new for 2022

English still wine: No longer a novelty act

In recent decades, most of the excitement in the English and Welsh wine industry has been generated by sparkling styles. For a brief moment, our still wines were looking like an evolutionary cul-de-sac. But not anymore.

Randall Grahm, an enfant terrible of California winemaking, raised eyebrows more than 20 years ago when he predicted that England would one day be the most exciting place in the world to make Pinot Noir. Today, his words don’t seem quite so eccentric. Much of the Pinot produced in England and Wales is indeed world class; Chardonnay is also increasingly impressive. Bacchus, lauded as the UK’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, is achieving credibility that makes it far more than the novelty act it was once perceived to be.

Hawkins Bros in Godalming, Surrey, is a specialist English wine merchant. “Our sales split between still and sparkling has been 50-50 for a couple of years,” reports director Simon Hawkins. “The still wine is very much a growing category for us.”

Hawkins argues that English still wine is, in many cases, “world class”. With production dominated by white wines, reds occupy a small niche, but it’s one that Hawkins is having fun with.

“Sixteen Ridges, on the HerefordWorcestershire borders, make a really good Pinot Noir Précoce, which we sell an awful lot of,” he says.

“Inscription from Winbirri is a Dornfelder and Rondo blend; we call it the Norfolk Rioja. It’s had time on American oak, and it has that lovely vanilla character you’d expect from a Rioja.”

What about the whites? “Bacchus is the fourth most grown grape in England and we have our own made for us by Simon Woodhead at Stopham Estate [in West Sussex]. He is a very precise winemaker; we love all his wines and are very lucky to have partnered up with him.

“Simpson’s Wine Estate [in Kent] make two beautiful examples of Chardonnay: their oaked Roman Road, and the unoaked Gravel Castle.”

Hawkins also namechecks Kit’s Coty from Chapel Down in Kent, and Stanlake Park [in Berkshire]. “Their Kings Fumé is just luscious,” he says. “It’s a blend of Ortega and Chardonnay, it’s seen some oldish French oak and it’s really very good.

“Artelium [in East Sussex] have really perfumed and crisp Chardonnay made by Owen Elias. That’s really starting to fly.”

Official figures show that still wine now accounts for getting on for 40% of English wine volumes.

“England is a very exciting place to make wine at the moment,” says Hawkins. “The book hasn’t been written and you’ve got people from all over the world coming to make wine because they can experiment and do stuff that in other countries they wouldn’t be allowed to do.”

Hawkins believes that consumer perceptions are changing. “People come in looking for still wines and they want to be sold a still English wine that’s as good as, or better, than the wine they are already drinking,” he says.

Lebanese wine: ‘Like fruity new-world Bordeaux’

Acertain chateau has done a lot to make the association between Lebanon and wine quite immediate, but there is much more than Musar to come from the Bekaa Valley.

Ben Franks at Novel Wines in Bath sources his range of Lebanese wines, which he says are all “high-volume lines”, from Hallgarten, Lebanese Fine Wines and Boutinot.

“Because Lebanese wines are very French in style, made by classically trained winemakers, using French grapes, I think they are a nice bridge between old and new world,” he says.

“I sometimes describe them as the big and fruity new-world Bordeaux. If a customer has never tried Lebanese wine before, that’s the easiest description to help them understand.

“This is Bordeaux, but fruit forward, with that Lebanese heat.”

He adds: “Perhaps the most interesting thing about the white wines is how much they are balancing them with malolactic fermentation, oak aging and slight oxidation to bring in those nutty characteristics and some spice.

“There’s lots of acidity, herbs and spices used in Lebanese cooking and that’s reflected really nicely in the white wines, so you get a real sense of place through Lebanese whites.

“Chateau Oumsiyat were the first to plant Assyrtiko in Lebanon, which is quite exciting and a little bit different. Rather than the volcanic, minerally style it is more of a crowd pleaser.

“It’s softer, with lots of tropical fruit and it’s a lovely one to put into restaurants because it pairs so well with mezze, tapas and small plates. It has the richness and the body but with that nice bit of acidity to keep it fresh.”

