huge in this

country over the next five to 10 years,” he explains. “I view what we’re doing as an evolution of the hybrid

model so we’re not just on-trade and off-trade; we are now on-premise and off-premise.”

Tivoli Wines is collaborating with a number of different

wineries, cideries and distilleries, including Astley

Vineyard (pictured left), Woodchester Valley and Chase Distillery to offer tours. By booking their tour through Tivoli, rather than directly with the vineyard, guests

benefit from an extra educational tasting built into the

package, provided by Tivoli staff before setting off, and

the convenience of the transport included. It can be tricky to find taxis in more rural areas – and who wants to drive themselves to a tasting? Much better to hop aboard the

luxury eight-seater Mercedes recently purchased by Dodd for this very purpose.

“We launched this year knowing that we’re not really

going to be ready until 2022,” Dodd admits. “The way I describe it to the team is that it feels like we’re trying

to build the plane as we are already hurtling down the runway.”

It sounds reckless but Dodd is famously logical in his

business decisions. He is currently in the fact-finding

stage and processing every new morsel of information.

“When we launched I thought that maybe 50% of our

market would be tourists to the Cotswolds area, 20% would be corporate and 30% would come from our existing customer base,” he says.

“But what we have learned is that tourism is going

to play a much larger role, as is corporate, so we are

probably looking at 70% tourism and 20% corporate.

Primarily because the customers who live in Cheltenham and who are already engaged with wine have already visited the local vineyards.

“It’s been interesting finding out from our customers

how much they want to spend and the sort of tours they want to do. It can be quite complicated because certain

vineyards, cideries and distilleries can’t do weekends as

they’ve already sold out, so we push for mid-week and if

it’s mid-week then we have to target tourists rather than my existing customers, because they are at work during the week.

“We’re building relationships with local tourist bodies

but beyond that we are having to look at platforms like

Airbnb Experiences, and they take 20%-25% commission straight off, so that puts pressure on your financial

viability. We’ve factored all that in and we know what we need to do. We’re just not quite ready yet.”

he new offshoot is being marketed as Vine &

Orchard Tours with Tivoli Wines. Dodd already has new extensions in the offing including a gin school

experience, which he says he’s hoping to twin with an urban winery tour.

Notwithstanding the project’s “half-hearted soft-

launch”, Dodd says that he and his team “completely believe” in the venture as they know the market is

booming. “We’re selling an awful amount of English wine online and it’s interesting who is buying it,” he says.

“It seems to be a much younger demographic, and that

suits us.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 15

Rising Stars

Luc Bouet Grape Minds, Oxford

uc Bouet is an “absolute star,” according to Graeme Woodward and Michael Jelley who own Grape Minds. Aside from all the praise from his employers, perhaps the most impressive fact about Luc is that he has successfully introduced his French father to the joys of Italian wine. “Luc joined us a year ago,” says Michael. “He sent in an extremely impressive application letter and he’s been thoroughly impressive since. “He came to us at the age of 21 with an incredible existing knowledge of wine, having grown up in the restaurant trade. He’s also brought a lot of things that Graeme and I didn’t do terribly well, like building displays and writing chalkboards and managing all the social media. “He has a really easy manner with the customers and has built on everything we want the company to be. He has great dedication and enthusiasm – he works five days in the shop and spends his lunch breaks listening to wine podcasts and one day a week doing his diploma.” Luc started working as a waiter in one of his parents’ restaurants when he was just 14 and while at university he had a job at a gin bar. He says: “While I was learning as much as I could about gin it dawned on me that there’s only so many flavours and styles that gin can achieve, and you can get a lot more flavours from just one grape. That’s when I decided to study wine.” Despite being brought up on classic French wines, Luc says he became “captivated” by the Italian wines he encountered during a six-month stint at an Italian restaurant while living in Denmark, which is where he did his WSET level 3. “I was drawn to the great wines of Piedmont and started to get really excited by those,” he says. On his return to the UK he already knew he wanted to work in retail and continue his wine education. “I saw Grape Minds and I thought they had my ideal range of wines – they have a really strong French section and we bonded over our love of Italian wines. We had a lot to chat about. “The one thing that surprised me about retail,” he adds, “is the amount of planning and foresight Graeme and Michael have to put in, especially when direct importing.

That was a big learning curve for me, realising that the wine doesn’t just appear on the shelves. There’s a long process before the wines get there, the selection and planning the orders and making sure it’s all there in time. “I really get to see everything behind the scenes, to see what has to be done to keep the shop ticking over. I can very much see a long career as a wine merchant because there’s nothing I don’t enjoy about it.” Luc has been busy putting his knowledge to the test with customer tastings and he loves that he is also able to share this passion with his family. “My father is really getting into Italian wines with me. He would naturally gravitate towards French reds, but now sometimes he’ll suggest Italian wine when we go out to dinner,” he says.

Luc wins a bottle of Gallica Grenache 2017 If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 16

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 17

ight ideas

25: wild gifting Louise Smith Jug & Bottle, Bubwith, East Riding of Yorkshire

In a nutshell … This is guerrilla marketing at its most philanthropic. Leave a gift in the local area for someone to find. Whatever you choose to leave should contain a voucher so the lucky recipient will then visit your shop to spend it.

Tell us more. “I copied the idea off a local florist who years ago used to do this thing called the lonely bouquet. They’d leave a bouquet on benches and whoever found it got to keep it. “For quite a few years during the first 12 days of December, we’d wrap a gift and leave it in one of the surrounding villages. Because you can’t leave alcohol lying around and you have to be careful with food because of allergies, we used to leave a Christmas tree decoration and a voucher to encourage people to come into the shop during the Christmas period and spend on top of it. “We’d hide them early in the morning and take a cryptic picture of it in situ and post it on Facebook by a certain time. People were going out in their pyjamas looking for them.”

That sounds like fun. Why did you stop? “We knocked it on the head last year. We thought because of Covid, it might not go down very well. But the shop has changed quite a bit since the pandemic. We started stocking fresh fruit and veg, and even though I’ve been advertising that, it was clear some people still weren’t aware. So I

left them in really easy-to-find places like outside the school gates, by the church and outside the doctors’ surgery. “I don’t want to tread on other people’s toes, so I go to villages where they don’t have a local shop. We are in the countryside so we serve a lot of villages and, because we do specialist stuff and we are unusual, people will travel to us. “It’s just about reminding them that we have all the bits and pieces they need and we hope that they then buy other things once they’re here.”

Baskets are left in easy-to-find locations

thought, if I started leaving a few baskets of fruit and veg with a voucher around the village it would encourage people to spread the word. I’ve done a few of those and in the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing toilet rolls and all the basics. It’s just about constantly reminding people to shop local and support their local businesses.” Any more tips? “I’d advise putting an expiry date on the vouchers. I also put one of our stickers on the back to make sure that it’s an original and not a photocopy. “I don’t hide the baskets. So far I’ve

We’re guessing in village life there will always be somebody who’s not happy about something. Has anyone complained? “No, it’s been really positively received. The worst thing was – and I felt really bad about it – I’d left a basket covered in a bus stop in a local village and some kids found it and were quite excited and went home and told their mum they had found a bomb! I was so embarrassed.”

If Banksy was a retailer, he’d definitely be doing this. “Well, I have had a couple of people who found it and said they didn’t know if they were allowed to touch it or not in case it was part of an art installation or a project. It can brighten up someone’s day because you don’t often find something that’s genuinely free.”

Louise 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

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 19

Wines with a cons meet the Ventopur

Part of the famous Matetic business, Ventopuro’s aim is to make wines that tell the story of the producer also feels a responsibility to support the people and the environment of rural C demonstrated. For more information, contact Vintrigue at sales@vintriguewines,com or on Winemaker Felipe Vial

ots of wine producers make positive noises about their environmental

“The grapes come from our vineyard in the

There are no such doubts in the case of

any ocean influence but we do have Andes

by deeds.

Ventopuro – an offshoot of Matetic, the well-known Chilean family business.

Before our recent Zoom tasting got under

way, Juan José San Martin from Ventopuro was keen to explain more about some of the company’s projects.

These include a glass recycling scheme,

run in partnership with a community

group in Chimbarongo, which trains local people to make and sell glassware out of discarded bottles.

There is also an innovative woodworking

project, in which furniture is produced from oak staves that are surplus to

requirements in the Matetic cooperage.

Finally, Ventopuro’s native trees project

sees the planting of one indigenous Chilean tree for every 100 cases sold.

The Ventopuro label first appeared in

2016. “The Matetic family have always

been driven by the sustainable movement,” says Juan José, pointing out that the

company was an early adopter of organic

winemaking. “It’s something that we have Repurposing old barrel staves

RRP £10.99

credentials. Sometimes, it’s hard to

tell if their PR words are really backed up

The bottle recycling project

Ventopuro Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 2020

in our DNA. Our mission is to inspire the creation of a better place to live, never

losing sight of what nature has to tell us.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 20

Molina area, 200km from Santiago to the

south,” says Juan José. “Here we don’t have mountains influence. It’s a great place to plant Sauvignon Blanc.”

It’s one of the coolest places in the Curicó

Valley, which lends the wine a good acidity and a fresh, floral character.

“We don’t find the green notes that you

can find in Leyda or Casablanca,” adds Juan José. “This is more fresh and citric notes.”

Ventopuro Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2020 RRP £12.99 “The Casablanca Valley is really close to

the ocean,” says Juan José. “Here we have

our lowest yields, around nine to 10 tonnes per hectare. The wine spends six months in French oak and has notes of butter

and vanilla.” There are also some hints of orange and honey.

“This is one of our top-selling wines in

the company and it’s won a lot of awards around the world.”

Juan José laughs when asked if

the template for this Chardonnay is

Burgundian or new world. “We want to make a Chilean wine,” he says. “We are

trying to reflect the terroir that we have.”

science: ro range

Merchant feedback Coralie Menel Decanter which is hard to obtain – not too

many Chilean Pinot Noirs get these points,” says Juan José. “So we’re really proud of it.”

