It was Real Drinks’ second branch to face the axe this year after its shop in Notting Hill, west London, closed in January.
Only about half of revenue comes from walk-in custom
Only a third of hospitality firms are in profit – and some indies have already concluded the sums no longer add up
High profile closures recently have seen Kwas in Huddersfield stop trading and Real Drinks close its store in Twickenham (see pages 5 and 8).
A report for UK Hospitality, the British Institute of Innkeeping and the British Beer & Pub Association suggests that only 37% of hospitality businesses are currently making a profit.
THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers Issue 116, August 2022
Almost a quarter have reduced opening hours and one in six have no cash reserves.
Hybrid wine stores are trying to remain positive but admit the going is tough.
WoodhouseJoe
Hybrids buckle up as the squeeze on spending hits Dog of the month: Charlie Milne & Pickles, Peebles
Richard Everton, at Bottles in Worcester, says on-trade sales are 20% up on 2021 so far this year on a like-for-like basis, but off-trade revenue is flat. Wholesale is up because of the general return of the ontrade. “Some customers have gone to the market a little bit and we’ve picked up
Wine importer Beattie & Roberts has opened premises in Newington Green to be known as Cadet. The restaurant/wine shop concept is the idea of (from left) Francis Roberts, George Jephson, Jamie Smart and Tom Beattie. Full story on page 9.
Hybrid wine merchants are battling strong headwinds in the face of escalating costs and the squeeze on consumer spending.
The biggest reasons cited are rising energy costs (74%), stock price inflation (55%) and increased labour costs (54%).
“The part-timers would like full-time jobs but we can’t afford to give them that,” says Sina. “I’m sometimes giving them shifts when we don’t really need them, just to support them – but I wonder how long we can keep that going.”
Xhulio Sina, at Bottle Bar & Shop in Catford, south London, says the diversity of its business is a plus, particularly the ready-to-drink cocktails that it sells online and supplies to other retailers.
a lot of business from the national wholesalers as a consequence of the service we gave during the pandemic,” he adds. “We’re bucking the trend in the ontrade,” he says. “We recently changed the concept so the shop and bar are more stand-alone [rather than a mixed hybrid space] and that’s helped. “In the shop, customer count is up but individual transaction sizes are lower, and people are down-spending on the quality of “Onlinewine. is up but nine times out of 10 they’re things that people have sought out because we’re cheap on them. We’ve experimented by putting a few prices down on claret and Burgundy and they very quickly got sniffed out.”
THE WINE MERCHANT MAGAZINE
On rising costs, he adds: “We’ve not massively felt the pain on energy yet but we’re ready for it and we know we are going to. “Wages, fuel, products, glassware, cardboard and shipping costs are all going up. It’s a case of making sure we’re not subsidising it and we’ve put prices up in both on-trade and off-trade.”
“Everything’s gone up: our wines, the liquid for the cocktails and beer prices have gone up. But customers’ bills have gone up too. Some people are not spending money the way they used to, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t think we’ve experienced the worst of it yet. Profitability will be down ultimately and it’s a case of battening the hatches and hope you come through, or being a bit more bullish and trying to take a greater share of the business.”
“I’m optimistic,” he says, “but if our business was depending only on Catford – the bar and the shop – we wouldn’t have survived. We are not in profit but we’re not about to close the business.
Bottle Bar & Shop employs one full-timer and two part-timers.
‘Transaction sizes are lower, and people are down-spending on the quality of wine’
NEWS 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 naomi@winemerchantmag.com The Wine Merchant is circulated to the owners of the UK’s 1,007 specialist independent wine shops. Printed in Sussex by East Print. © Graham Holter Ltd 2022 Registered in England: No 6441762 VAT 943 8771 82 THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 2 Inside this month 4 COMINGS AND GOINGS Relocations, some sad farewells and two changes of ownership 12 caught in a bottleneck How soaring glass and other dry goods prices are affecting wine 20 saluting santorini Our group of indies gets to grips with world-beating Assyrtiko 29 the burning question How did record temperatures in July affect the independent trade? 36 Australian angst Has the UK really fallen out of love with Aussie wine as data suggests? 40 talking wines profile The wine trade equivalent of total football at the Cirencester indie 54 buying trip to portugal Our group finds plenty to explore in the Setúbal Península 58 focus on champagne A welcome return to sustainable pricing in the UK market
Everton at Bottles says things could get worse before they get better. “People don’t go around with their eyes closed and they accept that things are costing more – but unfortunately alcohol and socialising are things that could easily be put on the back burner.
“In two and a bit years, I’ve gone from a job that I really didn’t like to owning my own wine shop – it’s been incredible,” he says. “I’ve changed about 80% of the range. I work with about a dozen suppliers including specialists such as Marta Vine for our Portuguese range, Condor for South America, Marcato Direct for Italian wines and Thorman Hunt for France. “I feel they all really get under the skin of those regions. It’s great working with these Finding more trade in Morpeth smaller suppliers and they’ve been very supportive as well. “Every weekend I’ve got a couple of bottles open for people to try. Engagement with customers is very important. “I’m really looking to get our monthly tastings restarted next month and I’ve booked Morpeth town hall for our big biannual tasting event in November. It will be our first one since 2019. “Morpeth is really on the way up with lots of new restaurants and bars opening, and tourism has increased massively.”
“I’ve always loved Sandgate: it is Folkestone but it isn’t. It’s got its own vibe as a little village but you drive through it in 10 seconds. “You can walk to Folkestone, so it’s got all the benefits of a pretty seaside village but still close to a vibrant town, which is absolutely popping at the moment – and it’s only going one way.”
Wilson had previously worked with the Shortens on the wine list for the restaurant.
“We were initially looking at the centre of Folkestone,” says Wilson, “and then this property came up.
Grape & Grain was initially owned by Paddy Eyres and traded as Bin21 before Michelle McKenzie took over in 2018 and rebrandedStephensonit. is an ex-train guard who started working for McKenzie shortly before the pandemic. He bought the business in December 2020 and has reinvigorated the offer.
“They recognised there was this growing interest in wine and there was an opportunity to do more wine-focused things and we decided to collaborate rather than doing things separately,” says Walls.
“There was a really good energy and spark between us all.
Mark Stephenson bought the shop in 2020
A relocation from one end of the high street to the other is proving to be a positive move so far for Grape & Grain in Morpeth, Northumberland. Owner Mark Stephenson reopened in the new premises at the end of June and has already attracted new customers. Stephenson says: “There have been so many people who’ve come in over the past two weeks and when I tell them we were only down the bottom of the road, they say they’ve lived here for over 30 years but never realised we were there. “We were right at the end and the shops around us were selling carpets and windows, so I knew we were missing out a lot on passing trade. This unit is opposite what will be a big hotel. It’s close to our market square and a shopping arcade. “We’ve even picked up a few more corporate orders as people have driven past and spotted us.”
Louisa Walls toasts the John Dory launch “It’s a beautiful space, quite rustic but not in an over-the-top way. There’s some bare brickwork and concrete floors and a lovely area at the back of the shop, which has a very high conservatory-style roof. We’ll have some gorgeous plants and install a wood-burner for the winter.
“The space lends itself to having a tasting room at the back and a social area at the front and plenty of shelving. It won’t be all super-modern, new and shiny. It will have quite a cosy feel.”
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 4 Folkestone indie is a team effort John Dory is a wine shop and tasting room on its way to Sandgate, near Folkestone in Kent. It is being opened by Louisa Walls, who previously worked in the wine trade in Provence, and Zeren Wilson, a food writer and wine consultant who was once an account manager at Armit. They have teamed up with local restaurateurs Sam and Andy Shorten from Space Bar & Kitchen in the town.
Cheshire’s Whitmore & White has been sold by founders Joe Whittick and Jamie Godber-Ford Moore. The new owners are Brian Spark and Chris Fletcher, who say they have been fans of the business since it first opened. “For the last couple of years, Brian and I had been exploring different options,” says Fletcher, “from our own start-up to considering other existing business. The type of thing we wanted, if you look at the DNA of it, was very similar to Whitmore & White.”Whittick and Moore launched the business in Heswall in 2014 and opened a
Kwas closes as cost of living bites
Right time to sell Cheshire business
Bacchus THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 5
Setting the record straight Apologies are due to Lloyd Beedell and his team at Chester’s in Abergavenny.