French heritage and ownership is the norm in Lebanon but there are exceptions. Franks says he added the Lebanese-owned Domaine des Tourelles to his list and it has become one of his best-selling wines in the range. He also does very well with Ksara, which he says will be a familiar name to anyone who has visited the country.

Novel’s range of Bordeaux-esque wines from Lebanon all retail at below £15, but Franks isn’t afraid of working with the pricier end of the market.

“We have stocked mature Musar before, so 97, 98, 99, 2000 and 2001, and it’s one of those wines where you might have it for a while then someone comes along and buys a case of it,” he says.

“We have decided that the best way to sell Musar is to buy about five vintages every so often and just do a vertical tasting. We’ll just buy stock in for that event and push the end-of-night sales; when it’s gone it’s gone.

“It will just avoid wrapping up the cash in that kind of wine.”

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Sake: A natural choice for many wine enthusiasts

Changing tastes in Japan mean the number of sake producers has dropped significantly over the past couple of decades. But this concentration of production has actually led to higher standards in general, according to sake aficionados.

Modern brewing techniques have also come into play to help sake escape some of its cultural bonds and be enjoyed by a whole new audience.

Japanese restaurants probably remain the primary educational ground for discovering the joys of sake, and as they flourish in the UK beyond London, independent merchants can play an important sales role.

Gnarly Vines in Walthamstow specialises in natural wines. General manager Oliver Dibben believes this gives the business a useful platform from which to take customers on a journey into the sake category.

“We have customers who like to explore different tastes and are maybe a bit more open-minded in terms of what they like to drink,” he says. “There are some good sushi restaurants around here, so people have had their interest piqued.

“It’s definitely a growing category and it’s a useful point of difference for us. We have six or seven sakes in our range and we try to cover all the different styles.

“We have a Nigori, which is more full bodied and has a bit of residual sugar. We also have a Yuzu sake, which is rich and sweet with a citrus zing and works in place of a dessert wine or great with a splash of tonic in the summer.”

If that sounds a bit too adventurous for some, what would be the ideal sake for a newbie?

“I would give them something that was a lighter style, just because that is more palatable for most people and more versatile with food pairings”, Dibben says.

“We have Konishi Silver Ginjo, which is also available in a smaller bottle [30cl] at £11. It has a slight acidity, which is quite unusual for sake, as sake is more like beer in that it uses bitterness to structure the drink. This is really versatile and goes very well with creamier western dishes as well as sushi.

“From there we can point them in the direction of different styles. Maybe more fruity, or more umami and savoury.”

There is much to explore even within each category of sake, so finding a supportive supplier is essential.

“The world of sake importing has changed over the last five to 10 years. It used to be a very closed shop, relatively traditional and inflexible. But we work with Tengu Sake and they have been brilliant.

“Based on the information we gave them, they recommended three bottles for us to start with. They did a full tasting of everything and were super-generous with their time.

“They gave us loads of resources and some great pairings with western food as well as Japanese dishes. They ensured we had enough information to enable us to sell effectively.”

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Cider: It’s OK to compare apples with grapes

Cider ticks all the boxes for natural wine fans – and, it turns out, sparkling wine lovers too.

Alison Taffs, pommelier-in-training and co-owner of The Hop Inn, Hornchurch, says: “It’s easy to transfer your natural wine customers over to cider because there is a similarity in flavour profile and the way that they are made.

“The ciders that we are selling are made like wines. They are pressed in the autumn from whole fruit.

“The only thing added is a bit of water to wash them and they are fermented with either wild or cultivated yeast. Come the spring they are ready, or some are left a lot longer than that.

“I’ve got lovely ciders from Turners in Kent. They use fresh rhubarb juice and elderflower, which they blend into their cider. They make one that has apple pie spices. These are great gateways for people to get into whole juice ciders.

“Martin [Berkeley] at Pilton in Somerset is making some incredible things with cofermentation.

“He’s making beautiful country wines without added sugar and he’s blending those with his keeved cider [keeving is a method of making naturally rich, sweet ciders].

