COMINGS AND GOINGS

Vineyards moves to bigger premises

Vineyards has moved to a much larger premises just a short walk away from the original shop in Sherborne, Dorset.

Owners Hannah and Sadie Wilkins are thrilled that they will be able to have a dedicated tasting room, extra storage space and an extended wine range.

“It’s a great time to be moving into a shiny new space,” says Sadie. “We will be introducing at least 250 more wines on the shelves so the portfolio is increasing.

“We are really proud to say that quite a few of the local restaurants, pubs and hotels have our wines so we are building up our wholesale again and we’ve recently taken on some lovely accounts including Mat Follas, a MasterChef winner who has opened a restaurant in Sherborne.”

The pair have taken on a large commercial unit in Old Yarn Mills and they had a lot to do before opening the first weekend of October. Previously an auto shop, it was a no-frills space. “We’re embracing the industrial feel of it, otherwise we’d be totally overwhelmed by the space,” explains Sadie.

“We’re having a steel mezzanine being made to our spec, and that will be the wine lounge upstairs. It means we can do in-house tastings really comfortably in a dedicated space away from the shop floor.

“We all know that people are more adventurous by the glass than by the bottle and we had a taste of how nice it was having a drink in menu prior to Covid. Now we are opening in a better space for that.” To show

customers just how easy they will be to

A mezzanine wine lounge will be installed

find, Sadie posted a social media video of herself walking their dog Hugo from their old shop to the new location.

“Even though it’s not on the high street,” she says of the new shop, “this little area is a destination, a nice little buzzy quarter of town and our neighbours have really paved the way. There’s an eclectic mix of businesses here. There’s a vintage furniture and antiques place, a microbrewery and a Gamespod. It used to be more of an industrial estate but now it’s somewhere that people come to socialise.”

Vineyards is long established in Sherborne and well known for being cheerleaders of not just the community but its fellow independent traders. Hannah and Sadie have treated the relocation as an extension of that.

“In a town of this size you get that sublime window into how good community can be,” says Sadie. “We’ve just had to have some emergency tradespeople who we just happen to count as friends of ours. In Sherborne you’re a stone’s throw away from a talented friend and even the love that’s going into building this new place is a community project.”

Café purchase was too good to miss

Matthew Iles is planning to open Bouchon, a bar next door to Quercus Wines, his shop in Westerham, at the end of October.

“People are always asking if they can have a glass of wine outside on a sunny day and I’ve never been able to because I’m not licensed at the shop to do wines by the glass,” explains Iles.

When the lease came up on the licensed café right next door, he says it was too good an opportunity to turn down. “It’s a beautiful frontage and it has the same view of the green and it’s twice the size of my shop. I’ll be able to pick up where I left off with tastings. People seem willing to do that sort of thing again and now I’ll have a dedicated space for them.”

Iles says he will keep the same look and feel as the shop with darkish colours,

wooden floors and marble tables – “nothing that hasn’t been done before,” he says. “It’s quite classic and simple.”

During shop hours, customers will be able to buy a bottle and take it next door to drink in the bar for a corkage fee. Or they can choose from the by-the-glass list.

“The wine list will focus on slightly more quirky European wines from France, Italy and Spain in particular,” Iles says. “There will be other things as well that I don’t do in the shop because it’s much easier to do small parcels, even odd bottles, by Coravin

in the bar that I wouldn’t necessarily sell in the shop.”

Small plates will also be on the menu, and Iles says he intends to keep it all as locally sourced as possible. “Quite a few people do their own charcuterie around here now and there are loads of local cheeses in Kent and Sussex. One of my customers produces fantastic goats’ cheeses and I would love to sell those.”

Macknade has been growing steadily since it took over the Faversham branch of Hercules in 2019 and opened at Elwick Place in 2020.

Local focus for Macknade spin-off

Macknade Wine & Spirits has opened a restaurant and retail area within Hoopers department store in Tunbridge Wells.

The 4,000sq ft space includes an “informal” restaurant area with a breakfast, brunch and lunch menu and the retail section showcases the best of Macknade’s locally sourced beers and wines.

“Essentially it is a very tight range,” explains Macknade’s Finn Dunlop, “and rather than try and condense the world, we are proposing a specialised selection of Kent – and a bit of Sussex.”

Online merchant opens York shop

September saw the opening of 2 Many Wines in York, a joint venture between Cyriaque Lajoinie and Benjy Berluti.

2 Many Wines started life as an online wine club, which Lajoinie says gave the business “a bit of a following,” certainly enough that a bricks-and-mortar shop became inevitable.

The range of around 200 wines has been sourced through UK suppliers including Bibendum, New Generation, Marta Vine and Enotria&Coe. “We are not direct importing yet,” says Lajoinie. “I know a lot of producers but we don’t have the licence for it and we just don’t have the cash to bring pallets over.”