The cobwebby cellar at the José Maria da Fonseca estate on Portugal’s Setúbal peninsula dates back to 1775 and it’s an atmospheric place. As visitors tread softly through the gravel walkways, admiring the barrels and breathing in the musty aromas of evaporating Moscatel and dusty oak, the faint echoes of Gregorian chanting add an extra sense of reverence. The music is really there for the tourists, our guide more or less admits. “But the vibrations maybe help the wine to age a little quicker.” Spotting an opportunity for a clever wisecrack that will make him appear both perceptive and original, our editor suggests that heavy metal or hip-hop is played instead, thus speeding up the maturation process even more. Our guide barely allows him to finish the sentence. “Everybody says that,” he interjects, turning on his heels to continue the tour.
Huddersfield indie Kwas has closed its shop and bar in the West Yorkshire town’s centre but is continuing with its wholesale business. Co-owner Duncan Sime says rising business costs and the impact of the cost of living crisis on consumer spending have brought things to a head.
second site in Frodsham a year later. Whittick says: “Jamie has continued to run his other business as a specialist building contractor. He does restoration work on churches, castles and stained glass. “I’m an ecologist and I’ve been working the whole time too. We do like to be ridiculously busy. “But we’ve come to the point where we’ve realised we can’t give the business the attention it needs – we are just running to stay still. “Chris and Brian have a lot of energy and ideas. It just feels right for the business and they will take it forward.”
Managers Katie Butler (Frodsham) and Graham Simpson (Heswall) will be staying with the company. Bigger premises for Knutsford duo Morgan Edwards in Knutsford, Cheshire, is relocating from its shop in the town’s Market Hall shop to larger premises nearby. Co-owner Morgan Ward says: “The larger and more prominent location will enable us to offer an expanded range of wines as well as hosting tastings, offering valuations, and collaborations. The location will raise our profile and customer base.”
In our July edition we described Winyl in Essex as the only shop in the UK specialising in both wine and LPs, forgetting that Chester’s has a small selection of vinyl on sale. Lloyd can probably claim one unique honour, however, being the only independent merchant that we know of to have his company logo as a tattoo. Our photo of his ankle should prove the point. Not funny, not clever
Morgan Ward (left) and Edward Speakman
Sime and co-founder Ola Dabrowska expanded their natural wine, craft beer and cider offering during lockdown by adding groceries. Late last year they then moved to bigger premises, next door to their original unit, to accommodate the growing business once the on-trade ramped up again, financing the move through a crowdfunder. “The numbers weren’t stacking up, unfortunately,” says Sime. “People aren’t going out as much. Fridays and Saturdays have been good but the daytime trade needed to double or triple to be sustainable."
Finley’s fitting-out relied on the help and good will of some talented friends West Yorkshire indie Martinez Wines has plans to open a third store this autumn and owner Jonathan Cocker has his sights on premises in Leeds. “I’ve been looking for about 10 years for the right property,” he says. “It had to be in the right location, the right sort of thing for Martinez – I like old-fashioned, characterful buildings.”
The shop will open on Islington High Street on August 29 with a range of wines from California and Oregon. Pacific Wines was started as an online business by former maths teacher Rachel Gilbert, and her father Graham Gilbert, nine months ago. Rachel fell for the US states when the pair went on a road trip after she graduated 10 years ago. Plans for a wine shop were hatched as long ago as 2019 before the pandemic got in the way. The site will stock 150 wines and has an events space to the rear with a capacity of 30. “We are the first UK retailer to focus exclusively on North American wines,” says Rachel. “Lockdown gave us the opportunity to set up Pacific Wines online and start to develop our range of wines, and living locally, I had my heart set on opening a store in Islington. “When this store became available, I knew the time was right.”
Rachel Gilbert: a former maths teacher with a love of west coast wines
American dream becomes a reality Arcade in Leeds city centre, a location famous for its animated Ivanhoe clock that depicts characters from Sir Walter Scott’s novel of the same name. “The location is great,” Cocker says. “The ground floor has capacity for 30 and that will be walk-in only. “We’ll take bookings for the first floor, which takes about 20 people and on the top floor we’ll have one big table with space for about a dozen people and use it for tastings and private hire. “We’ll be doing a minimum of 40 wines by the glass, all matched with cheese. It will mainly be a wine bar with simple tapas. There will be a small retail element but our focus on this will be deliveries.
Cocker is in the final stages of securing a Grade II listed building in Thornton’s
Cocker branches out to Leeds
Online US wine specialist Pacific Wines is opening a bricks-and-mortar retail site in north London.
“We think that there’s still a market for home delivery and we’re trying to push that a little bit more. It’s everything Martinez is: small and friendly with quality wines.“The idea is to entice, educate and encourage people to try something different.”Martinez’s existing branches are in Bingley and Ilkley.
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“On the menu we’ll have prices for bythe-glass, bottle-in, bottle-out and a case delivered to the local postcode area.
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“The last few years has made us embrace change and consider how we grow as a business, which has led us to difficult decisions around our retail offering and ultimately the closing of Twickenham.”
The Grand Hotel Birmingham
“Making decisions like this are never easy,” said Dolan, announcing the closure by social media. “We have been able to achieve many things and we have had a lot of fun along the way, mainly due to our dedicated and passionate team who have done so much more than just work here.
The store’s 2021 rebrand
The Twickenham store had what the company called a “significant refurbishment” with more drinking-in space as recently as May of this year.
For more information email: sales@marcatodirect.co.uk
At the time, the company’s Zeph King told The Wine Merchant that revenue was £9.5m annually with growth of 56% in the first quarter of 2021, versus the same period a year earlier.
Portfolio tasting in association with Condor Wines: Celebrate the diversity of South America Scan here to register rebranding in April 2021 as Real Drinks, to reflect an evolution in recent years to include more wine and spirits in its range.
The business was founded as Real Ale by Nick Dolan at the Twickenham site in 2005, as a specialist in bottle-conditioned beer.
An unusual revenue stream for the business saw it acting as a beer sourcing consultant for Marks & Spencer. It was over a decade before Maida Vale (in 2017) and Notting Hill (2019) brought expansion of the Real Ale estate. The company undertook a high profile Real Drinks
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 8 Real Drinks has closed its original store in Twickenham and its ecommerce business with the loss of three full-time jobs. The London indie’s move follows the closure of its Notting Hill shop in January and leaves it with only a single hybrid branch, in Maida Vale.
Monday 12 September, 10.30am – 5.30pm | Lunch included between 1-2pm
Twickenhamshutsshop
PORTFOLIO TASTING
A devalued pound Feline groovy Too many Vineyards Specialist wine importer Beattie & Roberts has opened Cadet, a wine bar and shop in Newington Green, north London.
In the How Much is Brexit Costing? article in the July edition, Yannick Loué states “the exchange rate is a lot better now than preBrexit. We were near enough to €1.10 to the pound in those days”. This is factually incorrect. The pound was above €1.30 for many years before Brexit and even reached above €1.40.
• The Vine Shop in Five Valleys Shopping Centre in Stroud, Gloucestershire, closed last month after just nine months of trading. Sommelier David Almeida, who owned the business, posted on social media: “I’d like to say a big thank you to all the people that supported the business. I’ve met great people and I will miss you all.”
Chef Jamie Smart. Pic by Joe Woodhouse Devon’s Grape & Grain is opening a standalone wine bar at 133 High Street in Crediton, a few doors away from the existing wine shop. The bar will be housed in an old bank and the name is expected to be Grape & Grain @133. “I’ve taken a long-term lease with an option to buy,” says owner Bruce Evans. “It’s not a new concept: it’s a wine and cocktail bar with a little bit of continental beer. “But it’s new for Crediton. The town has eight pubs but this gives people a new option. Crediton needs something like this.”
Wine bar will be a bonus for Bruce
Tom Beattie and Francis Roberts have teamed up with George Jephson, who runs a charcuterie business, and chef Jamie Smart for the venture.
Evans is unperturbed by the gathering economic crisis. “It’s good to open when it’s like this because you’ll naturally do it in a lean way, and it will hopefully be better set up for when things improve,” he says. The aim is to open in late October. “There’s a lot of work to do,” he adds. “If it doesn’t open then, it will be February, because there’s no way I’m opening in November, December or January.”
“To open just a straight restaurant seems like a risk,” he says, “so to be able to do that multi-offering – you can eat in, no reservations, or just buy some charcuterie and a bottle of wine to take away – abides by that caves à manger style that you see in France. “There’ll be a small shelf near the entrance with all the wine on display and everything that needs to be refrigerated to take away, will be.”
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 9
EmailCorrespondenceProductions.iswelcome.graham@winemerchantmag.com
Beattie says Cadet will be “predominantly” on-trade but that retail will be an important element.
