the bottleneck

people come in and say, ‘you could expect to see this shop somewhere in london’, and for me that is such a compliment

Almost a year on from buying The Bottleneck in Broadstairs, Mitch Swift is “tired, but happy.”

He has successfully introduced on-premise sales, launched an e-commerce arm and carried out a refit. And, he says, there is more change to come. Although Swift grew up away from the UK, his family always had a home in Broadstairs and so it seemed an obvious place to put down roots and start to grow his business. He bought the leasehold from Chris and Lin Beckett in 2020.

“It all clicked very nicely,” he says. “It’s a fantastic spot on the high street. We did a full refit but we wanted to keep the classical feel of the shop by keeping the original timbers. It’s an old building from the 1890s, I think – two fishermen’s cottages put together. Sometimes young people can go in all guns blazing and rip it all out and get carried away, but we tried to modernise it in a sensitive way.” By incorporating the previous office area at the rear into the footprint of the shop, Swift has allowed room for 22 covers. “It’s a small shop, though, he says, “so I keep it really simple with four reds, four whites a rosé and a sparkling. We change the wine list every single week, and customers want to rebook for the following week to try the new menu.”

His plans for next year include installing lighting and heaters in the courtyard, which will allow for an extra 20 covers, and possibly having a tasting room with Enomatics.

“I’m very lucky, I have a large cellar with a triple vaulted ceiling, so I have the space,” Swift says. “It’s just finding the funds to do it.”

Swift might have a business degree but admits that he has to evaluate whether he’s thinking with his heart or his head when it comes to that kind of investment.

“From a business perspective, would you do it?” he asks himself .“ No. But from a personal perspective, as a wine lover, do I want to do it? Yes. It works in places like London and it’s great because they make their money back straight away, so for me it’s probably about a more long-term investment. Really we want to focus on the wine shop side and make it an amazing experience.”

He estimates that he has around 800 alcoholic products in the shop, including a “massive” craft beer selection, spirits and a fine whisky section. “When I took over there were 130 lines in the wine range,” Swift says. “Now we are close to 400. I spend a lot of time buying wine and I try really hard to work with suppliers to avoid having the same wines as anyone else.”

The hard work is paying off. Swift reports the response from locals has been nothing but positive. “People come in and say, ‘you could expect to see this shop somewhere in London,’ and for me that is such a compliment.”

Swift says he works with over 30 suppliers and he is keen to promote local growers and producers.

He dedicates a corner of the shop to a different wine each month. “I do a little write-up of the wine. We’ve done wines from Domaine of the Bee and from Folc, among others. I sell about 200 bottles of the wine of the month so it’s great for small producers,” he explains. Swift is looking forward to Christmas and is confident it will be a little easier than the 2020 experience. “Last year,” he says, “I took over and I was on my own, brand new to the industry, brand new to having a shop; I’d never worked in retail before, and all of a sudden I was trying to stock this whole shop. “I was in here probably 17 hours a day for the first six weeks. It was crazy. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but at the same time, what you put in, you get out.” So, what’s next? “I have this big five to 10-year plan and I’ll be developing the brand, because I think what we’re doing is bringing a really nice approachable younger modern twist on selling wine,” Swift says.

“I’ll keep re-investing in the business, because it’s my pride and joy. I’ll have this business forever.”

Forget any preconceptions you have about Chilean wine. The MOVI collective of smaller producers demonstrates just how innovative, imaginative and energetic the country’s winemakers can be

MOVI is a collective of 39 boutique Chilean producers who have joined forces to give their wines a better profile and open up new distribution opportunities. Its UK distributor is Propeller, described by its founder Jamie Wynne-Griffiths as a “disruptive incubator”, providing exposure and coverage for new entrants in the UK. “Wholesalers have lots of distractions preventing them taking on new wines but retailers have customers demanding new wines, so we’re here to help them through that bottle neck and give them a start in the market,” says Wynne-Griffiths.

Propeller has taken an initial container of wines from MOVI – full name Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes – and is already pulling together a second.

“It was a long time in the planning, but the wines are here and selling like hot cakes,” Wynne-Griffiths adds.

The essential concept behind MOVI is about collaboration. Members meet at each other’s wineries to taste wines and share experiences, and publicly represent Nina Cerullo wines from across the organisation, not just their own.

A Zoom tasting for Wine Merchant readers was hosted by two members: Sven Bruchfeld, co-founder of Polkura, and Matt Ridgway, co-owner of La Despensa. Bruchfeld says MOVI aims to break the stranglehold of Chile’s big producers and the main generic body that, he says, is geared towards them.

“Chile has by far the biggest average winery size in the world,” he says. “South Africa is next biggest, but its average size is about half that of Chile.

“Chile has maybe 300 wineries that export, including the cheap and bulk wine exporters, yet Wines of Chile only has around 80 members, which is about the same as you might find in one town in Europe. “Knocking on doors on your own is nearly impossible; knocking on doors as a group is much more powerful.

“It gives us an opportunity to show the diversity of Chile from a completely different angle.”

That diversity was evident in the wines included in the Wine Merchant tasting, which kicked off with the single-vineyard

La Recova Sauvignon Blanc 2018

(RRP £14.45) and Maurizio Garibaldi Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (RRP £17.99), both from Casablanca.