“His ciders are unbelievably complex and fascinating. For a 750ml bottle you’d be looking at an RRP of £13, which is remarkably cheap for what is a beautifully made product.

“If people are white wine drinkers, I try them with the very light, juicy Kent ciders and they are astonished it’s not wine. One of our best sellers is Gospel Green.

“It’s made using Champagne yeasts and in the traditional Champagne method and has characters of brioche, apple and with tiny bubbles.

“Natural wine fans love to hear about great producers like Little Pomona, Oliver’s and Duckchicken – really cool kids making cider in a maisonette in Streatham. And our craft beer lovers are attracted to the canned ciders, which have similar vibrant labels.”

The wassail, which involves making lots of noise in the orchard to frighten away evil spirits, is a tradition that locals can easily partake in.

“It’s a lovely celebration of the apple and the orchard,” says Taffs. “Sussex-based Big Nose & Beardy have a wassail and invite their cider club members.”

With so many parallels to be drawn between the category and natural wines, why is it that cider seems to occupy so little of the limelight?

Taffs beieves it comes down to our Britishness. “In this country we are not very good at recognising what we do well,” she says.

“We are not terribly good at saying cider is something we’ve been doing for centuries, it’s completely unique in the world and we should really, really shout about it.”

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Greek wine: Banished memories of rubbish retsina

With just shy of 50 Greek wines listed on the website and available in store, Greek wine is a central pillar of Ben Greene’s offer at Greene & Wine in Totnes.

“We’ve found a lot of our Greek wine sales go through the website, just because they are not available in many places and there is a subset of wine enthusiasts who want them,” Greene says.

“Our Greek range is the biggest section after France at the moment. On the whites we mainly do Assyrtiko, from Santorini especially, which is probably one of the best-known Greek wines.

“There are a lot of high quality producers there. I think Hatzidakis was the first wine we bought.

“Xinomavro is the red variety that does very well. We have a lot of Naoussa, which is the village in Macedonia where Xinomavro comes from, although it is cropping up elsewhere in Greece. It ages really well so we’re always looking out for older parcels.”

As for keeping things moving and his customers interested, Greene reports there is plenty more to be discovered. “Every week we find a new variety that no one has ever heard of,” he says. “Crete is very interesting – there’s a lot going on there, and on the other islands too. We’ve got wines from Lesbos and Kefalonia as well as really interesting retsinas.”

Retsina has come a long way since its days as a much-maligned staple of middling tavernas.

“It shouldn’t scream retsina at you,” Greene says. “We have the Tetramythos’ Retsina Amphore Naturε and they just suspend some resin in the wine that they get from the pine trees growing around the vineyard. It’s just a subtle hint. It helps that some of the top producers are beginning with a much better quality wine in the first place.”

Greene believes Greek wine is gaining momentum in the UK precisely because of the wealth of indigenous grape varieties and the uniqueness these offer.

“I think it’s a particularly good moment right now as there seems to be a lot of interest in indigenous grapes in general,” he says.

“The winemakers want to go back to them, especially with a lot of young Greek winemakers taking over their family businesses.

“The quality has improved enormously in general, as it has probably all over the wine world. But I think Greek wine perhaps has been a bit difficult because all the labels were in Greek, but now most of them are in English and the branding is smarter.

“People are getting more familiar with the varieties and the producers are moving forward in a business way.

“Some of the Santorini wines and Xinomavros can be expensive but they are still good value for the quality. You can still get wines for about £20 that are just fantastic and with a bit of age on them. We’ve got some 2013 Foundi Estate Xinomavro, it’s a lovely mature example and it’s £22.95. It’s really good.”

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Koshu: Aesthetics add to the appeal

Japan’s wine industry is very young. The first decent table wines didn’t appear until the 1980s, and only recently has Koshu, its trademark grape, started making an impression on the trade. And it’s not just about origami hats on grape bunches (used to protect the fruit from sunburn).

Koshu is a pink-hued thick-skinned variety, 70% vitis vinifera and 30% vitis labrusca, with high acidity and low sugar – though historically winemakers favoured sweeter styles.