Beattie says: “We work with 25 winemakers across France, Germany and Italy and Iambic beer producers in Belgium. “Initially we’re only going to be working with our imports but down the track we might open it out. “For the past four years that we’ve been importing, we have held on to some back vintages with this project in mind, so we are really looking forward to showcasing those.”
Paul Chambers Lake District Drinks Co Greenodd Fantastic. Finally another cover page Cat of the Month! A great improvement. Will Bentley’sBentleyWine Merchants of Ludlow I was reading the July issue of The Wine Merchant, with much pleasure as always. This issue was particularly thrilling as we were, for the first time I believe, mentioned in an article: Steve’s Found His Groove [a profile of Winyl in Manningtree, Essex]Unfortunately it must have been a misprint as I don’t think I’ve ever met Steve Tattam; we haven’t done SITT in at least seven or eight years; and we don’t do French wines. I can only assume it was meant to be From Vineyards Direct. Oh well, I’ll take my 10 seconds of fame wherever it’s coming from! Dario VineyardsLangellaDirect Enfield, north London Editor’s note: We went back to Steve and he tells us he actually meant to namecheck Vineyard
Restaurant but also a wine shop LETTERS
“We have a trainee programme where we train everybody up in all areas of the business so that everyone can do everything,” explains manager Tom Hemmingway. “More often than not, they carve out a niche for themselves, just as James has. He’s been with us for about nine months and we accelerated him along because we saw very quickly that his skill set and attention to detail makes him very well suited to his role.”
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F rom a career in banking to working the vineyards in France, via some serious exploration of wine regions in New Zealand, James Riley has now found his happy place at Highbury Vintners.
James coordinates all the in-store tastings as well as running the store’s social media. “We do everything from packing up orders for shipping out to buying wines and serving customers,” he says. “I like the customer side best, in the sense of taking them on journeys with tasting events, for example. They learn something, have a nice time and they go away radiating happiness and fulfilment. It’s nice to be in a role where you can create that environment.”
visited wineries on holidays,” says James, “but our time in New Zealand was the first time we did it in a concerted way. They have some fantastic stuff and they keep a lot of it for themselves.”
James Riley Highbury Vintners, LondonRising Stars himself in the London wine scene”. So after all that travelling, why London, and why retail?
By the time lockdown hit, James had spent time in Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Rías Baixas, worked a harvest in the south of France, completed his WSET Level 3 and was in the process of buying a property in France. “We bought a little winemaker’s house to renovate to give us something to do and provide us with a base to explore in between the various lockdowns and curfews,” he says. “It was a really informative and educational year. It’s such a nice world; you meet really interesting people. People who work in wine mostly do it because they are passionate. Nobody does it to get rich and that’s a refreshing thing.”
J ames had worked at HSBC, and lived in Hong Kong for a year, before joining Lloyds and then leaving banking in 2018 and travelling to his partner’s native New“We’dZealand.always
Tom describes James as having “really immersed
James explains: “When we were in France, we did think ‘do we want to make wine?’ although we’d enjoyed being part of the winemaking process for other people, it wasn’t for us. We both love living in London so it made sense to come back and work in the wine business here. “I really believe that wine should be accessible, and Highbury Vintners is great because we’re a community wine shop in the heart of Highbury and we have a lot of regular customers who have known Tom for a decade or more. It’s an exciting time for the business and I’m getting more involved and want to continue to be part of our growth.“Ialso want to continue building relationships with small producers around the world. Whether that will lead to me becoming more involved in visiting wineries and working on the buying side, or setting up a business on my own, I don’t know. Life has taught me not to predict too far ahead!”
James wins a bottle of Glenfarclas 12 Year Old Single Highland Malt If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com
“I like to think it’s the best cheeseboard you’ll find in Birmingham. We’ve had some fantastic TripAdvisor reviews recently. The food side of things is as important as the wine side although we are not a restaurant and we don’t have a full-on kitchen.”
“I think Birmingham as a city is growing generally at the moment. The demographic is very mixed and very young and there is a buzz around the city. Fingers crossed from our point of view it’s going all right.”
Chris Connolly says there was an option to extend the lease but due to his “advancing years” (he is 62) he was reluctant to make any further commitment to the shop. “We took on the premises just over 10 years ago,” he says. “The lease came to an end and the landlords were prepared to be flexible but they wanted some degree of certainty from us. “It’s based in a 1930s shopping parade – it’s a very strong location. We converted the first and second floors into a tasting room and offices and in the tasting room you can seat 20 people comfortably. “It’s gone to someone who’s been working with us for 22 years and he’s taken on a couple of staff who were working with us, so we’ve had no redundancies. The whole thing has been done in a very amicable way. “It was working well, it was ticking over and we had a great team in there. But actually if you’re driving it yourself as an owner-manager then it’s quite a different ball game, I think. “It gives us a bit more time and a better work/life balance and a chance to take time off without worrying about what’s going on back at the farm, so to speak.”
“Birmingham is a big enough city to cope with that kind of competition,” says Connolly. “I think what we do is really quite different. We don’t get involved with Enomatic machines and this sort of thing. It’s much more service-driven and staff engage with customers; they chat to them and they give them a little taste of something if they’re not quite sure what they“Thewant.cheese and meat side of things that we do is very important. Presentation is really strong and the quality is really high. It’s not just a little bit of something to soak up the alcohol.
“The bar side of things is growing at the moment so I can’t say we are feeling the pinch. Obviously costs are going up, which makes things more difficult.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 11 Connolly’s has consolidated all its activities to its bar and shop in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter after selling off its Solihull store to its manager. The move, which comes a couple of years after the business sold its wholesale operation to Frazier’s, frees up the business to focus on its hybrid operation and to look for new sites where its Arch 13 concept could be replicated.
The last two or three years have been difficult for everyone, and they continue to be difficult, but it’s working as well as it was before lockdown.”
Does Connolly feel that Birmingham is in any way insulated from the current woes facing so much of UK hospitality?
Above: Chris and Abi Connolly Below: The Solihull branch
The Solihull branch, in Dovehouse Parade, has been taken on by Mark Stammers and will now trade under the Vine & Bine banner.
Connolly’s daughter Abi runs the Arch 13 bar in a railway arch in Henrietta Street, a corner of which is sectioned off as the Connolly’s shop. “Arch 13 is working well but Abi really isn’t interested in stand-alone retail. She’s much more interested in the hybrid model and she’s got some quite exciting plans to develop that and roll that out,” he says. “We are actively looking for somewhere.
Connolly’s started out in 1976, when Birmingham’s wine scene was nothing like as sophisticated as it is today. Loki provides some friendly rivalry, and more recently there has been a series of wine bar openings, and Midlands debuts for Vagabond and Vinoteca, both making their first forays outside of London.
Connolly’s pins hopes on hybrids
Solihull shop is sold to its manager and the hunt is on for sites where on and off-sales can combine
BOTTLENECKCAUGHT
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 12 There are plenty of challenges facing the global wine trade so perhaps one more won’t matter. But a shortage of glass bottles creates a pretty fundamental problem, and it’s one that’s beginning to bite. All UK importers seem to be affected to some degree. Most of the problems are centred on Europe, but South American orders have also been disrupted. Soaring energy prices and supply-chain logjams have been Whateverblamed.theroot cause, the bottle shortage is creating unwelcome delays and additional costs for a worldwide industry that’s still trying to re-assemble itself after two chaotic years of Covid. “Many producers are struggling to obtain glass – we have had three shipments of core lines held up for this reason,” says Doug Wregg of Les Caves de Pyrene. Nicholas Moschi, director of buying at Liberty Wines, adds: “Clear glass and bottles with non-standard shapes, sizes and attributes [including traditional Provence bottles] have been hard to obtain. In the last few weeks even more standard bottles have been hard to find. “Europe is most affected. Within Europe, we have seen that Italy has been severely affected. Orders have been delayed while waiting for the bottles to arrive.”
Flint Wines director Jason Haynes reports similar problems. “When we were in Burgundy three weeks ago, quite a few growers told us how they had placed their orders for bottles months ago, had received confirmation that their orders had been received – but had been told that there was no guarantee they would actually get them.”Enotria&Coe is finding it’s a struggle to obtain glass “at every level of supply volume”, according to managing director Sam Thackeray. “Some producers have been forced to discontinue alternative bottle formats, such as half-bottles, or to withdraw them from certain markets,” he says. “Supply is being disrupted, and it’s ongoing. Delays are inevitable in both manufacture and production.” Marcato Direct is an Italian specialist. “Sourcing glass bottles has become a big problem which has meant us ordering our bottles months and months in advance so that we can secure the stock,” says
Adam Clarke (left) with John Winchester Simon Thackeray at Enotria&Coe says: “We are doing what we can to absorb the impact for our customers, as we feel that stable supply and consistent pricing is important for the trade to succeed in these uncertain times. “However, in specific circumstances we will be compelled to push through price increases. For example, it is very likely that in response to the Consorzio Tutela Prosecco, we will have to put through an increase in Prosecco pricing.”