The pair have also invested in the most recent model from Enomatic. “It’s the only one in the UK,” Lajoinie says. “It holds eight bottles, it is slimmer than previous models and it looks great.”

Where am I again?

Andrew Gray was pretty sure that Grays & Feather was a good name for a wine business. It sounded like an oldestablished wine merchant sort of title, and it tripped off the tongue nicely. A brand was born, or so he believed.

Although business has been booming at the Covent Garden indie, it seems that hardly anyone could actually remember what the place was called. When forced to consider the matter, words like “Grace” and “Feathers” might occasionally emerge, but hardly ever in anything approaching the right configuration. Poor old Andrew has now given up and renamed his wine bar Plume. Or maybe Flume. Definitely something like that.

Dog days for indies

Here at The Wine Merchant we understand that our reputation is built on two main ingredients: the smell of the paper we’re printed on, and the Dog of the Month on the front page. Future generations will doubtless think of us as a canine magazine that sometimes includes wine-related content.

We’re delighted to see several indies taking our, er, lead.

The Flying Cork in Bedford has its own Dog of the Month prize, awarded by “a secret panel of judges” (congratulations Maisie, Percy and Kiki); Sheldon’s Wines in Warwickshire parades its Dogs of the Week on its Twitter feed; and Marchtown in Glasgow runs mini-profiles of its Dogs of the Month on its webpage.

Rescue dog Scruffy is the latest incumbent. “Having lost a few teeth along the way, Scruff has a snaggle-tooth face which lights up the room with his cute derpy-ness, and enjoys rubbing his face on you after he eats as a cute but gross sign of affection.”

Unhampered by its name

Talking of Marchtown, a round of applause for sneaking in a local term for a headbutt in an otherwise innocent line-up of hamper names. Choose from Crisp & Clean, Big & Bold, Natural, Delicious Decadence, The Pamper Hamper ... or The Glasgow Kiss.

Vagabond unveils Birmingham plans From Cape Town back to Aberdeen

Vagabond has chosen Birmingham for its first venture outside of London.

The new branch on Colmore Row, which will open this month, is the tenth site for the business.

Vagabond’s managing director, Matt Fleming, is especially pleased with this latest development as grew up in the city.

“We’re seriously excited to be opening in Birmingham,” he says. “We’ve had our eyes on national and international expansion since before the pandemic and Birmingham has always been marked as our first non-London opening.

“My own love for the city aside, it has one of the best food and drink scenes in the UK and we think Vagabond will fit in perfectly with its wine-loving residents.”

Joining the management team will be Victoria Platt who, after working at Loki in Birmingham (whose Great Western Arcade branch is nearby) for nine years will be a familiar face for the local customers.

SugarBird wine shop and bar opened in Aberdeen in late August. Owners Ruth and Alex Grahame have returned to the city after spending five years running their restaurant in South Africa.

Native Aberdonian Ruth explains the couple previously owned a restaurant in south Aberdeen before moving to Cape Town where they “discovered the amazing wines of South Africa. We were wine drinkers and we’d bought wine for our restaurant before, but since immersing ourselves in that environment, visiting many, many farms and getting to know a lot of the winemakers, our knowledge really grew,” she says.

About 65% of the range is South African. “Our restaurant probably has the largest Cap Classique listing in the western Cape,” says Ruth, “so we are doing a really big focus on those in the shop too.

“There was an initiative in South Africa to help save restaurants during lockdown

Ruth and Alex Grahame

and De Grendel in Durbanville donated 300 cases to us. Now we stock their full range in the shop and we will continue to support them, the way they have supported us.”

During the summer, while Ruth was project-managing the refit, Alex worked as the head chef at Balmoral Castle, launching its new restaurant. As a result of that connection SugarBird has an exclusive on the Balmoral products including a whisky and a gin. “It’s an extra add-on, as they make great gifts,” says Ruth. “But we’re going to focus on the wine.”

Once the business is established, they will be direct importing and already have a list of around 15 South African producers that they want to work with. But for now, the focus is on building the e-commerce site and developing their wine club. “We’re in an area with a real neighbourhood feel,” says Ruth. “It’s great to be back and it’s been really well received. Without fail everyone is saying that this is what they wanted.”

• Hooligan wine bar and bottle shop has opened in Glasgow. The sister venue of Eighty Eight restaurant in the city, it will focus on natural wines.

• St Leonards in East Sussex is now home to Collected Fictions. Owned by Kate Vincent and Eliot Jones, the shop specialises in organic and natural wines as well as craft beers, a selection of which are available to take away in growler refills.

Bush (pictured bottom right) was “looking for colours and ideas that were different”

Kenrick finally has his name above the door after Fulham opening

Kenrick Bush opened his new Fulham shop, Kenrick’s, in August.