It’s a remarkably versatile grape, these days more frequently vinified dry, with production including white, sparkling and orange wines.

Perhaps orange be a good place to start. As Rob Hoult at Hoults in Huddersfield explains, Chateau Mercian produces a “fantastic” one.

“I first tasted the Koshu Gris de Gris at a Boutinot tasting around three years ago,” he says. “I didn’t buy it because it was an orange wine and I didn’t buy it as a novelty from Japan. I bought it because it is a bloody good wine.

“It has a really nice palate weight but it’s not a shouty wine. The [Chateau Mercian] Yamanashi has got a bit more purity to it but not as much texture, still with great length.”

Hoult admits that part of the wines’ appeal is their aesthetics. “They look so beautiful,” he says. “It’s that thing about Japanese design: the culture and the history oozes out of them and yet it looks contemporary.

“There’s a great story to them; the attention to detail, every element of winemaking is so Japanese, as you’d expect it to be. Not regimented, but detailed.”

Ben Franks at Novel Wines in Bath agrees. “Japanese drinks in general come with unquestioned quality,” he says.

“People who know their whiskies, sakes and wines are aware of that Japanese attention to detail. I think that does a lot of the work in building the trust when it comes to selling it, and then you factor in that beautiful packaging and branding.”

Franks sells Koshu from Chateau Mercian and from Grace Winery, with which he has a long association. As a journalist, almost a decade ago, he wrote about the winemaker Ayana Misawa.

“The Grace Koshu Kayagatake was one of the first wines we stocked,” he says.

“Her father, Mr Shigekazu, came to visit me. I couldn’t work out why, as we were tiny back then and I didn’t even have a shop. He said he’d been following me since I wrote about Ayana and he’d seen we were stocking his wine, so he wanted to thank me.

“It was a lovely moment and I think that was my credibility point in the wine trade!”

He adds: “I’ve got a lot of time for Koshu. It needs a hand sell but it has been one of our best-selling wines for the last five years.

“The UK’s love for sushi has probably helped to push Koshu as a grape variety and encourage people to try other Japanese products, so we’re definitely riding on the coat-tails of that one.”

© Alex Shirmanov / stockadobe.com

Georgian wine: Qvevri, quirks and quick sales

As enthusiasm for Georgian wine among the indies gathers momentum, Lucy Harris at South Downs Cellars in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, looks back on the success of a recent promotion, which resulted in Georgian wines being a welcome addition to her list.

Harris admits that prior to October last year, she knew very little about this category. In fact her suggestion to host some tastings was met with bemusement from her team.

“I’m not sure that many of us had ever tasted any before, but when I started looking into it, I thought, ‘these wines are just fantastic,’” she says.

“It was a really interesting promotion to run. The in-store tastings were really well received and had a ridiculously high conversion rate.

“About 92% of people who tasted ended up buying a Georgian wine. It was a positive reaction because people hadn’t come across them before and they liked the idea of something completely new.

“There’s been repeat business on certain wines, which is the telling thing. It’s all very well when they buy something because they’ve just tasted it, but when they come in the following week to buy it again, that’s when you know.”

In her Georgian masterclass last year, organised in partnership with The Wine Merchant, Sarah Abbott MW observed “there are lots of niche and quirky wines but also a lot of accessible, really enjoyable wines” coming in from Georgia to the UK. Harris finds herself in agreement.

When it came to selecting the final lineup of 11 wines for the shop, Harris and her team homed in on more familiar styles rather than anything too daunting for their regulars. “Even though we have qvevri wines, we don’t have the extreme end,” she says. “Everything is vibrant and fruity – just great, delicious wines.”

“A couple of the qvevri wines, Aladasturi for the red and Tsitska/Tsolikauri for the whites, are really popular with everyone, but I would say they’ve all been really well received.

“I’ve been really impressed with the quality and surprised by just how much is available through UK importers. A couple I’ve spoken to who don’t have any Georgian wine at the moment are looking at bringing something in for next year, and one of the specialist Italian suppliers that we work with is currently looking at a range, so it seems to be on their radar.”