Ventopuro Estelar Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

where they come from. But Chile, as a recent Zoom event 01207 521234

Ventopuro Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018 RRP £12.99 Juan José says: “The wine spends eight to

10 months in French oak. We don’t use too much because we’re trying to show the

fruit we have in this wine. We keep things in balance to make a complex wine.”

Again, the wine is from the cool coastal

Casablanca Valley. There are flashes of

strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, some subtle spice, and smooth, elegant tannins.

“We recently received 90 points in

RRP £14.99 “This wine is from one of the most

prestigious valleys in Chile, especially in terms of Carmenère and Cabernet

The Grocery Wine Vault, Hoxton, London “I think what stands out is Ventopuro’s holistic approach, which is not only about sustainability but also about community. “I thought the wines were honest and at a good price point. The Sauvignon is a good textbook example. “I particularly liked the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chardonnay

Sauvignon: the Apalta, in Colchagua,” says

covers all the facets that the variety can

wineries and old vineyards, and some of

fruits aromas, without being too weighty.

Juan José.

“You can find there the most boutique

the highest priced wines in Chile come

from here – it’s a really magical place to be, with its own microclimate. There’s some

incredible energy throughout the area and we tried to capture this with Estelar.”

Working in partnership with some of

the Apalta’s oldest growers, Ventopuro has created a memorable wine that impressed tasters with its concentrated fruit purity, bitter chocolate notes and tobacco leaf aromas.

have – soft silky texture, light oakiness, hints of butter and generous orchard “The Cabernet Sauvignon had a very enticing nose, ripe dark berries, chocolate, and sweet spices. A satisfying, rich mouth-feel with gentle tannins.”

Ray Nicholls

Ripponden Wine Company, West Yorkshire “What a great story – the sustainability programme is unique and interesting. I thought the Chardonnay was the star showing. I really enjoyed the clever use of oak, which gave the wine a beautiful balance. It punched well above its price point.”

Adam Ventress

Chapel Street Wines, Preston “The Sauvignon walked a nice line between the classic lean Loire style and the big Marlborough pungency. Nice fruit but dry and crisp with fresh acidity and some development across the palate, and I thought I detected a bit of leesy texture on the finish. The Chardonnay had a nice balance of fruit and wellintegrated oak, with some richness on the mid palate, but finished fresh. Both very good value.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 21

BITS & BOBS

A French government forecast shows the 2021 wine harvest could be the smallest vintage for at least 50 years. Production will vary between grape

varieties and regions but is likely to fall

by between 24% and 30% overall versus

last year, said Agreste, the statistics arm of

Marc Wise

9 Vines, Brighton Favourite wine on my list

Produttori del Barbaresco – straight Barbaresco, current vintage 2017. Always great wine and value for money for such quality.

Favourite wine and food match

On a recent visit to Alsace, I had an onion tart with a 2005 Dopff Grand Cru Riesling, which was amazing. The sweetness of the onions and the acidity of the Riesling worked beautifully together.

France’s agriculture ministry.

That would mean a total of between

32.6m and 35.6m hectolitres, making 2021 the smallest French wine harvest since at least 1970, Agreste figures show.

There is still some way to go before

grapes are picked in several regions, and

the preliminary forecast focuses primarily

I went with Maisons Marques et Domaines to Bordeaux and had lunch with Madame de Lencquesaing at Pichon Lalande, drinking some immense wines. I sat next to her nephew who was telling me about how he set up Le Piat d’Or in the 1980s with wine from the European wine lake.

Association show the value of exports in

the first half of this year was 31% higher than the same period in 2020 – with volume up by 42%.

However, the value was still 10% down

on 2019’s record figure.

The SWA said the industry “still has some

way to go” to recover lost growth. BBC News, August 19

Provence fires could hit pricing Rosé winemakers in south east France

on quantity rather than quality.

are assessing the impact of recent

Scotch sees signs of export recovery

close to the French Riviera, and was spread

Scotch whisky exports are showing

damage had been caused, and in-depth

Decanter, August 9

signs of recovery after taking a hit from

Favourite wine trip

Magpie

Covid-19 and US tariffs, according to an industry body. New figures from the Scotch Whisky

wildfires. The blaze broke out in the Var region,

by strong winds.

Provence’s wine producers’ association,

the CIVP, said it was unclear how much assessments were underway.

One winery owner told the BBC that any

hit to supplies was likely to push up prices. BBC News, August 22

Favourite wine trade person

Matt Harris. Matt and I set up Planet of the Grapes together in 2004 and I have some great memories of that adventure plus wines we’ve drunk together.

Favourite wine shop

Not really a wine shop, but I used to wander around the Harrods wine department in awe of the range and prices. I think Tanners in Shrewsbury is a great shop. Export values rose by almost a third in the first half of 2021

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 22

Favourite Things

Vignerons braced for fall of up to 30%

Beer does what it says on the tin

THE BURNING QUESTION

Which winemaking country or region excites you most right now?

�

Leeds brewer Northern Monk is

I'd definitely pick northern Spain as my favourite winemaking area at the moment, Bierzo and Rías Baixas specifically. Wines from both regions embrace innovative, modern and often low-intervention methods. And the expressions of Mencia in Bierzo are much lighter. Plus you can find wonderfully textured, expressive whites. Glorious.

partnering with Ronseal to create two craft beers. The limited-edition drinks feature

Ronseal-inspired packaging and have even

”

been colour-matched with real-life Ronseal Fence Life colours. Medium Oak is a 4.5%

Dan Kirby The Suffolk Cellar, Beccles

best bitter while Harvest Gold is a saison. Thom Archer from the brewery said:

“We’re definitely no stranger to the

occasional daft experiment at Northern Monk.”

Morning Advertiser, August 27

�

I guess Uruguay would be an interesting one. I’m intrigued by this little corner of South America and I haven’t visited it yet. I like the styles that are coming from that region; the Albariño and Pinot Noir and Tannat. We sell from a couple of growers but I’d love to go and discover more. When we can travel again that will be the first place on my list.

”

Chris Lockett H Champagne winner H Lockett Bros, North Berwick

�

Cans match Ronseal fence colours

I still really love what’s going on in Spain. In Sierra de Gredos and those slightly more out-of-the way areas. The Spanish islands too. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for island wine so Tenerife, and Majorca. Indigo Wines are really good for Spanish island wines. They are scattered about a bit so you have to look around for them, but that adds to the intrigue and the pleasure when you do come across one.

Sting ‘wasn’t duped’ after all Sting has been accused of “poisonous

”

slander” after repeating claims that an Italian duke tricked him into buying his

Polly Gibson Grapesmith, Hungerford

Tuscan vineyard. In a letter to Italian newspaper Il Fatto

Quotidiano, Simone San Clemente Jr said his father, Simone di San Clemente, “is

alleged to have used a ‘tavern trick’ to pass off Barolo as wine produced on his farm. “Apart from the fact that an

internationally experienced gentleman

�

I’m going to have to say Portugal. They have adjusted their style to better suit the northern European market, the value is there and I find it all very interesting. The value and quality, along with those softer tannins, means that it is perfectly poised for our market. Bruce Evans Grape & Grain, Crediton

”

like Sting should not confuse Barolo

with Chianti, Nebbiolo with Sangiovese,

nothing could be more alien to my father’s character, habits, behaviour, in one word,

to his spirit, than to behave like a swindling innkeeper.”

Champagne Gosset The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584

The Drinks Business, August 25

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 23

INTERVIEW

. T H E D R AY M A N .

Reintroducing lions and bears Brewers are hoping to build instant fanbases by reviving old beer brands that in some cases were reviled or are long forgotten. What, exactly, are they expecting to gain?

tatues have had a bit of a bad press of late, but the relaunch in the UK of a heritage beer brand is relying on a couple of them to drum up interest.

head-scratching in the search for the benefits. Hofmeister’s George the Bear ads are no doubt seen with affection through a nostalgic glow by some, but the brand was

The original Lion Brewery was built on the south bank of the

hardly seen as a benchmark of product quality at the time,

Thames in London in 1836, was destroyed by fire in 1931 and

falling into a class that also included the likes of Harp, Kestrel

eventually torn down in 1949 to build the Royal Festival Hall.

and Skol.

Two of the brewery’s three lion statues survive, one along the

Shipstone’s of Nottingham is another to have a rebirth that

river facing the House of Parliament and one at Twickenham

asks those who can remember the original to suspend their

rugby ground.

recollections of reality in favour of rose-tinted retroism. As

A couple of ex-pat Brits living in Singapore have claimed the

blokes of a certain age from the city can tell you – and it was the

Lion name for beers they sell there, having started brewing in

era of blokes and pints of bitter – the reputation of Shipstone’s

their kitchens just three years ago.

was founded on how bad it frequently was, not how good.

They’re now releasing their Pale Ale and Island Lager in

The modern iterations of Shipstone’s are really very good but,

the UK – and the statues feature prominently in their press

thankfully, they bear little resemblance to something you’d be

materials, despite the fact that, name aside, the new Lion

served in a Nottingham pub 30-odd years ago.

Brewery has little to do with the original one.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of modern craft brewers have built

The revival of old brewing names for new ventures is nothing

better and more lasting positive reputations from the ground

new. In recent years we’ve seen the old London Truman brewery

up, so where exactly does the benefit lie in recreating lost beer

name revived for a range of modern craft beers with a nod to

brands?

the past, seemingly untroubled by the fact that the name was

To have sampled beer from the original Lion Brewery while of

soldered on to that of the much-reviled Watney by Grand

a legal drinking age, you’d now need to be 108 years old. Even if

Metropolitan in the 1980s.

you could find anyone who fits the bill, they would form a pretty

Another name from that decade has also been attempting

limited market.

a comeback. Hofmeister lager has now been upgraded to a

As we’re told in wine all the time, it’s all about “stories” these

passable 5% abv continental style lager rather than the cheapie

days, which brings us back to those statues, but there’s a danger

mainstream version of the past.

that the good stuff about these new beers can get lost behind the

I don’t doubt the integrity and skill that goes into any of these beers, though the reason for rebooting old brands does lead to

history. They can – and should be allowed to – stand on their own four feet.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 24

most popular alcoholic drink, consumed

and enjoyed and talked about by people in how minutely defined.