Berkmann buyer Simon Zuckerman says: “We are certainly seeing issues with the availability of glass from South American suppliers, which I believe is largely due to local issues with furnaces in both Argentina and Chile. “This is affecting production lead times, which have increased significantly and led to several situations where our suppliers have had to temporarily switch from their normal bottles to an alternative colour or shape. “This hasn’t translated into price increases yet, as brands look to maintain continuity of pricing during the year. But if the situation continues into next year, then it is very likely that these costs will be factored into any price increases.”
Sharing the cost burden It’s a basic law of economics that shortages create price increases. So how severe has it been with the cost of wine bottles?
“Even when we have requested the bottles in advance we have found that the stock is not there for us when we need it, incurring costs and disruption”causing
“Normally, producers will wait until a ANALYSIS
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 13 director Rebecca Skeels. “Even when we have requested the stock in advance we have found that the stock is not there for us when we need it.
Such increases are already apparent in Europe. According to an email seen by The Wine Merchant, sent by a German producer to its UK importer, the cost of a 75cl glass bottle has risen from 32 cents before the pandemic to 40 cents now, a 25% increase.
“Yes, costs are being passed to us,” says Doug Wregg at Les Caves, “I think mainly because the totality of increases across all the raw materials, combined with very small vintages, combined with wage inflation, combined with high fuel prices, has put huge upward pressure on prices.
CAUGHT IN BOTTLENECKTHE
A shortage of glass, and the price rises that this has sparked, are creating huge problems for wineries and their customers. But as Graham Holter reports, the issues aren’t just about bottles
Glass isn’t the only problem Although the rising cost of glass is arguably creating most of the chatter, importers are keen to point out that it’s just part of a wider pricing issue with dry goods generally.Producers are facing – and passing on, where they can – a suite of additional costs. The German producer, quoted earlier, is being hit by even bigger price increases than it’s noticing with glass. Its cardboard 12-bottle cartons are now 45% more expensive than they were two years ago. Corks are up 34%, and screwcaps 100%. Labels cost 41% more. That’s before you factor in some essentials such as fuel (up 52%), salaries (up 26%) and toll surcharges on deliveries (up 204%). It’s no wonder that exporters expect a bit of sympathy and support from their partners.
“Booking your bottling slot in advance, and then discovering you have no bottles, incurs costs and causes disruption with ourCondorsupply.”Wines is a South American wine specialist and can confirm that the problems go beyond Europe. “There has been a shortage of clear glass,” says owner Lee“It’sEvans.meant we’ve had to bottle some white wines in green glass temporarily and we’ve not been able to ship some rosado wines, which don’t work in green glass, and we decided to wait for supply to be available again.”
Boxes and kegs won’t solve the problem
“The other hidden cost out there, not related to glass, is the complexity of shipping and the financial calculations that need to be reset each time. We have had to employ more people in shipping than ever – so, higher costs there too – to communicate with transport companies, growers, check forms, arrange consolidations, and chase the bonded warehouse. “Shipments take weeks longer to arrive than they used to. It is probably slower now than 300 years ago.”
All in it together Sadly for retailers, spiralling price inflation looks certain to be a fact of life for the foreseeable future. “I think the important thing is for customers to understand that most wine merchants, I suspect, will do everything in their power to minimise price rises,” says Doug Wregg. “But there are additional costs that you have to pass on sooner rather than later, because the longer one postpones, the bigger the eventual jump.
Lee Evans at Condor adds: “At times we’ve had to wait for availability of screwcap bottles. When the glass manufacturers have problems or have higher demand, they focus on core bottle products – and in South American that’s mainly cork closure.
ANALYSIS THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 14 new vintage is released before passing on the costs, but in certain cases they do it mid-vintage.“Wehavebeen trying to manage our prices as best as possible. It has become increasingly difficult because shipping, warehouse and delivery costs have gone up around 10%. With Covid, the war in Ukraine and climate crisis, we’re in for a rockyNicholasride.”Moschi at Liberty Wines is equally upfront. “Prices had been rising steadily with increases passed to producers in December 2021 and January 2022,” he says. “The war in Ukraine has made things significantly worse with less availability and energy cost increases. “Pricing for Europe has mostly been agreed so producers have been absorbing most of the costs. Some of these have been significant so we had to help producers. If difficulties remain, unfortunately more increases will be necessary.”
Might the problems with glass persuade producers and importers to investigate other forms of packaging for their wines? “We’re open to ideas other than glass,” says Doug Wregg at Les Caves. “We have a decent number of wines in KeyKeg, but the wine shortage in Europe has meant less and less wine available for this purpose, and the increasing length of shipping times means that there is less time to sell the stock when it eventually arrives in the WreggUK.”points out that, as things stand, even a 20-litre KeyKeg only represents a marginal saving on the same wine in a glass bottle.
“I think the most has been weeks rather than months, but it has caused some disruption and not been welcome when we have also had delays in shipping.”
What’s the alternative?
Screwcap bottles are in short supply too
Sam Thackeray at Enotria&Coe says that alternative packaging hasn’t really come to the fore since the glass crisis began. “The knock-on impact of changing labelling, and the problems with dry goods and other elements that make up the product, mean that additional complexity just brings more delays,” he says. “And prices of cardboard and aluminium – the key components of the most popular packaging alternatives, bag-in-box and cans – have also risen astronomically owing to energyManysurcharges.”importers are even experiencing problems with screwcaps. “There is a worldwide issue with availability of screwcaps, which in turn means we are having to look to different bottles to try to bottle under cork,” says an Alliance Wine spokesman.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 15 TRADE & PRESS TASTING 2022 VISIT WWW.WINEGB.CO.UK/TRADE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION WINESBRITAINGREATOF Tuesday 6 September 10.30am - 5.30pm RHS Lindley Hall Elverton Street London SW1P 2PB TO QRSCANREGISTERTHECODE
GRAHAM HOLTER
The British Beer & Pub Association has also been banging drums and, rather unhelpfully, it’s on the other side of the argument. Its members have taken a look at the Sunak blueprint and responded: bring it on. The BBPA’s position is based on naked protectionism. Its members are spooked by rising wine sales and a decline in beer drinking, trends that accelerated during Covid restrictions. In 2020, it reports, beer accounted for 33% of alcohol consumption, down from 37% in 2019. Wine’s share rose from 31% to 33%. Who’s benefiting from higher wine consumption? Not the pubs.
BBPA members have taken a look at the Sunak blueprint and bringresponded:iton
beware: the drinks trade is far from united on duty reform
Ihave a friend called Sam who is nowhere near as worried as I am about climate change. I don’t think he disputes that it’s a problem. He may even agree that it’s a huge problem. But his feeling is that eventually someone will deal with it and make it go away. Cheerfully, he jumps on long-haul flights, turns on the patio heater, and zips up and down the motorway to enjoy the comforts of his second home. What would Sam be doing if he ran a wine business right now? No doubt he would be alarmed by the government’s duty review which, if implemented, would see 70% of all wines taxed at a higher rate than currently, in a fiendishly complicated sliding-scale system so time-consuming and costly that it’s likely to deter some producers from bothering with the UK at all. But maybe, he would conclude, that’s for others to worry about, people with more clout and more time on their hands. A solution will doubtless come along, just as it did with VI-1 forms, and meanwhile we can all keep concentrating on buying and selling lovely wines. We don’t yet know whether Liz Truss will be our next prime minister, or Rishi Sunak, the proud architect of the duty reform proposals. We do know that the government has paused a final decision on their implementation, at least until the autumn. Maybe the plans will be quietly shelved, especially if the Wine & Spirit Trade Association continues to make a convincing case, with the help of indies like Hal Wilson of Cambridge Wine Merchants, and Matt Hennings of Hennings in West Sussex, whose excellent recent social media video on the subject is worth watching and sharing. But the WSTA is not the only drinks industry body lobbying the government.