Harris is unfazed by the potential pronunciation pitfalls of Georgia’s grape varieties. “You can’t really go wrong with Saperavi, that’s easy to say, but when you get onto the white varieties that’s when the fun starts,” she laughs.

“If a supplier takes on a new producer, in the past I probably would have glossed over it and gone on to the countries that I’m more familiar with.

“Now I’ll definitely stop and look and consider refreshing the Georgian range we currently have. The wines are definitely here to stay.”

. THE DRAYMAN .

Roll out the barrel

Just as in the world of winemaking, a growing number of brewers understand that the judicious use of wood can elevate and add extra layers to their products

Wood-ageing has become quite the thing in some beer circles. There’s nothing new under the sun, of course. Belgian’s lambic brewers have been doing it for donkey’s years and there are sprinkling of old-school British ales in which wood maturation plays a vital role. But the modern brewer’s thirst for experimentation, and the popularity of crossover in drinks categories, mean that the transformative powers of oak on beer are becoming more common.

It’s not been an easy path for the niche’s development. A couple of decades ago, HMRC made life hard by demanding extra duty because they deemed that any beer that had absorbed traces of spirits from, say, a whisky barrel should be charged at the spirits rather than beer rate. This was at a time when there was more resistance than there is now to high prices for beer from less savvy consumers.

There have also been controversies about methodology, with one wood-ageing champion, Innis & Gunn, taking some flak for a process that involved putting oak staves into beer, rather than the beer into complete barrels.

It still uses the former process for its Original beer, though it employs the latter for some if its specials and limited editions – elements respectively of light-touch new world oaked Chardonnay and heavyweight Rioja

The difference in impact of those processes can be seen in a comparison of the Original with Innis & Gunn’s Smokin’ Gunn limited edition, aged in bourbon barrels.

Both are perfectly drinkable but the smoky version is a more complex and rewarding experience. To my mind dark beers that have more heft to start off with are able both to withstand the impact of time in oak and flourish because of it.

Harviestoun Old Dubh is a version of the brewer’s modern classic Old Engine Oil stout aged in 12-year-old whisky casks from Orkney’s Highland Park distillery, delivering luscious notes of liquorice and chocolate. It’s complex, dense and decadent against Innis & Gunn’s simpler, accessible, easy-drinking style, like watching an episode of Succession straight after The Waltons.

The powerful hops and malty sweetness of a strong ale also seems to result in a more harmonious relationship with wood. An oak-aged IPA from Marston’s posh Horninglow Street range adds interesting vanilla tones that soften some of its hoppy bitterness.

But my top tip is a beer whose makers say is “the beer the brewery was started to discover”. Natural fermentation specialist Wild Beer takes inspiration from those wood-aged lambics of the past for Modus Operandi, a sour red blend from 20 beer samples that its creators suggest finds a sweet spot between Kentucky bourbon and red Burgundy, but which also has an acidity that recalls the tart green apple character of good Riesling.

Just like that grape variety, it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it exists to remind us how diverse great beer can be.

87% of winners also wear caps

We went on our Christmas Night Out. Not for the period 21-22 (imagine!) but for those long-ago forgotten lands of 20-21. We shut the shop early and do a Linner, later than an Amazing Lunch and actually on closer inspection rather like Tea, as in you’ll be having yours.

Jordan, the best Master of Organisation that I know, gives me a shortlist of wellthought-out venues with pros and cons for each. We opt for the excellent and reliable stalwart in what was once named one of the 50 Coolest Neighbourhoods in THE WORLD, I shit you not. (Let me tell you, when I lived in Finnieston it was certainly not – it was the place of the verbal and retail diarrhoea of Mac in Clan Stores, of Jaz sneaking bottles of post-10pm vodka (the worst of drinks: I was younger and more (or less?) foolish) through the curtain in Taste of Punjab, of the only possible thing to eat being Microchips from the 24-hour shop, a fundamental memory of neon reflected on constantly rainmirrored streets, of someone smoking crack in our kitchen at a party once, of another party where black Sambuca

14. NIGHT OUT

It’s time for Phoebe Weller and her Valhalla’s Goat team to let their hair down in Glasgow. Expect cheap wine, singing, storming off and at least one resignation

(vodka is superseded) vomit from a firstfloor window permanently eroded the pavement beneath, still visible on Derby Street should you wish to check.)