It also ignores the fact that all specialist

take you to task for trying to talk about

something you love in a way that is unusual

yourself surrounded by a group of insiders

in their own lexicon, you’re going to feel

attempt to go beyond the lists of fruit and

subjects have their own terminology, which sounds funny to outsiders. If you find

from a field with which you don’t have

much familiarity, and who speak fluently excluded. This is easy enough for most

people to understand when it comes to the sciences or even sport. Why should wine

(and the equally mocked language of art) not be the same?

his attitude isn’t confined to

those looking in on wine from the outside. There’s a tendency in the

wine trade, too, to mock or jeer the more

metaphorical tasting notes, the ones that the WSET-approved medium-plus-plus intensity and stopwatched finishes, to

something more unusually allusive or even poetic.

Of course, some, perhaps most, of those

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 29

attempts fail: they may miss the mark,

or over-reach or just not have the ring of truth.

When they work, however, whether

they’re dropped in a conversation with a

colleague, or found in the prose of a master tasting note-maker such as Andrew Jefford or Victoria Moore, they add enormously to our experience and understanding of the wines in question.

Rather than worrying about the mockery

of those who will never understand

us, then, it’s time the wine trade fully

embraced its pretentious side. I’m sure

the outside world will be amused by our presumption, but they’ll never know the joy we get from even the most naive of Burgundies.

A modern wine enthusiast momentarily stumped for a reference that will amuse the chaps at the CERN wine society

Claim your free samples from Donna Elvira’s stunning Campania line-up The Donna Elvira range showcases the most revered grape varieties of Italy’s Campania region. The wines are available from UK stock and aimed exclusively at specialist wine merchants and the premium on-trade. The company is offering Wine Merchant readers the chance to sample any two wines from the four we feature opposite, without obligation. Simply email Sara Fink (sara@donnaelvira.com) with your selections and the bottles will be despatched as soon as possible. Donna Elvira is a winery that represents the fulfilment of a longstanding dream of UK-based entrepreneur Tony Fink and his family. The distribution is handled by Campania Wines. This offer is being managed by Donna Elvira. Every effort will be made to send respondents their first two choices but promotional stock is limited. Please include full address details in your email, along with some information about the type of independent wine company you run. Only one set of samples can be sent to any one business.

Aegidius Greco di Tufo 2019 Greco is the most famous and important

grape variety of Irpinia, regarded not just as one of the most fertile grape-growing

areas of Campania but of Italy as a whole. With Aegidius, the ambition is not

simply to reflect the varietal characteristics that Greco devotees expect to find, but to tell a story of the terroir of the St’Egidio

vineyard at Montefusco, where the soils are clay loam, and the elevation 520 metres

above sea level. The variety perfoms best at this sort of altitude, preserving freshness and acidity in the fruit.

The year 2019 was characterised by

drought and warm temperatures. But the

vines were able to withstand climate stress and delivered the quality that the Donna Elvira team were hoping for.

The wine emerged straw yellow, with

aromas of grapefruit and orange blossom. Fresh, softly tannic, concentrated and

savoury, it’s a perfect partner for tuna tartare, prawns and other shellfish. RRP: £18

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 30

Fink Fiano di Avellino 2019

Settemazze Aglianico 2018

Fiano is the second most widespread white

Donna Elvira founder Tony Fink fell in love

Falanghina is another mainstay of

to create his own winery in the region.

established a foothold in Irpinia.

grape variety in Campania, after Greco di Tufo.

The vines at the Lapio vineyard are

trellis trained and cane pruned (double

branched guyot). No debudding is carried out but green pruning is practiced to

improve the canopy microclimate and

reduce shoot density. Green harvesting improves the ripening potential of the grapes.

The fruit was partly destemmed and

softly pressed, with the fermentation

taking place in stainless steel. The wine spends five months on its lees.

The colour is straw yellow with beautiful

green reflections. Intriguing on the nose, it has fruity scents of citrus peel, quince,

Williams pear and yellow flowers. On the palate it’s fresh and spicy, with mineral

notes persisting all the way through the

finish. The wine pairs with rice dishes, cous cous and all kinds of fish. RRP: £18

with Campania Aglianico as a young man – in fact it was the variety that inspired him But as well as hitting the highs, the

variety can lend its name to wines that are astringent and tannic.

These problems are avoided thanks to

the position (and meticulous management) of the Grottoni vineyard, where the grapes tend to ripen early and vine growth is vigorous.

The goal was to produce a fruity, long

and concentrated wine that also manages

to be fresh and elegant. Tannins are part of the mix, but they are soft and silky rather than jarring.

Even so, this is still a young wine and

its exuberance will mellow as the years go by, accentuating its attractive cherry and strawberry notes.

A wine for carnivores, that pairs well

with all kinds of hearty meat dishes. RRP: £18

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 31

Fringilla Falanghina 2019 Campania viticulture: an adaptable and versatile grape that has only recently

The fruit here comes from the Grottoni

vineyard, near the winery itself, where the drought conditions of 2019 did not have

the same problematic impact as they did isn so many other areas.

Hand-picked fruit was fermented in

stainless steel before spending five months on its lees, emerging ready for market a month after bottling.

The wine’s colour is golden yellow with

a glint of green. The aroma is elegant and reminiscent of pineapple, ripe plum and

broom flowers, with herbaceous scents of thyme and sage.

The palate is balanced with warm and

fresh sensations, and flashes of yellow fruit. It’s an everyday-drinking wine that

comes into its own with summer pasta dishes, and tomato and mozzarella. RRP: £18

MERCHANT PROFILE

Matt Thompson, Wentworth, August 2021

Let there be light For 30 years, Lightfoot Wines was adored for its defiantly old-school approach and its mysterious dark corners. Under new ownership, the tiny South Yorkshire shop is a much brighter place and has been modernised just enough to keep the locals onside. Business has boomed, as Nigel Huddleston discovered on a recent visit

sk most outsiders what they

associate with South Yorkshire and they’d put its industrial

heritage in coal and steel near the top

of the list. The lush green farmland that

lies east of the M1 between Barnsley and Rotherham is less feted, but it’s here on the main street through the village of

Wentworth that you’ll find Lightfoot Wines, a tiny, traditional wine merchant in an old stone building, next to the village pub and across the road from the general store.

Once a butchers, the site has been a wine

shop for 35 years, most of those in the

guise of Lightfoot Wines, the name given

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 32

to it by former owner Derek Lightfoot who retired four years ago.

That’s when it was bought by well-

known local businessman Sir Dave

Richards, whose interests also included a company importing wine to the UK to be consolidated for onward export.

The Lightfoot building is part of the

Fitzwilliam Estate that owns much of the village and specifies the shade of green

that its door and window frames have to be painted. Half a mile up the road is the

tourist hotspot of Wentworth Woodhouse, reputed to be the largest-fronted house in Europe.

LIGHTFOOT WINES

“We can’t actually ever own our building,”

says Matt Thompson, who worked with Sir Dave in the export business before

taking the managerial reins at the shop on its acquisition. “The rent is nothing really, because of the square foot of it, and we utilise every space we’ve got.

“People are amazed by how small it is,

but they look around and realise how much we’ve got here. We have tourists coming

and asking if they can take a picture. I don’t think there are that many old-fashioned bottle shops like this left.

“The estate likes to have it as a wine shop

because it’s a destination and gives them a bit of kudos. And they give us a bit of kudos. It works both ways.

“There are a lot of people who work on

the estate who are roofers, stone wallers, proper blokes, who’ll come in here and

ask for a Vinho Verde. I suppose it’s just because it’s been here for 35 years and it’s managed to change a few attitudes

in that time. They’re interested, eclectic

‘People are amazed by how small it is, but they look around and realise how much we’ve got here’ but he was never very interested in finding

man. You just couldn’t do that now. It didn’t

old-school; he’d work by going through

mess, but we wanted it to be usable.

more. He knew what he made every year

and that was enough for him. He was very the phone book and ringing people up.

You used to have to come to the door and

hour. It was really dark. We put new lights

You can get to Leeds in 35 minutes from

for a bottle and he’d find it after half an

in, carpet, a lick of paint, heaters for the

winter, and just sectioned everything off

into countries. We wanted to actually get people in the door – like it should have been.

What other changes did you make to the

the wine shop?

write down every sale on paper for the tax

knew of this place and always liked the

What’s the customer base?

People come from all over the place.

out the back and shuffle around looking

way the business operates?

We had an office down the road, so we

the floor. It was a mess. We wanted a bit of

ask him for what you wanted and he’d go

customers.”

What was the thinking behind buying

even have carpet; you couldn’t even see

We’ve put a system in that does all the

stock and accounts. Derek literally used to

Because we’re very close to the M1 we have a couple of people come in from Leeds.

here. We’re five minutes from Sheffield,

technically in Rotherham, and Barnsley is two minutes down the road. We’re right

in the middle of a very populous area with a chunk of green and it attracts people. There’s not that much green around in

South Yorkshire. The old mining towns like

Goldthorpe and Mexborough are very close Continues page 34

quirkiness of it. We needed another string to our bow. Derek was coming up to

retirement and he offered it to us. We tried to cut a deal straight away but it wasn’t enough for him to retire, so he waited

a couple of years, did a bit of seething, frantically saved for his pension by

phoning everyone he could for orders, and then he eventually sold it to us. It’s an old-

fashioned wine shop and we didn’t want to change that in any way. A lot of the regular customers were sceptical that we would come in and modernise it. So what have you done?

Tidied it up. It was used almost as a store

cupboard. Derek had his regular customers

Wentworth Woodhouse, a Grade I listed building with more than 300 rooms

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 33

MERCHANT PROFILE

From page 33

to here, so you get a real eclectic mix of

people, from landowners to retired miners. Does the product range reflect that?