WineEditorialmerchants
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Many who represent publicans have a slightly creepy tendency to talk about licensees as guardians of public morality. Their assertion is that people need supervision if they choose to drink alcohol – supervision that only the nation’s noble landlords can provide. Off-trade sales have always been demonised by sections of the beery end of the on-trade, and if their arguments were confined to white cider-fuelled mayhem it would be easier to sympathise. But the BBPA is also gunning for the wine trade. Chief executive Emma McClarkin said – presumably with a straight face: “When people visit the pub they primarily drink beer, which on average is 4.2% abv, the lowest strength alcohol category, and so ideal for moderate consumption. It is great to see the Chancellor recognise this and promote lower strength alcohol drinks with his changes to the UK alcohol duty regime.”So,inconveniently for all those involved in wine importing and retailing who can see that Sunak’s idea is a catastrophic error, increasing business costs, adding new levels of bureaucracy and reducing consumer choice, it’s not possible to claim that everybody in the UK drinks industry is opposed to the plan. Far from it. We can sit back and wait for common sense to prevail, or for the WSTA to persuade Treasury grandees that duty reform, in its current incarnation, will badly damage a section of the economy that has been a success story for several decades. Maybe something will turn up. But maybe it won’t. It’s time to email our MPs, again.
Congratulations to the five Wine Merchant reader survey respondents whose names were drawn at random and who each win a Coravin, courtesy of our partner Hatch Mansfield.
Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York Anthony Borges, The Wine Centre, Great Horkesley, Essex Zoran Ristanovic, City Wine Collection, London Daniel Grigg , Museum Wines, Dorset Riaz Syed, Stonewines, London
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NOT YOU AGAIN! customers we could do without Where d’you say you’re off to? Italy? Or was it Spain? Oh, France. Work thing is it? What, drinking wine? Don’t sound much like work to me! Sounds more like an ’olidee! Going round vineyards and getting stewed? All right for some! Tell you what, let me know next time one of them trips comes up, I’ll do it for ya. No money – pay me in wine! So, what they do then, just expect you to drink wine all day … is that it? What is it you say to ’em – oh, my goodness, this one has an exquisite bouquet … simply divine … I’ll buy three crates! Reckon I could do a job like that, no trouble at all, you just call me next time you need an ’elper! Yeah? Mind you, I’m not sure I’d particularly fancy some of that plonk if I see all them feet squashing the grapes … puts you right off, I would imagine … then again that’s what they say gives it the flavour … but the last thing you wanna see is a toenail or a grotty old plaster floating in yer glass … I won’t drink no French wine anyway, not with them playing silly buggers with all this EU red tape what’s causing all this aggravation at Dover … what the hell they playing at? Plus they won’t let you in without about six injections … no thank you … Sid Ferbert
ANAGRAM TIME Can you unscramble these trendy grape varieties? If so, you win a I ♥ Bâtonage bum bag. 1. Soya Skirt 2. Sarnie 3. I Am Ron Vox 4. Alec’s Melon Sealer 5. Actual Olive Indulger 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 THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022
GREECE TRIP
Below: A classic tourist view of Santorini
Old vines that dig deep Anyone who says that vineyards everywhere look pretty much the same has never visited Santorini. Vines sprawl at ankle level across the volcanic debris, their precious grapes protected from the elements within a gobelet-like basket system called a kouloura. By encouraging the vines to grow this way, the fruit occupies its own microclimate, protected from wind damage, dehydration and sunburn. Put your hand inside this secret chamber and it’s immediately clear that the temperature is 1˚C to 2˚C cooler than the surrounding air. It’s why the pickers sometimes keep their lunch here while they set about their back-breaking work. When wine growers on Santorini talk about old vines, they mean very old, often more than 200 years. Phylloxera can’t cope with the island’s clay-free conditions, so vines can rely on their own rootstock. Eventually, when yields become too low, growers graft on a new head to the vine, initially anchoring it into the ground to stop the winds whisking it away. The vines drive down deep into the black rock: one grower we encounter believes the roots on some of his plots extend 75 metres underground. It can take more than a
Above: Chris Goldman and Elly Owen representing UK indies
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Rock star winemakers
3,500 years of achieving the impossible on Santorini Indies seek out the Assyrtiko grape in the Santorini PDO –an environment where almost everything else struggles Everybody knows that grape vines thrive in inhospitable landscapes. But in the Santorini PDO, the resilience of vitis vinifera is tested to something approaching its limits. This famous Greek island likes to extend a friendly welcome to holidaymakers, but there’s little here to make viticulture feel at home – despite the fact that people have been making wine on Santorini, in various forms, for 3,500 years. It’s a harsh volcanic landscape of pumice stone and ash, baked by the scorching Aegean sun and blasted by wind. Trees and grass struggle to establish a foothold on Santorini, and so would most grape varieties. Assyrtiko is one of a handful of honourable exceptions, almost all of them white.Assyrtiko from Santorini, the main variety of the PDO, has become a favourite among many UK independents, who seem to find a ready market for its ultra-zippy, full-bodied white wines, which typically come with a faintly salty tang on the finish. When the opportunity arises to visit the island and get to understand not just classic Assyrtiko but the famous Vinsanto sweet wines too, there’s no shortage, unsurprisingly, of willing takers.
Assyrtiko vines trained in Santorini’s traditional kouloura system
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 21 decade for a new vine to become viable. There is no natural source of fresh water on Santorini. So where are the vines sourcing theirs? Rain falls on just 65 days a year, on average, amounting to a mere 370mm (or an alarmingly meagre 119mm in 2021) that evaporates quickly. But there is a natural drip-irrigation system in the form of the morning dew, and evening sea mists, which supplies the plants with a welcome, and crucial, moisture boost. We notice a few dried-out bunches here and there, outside the embrace of the kouloura. On healthy bunches, the grapes are packed tightly together, but there’s no chance of fungus taking hold in this dry heat. Vineyards on Santorini may or may not be officially classed as organic, but in reality only the most eccentric grower would feel the need to spray their crops. The white grape that acts like a red Although most of us on the trip think we have a fair idea of the Santorini Assyrtiko template, it soon becomes apparent that the spectrum of styles is broader than we realised.Somewinemakers remark that the tannic structure of the grape makes it behave more like a red wine than a classic white. Phenolics are “through the roof”, according to one producer, and some styles certainly benefit from a few years of bottle age before their flavour components properly meld together. But the consumer clamour for young, fresh wines is something producers are happy to indulge. The PDO for Santorini Assyrtiko now stipulates that at least 85% of the blend is Assyrtiko. Some producers have gained a following for their genuinely single-varietal wines, but most also include some Aidani or Athiri, which complement the headline grape’s natural austerity with more aromatic characters. Then there’s the question of oak. Although some producers we meet clearly enjoy expressing the purity of the fruit without any barrel influence, others insist that some judicious oak seasoning creates a more rounded – and arguably more gastronomic – wine. A style we encounter almost everywhere we go is Nykteri. The word translates loosely as “working through the night” and is a reference to the traditional practice of harvesting the grapes during the cooler hours of darkness. The juice for Nykteri wines is usually drawn off without pressing before a minimum of three months of oak ageing. The wines can be strikingly complex, and long-lived. After a number of tastings we start to appreciate how Assyrtiko can develop with age. The steely, citrus elements of its youth don’t disappear entirely – indeed we consistently remark on the surprising freshness of five or six-year-old wines. But as the colour darkens a little, it’s noticeable that the wines take on a satisfying richness, an additional stone-fruit sort of character and maybe a touch of honey. We also pick up a pleasant nutty sensation, and flashes of figs and mountain herbs. We begin to understand why many of our hosts choose to decant their older Assyrtiko wines. We taste an impressive orange Assyrtiko at one winery, which helps confirm that experimentation is adding new dimensions to the island’s winemaking. Amphorae can be spotted lurking in some cellars, and occasionally eggs made from concrete, steel or clay. “The results are very interesting,” one oenologist assures us. “It’s good to play; to use your imagination and be creative. Assyrtiko is a grape that never disappoints you.”
Charlotte Dean Wined Up Here, west London Phil Innes Loki Wine, Birmingham I enjoy the fresher styles of Assyrtiko that really play to the acidity, minerality and salinity of the variety. I prefer Assyrtiko as a single varietal, I think, although sometimes the blends can be interesting and pare back some of the acidity, adding a floral note. I think oak can add Aljoscha Wright The Oxford Wine Company I felt the unoaked wines showed the true character of Assyrtiko and the terroir. It seemed that the age of the vines, coupled with extended lees contact, balanced Assyrtiko’s searing acidity. These wines also definitely improved with an extra year or two bottle age. some real interest to the wines. However it needs to be well thought out, with a light touch. Too much oak can result in some of the unique characteristics of Assyrtiko from Santorini being lost.