Inappropriate Ben makes us Daiquiris from the spirits samples in the cellar, which are certainly not Daiquiris. I put on a sequinned orange dress and some kind of bizarre make-up, we drink canned cocktails on the walk over the park, Jordan orders way too much food in a Masterfully

An artist’s impression of what the Valhalla’s Goat party was never going to look like

Organised way and in retaliation I order some inexpensive, plentiful and unrewarding wine for the table in a Keeper of the Company Credit card way.

Then we go to the place owned by the guy who (allegedly) both burnt his nose out and bit someone’s nose off whilst on powder (although at different times). I am flagging a little and Queen Carla says that a bottle of Ruinart would help and goodness it does, the following bottles less/more so, and then Prince Harry (not that one) turns up and we are singing and having a carry-on and then we get told off and I go off in a Huff and sit in the bus stop and then check the bus times and there are no buses for 20 minutes so I Huff back, only to find myself in a taxi soon after and then eating forbidden toast in my kitchen soon after that.

Which sounds fine, really, doesn’t it? I can think, easily, of several hundred nights where I have been more obnoxious, less moral, rule and indeed law-abiding. So why have I become someone blessed with crippling day-after Fear? Hollowing, tongue-disabling, evil stomach-knotting shame and anxiety. Is this pushing-40 related? Is this Covid related? Is this just not-going-out-a-lot related?

I excuse myself from the shop floor to sit in the OG office with the lights off, the heater on, and look at puppies and ducklings on Instagram for a while. I put Methril Spirit Armour on the YouTube, and eat a Rottencake sandwich and a bit of Pepe’s special curried battered fish (the man is a genius!) These Amazing follow-on Lunches don’t help much with the Fear, but eventually the entire package starts to breathe life into me.

Two people hand in their notices in the following week. They assure me that it wasn’t anything I did, but I think we will leave the 21-22 Christmas Night Out for a while.

Black cat corkscrew

Black cats: lucky or unlucky? There are only positive vibes coming from this delightful feline. Redcandy.co.uk, RRP £16.50

Restaurant Crystal Clean

Banish cloudy wine glasses and decanters with a professional bar glass wash. This ultraconcentrated liquid contains no solvents or harsh chemicals. It is made from natural ingredients, and completely biodegradable and odourless. It can be used if washing by hand or by machine. One 475ml bottle washes more than 2,200 wine glasses. wineware.co.uk, £19.95 including VAT

Ready-made gift box with glassware

This stylish gift box with a magnetic closure is designed to house a standard sized bottle of fizz and comes complete with two Princesa Champagne flutes.

The neutral colour scheme means it can be accessorised to suit any point in the retail calendar and used for in-store displays.

The box comes flat packed for easy storage and sold in a wholesale pack of 12 boxes. For online sales, specially designed transit outers are available separately. wbc.co.uk, £10.40 per unit excluding VAT What could be more comforting on a cold winter’s eve than the classic Bloody Mary? This variation replaces vodka with bourbon for an extra level of indulgent flavour and some sweetness to balance the tomato juice’s acidity. I’ve seen versions with grandstanding ingredients like bacon and sun-dried tomatoes but sometimes simple is best. But, of course, the beauty of a Bloody Mary is that you tweak the control panel to suit your own taste.

5cl bourbon whiskey 7.5cl tomato juice 2cl amontillado sherry 2cl lemon juice A few drops of hot pepper sauce A few drops of Lea & Perrins Celery salt Ground black pepper

Coat the rim of a highball glass with a mix of the pepper and celery salt and half-fill with ice. Put the rest of the pepper, some more ice and liquid ingredients in a shaker. Gently shake. Strain into the glass.