Corinne O’Connor, operations manager at Propeller, says: “It’s really interesting tasting these side by side because they are really different from a lot of the commercially-made Chilean Sauvignon and they’re also really unique styles in themselves. There are differences in winemaking and vineyard location that translates into the aromas and palate.”

Graham Sims of New Forest Wines raises an eyebrow at the vintage. “But it’s lovely and I can see it needed some age,” he says.

“I adore this [La Recova] – it’s genius,” adds Jane Taylor of Dronfield Wine World.

Bruce Evans, of Grape to Grain in Crediton, says: “There is a great opportunity for these wines with the consumer being forced to move away from New Zealand.”

Maurizio Garibaldi’s 2016 Malbec/

Syrah/Durif blend from Maipo’s Coastal Range (RRP £31) also featured.

“It’s from the chilly side of the western end of Maipo area, outside the box in terms of viticultural areas,” says Bruchfeld. “It has a much longer oak- and bottle-ageing regime and the wine needs it because this area is not the lush Maipo we normally expect.”

Tringario’s Ludopata 2020 is a rare 100% Marselan varietal from Colchagua Valley (RRP £17.99).

“Marselan was invented in France in the 1960s when they crossed Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache,” says Ridgway.

“It grows really well in Colchagua. It produces small berries like a Cab but big bunches.”

Say Colchagua quickly and it can sound like Cold Shower, and that was the cheeky name Ridgway chose for his 100% Pais wine, because it’s not a permitted variety in the region and, hence, he can’t put Colchagua on the label. The wine is sub-branded Mission: Impaissible (RRP £19.99), a word-play on

Loreto “Loly” Arteaga of Nerikhue and David Giacomini from La Recova

the variety’s American name Mission.

Ridgway: “The vines for this are about 150 years old. The Pais from further south in Maule tends to be much lighter, almost like a dark rosé. The Colchagua wines are much more concentrated with more colour and structure. They’re very different – not necessarily better, but different.”

The wine was a winner for Rob Hoult of Hoult’s in Huddersfield. “Love the label and love the name, a terrific sense of fun and bonkers enough to not look naff,” he said.

Ridgway’s La Despensa Field Blend (RRP £21.45) is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a “dollop” of Marselan.

Ridgway adds: “Our GSM blend is always going to be fairly boozy, at a round 14%, but we’re looking for a fresher style. We co-ferment all the grapes because it becomes much better integrated when it’s done from the start.”

The tasting featured Bruchfeld’s Polkura Random 2017 (RRP £15.99) and Polkura Malbec 2018 (RRP £21.99), both from

If

Marchigue in Colchagua.

The 2017 Random is 45% Syrah, 30% Malbec, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Grenache, 2% Tempranillo and 2% Petit Verdot, but no vintage is ever the same, hence the name.

The 2018 Malbec actually has 13% Syrah in the blend, though normally Polkura blends in Petit Verdot.

“Polkura is really a Syrah project and I planted Malbec thinking of using it as Syrah blender,” Bruchfeld says. “In 2008 we had a bush fire that almost destroyed the Malbec vineyard. It was super-emotional and we decided that the Malbec deserved to be bottled.”

The tasting also featured a different take on Chilean Cabernet in the form of Nerikhue Quiebre Cabernet Sauvignon (RRP £19.99), from Colchagua Valley. Ridgway says: “They’re looking for a fresher style of Cabernet rather than typical Chilean super-concentration.”

Bruchfeld adds: “It’s a super-steep vineyard and they’ve used every square foot of the hill. It’s very difficult to go up with a tractor so they do everything by hand. They’re very creative; a great contributor to the MOVI gang.” █

Feature sponsored by MOVI and Propeller.

For more information visit www.propeller.wine Or call 01935 315539 Email corinne@propeller.wine

Visit the new Wine Merchant website

It is much, much better than the old one. winemerchantmag.com

WINE BAR, BOTTLE SHOP & DELI FOR SALE

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The new owner would inherit a lovely, profitable business with stock, social media and healthy balance sheet. Handover support can also be provided.

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NOT YOU AGAIN! customers we could do without 29. Ricky Tankard

… I tell you what, them supermarkets ain’t half a rip-off … like we didn’t watch the budget on the news and see for ourselves exactly what old Siri Junaks was saying about cheaper Prosecco and cheaper rosé and cheaper beer … we seen it with our own eyes, them tax cuts on booze, and still them prices look exactly the same! That’s why I come in ‘ere, support the little guy, cos the big boys are creaming off all that extra profit for theirselves … my sister-in-law swears by some posh rosé that you might know, Twittering Angel, Shimmering Angle, something like that – twentyodd quid a bottle she reckons! Anyway, I says to her, don’t you be paying that sort of money no more, not now the government have forced them to put their prices down … reckon you can get that kind of gear for eight or nine quid if you go to a normal shop where the boss man ain’t on the make … plus I expect you can afford to put your prices down even more now they cancelled your rates …

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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 Chancellors of Exchequer? If so, you win the chance to set next year’s budget. Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York Anthony Borges, 1. Hyena Diesel The Wine Centre, 2. Raisin Husk Great Horkesley, Essex3. Man Not Normal Zoran Ristanovic, 4. Beer Gorge Soon City Wine Collection, London5. Ailing Laird’s Rat