Yes, we go from £5.99 to very fine wines.

the patrons of the house, who live on

a traditional looking Riesling]. You could

literally cater for all tastes and all pockets.

wines well in the first place, you often find

Jersey, come in, and they want your

Montrachets and other Burgundies. We can That’s the customer base: anyone and everyone.

What’s the supplier portfolio like?

probably put a fancy piece of artwork on it and double the price. If you pick your they’ve been farming like that for years anyway, so I don’t really understand it. Do you import directly?

We’ve got some old Cristal magnums from

We’ll buy off anyone, including receivers

We did bring in some ourselves from

range goes from £24 to old Macallans from

ex-stock via the receiver. If you went on the

The nearest one now is Burton upon Trent.

the 1980s in the original rosewood boxes, and they’re close to £2,000. The whisky

the 1980s which are getting up to £1,000 a bottle. People phone us and want to make an offer but we’re never in a rush to sell

them because they never go down in value. We’re never desperate for cash flow so

we don’t have to sell things like that. We’d rather keep them because it retains value

in the business – and at the right time we’ll let them go.

What does Lightfoot look for in a wine? We’ve got a real random, eclectic mix.

We’ve got some bottles of Chinese wines in the back room which sell. We quite

of companies that have gone bust. We got quite a lot of wine from Jamie’s Italian,

website you could see it’d been charging

£23 or £24 a bottle and it was just standard kind of Fiano or Greco, though it did taste quite good. We got it really cheap.

Then we go for big boys like Boutinot.

The Romanian and Moldovan wine guy is a one-man band in Halifax called

Spain, but the local bond closed down, so it became increasingly difficult for us to do. We do occasionally bring stuff in, but we

try to get other people to do it for us now, especially after Brexit.

How has that impacted the business? We sell baijiu, the Chinese spirit. There’s

a big Chinese community in Sheffield but,

‘We’ll buy off anyone, including receivers of companies that have gone bust. We got quite a lot of wine from Jamie’s Italian’

like eastern Europe. Romania does really

Transylvania Wine. His wife’s a doctor at

rather randomly, we have a customer in

fanbase. People like it because it’s different.

his net doesn’t reach that far, so we get

Copenhagen and orders two bottles of

well and Germany is coming into its own. Romanian wine has developed a bit of

You can’t ... well, perhaps you can go into Aldi and buy a bottle of Romanian wine,

but it would be on the cheaper side, I think. We sell some more premium Romanian wines and they do very well.

The older customers find it difficult to

get some of the old-fashioned sweeter red German wines like Dornfelder, so they do

Leeds General and he was an old general in the Romanian Army. We like him because

something fairly exclusive to us in this area. I like some of the things the big

companies do, but everyone else is selling them as well. We tried to support other independent businesses I suppose, and then you get something different.

How does the whole organic, vegan,

very well. We do a really old-fashioned

biodynamic, natural thing go down in

in Latin, not that there are many Latin

movement of putting a fancy piece of

eastern European red called Sangele

South Yorkshire?

speakers round here. But we have a quite

artwork on the bottle and not actually

Denmark for it. It’s a hard thing to get

in Europe. The customer is just outside

the most expensive baijiu, which is £60 a

bottle. They ended up paying £100 on the

delivery yesterday. I had to fill in a different

form and go online and give a very accurate description of what’s in the package, or customs somewhere will send it back.

You also have to apply for a EORI number, which is basically your tax code with GB

and two zeros on the end. You have to fill in a form for them to send you a number you

Ursului, or Bear’s Blood. The name’s

I’m not entirely sure I subscribe to that

fanbase for sweet reds like that. Not even

telling you what it is. If you look at half

Prices are shooting up, but to counter that

and don’t even shout about it [pointing to

Wines the other day. We usually order 60

your posh London wine merchants do too many of them anymore.

We try to cater for everyone. Sometimes

the German stuff, they’ve been doing it

for years anyway. They have vegan wines

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 34

already know … but you’ve got to do it. What about with stock coming in?

we’re buying more in bulk to get a better

price. We put in an order with North South

LIGHTFOOT WINES

cases, but we realised we’d get a better price if we put a 100-case order in, so I

did that. It brought the price back down

to where we were before. Transport costs have gone up considerably. It’s not worth

bringing in a pallet in anymore. You could bring one in for about £200 but now it’s

about £500. They say the costs are coming from delays at the ports because lorry drivers are spending an extra night in

the cab doing the paperwork in a layby.

Eventually, that will be streamlined and maybe the cost will come back down.

What about Covid and the lockdowns. How has all that been? It was strange here because half the people were very cautious and the other half are farmworkers who are out in the open air

who carried on as if nothing had happened. We had the door shut at first [in March 2020]. But the website was going mad, the phone was going mad, and people

were literally banging on the door. I think we served just about everyone in South Yorkshire at some point.

After lockdown, some customers who

The building is owned by the Fitzwilliam Estate, which insists the door must be painted green

we’d picked up from the supermarkets left us – and they were probably always going

to, which is fine. But we retained the good ones, who were happy to have found a

really good independent wine merchant. We made some brilliant customers who

probably wouldn’t have searched for us, but couldn’t go to where they normally

bought wine and found someone closer to home.

So not all bad then? No, people have tended to go back to local and independent. Some people may have had a perception of this place as being

really expensive and you had to be one of the local landowners to come in. But you can get a sweet bottle of rosé for £5.99 if Continues page 36

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 35

MERCHANT PROFILE

From page 35

that’s your thing, and we’ll not look down on you.

We also tried to make ourselves as

convenient as possible, so we deliver

free locally. I’ll close up early and do the

deliveries on the way home. I live on the

south side of Sheffield, so I can cover quite

recently, which we don’t do. We did beer

How’s the shop laid out?

been known for beer. They stock all the

at the back. Although we have California

in lockdown because people couldn’t get

It’s by country. More new world in the

local beers, so if anyone asks for beer we

and New Zealand in there, but don’t ask

to the supermarket but we’ve never really send them over the road. It’s £2.50 a can,

so there’s not enough per spend in it for us

to do a couple of cans, but it works for them. What about spirits? There’s quite a

a lot of ground without going too much out

range in the shop.

drew the line at that. And anyway, we don’t

might buy some whisky because their

of the way. One customer said, “Could you

Spirits have always done well, especially

have an Elvis costume.

money’s dead in the bank, and they buy

deliver some wine dressed as Elvis?” We

How do you put yourself out there in normal times? We’ve got a wine tasting at the house for charity in September. Everyone kind of supports each other locally. The house

attracts a lot of people and they do a lot of

weddings, so they push that business back

to us, and, in return, I’ll do the charity wine tasting up there.

There’s an antiques shop up the road,

and they like doing social media, so they help us with that. We share each other’s posts and it all sort of snowballs. It can be very touristy with people pottering

around, so we send the tourists up and down between us.

You’re right opposite the village shop. Is that a friendly relationship? They buy wine from us to sell but they’ve found more success with local beer

whisky, because it’s so collectible. People one to drink and one to stick in the loft.

front, and eastern Europe, with old world me why. It’s just the way it is. Or the way it

was. You can’t change too many things. The locals won’t like it.

I remember coming in to do a stocktake

with Derek – which was nigh on impossible – when we wanted to make him an offer, because we wanted to check a cross-

section of the stock. One of the locals was

here and looked at me and said: “Don’t you change it too much or I’m not coming in

again.” We didn’t change it too

much; we just made it better.

He still comes in and he loves it.

You can always tell when one

of the collectible whiskies has

Have the changes that the

gone out of circulation. If we’ve got some left in stock, all the

locals allowed you to make

and look a bit sheepish.

from just making a few

resulted in growth?

whisky nerds come in and ask how many of them we’ve got

It’s got to be close to 100%

whisky from Yorkshire. They

now and he comes in and says:

changes. We still see Derek

We’ve got the Filey Bay

“I should have done all this, but

do a Rioja Cask, a Moscatel

I didn’t”. But he was on his own

Cask and a Peated Finish and

and he didn’t get any support.

we literally put them on the

I’ve got the support of Sir Dave.

shelves and they were gone.

He comes and covers for me on

People round here like

my days off and he’s got great

Yorkshire products. We also stock the local wines from Renishaw Hall, which are

popular because it’s a Sheffield postcode,

even though technically I think they’re just over the Derbyshire border.

‘One of the locals was here and looked at me and said, don’t you change it too much or I’m not coming in again’ THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 36

contacts.

Derek’s a customer now. He

still comes down and sits on a stool and

chats to me. And when a customer comes in, he can’t help himself and starts trying

to sell them stuff. I have to remind him he

doesn’t work here. The customers wonder who he is.

So what’s mainly driven that growth? Social media, building a proper website …

opening the door helped, turning the light on helped. Some people come to see us

now and they’re surprised they can get in the shop.

AWARD WINNING BOTTLED COCKTAILS

Bottle Bar and Shop 2 Catford Broadway, SE6 4SP drink@bottlebarandshop.com bottlebarandshop.com

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 37

by Bourdain pointedly not sampling

was in my third office having lunch.

the ice cream, having been given a bum

Not the office with the prehistoric

steer from the unlikely cameo of Janey

Shitchair of Back Doom, nor the

Godley. Anyway, thanks for leaving the

newly renovated Zenden office, built

coast clear for my travelogue-cum-social

to alleviate the pain induced from the

Shitchair – allowing me to lie down on

the zedbed on the freezer with a snooker

11. ICE CREAM

Instagram – but the al fresco “third office”

Phoebe Weller of Valhalla’s

ball in my shoulder-blade and respond

to emails and post hilarious content on

next to the river where I sit cross-legged

on the wall, alarming people coming up the steps from the salmonfilled/trolleyfilled/ occasionally idyllic Kelvin and where I

would, in the good ole bad ole days, smoke

rollies and casually pose to “by chance” run

Goat in Glasgow would like to make a TV programme about expat Italian ice cream makers but instead she’s attempting to convince people that you can make soup out of crisps.

likes Citra-hopped IPAs but isn’t a dick

and we had a little moment of shaking

West Coast of Scotland (Sinking! Low!) and

where I shared my idea for a TV show

We talk about the difference between the

the East Coast (Noble! Rising! Alarming!