The addition of other grape varieties, especially Aidani, which gave a more grapefruit zestiness to those wines labelled Santorini, was very appealing compared to the mineral austerity of 100% Assyrtiko, making the wines more refreshing and definitely inviting another sip.
Santorini wines are very drinkable and have a unique set of conditions that nowhere else can match, giving you a completely different style of wine to anywhere else. The current trend is for drinkable, dry wines, so Assyrtiko really fits that bill. As long as the pricing can stay around about the current levels, I can only see the popularity increasing from here.
VIVA VINSANTO TRIP
The sweet spot of the Santorini PDO
Santorini’s signature sweet wine, Vinsanto, can look on first inspection like it’s made with a red grape. But once again it’s Assyrtiko working its magic: at least 51% of the blend must come from the variety. The grapes are allowed to overripen before being laid out in the sun – or in some cases, partial shade – to gradually dehydrate. As the fruit turns into raisins, the sugars are concentrated. After a slow (often spontaneous) fermentation and lengthy ageing in barrel and bottle, Vinsanto wines emerge with a characteristic velvety richness, but also a balancing acidity from the Assyrtiko. They are not fortified, making them far less heavy than many aperitif and digestifVinsantoalternatives.provesto be another Assyrtiko-dominated wine that’s hard to pigeonhole. Some examples, we are told, should be enjoyed straight from the freezer in chilled shot glasses. At least one producer is considering developing Vinsanto cocktails. Often we detect that unmistakable Santorini salinity, creating a salted caramel effect. In a few examples, a bolder approach with oak imbues an interesting rustic edge. One winery treats us to a 2020 Vinsanto straight from the barrel. It’s just a baby, but already the fig, apricot and caramel flavours are dancing on the palate. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to taste it again in 10 years’ time.
I like the slightly sweeter styles of Vinsanto. I think the best ones have a real salinity that comes through almost like salted caramel.
The vineyards were great to see; the dark volcanic soil and dramatic volcanic slopes contrasting against the vibrant green vines low to the ground that had soaked up the morning dew, and were weaved around the grapes to protect them from the harsh sun and wind. It was great to put your feet under the vines to feel the cooler air! A lovely detail to impart to customers. The winemakers we met all seemed very switched on, young and vibrant. It was nice to see quite a few of them were female and experimenting with amphorae and different sizes and shapes of vats, and different oak too. I was amazed at how many cuvées each of the wineries produced from just the one grape variety. The age of the vines certainly had an impact on the weight and complexity of the wine. I preferred the wines with softened acidity and more weight on the palate obtained by the gentle oxidation by the use of oak, the more elegant the better.
GREECE
THE WINE MERCHANT22
Assyrtiko proved itself very versatile and in the right hands a little bit of old oak added a pleasing layer of complexity. Given the minute amount of Assyrtiko Santorini produces, I believe offering varying styles is definitely a way of appealing to a greater audience. We did taste one oaked version that was absolutely stunning. I believe the wines resonate well with consumers. The average bottle spend in our shops has increased, with customers willing to pay more for quality. These wines are very much a hand sell and once our customers understand what it takes to produce wines on Santorini, I believe they would be well received.
LondonShop,TheWrigglesworthMarkGoodWinewest
When it was entirely neutral oak did add some weight and texture which, for pairing with food, has some merit. My preference is for no oak, but if it is used, not deployed in a way that is noticeably detectable in flavour profile. I preferred the Vinsanto wines with lower sugar, which meant the balance of acidity created freshness and less viscosity. Great with some of the cheeses we were served.
I think that the oak, used carefully, definitely has a place in the range of wines Assyrtiko can produce. The best examples were where the oak was second or thirdfill and took a back-seat role in the wine. These are often so subtle but to me it helps to create a lovely depth to the wine and highlight the depth of the grape.
I preferred the mineral and saline styles of justweighthadparticularlyAssyrtiko,thosethatsometextureandratherthanrefreshingacidity.
Charlotte Dean (left) with Elly Owen Aljoscha Wright
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 23
I certainly think Santorini can build on its current momentum in the UK. They have a unique growing climate and history as well as indigenous grapes that have adapted well. This is perfect for the independent trade as it gives multiple points for consumers to engage with.
Equally, for those who may have travelled to the region and enjoyed the wines, there are ready-made advocates to drive the profile and sales in the longer term.
Elly Owen The Old Garage, Truro I really loved seeing the way the Assyrtiko was so adaptable. I liked the pure and linear style of seeing it unadulterated where the acidity is evident. But I thought it was brilliant with careful use of oak or bâtonage to accentuate the grape’s style and to round the edges ever so slightly.
The Vinsanto wines that I most enjoyed tended to be the ones where the acidity was still prevalent, helping to offset the PX type of sweetness and keeping freshness. This style had orange, saffron and ginger spice, which was really lovely. Santorini wines are quite diverse and can offer a lot for one grape variety. Within the independent trade, some of the wines could definitely rival top-end Chablis and could be marketed in such a way to explore this comparison. Assyrtiko, considering its versatility, actually represents good value at the high end and probably has greater appeal than Riesling – which most customers have preconceptions about.
I certainly think the wines will resonate with customers as they are refreshing summer styles which pair well with a variety of foods due to the high acidity. While prices of the wines are more premium, I think for the educated and informed customer, seeking a new wine experience, they offer a lot.
Aidani is lower in both alcohol and acidity and Athiri brings aromatics. Both support Assyrtiko well in a blend, tempering its high acidity and alcohol and adding fruit to younger wines.
In a nutshell: An electric bike is an eco-friendly way to make deliveries and doubles up as a useful marketing tool. Tell us more … “We have a Riese & Muller Load 75, which we bought in January. We are B Corp certified and that filters through everything we do. Our values are very much aligned with what B Corp means, but aside from that we thought the bike would be good for business. Truro is quite a small town and it’s actually easier to do some deliveries by bike when it comes to parking and access. Plus it gives us a bit of kudos: we have our logo and branding on it and people really notice it around town.” Was it a big investment?
“There were several things that added up to making a case for buying it. Our van was getting a bit long in the tooth so we were looking for an alternative. We were also able to take advantage of a very shortlived government incentive. The bike cost approximately £7,000 and the government grant of £2,000 made that more viable for us, and then there is an increased tax write-down, so we just thought, ‘why not?’”
“We still need the services of a van, mostly for our wholesale deliveries. At the moment we are using a local carbon-free delivery company for that. If we were to buy another van, it would be electric.
Email claire@winemerchantmag.com br i g h t i d eas
We know that you’re a pretty active bunch at Old Chapel Cellars. Do you all take a turn using it for deliveries? “We do, and we are actively looking for some formal bike training for the team as the rules of the road have changed. We have a lot of customers who are bike
“The bike also works really well as a glorified sack truck. We have an account just about a hundred yards up the road. We used to deliver their wine on a sack truck, and that could sometimes tip on a cobble, and it would take two trips. Now, we can just load the bike up and walk it round all in one go.” Do you think merchants anywhere in the UK would benefit from having an e-bike for deliveries? “Yes! Especially in flatter places – it would be great fun. We’ve been using it since January and so far we’ve not had to recharge it. Admittedly we’re only going around the centre of Truro, but that charge is amazing.” enthusiasts and they have given us tips. Apparently the last thing you should do is go towards the left as you’d be more likely to fall off as there are drains and crevices. They say we should drive in the road and take ownership, so some formal training is necessary to give us all that confidence.
There isn’t an official organisation that we know of, although we have spoken to the local bike shop and to someone who teaches cycling in schools, so we’ll sort something.” In between deliveries, does it sit outside the shop looking beautiful? “It does actually bring a few people in who want to talk about the bike. “We think it has more potential than just being a delivery vehicle. We thought we might take it out on the road and run a bit of a bar from it.” Has it successfully replaced your van?
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35: e-bike deliveries
Louisa Fitzpatrick & Jamie Tonkin Old Chapel Cellars, Cornwall Louisa and Jamie win 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.
Château des Demoiselles Rosé 2021 To be honest, the majority of rosés in the Provence style blur into one these days but this taut Cinsault/ Grenache/Tibouren blend from the Esclans Valley impressed with its intensity and length. Strawberries and raspberries dominate the palate, obviously, but did we detect some green apple in there too? Maybe we did.