Following his collaborations at BoB Wines in Bromley and Urban Cellar in Crystal Palace, Bush is happy to be the star of his own show, with his name above the door.

“It has always been my ambition to have my own wine shop,” says Bush. “With BoB I was one of a group of people and with Urban Cellar it was 50-50. I am a creative person and have this energy and I want to go ahead full on and do what I believe is right for a wine shop.” The new shop, fitted out by a friend who is a set designer, is large enough to incorporate a dedicated tasting room.

“You have to be different to be noticed,” says Bush, a Frenchman originally from Paris, “and I was looking for colours and ideas that were different. Wine is about conviviality and I wanted to bring life and theatre to the shop.”

Bush is currently working with a range of wine suppliers including Alliance and Boutinot.

“I am looking for wines with a bit of a story, wines that will please the natural wine drinkers as well as the more traditional wine drinkers,” he says.

NOT YOU AGAIN! customers we could do without 28. Harry Wahgorne

… no, I can see what you’ve tried to do here, and it looks great … really great … this is just an idea, OK, but maybe if you’d put the fridge on this wall instead of that wall that might have freed up this space here for your tasting table, which is kind of lost at the back there … don’t listen to me, though, what do I know … then the counter could have pivoted at 90 degrees so you’ve got an easier route to the stock room … just a suggestion … then your Enigmatic machine would go here rather than there so when people are standing around using it they’re not blocking your Champagnes … yeah? … or even better, put your bottled beers in that corner and move your reds on to the main wall, which would mean your white wines could shift two metres this way out of the sun … then lose them Decanter awards certificates … maybe paint some funny slogans: “Breakfast without gin is like a day without sunshine” kinda thing … How much did you pay for the new ceiling? See, personally I would strip that out and make a feature of the wires and ductwork … actually there’s a bigger unit over the road that would be a better bet altogether … but don’t listen to me, you’ve done a great job …

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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 and who each win a Coravin, courtesy of ANAGRAM TIME our partner Hatch Mansfield. Can you unscramble these elements of a wine bottle? If so, you win a kind of magic. Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York Anthony Borges, 1. Cello Crank The Wine Centre, 2. Cue SlapGreat Horkesley, Essex3. Rude Slosh Zoran Ristanovic, 4. Titchy Conkers City Wine Collection, 5. Lee’s Tum London

DAL FORNO DEAL CUT AND DRIED

Innovative Valpolicella producer is the latest family-operated winery to join the Pol Roger Portfolio family

Pol Roger Portfolio has welcomed Dal Forno Romano to its stable of producers. The prestigious Valpolicella winery officially joins on January 1 but some exclusive library stock and larger format bottles willl be available to the UK trade in the autumn.

Dal Forno marks an exciting addition to the Portfolio. Established by Romano Dal Forno in 1983, the winery was founded on his uncompromising vision, combining traditional practices with modern techniques.

Despite scepticism from some quarters, Romano found inspiration from renowned winemaker Giuseppe Quintarelli, a legend in Valpolicella and Italy. Under his expert guidance, Dal Forno was able to shift from quantity-based production to an operation devoted entirely to quality.

Almost 40 years later the estate is still run by the family, with his son Marco at the helm and Romano always at his side. They, and the rest of the family, all live on site and external help is only brought in at harvest: a truly family run operation.

Dal Forno makes three wines: a

Valpolicella Superiore, an Amarone and a sweet Recioto-style wine called Vigna Seré. They are characterised by bold, opulent aromas and flavours.

Located in Val D’Illasi, the estate vineyards are situated at approximately 1,000 feet above sea level. The loose, alluvial soils are home to the traditional

grape varieties of Corvina, Rondinella,

Romano Dal Farno demonstrates the moveable dehydration system that he designed

Oseleta and Croatina. Vines are tended by hand, and the carefully selected grapes are left to dehydrate in a drying room with the use of a moveable dehydration system designed by Romano himself. Grapes are harvested exclusively from vines that are over 10 years old and partially dried for 25 to 30 days for the Valpolicella and 70 to 80 days for the Amarone.

As pointed out by Marco Dal Forno himself: “For an artisanal wine estate like ours, it is

essential to be in complete harmony with those who have the delicate task of telling the world of distribution about our work.

“That’s why we are very satisfied to have found a partner like Pol Roger and to be a part of a portfolio of companies whose philosophy is oriented towards absolute quality.”

James Simpson MW, managing director of Pol Roger Portfolio, says: “We’re thrilled to be welcoming the Dal Forno family and their impeccable wines. Their forwardthinking winemaking typifies what we love about family ownership and independence. The reward for their innovative approach is more than evident in the quality of their age-worthy wines.”

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