Harsh!) He’s talking and the sun is shining and I grok a little bit more about him: we both know the A92 and the Moray Coast

with the lunch and rest of time stealer, Natural Jim, who has

recently yoked me into some weird gang

called The Ideas Factory. I have submitted one idea to the factory: Soup to Crisps –

plain crisps with a sachet of condensed, dehydrated soup powder think of a soup

mayonnaise & something fermented – and

about it.

his is not an idea I will be sharing

because can you

Lunch was leftovers – dahl & olives &

and along comes that nice customer who

RIP).

a la Salt ‘n’ Shake

into someone who I fancied.

I was looking at the trees and breathing

documentary-cum-food show, Anthony.

our heads because they’re Tories up there (in Scotland!) and another little moment

where I’d visit expat Italian and ScottishItalian ice cream makers – like Angelo in

the weird 80s peachplumped parlour up the road in Jordanhill, making good ole

plain ole vanilla ice cream every day for 60 years from a recipe his dad gave him.

In Moray, an excellent day can be had

walking between Portsoy and Cullen, sampling and resampling the minute differences between the two vanilla

ice creams (favourite: Portsoy). In my

hometown I knew Luvian’s not as a wine shop but as the home of the “chocolatecoated mystery ice-cream bombe”

(favourite: lemon sorbet) and its nemesis, Jannetta’s 100 flavours (favourite: Sky Blue). In Glasgow’s West End there’s

Jaconelli’s and the Uni Café (immortalised

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 38

that wouldn’t work as a

flavour of

crisps? I can’t. Jim doesn’t

get it and keeps sending me

pictures of soup from

Pinterest which doesn’t help

because I know what soup is.

The big problem with the Ideas Factory

is that none of the Ideas Labourers have any ideas1 nor can be bothered helping

anyone else with their ideas. So if anyone has any ideas to help me push forward

either the TV show or the crisp thing or the QR code thing, let me know. I’ll be in the third office.

Well actually there was a good idea about QR codes for recycling things more efficiently. Dear Wine Industry, please could we have QR codes on every bottle leading to tech sheets etc etc? AN EXCELLENT IDEA! 1

Business France UK presents

Business France ad supplied separately

French Connections French wines looking for wine merchants

12th October 2021 | 10am-5pm Brettenham House, London, WC2E 7EN pandora.mistry@businessfrance.fr

THE WINEMAKER FILES //

Almudena Alberca MW

Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos Almudena joined the business in 2015 as head winemaker, leading a transformation of the wine company, which owns vineyards and wineries in Spain’s most renowned wine regions, including Bodegas Cosme Palacio in Rioja and Bodegas Viña Mayor in Ribera del Duero.

The fact that I’m Spain’s first female Master of Wine has proven very newsworthy. I think it’s something that stood out as there continues to be more men than women in the world of wine.

My career started out developing top-end wines for very special boutique wineries, where I worked solely with very old vineyards in obscure and magical places. I also worked on selecting Spanish wines for an American distributor. I was named as one of “Spain’s Young Guns” by Decanter, and the wines I had made obtained very high scores both nationally and internationally. A short time afterwards, in August 2018, I completed my Master of Wine studies. Family-owned Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos has over 125 years’ experience of crafting high quality wines, and is known for being a pioneering and progressive wine company, creating wines that tell a unique story that reflects the character of each place.

Sustainability is a key part of our philosophy. Committed to the environment, our wineries were pioneers in Spain in being carbon neutral and using 100% renewable energy. We are implementing an ambitious regenerative viticulture project. Cosme Palacio wines have always been

ahead of their time. Cosme Palacio was an entrepreneur and visionary who founded the winery in 1894, using winemaking techniques that were revolutionary at the time. The Rioja Alavesa is one of the best places in the world to cultivate Tempranillo due to its altitude, climate and the quality of its soils. The wine is fantastic, full of personality, and is made from grapes from various old vines in the area. We are also lucky to own one of the very few vineyards granted “viñedo singular” status.

At Viña Mayor, we aim to make wines that are easy to drink, without losing the typical character of the area. They should maintain the natural acidity and fruit concentration combined with the complexity added by the area’s old vines. I want to be able to enjoy a Ribera del Duero at any moment of the day and not need a very heavy meal alongside it.

I think our Viña Mayor wines fulfil everything that the growing number of Ribera del Duero consumers in the UK are looking for. In terms of Rioja, our wines also stand out in the competitive UK market as they show typicity, they are approachable, easy to drink without lacking complexity, enjoyable to drink in any situation. In addition, there is a solid foundation to the project, which is committed to important values such as sustainability. It’s the complete package.

Find out more about Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos at entrecanalesdomecq.com Wines are imported into the UK by North South Wines 020 3871 9210 www.northsouthwines.co.uk THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 40

Cosme Palacio Reserva DOCa Rioja Tim Atkin 94 points

RRP: £26.99

A wine that manages to achieve fruity complexity in ripe and full serenity. Enveloping and fleshy, powerful, yet approachable and delicate with sensations of sweetness due to its ripeness, it has very fine tannins and is mature and elegant, well-made and balanced, with a silky, very long finish.

Viña Mayor Crianza DO Ribera del Duero Tim Atkin 92 points

RRP: £19.99

A rounded, intense, lively and bright wine. It has good fruit intensity, with great concentration and firm tannins. Pleasant and full-flavoured, we can find aromas and notes of red fruit and forest berries. Perfumed notes of liquorice. Secondary notes of coffee, toasted notes, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. Rich and delicious.

Glorioso Selección Especial DOCa Rioja Tim Atkin 91 points

RRP: £13.99

A more classic wine in terms of ageing, a mixture of the essence of Rioja combined with the winery's expertise. A good intensity of fruity aromas combined with oak spices and some leather notes from the bottle ageing. A good balance between fruit and tannins, with a medium body and fleshy texture.

Jumbo Igloo ice bucket Nothing beats a traditional ice bucket and custom printing means you can promote your favourite labels in-house. This superstrong but stylish bucket has a capacity of six bottles and is available in sleek frosted or matt satin black finish. Waitersfriend. co.uk. Branding available from 52 pieces

Vacuvin counter display unit These nifty display cases come pre-packed meaning you can open the box and start making the most of impulse purchases at your till point. The filled display case takes up minimal counter space at just 50cm x 43cm x 40cm and contains 12 wine save stoppers (sets of two), 12 active wine coolers (silver), 10 wine saver pumps and stoppers and seven winged corkscrews. Wine merchants will save 15% compared to buying products individually and will receive a free reusable display case. When stocks start to run low simply top up individual items, which can be bought

And there it was, gone. Summer 2021 was for the most part a damp and breezy squib, so we have no apologies for hastening towards a warming cocktail suggestion for the autumn. This is loosely based on a recipe by Jeffrey Morgenthaler of the Bel Ami Lounge in Oregon in 2008. His original called specifically for rye whiskey and the herbal liqueur Liquore Strega but there’s some creative wiggle room available on what style of whiskey or brands to use.

separately as and when required. Available from October. wbc.co.uk

SAYV argon gas canisters Since Coravins and mini wine samples came into our lives, even the least scientifically-minded among us have come to appreciate the

3cl bourbon or rye whiskey 3cl Calvados 3cl good quality sweet vermouth 1cl herbal liqueur Two dashes of Angostura bitters

merits of argon: an inert and odourless gas that protects wine from the damaging effects of oxygen. Start-up business SAYV is marketing

Fill a tumbler or old fashioned glass with ice. Add all the ingredients and stir well. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

canisters of argon that can simply be pumped into any open bottle of wine, through a food-grade silicon tube. Replace the cork or screwcap and the company says the liquid will be perfectly protected. Each canister can preserve up to 15 bottles of wine. Master of Wine Angela Mount has tested and endorsed the system and is acting as SAYV’s UK ambassador. Sayvwine.com/trade, RRP £5 (12 canisters per shelf-ready carton)

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 41

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

Azienda Agricola Cortese: more than organic

zienda Agricola Cortese, in Sicily’s south-eastern corner of Vittoria, is a fully sustainable estate, producing organic wines from indigenous, ancient grape varieties, which are aimed at independent retailers. Owned by brother and sister Stefano and Marina Girelli, passionate advocates for sustainable and organic winemaking, Cortese is a near neighbour of Girelli’s original organic Sicilian estate, Feudo di Santa Tresa, but the two estates could not be more distinct in style. Acquired by the Girellis in 2016 after a long six years of negotiation, Cortese has always been farmed organically, but was in a terrible state of decay, with both vineyards and winery in need of a great deal of maintenance. On closer inspection it transpired that, despite the wild appearance of

the vineyards, there were a lot of very old and extremely interesting vines which were producing excellent fruit, and surprisingly good results were achieved. It became clear that these mature vineyards had some unique clones – and that the fully ripened grapes were truly exceptional, despite the condition of the vines. All of the grapes for the top range, La Selezione, are grown on the estate, while for the second-tier Nostru range, the grapes are bought in from trusted growers. The more obscure indigenous grapes include the white varieties Catarratto Lucido (the highest quality in the Catarratto “family”) and Carricante, as well as the red Nerello Mascalese. Nostru is a great expression of Nerello Mascalese, which is predominantly grown in the Etna area, where the wines command much higher prices.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 42

In the vineyards Using selezione clonale, vines are field-grafted onto rootstocks from the Cortese estate. This ensures that only the optimum clones are used for each specific vineyard. Vineyards are treated as individuals – there is no standardisation. Cortese avoids any chemical treatment of the soil: each strip of land is encouraged to grow and develop according to its own rhythms, expressing individuality and unique character. Going back in time Organic certification is important, but Cortese goes further than that. There is respect for the ecosystem, which means natural fertilisers and traditional methods are preferred. As the Girellis put it, they are going back to the time when making wine organically was not a choice, but the

Sponsored feature

only way. Even adverse conditions contribute to maintaining the natural balance, allowing the vines to grow strong and healthy, building natural defences, with absolutely no need for chemical interventions of any kind.