Barbera 2021
RRP: £19.75 ABV: 12% Ucopia World Wines (01435 517080) ucopiawines.co.uk
RRP: £16 ABV: 12% Moldovan Wine (01483 808413)
RRP: £24 ABV: 12.5% Malux Hungarian Wines (020 7164 6925) hungarianwineandspirits.com
RRP: £31.99 ABV: 12% Cachet Wine (01482 581792) cachetwine.co.uk
RRP: £23.50 ABV: 13.5% Louis Latour Agencies (020 7409 7276) SandanskiVIDAlouislatour.co.ukEstatesMisket
Novak Floricica 2021 Moldova’s Floricica is another variety that will throw most drinkers in the British market and the disconnect between the aroma (floral and grapey) and the palate (pithy and oily) only adds to the sense of lost bearings. But it’s an enjoyable excursion into the unknown, and another reason to take notice of the great-value wines from this increasingly interesting country.
Astobiza Gorabie Txakoli 2020 Everyone seems to love Txakoli when they try it, so why isn’t it a bigger seller in the independent trade? Maybe this could finally be the summer of Hondarrabi Zuri, which makes up 85% of this crisp and grapefruity Basque white. There’s something extra going on below the surface here, beneath the playful zestiness: something sinister and sulphorous, in a good way.
RRP: £16.95 ABV: 12.5% Richmond Wine Agencies (020 8744 5550)
RRP: £24.99 ABV: 14% Carson & Carnevale Wines (020 3261 0929) carsoncarnevalewines.com
2020 Paarl-based Avondale claims to be the first winery in South Africa to ferment wines in qvevri, allowing the wine to accentuate the fruit characters but also minerality of the grapes – in this case whole-bunch Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. There’s an earthy character, too, which anchors those rampant red fruit flavours and adds complexity.
A rare grape from Hungary’s Badascony region, Bakator is high-yielding and pink-coloured variety that will be intriguingly unfamiliar to most imbibers in the UK. It’s capable of wines with superb ageing potential, as seems to be the case with this firm but mediumbodied example, with notes of blood and raspberries.
2016 With prices set to soar in just about every established wine region of Europe, countries like Bulgaria have the chance to make their case. This light and breezy white from the north west of the country is an unpretentious crowd pleaser, but is still full of personality, with flashes of honey and ginger.
RRP: £15.29 ABV: 12.5% VIDA Wines & Spirits (020 7965 7283) Vallistovidawines.co.ukExtremo
This high-altitude Barbera from Salta made The Wine Merchant Top 100 a couple of years ago and it’s a pleasure to find it on good form in the 2021 vintage. There’s a freshness and grip that you might expect at 1,900m altitude (early picking also helps), and a finesse you might not always associate with Barbera. The fruit is rich and pure, suspended by gossamer tannins.
Avondalemoldovawine.co.ukQvevri
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Assuli Furioso Perricone 2017 Reasons to despise phylloxera number 1,485: it almost destroyed the prized Perricone vineyards of western Sicily. The variety has since been overshadowed by Nero d’Avola, with which it is often blended, but Assuli is keen to give it the limelight. The tannins here are moderate by the variety’s standards and they allow the violet and blackberry characters to come to the fore.
BakatorSzeremleyrichmondwineagencies.comBirtokBadacsonyi2008
Independent merchants know what they want and they are quite direct about it, which makes them in many ways much easier customers than the on-trade sector. It’s their business and they are not trying to represent anyone else in their buying choices. No two shops look the same – it’s wonderful how different they all are. I love visiting them and exploring, as I always appreciate their huge range of wines and it means I usually leave with a bottle. There isn’t an independent wine merchant where I live in Wantage, which is a shame. Actually there’s a unit that’s just come up and it’s on the market square, with four parking bays right out in front of it. It would make a good wine shop and if anyone wants to open there, I can promise them lots of samples. I got my first job in wine because I needed money to buy a bus pass for college. I worked at Bottoms Up and as I was only 17 I wasn’t allowed to sell the wine, but I could restock on a Friday. When I turned 18 they decided I wasn’t going to burn the shop down so they let me run the store on Sundays with another 18-year-old. There was a good amount of education involved too, so it wasn’t all about the staplegun fights we had during quiet times. I studied sociology at university, but even before my first lecture I found the nearest Oddbins. I said: “I know the difference between a Gerwürztraminer and a Chardonnay, do you need to hire anyone?” By the time I got my degree I felt I’d devoted more time to wine than I had to my studies. Later, after two years of working my full-time job in market research at AC Nielsen, and the accompanying shifts at Oddbins, I realised I really didn’t like doing data analysis on Easter eggs for Tesco, but I really did like selling wine. As a rep, I love that sometimes you just have to grab things by the scruff of the neck and get on with it. When working for a much smaller importer years ago, I did have to make an impromptu delivery to Harrods in my battered Nissan Almera. At Berkmann we are moving over to fully electric cars soon, but right now I have a hybrid. In electric mode it is completely silent, so for safety reasons some noise is played through a speaker under the grille and the sound Kia has chosen is just like the hoverboard from Back to the Future Needless to say, my kids love it!
Sam Hellyer On Roadthe
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SAM IS HEAD OF INDEPENDENT SPECIALISTS AT BERKMANN WINE CELLARS. HIS CAREER HAS INVOLVED SPELLS IN THE RETAILING AND SUPPLY SIDE OF THE WINE BUSINESS about Chateau Ksara. Their wines have a fascinating complexity. They don’t shy away from using international varieties, but they also embrace the use of native grapes. These are the sort of wines that indies can really run with.
We have an incredible range called Quails’ Gate, from the Okanagan Valley. You could compare the price to Burgundy, but the difference is that this is actually available! It also has a little bit more brightness and fruit to it, fantastic quality, and it works for indies because it’s a bit unusual. Top notch Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Canada. There’s definitely a justified increase in interest from the trade for Lebanese wines. We’ve been talking to people lately
The first wine I fell in love with was Australian Shiraz. Tasting a back vintage of d’Arenberg’s Dead Arm was the point I realised that two wines can be similar while being completely different. Nowadays I absolutely love a slightly farmy, rustic, earthy Burgundy. It’s as far from a polished new-world fruit bomb as you can get. But if you were going to take all other wine away from me and leave me with only one region, it would have to be Champagne. I’m not a huge Champagne drinker but I think there is something so exceptional about it. Such a unique method; often imitated, but never bettered. It’s a bit boring when I say that I really like spreadsheets, but part of me really does. I love figures and statistics. The amount of business Berkmann has within the independent sector translates to enough meaningful data to spot trends – we can see what’s moving and why. It’s really useful for making decisions that fit the market. I am growing a mystery vine and I want to get it to the stage where it can be genetically tested. If it’s rare, I’m going to try and propagate it. It was a cutting that came from a 60-year old vine from Bothy vineyard in Frilford, and it had been rescued from Abingdon Abbey. Back in the 90s they had it genetically tested but no one could identify it. It’s doing well in my garden so far. I’m not a great gardener, but I’m good with trees and vines, so you could say I’m patient! Feature sponsored by Berkmann Wine Cellars For more information about the company, Callberkmann.co.ukvisit02076094711
Scientists at Oxford University looked at data from 245,000 adults in the UK, Stick to fewer than five glasses a week comparing their drinking habits with a key biological marker of ageing. They found that alcohol takes a toll on a section of DNA called a telomere – but that this kicks in only if people drink more than 17 units a week. Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences that protect the end of chromosomes. They naturally shorten as people age, a process linked to cancer and Alzheimer’s.
The dream wine and food pairing would be some spicy fish tacos and Slurpy Boi NV from Fin Wines. It’s a light bodied, fruity, low-tannin red.
FionaManchesterKerbBoulton
Vegan
Favourite wine shop Bar Part Time in San Francisco is a really fun club with great wine. I love that they’re bringing wine to a younger generation without any snobbishness. What more could you want?
Favourite wine on our list It would have to be Bodega Cauzón Fresa Salvaje. It’s a pink sparkling and it’s bready, mad interesting and super juicy.
Favourite Things
Favourite wine and food match
BITS & BOBS
MagpiePenfolds in French wine adventure
Lichfield Live, July 27 Virgin Wines has seen a 51% jump in sales of its vegan wines in the last two years. The retailer boasts more than 400 vegan-friendly wines. In 2021, Virgin sold 1,735,730 bottles of vegan wine, compared to 1,149,869 in 2019. Vegan Food & Living, July 27 Pincher on not getting pickled
Favourite wine trade person My favourite people from the trade would have to be Ed Read and Sam Adamson from Distant Lands. We’ve known each other years and had a great night at a pre-Covid Friends & Family festival. They are always finding the best stuff from all over and are sound to work with.
boomingwinesatVirginAcampaignerhaswrittentotheeditorofamagazinetocomplainabouttheinclusionofawinecolumnbylocalMPChristopherPincher.
