9 minute read
tried & TESTED
Busi-Jacobsohn Cuvée Brut 2018
Read the back-story of the Swedish-Italian family behind this fabulous Sussex fizz, only in its second vintage, and you’ll never think of the English wine industry as parochial. This is a classy, accomplished sparkler, with Chardonnay in the driving seat. Pastry, hazelnuts, gooseberries, apples, citrus ... all these elements and plenty more are present and correct.
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RRP: £38 ABV: 12% Busi-Jacobsohn (07590 181718) busijacobsohn.com
Villa Mottura Primitivo del Salento 2020
Put your fancy food matches to one side for a moment: some wines are just made for Saturday nights, and this is certainly one of them. Simple, fruity and dark edged, it’s a wine that puts a hand on your shoulder and lets you know that it’ll take things from here. That’s what four generations of winemaking expertise gets you.
RRP: £13 ABV: 13% Vindependents (020 3488 4548) vindependents.co.uk
Tapanappa Whalebone Merlot Cabernet Franc 2017
Look, nobody is actually saying that the presence of a 35 million-year-old whalebone in Tapanappa’s Wrattonbully vineyard makes the wines taste better ... but maybe it doesn’t hurt. It’s more likely, of course, 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) mentzendorff.co.uk
Crusoe Treasure Sea Soul No 4
All wines need a story and if that story involves 15 months of ageing in the ocean, consumers are likely to sit up. There are barnacles to confirm the claims. What exactly does immersion in 20m of Cantabrian sea contribute to this Syrah from the foothills of the Pyrenees? It’s hard to be certain, but there’s a cool (as opposed to hot) and silky character that seems nautical.
RRP: £65 ABV: 14% Flora Fine Wines (020 7286 2398) florafinewines.co.uk
Maurizio Garibaldi Sauvignon Blanc 2018
Maurizio’s Italian emigré grandfather had been happily making wine in Colchagua for decades before his land was confiscated in 1973 by Pinochet’s goons. Continuing the family legacy after experience at Villa Maria and Veuve Clicquot, Maurizio has crafted a loveable, leesy SB from his Casablanca base.
RRP: £17.99 ABV: 12.5% Propeller (01524 737100) propeller.wine
Domaine la Provenquiere Grenache Gris ‘Pur’ 2020
This estate near Bèziers is keen on biodiversity and sustainable viticulture. The Grenache Gris is grown on north-facing slopes to encourage freshness; fruit purity is clearly the aim here and that target is hit, though there’s also an enjoyable antiques-shop mustiness and toffee-apple sweetness.
RRP: £13.49 ABV: 12.5% Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722538) hnwines.co.uk
St Laurent No 4 2018
Canned wines still have a credibility problem in some quarters so Ben Franks’ Canned Wine Company deserves credit for chancing its arm with an obscure (for most consumers) Austrian red. Made by Weingut Glatzer, it’s actually an appropriate variety for this 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
Alta Pavina Pinot Noir Rosado 2020
A rosé with real flavour and personality? Texture, brisk acidity, fruit complexity? What’s going on? Altitude, for one thing – and a famous name who isn’t just a vacuous celeb. The fruit is grown high up near 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
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
My day-to-day activities encompass anything from helping owners and
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 village as the road was closed for a market and festival. I happened to be in the area so borrowed a sack barrow from the customer, went down the hill to meet the courier, and then pushed the barrow full of 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 dinner, for example, I’ll grab an apron, find the kitchen, and crack on with the preparations. I love that side of what I do – just mucking in and really being able to help my customers.
I was a customer of Liberty Wines 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.
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. Some larger 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 live tastings though after a year of Zoom
meetings. We have so many new and exciting additions to our portfolio, and it has been great fun introducing these to my customers, working together on refreshing 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.
I own an Alfa Romeo sports car and love a road trip, so have always enjoyed
the driving element of my job. However, I’m mindful that Liberty Wines has been carbon neutral for the last seven years, so will be making as much use of my wellconnected local train station as possible from this autumn, to help reduce my own carbon footprint.
Feature sponsored by Liberty Wines
For more information, visit libertywines.co.uk Call 020 7720 5350
management project
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.
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
The 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 discovery across this land of a thousand terroirs.
Hungary is located in central Europe, in the sheltered Carpathian Basin – a mostly 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 conditions for creating wines of real character.
Hungary was one of Europe’s preeminent wine producers until the 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 around 45 different native, and over 50 international grape varieties. This diversity is the industry’s greatest strength, as well as its main challenge.
Boutique wineries with limited quantities produced using an artisanal approach make Hungarian wine such an intriguing proposition for independents.
The tasting will include 14 wines from seven award-winning wineries, focusing on native grape varieties and the legendary blends of Aszú and Bull’s Blood. The wines have been selected for their potential to 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.
To register for this 90-minute webinar, organised by The Wine Merchant in association with Best of Hungary, please email charlotte@winemerchantmag. com. Argon-sealed 100ml samples will be sent out a few days before the event.