Wait, don’t force It’s important to have confidence in nature, but this needed to be balanced by investing time in scientific research. It is vital to understand, decode and protect the important interactions within the vineyard and to allow the personality of each single vineyard to evolve.

Courage in the winery Taking tradition as inspiration, Girelli employs ancient winemaking techniques such as fermentation in terracotta, which allows skin contact for a particularly long time. The wine is fermented on the skins, finishing the fermentation in botti, and wine is kept on its fine lees for at least nine months. Fermentation in open barriques means that small parcels of wine can be fermented at any one time – a kind of micro-fermentation. Stefano Girelli explains: “2016 was our first vintage and it was really an experiment – we were surprised to

have such great results. Now in 2021, I am happy to say that Cortese is delivering the quality that we want in wines which are a true reflection of the personality of the Cortese estate. “The aim is simple and carries on the ethos of the estate,” he continues. “To produce wines as naturally as possible, using organic grapes and making interesting, typical, quality wines following ancient Sicilian traditions, which are further improved by modern methods.”

The wines Nostru The Nostru labels are unusual and striking – vibrant colours and images which reflect the island of Sicily – with the idea of giving them a memorable, distinctive shelf presence, instantly recognisable as Sicilian and organic. The Selezione labels are more elegant, classic and premium. Cortese Nostru, approximate RRP all £11.99 • Catarratto Lucido, Terre Siciliane IGP • Carricante, Terre Siciliane IGP • Nerello Mascalese, Terre Siciliane IGP • Nero d’Avola Sicilia DOC (no sulphur added)

La Selezione The La Selezione labels have an understated, elegant, classic and premium look. Cortese Selezione: • Vanedda Biano Siciliane IGP, £17.99 • Sabuci Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, £20.99 • Senia Nero d’Avola Terre Siciliane IGP, £20.99

September is Cortese month! To coincide with Organic September, North South Wines is running Cortese Month for independent retailers. Activities include the following: • Zoom masterclasses hosted by Stefano Girelli • Consumer Zoom tastings hosted by select retailers with Stefano

• In store customer tastings hosted by North South Wines

• Sampling stock for

customers to support purchases in store • Organic September promotions

The wines are available to the trade via North South Wines. Please contact felicity@ northsouthwines.co.uk for further information. www.agricolacortese.com Twitter: @CorteseSicilia Insta: @aziendaagricolacortese

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 43

FB: @aziendaagricolacortese

A TOUR OF CHILE IN The diversity encouraged by Chile’s variations of soil type, climate, altitude and vineyard stewardship was evident in an online tasting hosted by Wines of Chile. Master of Wine and Chile expert Alistair Cooper MW led the tasting in which winemakers from across the country’s wine regions talked about wines that showed its depth. “I see Chile as being the most diverse and dynamic new world producing country,” said Cooper. “Chile ticks so many boxes and has so many aspects that resonate with today’s engaged consumer. “Chile, possibly more than any other country in the world, has a plethora of old vines. There are a huge amount of volcanic soils, which is quite topical at the moment, because of that minerality, salinity and smokiness they can give. “There are also a lot of high altitude and coastal vineyards which makes it an amazing playground for wineries and viticulture. It’s also got a huge history, with no phylloxera and old, original rootstocks. It really is an exciting time for Chile.” Ten winemakers told those taking part in the tasting what makes their wine part of this dynamic period in Chile’s winemaking history.

Casas del Bosque Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Viña Undurraga TH Chardonnay 2019, Limarí

Viña Leyda Las Brisas Pinot Noir 2020

Casablanca

Hallgarten & Novum Wines,

Leyda

ABS Wine Agencies, RRP £12.30

RRP £18.99

Enotria&Coe, RRP £16.95

Sam Harrop MW,

Rafael Urrejola, winemaker:

Viviana Navarette,

consultant winemaker:

“The TH range comprises

winemaker: “We want to be

“Yields are very low

20 wines from 11 different

very respectful of our grape

because we don’t have as

regions. The whole idea

varieties and try to go into

much water in Casablanca

is to show the diversity of

the bottle as pure as we

as in other parts of Chile.

Chile and the extraordinary

can. We are obsessed with

That results in smaller berries

differences we have between

Pinot Noir and we’re using

and lower crops. It means

soils and climates. Limarí

only lots that have granitic

we get greater intensity,

offers a personality and

soil. We were looking for a

higher natural acidity and

character that’s very unique

palate that had vibrancy,

greater balance in the fruit.”

for Chilean Chardonnay – a

with a backbone of acidity,

The company has recently

cool influence from the Pacific

and the granite gives more

launched a premium cool-

coast and chalky soil.”

energy and bit of grip.”

climate Syrah, La Trampa.

Viña Morandé Adventure Mediterraneo 2018, Maule Berkmann Wine Cellars, RRP £24.49 Ricardo Baettig, winemaker: “This is a blend which is mostly grafted Grenache, with some old root Carignan, and some Syrah, Marsanne and Roussanne. Grenache is not prominent in Chile, but we have the climate and felt it was a natural next step for this area. Chile has more than enough diversity of soil and climate to produce a variety of good quality Grenache.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 44

10 WINES Odfjell Vineyards Orzada Carignan 2019, Maule

Sutil Limited Release Syrah 2018, Limarí

Emiliana Organic Vineyards Coyam 2019

Alliance Wine, RRP £20.99

Castelnau Wine Agencies,

Colchagua

RRP £19.99

Boutinot Wine, RRP £22

Arnaud Hereu, winemaker: “Carignan is something

Camilo Viani, winemaker:

Noelia Orts, winemaker: “This is a very

very special for us. The

“The vineyard has chalk

big blend of nine grape varieties,

Cauquenes vineyard is old,

and limestone that gives the

mostly Syrah and Carménère.

established and balanced.

wines minerality, saltiness

The percentages can change

It’s planted in red clay with

and a sense of origin. The

but the soul of Coyam is

deep roots. You need that.

Syrah we grow there takes

always intact because we

We are trying to make wines

all this influence of the place,

work with nature. This blend

that are transparent and

the soil and the latitude. The

has 5% Carignan, and we

authentic – they are what they

wine talks about complexity

are increasing the amount of

are. We try to be simple but it’s

in a good way because it’s

Grenache, Mourvèdre and

very difficult to be simple, to

not too heavy; it’s very easy

Cabernet Sauvignon. They

try not to do anything.”

to drink.”

give a nice acidity, freshness and tension which we really like.”

Viña Valdivieso Caballo Loco Grand Cru, Maipo 2017 Bibendum Wine, RRP £28 Brett Jackson, winemaker: “The Grand Cru range is individual examples from the vineyards around Chile used in the Caballo Loco blend. We’re

Viña Casa Silva S7 Single Block Carménère 2018, Colchagua Jackson Nugent Vintners, RRP £27 René Vásquez, vineyard manager: “This comes from Los Lingues, in the foothills of the Andes in the eastern part of

in the upper Maipo here. It’s got a real nice cooling effect from the mountains. It’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. We want to maintain freshness in the wine and Cabernet Franc reinforces it. It brings a nice savoury edge to the wine.”

Colchagua. With Carménère, each part

Viña Errázuriz Don Maximiano 2017 Aconcagua Hatch Mansfield, RRP £64 Francisco Baettig, winemaker: “Don Maximiano was 100% Cabernet Sauvignon but we’ve been changing it into a Cabernetbased wine with some other Bordeaux varieties over time,

of the soil is really important;

playing with the varieties each

we need a touch of sand and

season to add complexity. The

clay, but we also have alluvial

challenge in Chile is how to

soil. The key for Carménère is

preserve freshness. We try to

balance. We planted seven

avoid the plant suffering stress,

blocks in 1997 and today

so we might irrigate a bit more

they are 24 years old, so the

or promote a little bit more vigour so that

balance in the vineyards is very natural.”

the leaves protect the fruit.”

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 45

the other cabernet

after decades in the wilderness, cabernet franc is showing signs of hitting the big time. winemakers and consumers alike have been won over by the drinkability and freshness of the wines this surprisingly adaptable variety produces. David Williams takes a look at the places where cab franc is creating the most excitement

f you’d asked a group of wine experts 20 years ago which grape varieties they thought were likely to be capturing the attention of winemakers and consumers in 2021,

Cabernet Franc would probably not have been near the top of many lists.

Back then, in a period that could, in retrospect, be

described as peak ripeness, when critics and their punters were demanding lushness, power and mouthfilling sweet fruit, Cab Franc’s charms were distinctly old school.

It was a variety that was best known for its role as the

most widely planted red in the Loire, a region that many

critics (and wine reference works) at the time thought was too marginal to produce great or even drinkable red wines in more than a couple of vintages each decade.

Elsewhere, the influence of Bordeaux held sway: Cab

along by a bunch of wider wine-world trends: many Cab Francs fit in well with the recent appetite for

lighter, refreshing, chillable reds with minimal oak. And

winemakers and critics have recalibrated their definitions of ripeness to allow for the sort of crunch, crispness and

verdancy that Cab Franc tends to provide even in warmer climates.

Just as important in shaping the Cab Franc renaissance,

however, has been its embrace by producers all over the world who have understood that it can produce superb

wines in a variety of terroirs along a spectrum of flavours and textures while always retaining its identity and an abiding sense of drinkability and freshness.

Franc could be a useful blending agent, something that

France: The Loire and other stories

however, it was too awkward, too light, not quite trusted to

– Anjou, Saumur, Saumur-Champigny, Bourgueil, St-Nicolas

could add a little stiffening crunch, leafy freshness or

The Loire has benefited enormously from the trend for

provide enough of a middle palate from vintage to vintage.

de Bourgeuil and Chinon – remain the best places to source

floral aroma to Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. On its own,

he past decade, however, has seen a transformation

in Cabernet Franc’s fortunes so that the variety, if not

exactly reaching the mainstream hall of fame reserved

for the Big Red French Four of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah, has carved out a distinctive identity for itself. It has a growing fan base, certainly among

the kind of knowledgeable, curious and adventurous

consumers who are the lifeblood of the independent trade. It’s a development that has undoubtedly been helped

chillable, fresh reds. And its various Cab Franc appellations superb-value, summery Cabernet Franc wines.

But producers in the Loire are doing much more, these

days, than merely providing Parisian brasseries with wines (many of them natural) to knock back by the pichet with steak frites. The effects of the climate crisis have made

it much easier to ripen Cabernet Franc reliably in recent vintages. And many producers are consistently making

vins de gardes to match Bordeaux for longevity and which appeal to classic claret drinkers looking for a cooler-

vintage character that isn’t always on offer in some of Bordeaux’s warmer years.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 47

Bordeaux itself remains the largest Cabernet

Franc vineyard in the world, and Cabernet Franc’s

freshness and crispness is increasingly prized as a

means of retaining drinkability in blends. Away from the glamour and glitz of such Cab Franc-dominant

big-hitters as Lafleur and Cheval Blanc, the variety is increasingly the main player in wines from the

region’s more experimental fringe. And it has been

used to good effect, too, in some of the cooler parts of the Languedoc.

Three to try: Domaine du Mortier St-Nicolas-de-

Bourgueil Les Sables 2017 (Vinetrail); Philippe Alliet Chinon 2019 (h2vin); Domaine Gayda Figure Libre Cabernet Franc 2019 (Domaine Gayda).

perhaps because Carmenère can play a similar role in

providing a herbal alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon.

But the quality from the handful of producers making varietal Cabernet Franc is similarly high, if more dispersed.

Given that Bordeaux was the original template for

both regions’ red wine cultures, it’s not surprising

that you can find good quality Cabernet Franc in both

California and Washington State – and that producers

in these western areas still tend to use it as a blending partner rather than a variety in its own right.

Cabernet Franc does, however, play a starring role in

the burgeoning wine industries on the east coast, where

vintners struggle to regularly ripen Cabernet Sauvignon: richly fruited versions from Virginia, and fresher, more

Argentina: Better than Malbec?

Loire-esque styles from Long Island and the Finger Lakes.

Three to try: The Garage Wine Co Lot 82 Cabernet Franc,

There isn’t a huge amount of Cabernet Franc in Argentina. In a vineyard that runs to more than 225,000ha, it doesn’t even make the top 10 of most planted varieties, its 700ha putting it far behind Malbec (which, predictably enough,

leads the way with more than 40,000ha), but also Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah with 15,000ha and 13,000ha apiece. But if the quantity of Cabernet Franc is, for

Maipo Alto, Chile 2016 (Freixenet Copestick); Red Newt

Cellars Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes, New York State, USA 2018 (The Wine Treasury); Barboursville Cabernet Franc Reserve, Virginia 2018 (Zonin UK).

Southern Franc: South Africa, Australia and New Zealand

the time being, not all that great, the quality is

Something rather curious has happened with Cabernet

the country’s high-altitude terroirs, the play of

variety has increased, going from 17 bottlings to 80 in the

an altogether different matter.

Cabernet Franc seems to thrive in many of

day-night temperature variation and high UV

producing wines that, at their best, are vividly

expressive; those classic Cab Franc qualities of red and blackcurrant fruit, floral notes, pencil shavings, green shadings and crunchy acidity

providing a nice contrast to the fleshier charms of Malbec.

Three to try: Bodegas Atamisque Serbal

Cabernet Franc, Tupungato 2019 (Las Bodegas); Bodegas Aleanna Enemigo Cabernet Franc, Mendoza 2017 (Carte Blanche); Zorzal Eggo Cabernet Franc 2018 (Hallgarten & Novum Wines).

Franc in South Africa. While plantings have decreased

to just over 800ha, the number of wines made from the space of a decade.

The renaissance has been led by Loire-influenced

producers such as Brüwer Raats, who saw the variety

as a natural counterpart to his Chenin whites, but also by those who have followed a more Bordelais

model, planting the variety as a blender, but soon discovering its solo charms.

It’s a similar story in Australia and New

Zealand, with Cab Franc solo outings largely emerging from the areas where Bordeaux

influence is strongest such as Margaret River and Hawke’s Bay.

Three to try: Keermont Pondokrug Cabernet

Franc 2016 (Swig); Raats Family Cabernet Franc

The Americas: From Chile to Virginia

2017 (Alliance Wine); Kelly Washington Cabernet

Across the Andes in Chile, progress with Cabernet Franc

Franc, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 2018 (Laytons/

has been slightly less spectacular than in Argentina,

Jeroboams).

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 48

THE WINEMAKER FILES //

JD Pretorius, Warwick Estate I grew up in the Free State in the middle of the country and nowhere close to any wine. But both my parents really enjoyed wine and cooking. Food and wine have always been a part of our daily life. My mother has a passion for gardening, particularly roses, and I remember as a kid her giving me things to smell. It would be always be roses, or spices, or smelling stuff throughout the kitchen, so thinking about smells and tastes and flavours has always been a common thread.

When I found out at 16 that you could farm wine, I thought, ‘wow, that’s incredible’. As a joke, I said that’s what I was going to do and my dad said, let’s go and research it. So we came to Stellenbosch and I remember walking on campus in mid-August and it was a spectacular day and the faculty had a wine cellar. There was an incredible vibe around the campus. My first job was at Beyerskloof, so I immersed myself fully into the world of Pinotage for a harvest. Then I joined the Graham Beck family and worked with them when they still had the cellar in Franschhoek. Then I went to the States and it was while I was in Sonoma that Graham Beck’s sister company, Steenberg, asked me if I’d be interested in being their winemaker. I ended up spending 11 years there. It was an incredible team of people. In 2018 I was invited to Warwick to have a chat. I was happy in my job and had no real plan to leave, but walking into

Warwick for the first meeting and hearing about all the new plans and the vineyard planting and expansion, it was just too cool an opportunity not to be part of.

We are very successful at the entrylevel price point and with Trilogy, which is the really high end, so we really want to grow the middle tier. We are two years into the plan and have planted 40 hectares and pulled up almost 80.

We have about 25 hectares of Cabernet Franc now. We’ve planted quite a lot in the past two years and they’ll start to come into production next year. We’re excited to see what the young vineyards will do. It’s an incredibly challenging variety because basically it has all the same characters, good and bad, that you have in Cabernet Sauvignon, but you have a much shorter growing season. You need to get rid of that herby, pyroxene, brassy character very quickly otherwise you can make very leafy, green wines. You need to find the balance of a warm site that’s not too warm otherwise it ripens too quickly so your growing season is even shorter, but if it’s too cold you don’t get the full ripeness and aromatics that you want. In the last 10 years I think the entire industry has evolved. Warwick’s 1980s wines all had 12.5% alcohol, 13% if they were really ripe. Most of the Cabernets and Trilogys were bottled with 12%-13%. They were very acidic and herbal. They picked them young.

Warwick Estate in Stellenbosch began as a fruit farm in 1771. Since 1961 it has won a reputation for wines based on Bordeaux varieties and is a pioneer of Cape Cabernet Franc. Cellarmaster JD Pretorius was named South Africa Young Winemaker of the Year in 2014 and joined Warwick in 2019. Warwick Estate is imported into the UK by Fells 01442 866592 www.fells.co.uk You saw the rise of the South African industry doing well in the late 90s, early 2000s, and those wines really started building on the use of new oak. They are massive and the alcohol has gone all the way to 15%. There was a big movement on heavy and oaky wine from 2003 to 2010 and then they started refining. I don’t think it’s realistic to produce Cabernet for under 13% alcohol. That balance has been found. Our wines are big, plush, aromatic and tasty; they are big, bold and robust, but they are not big blockbusters.

Trilogy 2018

Cabernet Franc 2018

First Lady Sauvignon Blanc

RRP: £29.99 There aren’t many Cabernet Franc-led blends in Stellenbosch, let alone in the country, so that is something exciting. It’s a quintessential Bordeaux but with a South African twist so there is a bit more fruit, more sunlight; lavender and rosemary, those beautiful perfume characters, but also the purple berry, cassis-like character.

RRP: £25 The wine is a lot less powerful than Trilogy and than Blue Lady, which is our single-variety Cabernet Sauvignon. We have worked on the elegance of the variety. 2018 is a big wine, it was the end of the drought. Most Warwick reds find a happy medium five to seven years from vintage.

RRP: £11.99 First Lady wines are designed to be fresh and floral and friendly. I think all of them really overdeliver in terms of value for money. We have a very nice balance: we are going for the grassy, green fig characters and the more tropical passion fruit characters. We work hard in the vineyard to get the acidity down.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 49

MAKE A DATE

Famille Helfrich Portfolio Tasting

hand to guide visitors round the tasting

The family-owned business may have

Clavel, owner of Clavel Wines.

its roots in Alsace but the portfolio stretches all across France – and into other areas of Europe and the new world. Famille Helfrich is the division of Les

Grands Chais de France with a particular focus on the on-trade and independent sector, so expect to find some rarities alongside the more familiar names.

Around 250 wines and a selection of

around 50 spirits will be on show, taken from the new list which has now been

extended to include 870 wines from both fully-owned and partner properties.

The tasting will also unveil wines from

Las Niñas, a 40-hectare property in Chile

and answer any questions, along with

respected Rhône Valley winemaker Claire Contact chris.davis@lgcf.fr for further

information or to register. Tuesday, October 5 Manchester Hall 36 Bridge Street Manchester M3 3BT Tuesday, October 12 67 Pall Mall

Tuesday, October 12 Brettenham House London WC2E 7EN

Simply Italian Great Wines This event combines a series of

other to be confirmed) and a walk-

This tasting has proved a successful

exclusive parcels from Burgundy, Bordeaux

The producers taking part are mainly

merchants with producers across

and the south of France, all of which can be

independent family growers themselves,

France looking for UK importers.

many representing lesser-known

appellations and working with local grape varieties.

wine expert Walter Speller (and one around tasting representing producer associations from some of Italy’s most up-and-coming regions. These include Abruzzo, Collio, Delle

Venezie, Garda, and the Marche.

Contact Jane@huntandspeller.com or

walter@walterspeller.com. Thursday, October 21 Church House Dean’s Yard London SW1P 3NZ

Autumn at a vineyard in Alsace

French winemaking experts will be on

email pandora.mistry@businessfrance.fr.

French Connections

France.

buying period.

For more information and to register,

masterclasses led by leading Italian

way of connecting independent wine

delivered in time for the busy Christmas

this year’s tasting.

London SW1Y 5ES

recently purchased by Les Grands Chais de Also on show will be a mixture of

More than 120 wines will be on show at

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 50

drinks trust ad supplied separately

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

liberty wines 020 7720 5350 order@libertywines.co.uk www.libertywines.co.uk

@liberty_wines

Award-winning Aged Tawny Ports

by David Gleave MW

The saying goes that “Vintage Ports are made by God with the help of men” – the perfect expressions of vintage conditions in the Douro’s great years – while Aged Tawnies are “made by men with the help of God”, referring to the winemaker’s art of blending to achieve elegance and balance in their signature style.

Prized equally for their eminent drinkability and incredible complexity,

Aged Tawnies undergo a lengthy oxidative ageing process in oak cask, turning from deep ruby to pale tawny in colour and gaining a more

dried fruit character with nutty, spicy and caramelised notes, while the

feisty tannins of the thick-skinned Douro grape varieties become velvety smooth. Casks of various ages are selected for the final blends, with younger wines adding freshness and lift and older wines contributing intensity and complexity.

Sandeman has been blending Aged Tawnies for over 150 years and

was one of the first Port houses to specialise in this style. Their range is

now the most highly awarded of any Port house. This year, their 40-YearOld scooped The Wine Merchant Top 100 Best Fortified Trophy, as well

as Platinum at the Decanter World Wine Awards and Golds from the IWSC and IWC. The

30-Year-Old also made The Wine Merchant Top 100 list and collected a DWWA Gold, while the 20-Year-Old picked up IWSC and DWWA Golds, and the 10-Year-Old won a DWWA Gold. Best served slightly chilled in a large wine glass, these wonderfully versatile Ports are well worth revisiting!

richmond wine agencies The Links, Popham Close Hanworth Middlesex TW13 6JE 020 8744 5550 info@richmondwineagencies.com

@richmondwineag1

NEW agency for RWA! Alazani Winery, Georgia Alazani is located in the Kardenakhi village in Georgia’s Kakheti region, and the history of the winery originates from the 19th century. In the 1970s, a modern

building was constructed – representing the largest wine enterprise in Georgia. In 2016-2017, the factory was equipped with modern equipment from Italian manufacturer Della Toffola.

The company makes high-quality wine by merging Georgian and European

methods, producing a wide

variety of table wine, as well as wines aged in qvevri and oak

barrels. More than 20 types of wine are produced only from

Georgian grape varieties, which are mainly sourced from smallscale farmers. Premium wines

are aged in French oak barrels, generating gentle tones and aromatics.

Please contact us for more

details and prices.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 52

LOUIS LATOUR AGENCIES 12-14 Denman Street London W1D 7HJ

0207 409 7276 enquiries@louislatour.co.uk www.louislatour.co.uk

Smith & Sheth wines from Hawkes Bay Some of the newest editions to the Louis Latour Agencies portfolio are the premium New Zealand wines from Smith & Sheth. Smith & Sheth is a contemporary négociant inspired by the original French négociants and British merchants who worked, using their connections, to create expert wines. It was founded by Steve Smith MW, who has a formidable reputation in the wine industry, and Brian Sheth, who is an investor and wildlife conservationist with a strong love for New Zealand. The wines available in the UK are:

• CRU Wairau Sauvignon Blanc 2019, Marlborough • CRU Heretaunga Albarino 2020, Hawke’s Bay • CRU Heretaunga Charonnay 2018, Hawke’s Bay • CRU Heretaunga Syrah 2017, Hawke’s Bay • CRU Omahu Cantera 2017, Hawke’s Bay (a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc).

Find us at the Autumn SITT in Manchester and London to taste wines from Smith & Sheth and their sister project Pyramid Valley.

hatch mansfield

Don’t just take our word for it ...

New Bank House 1 Brockenhurst Road Ascot Berkshire SL5 9DL 01344 871800 info@hatch.co.uk www.hatchmansfield.com @hatchmansfield

Proudly presenting a selection of our Top 100 winning wines Please contact Hatch Mansfield for further information

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 53

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

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

top selection 23 Cellini Street London SW8 2LF

SAVE THE DATE

www.topselection.co.uk info@topselection.co.uk Contact: Alastair Moss Telephone: 020 3958 0744 @topselectionwines @tswine

PORTFOLIO TASTING WE DNE SDAY 2 9TH SE P TE M BE R 2 021 Venue:

The Music Room, London W1K 5LF Trade & Press Only. Email: events@topselection.co.uk

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 54

mentzendorff The Woolyard 52 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD 020 7840 3600

TAYLOR’S CHIP DRY WHITE PORT & TONIC THE PERFECT SERVE Taylor’s Port was the first to produce a dry white aperitif port, with their iconic Chip Dry White Port, first blended in 1934. Since then, it has acquired a devoted following throughout the world. Taylor’s Chip Dry White Port & Tonic with hints of lemon and mint is now available in a stylish and conveniently ready to drink 250ml can. It’s easy to carry, versatile and 100% recyclable.

info@mentzendorff.co.uk www.mentzendorff.co.uk

For more information, please contact your Mentzendorff Account Manager.

AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL WINE AGENCIES 28 Recreation Ground Road Stamford Lincolnshire PE9 1EW 01780 755810 orders@abs.wine www.abs.wine

@ABSWines

SPECTACULAR SOUTH AFRICA “IT BEARS REPEATING: SOUTH AFRICA IS MAKING THE GREATEST WINES IN ITS HISTORY.” - Tim Atkin MW, South Africa 2020 Special Report

If you are not already familiar with our South African range, we have carefully curated this selection for you. This offer represents some of the most exciting wines available from our growers and provides a terrific opportunity to try a wide range of styles from different producers. Most of the selection hails from Stellenbosch, with its picture-perfect vineyards, mountains and cooling ocean breezes. Choose from Methode Cap Classique (MCC), Chenin Blanc, Rhône style red and white blends, to classic varietals and blends, not forgetting, of course, Pinotage. For further details contact your Account Manager.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 55

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

BERKMANN wine cellars 10-12 Brewery Road London N7 9NH 020 7609 4711 indies@berkmann.co.uk www.berkmann.co.uk @berkmannwine @berkmann_wine

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

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 56

C&C wines 109 Blundell Street London N7 9BN 020 3261 0927 help@carsoncarnevalewines.com www.carsoncarnevalewines.com

@CandC_Wines @carsoncarnevalewines

Famille Helfrich Wines 1, rue Division Leclerc, 67290 Petersbach, France cdavies@lgcf.fr 07789 008540 @FamilleHelfrich

They’re all smiles to your face …

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 57

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

hallgarten wines Dallow Road Luton LU1 1UR 01582 722 538 sales@hnwines.co.uk www.hnwines.co.uk

@hnwines

walker & Wodehouse 109a Regents Park Road London NW1 8UR 0207 449 1665 orders@walkerwodehousewines.com www.walkerwodehousewines.com

@WalkerWodehouse

The Greek Islands We are delighted to have expanded our Greek portfolio, sourcing wines from two of the country’s islands. The wines from Ios in Cyclades, situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini, and from Kefalonia, on the country’s west coast, have been added to our market-leading Greek range.

Domaine Foivos, ‘Nautilus White Aged Under Water’, Kefalonia 2020 RRP: £15.25

Ios Winery, Rematies, Cyclades 2020 RRP: £19.49

Toast to Summer with Mission Hill When Mission Hill was established, Canada’s Okanagan Valley was largely undiscovered as a winemaking region – but all that was about to change. It was 1981 when wine seller Anthony von Mandl took over the abandoned former monastery, after studying the viability of the region on behalf of a Mosel-based winery who were intrigued by the possibility of grape growing there.

Recognising the land’s potential, Anthony got to work, eventually expanding his winery enough to purchase its own vineyards in 1996. Now, the estate spans five of the Okanagan’s growing regions – West Kelowna, East Kelowna, Naramata Bench, Black Sage Bench and Osoyoos – and produces wines that are at the pinnacle of quality Canadian winemaking. In just three decades, Mission Hill has been able to place Okanagan Valley on the world wine map, winning a staggering number of awards, as well as being named Canadian Winery of the Year six times. Their portfolio is internationally recognised for their Bordeaux-style reds, elegant Pinot Noirs, and aromatic whites that reflect this unique region’s climate and terroir. All grapes are grown sustainably through organic farming.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 58

malux hungarian wine 020 8959 2796 sales@ hungarianwineandspirits.com www.hungarianwineandspirits.com @maluxhungarianwine_spirits

vintner systems The computer system for drinks trade wholesalers and importers 16 Station Road Chesham Bucks HP5 1DH sales@vintner.co.uk www.vintner.co.uk

Vintner Systems has been supplying specialist software solutions to the wine and spirit trade in the UK and Ireland for over 30 years. After 300 installations at a wide range of business types, we have developed the ultimate package to cover everything from stock control and accountancy to EPOS, customer reserves, brokering and en-primeur. Whether you are a specialist wine retailer, importer or fine wine investment company, our software will provide you with the means to drive your business forward.

THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 59

The Wine Merchant issue 106

Articles inside

lightfoot wines

cabernet franc

make a date

COMINGS AND GOINGS

tried & TESTED