The Tamworth MP resigned as deputy chief whip when he “embarrassed” himself after drinking too much. But despite being suspended by the party while an investigation into his conduct continues, his latest column in The Critic magazine has been published. Headlined “How not to get pickled”, the MP discusses the merits of non-alcoholic cocktails.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 28 Penfolds is to launch its inaugural offering of French wine later this year. One of the two wines has been made in collaboration with Bordeaux winemaking house Dourthe. Penfolds FWT 585 was made in the Bordeaux region at Château Cambon la Pelouse, and is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, aged partially in new American oak.Penfolds II Cabernet-Shiraz-Merlot comprises French Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, shipped down under and blended with Australian Shiraz before bottling. Just Drinks, July 26
Favourite wine trip I haven’t been away since Covid but top of the list would have to be Craven in South Africa. I met the winemaker, Mick Craven, and he was showing me photos of his estate – beautiful mountains right by the beach. Also, his wines are bangin’!
Drinking more than five large glasses of wine a week can damage DNA and cause premature ageing, research suggests.
The Times, July 26
Former mafia man joins wine trade Deep Red Wine Merchant, an intimate wine bar and bottle shop, is coming to Avondale, Chicago, with an emphasis on minority vintners, and decorative winks and nods to horror movie fans. A fan of horror movies since high school, owner Dave Thompson says his interior designer is planning to integrate horror references into the decor. When it opens, Deep Red will be the latest entrant into a kind of horror alley in Avondale, just blocks away from deceptively colourful horror-themed coffee shop The Brewed. The neighbourhood is also home to the Insect Asylum, a taxidermy museum, and horror-friendly books and records shop Bucket O’ Blood. “There’s a vibe here in Avondale,” says Thompson. “I can’t explain why, but I like it.” Eater Chicago, July 26
�My thermometer read 38.5˚C. We stayed open and we filled up the fridge with extra refreshing things like fizz and nice white wines. It was a quiet day footfall-wise [on Tuesday the 19th]. A lot of people didn’t bother coming out but we still had customers. One reason we stayed open was because we were prepping for a wine tasting event the following night. The only problem I had was going to Tesco for the cheese for the tasting as its fridges were closed down. I had to go to Waitrose instead. I think they have a better class of fridge there.”
? QUESTIONBURNINGTHE THE WINE MERCHANT august
How did you cope with the record-breaking July heat?
Dean Pritchard Gwin Llyn Wines, Pwllheli
Hannah Boyes House of Townend, North Ferriby
�Heatwave? We love it. It makes people enjoy themselves by the seaside and have barbecues. It was only about 31-32˚C, so not too oppressive. Footfall was down but deliveries were up. It was uncomfortably hot to be walking around doing shopping, but our customers know they can ring us and we’ll deliver. I heard about people suspending deliveries and it beggared belief. We couldn’t do that. The delivery van’s got air conditioning, so it wasn’t a problem.”
Kat BrigitteSteadBordeaux, Nottingham
�There’s a weather station down the road and it recorded 38˚C. We have a temperaturecontrolled warehouse, so all the wine was fine. The shop has air con. Quite a few trade customers were closed and some private clients chose not to have wine sent out because they didn’t want it damaged in transit, but generally it was business as usual. A few inbound deliveries didn’t turn up because drivers were probably told not to work – but who can blame them?”
Tracy Markham H Champagne winner H Steep Hill Wines, Lincoln Champagne Gosset The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584 2022 29
Former mob boss Michael Franzese has released an eponymous range of wines produced in the foothills of Mount Ararat in Armenia. Franzese was known as the “yuppie don” in the 1980s after rising to the rank of caporegime in the notorious Colombo crimeFortunefamily.Magazine placed him at No 18 on its 50 Biggest Mafia Bosses list, and he gained a reputation as one of the mob’s biggest earners since Al Capone. He is now a motivational speaker and author, living in California with his wife and seven children. He runs a mentorship site called The Inner Circle, and one of his mentees approached him with a plan to create a wine brand. Decanter, July 27
The horror of a new wine shop
�We closed for the day. We had a few staff on holiday and a tasting in the evening. If we’d kept the bar and the shop open it would have been a lot of running around in the heat for my partner, Matt, and me at eight months pregnant. We just thought we’d make our lives a bit easier. The tasting went ahead, hosted by Marta Vine. It was well attended apart from a couple of people whose buses were cancelled. People sat in the garden, drank Vinho Verde and had a great time.”
The new launch has even more depth and sophistication than the 40 and 30 Year Old styles
The work of a port master blender is an art form. The job is to bring together wines of varying age, maturation process and even origin, to create a port that is consistent to the house style. Kopke is the oldest port house, having been established in 1638. In 1828, C N Kopkë, great-great-grandson of the founder, Nicolau, sided with the Liberal Party during the civil war, and the company changed its name to C N Kopke in 1841. It is a thrill to be invited to take part in a masterclass that will allow us taste the newly launched 50 Year Old Tawny – a blend of aged wines described as a “window to the great single vintage ports”. To boot we will get a glimpse of the work of the master blender, by trying to recreate it. We are given everything required for the job. Five individual wines to choose from, and a guidebook that explains the qualities of each. There’s a measuring cylinder and a conical flask and an array of glassware to sample the various attempts. Most usefully, there’s also a bottle of the 50 Year Old Tawny itself. Aromas move from green honey and caramel to toasted almond, orange and lime marmalade and then soaked prune, dark chocolate and fig notes too. The palate is warm and generous and, importantly for me, brilliantly fresh. I understand that this brightness is very much the trademark of Kopke’s ports, and it makes the idea of exploring them further very attractive indeed. So, armed with a clear taste of what I’m supposed to be creating, I commit to the task in hand. Wine A is the youngest of the five and it feels as though it has little to offer when it comes to the complexity of the 50 Year Old. I think it might have a minor part to play.
Kopke is imported by Hayward Bros. Visit haywardsbros.co.uk or call 020 7237 0576
Wine B has a little more character and breadth and there’s quite a lot of the citrus freshness that I found in the final blend. I also pick up a decent amount of caramel too. I feel this has to feature.
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Wine C has honey and spice and is showing more roundness and some of the richer fruit notes. I am mindful of the advice we have been given about what stocks Kopke will hold of its older wines, and the volumes available for a final blend. It seems to me that as an older wine, but not one of the oldest, wine C is going to be a major player. Wine D strikes me as being the spiciest, but I also find it the most volatile. It is very black-fruited and rich. I am not sure about this at all, but I can sense that it will add a lot of breadth and complexity in a blend. I should add that the pros describe wine
My failed attempt to copy Kopke Kopke’s new 50 Year Old Tawny is a masterpiece of port blending, as Sarah McCleery can testify. She joins an audience of trade professionals to see if she can create her own version of Carlos Alves’s balanced and complex wine, and realises she should stick to the day job.
Top: Carlos Alves, a former apprentice and now the master; Below: Sarah McCleery, happy to leave the heavy lifting to the professionals
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D as “fresh, with notes of caramel and chocolate”.Last,but not least, is wine E. It is by far the most concentrated, with roasted coffee notes. Though quite intimidating on its own, you feel it is going to play an important role – albeit perhaps not the largest component. So, here is where I end up. I pop 45% of wine C into my measuring cylinder and then 10% of wine B. I pop 20% each of D and E into my blend and finish off with 5% of wine A. I am stupidly pleased that I seem to have pulled off a rather good replica of the wine’s mahogany colour. Despite giving my attempt a good swirl, it doesn’t have the inviting warmth of the real deal and it’s evidently not as complete. The palate is also pretty disjointed, and I am some way off the balanced complexity of Alves’ masterpiece. Still, he’s a Portuguese gentleman and does the honour of tasting it kindly and telling me “it’s close”. Hmm. It is clear that Carlos Alves’s job is secure. His years on internship at Kopke have given him an encyclopaedic knowledge of the wines. Knowing them intimately, having tasted them over many years and tasted how they have aged, Alves is able to craft a blend that captures the character of the Port and sustains a consistent house style. The success of the blend falls firmly at the feet of the master blender and their skills not just as a taster but in knowing how the different wines will come together for a taste of port magic. Alves must work with the Port treasures of the past to maintain Kopke’s heritage. What does the Kopke 50 Year Old Tawny give you that the 40 Year Old and 30 Year Old do not? Well, the answer seems to be more sophistication and complexity, greater depth and a step closer to the more expensive single vintages.
David Williams considers his desert island wine books. True, it’s a category that’s far from lucrative for its authors and publishers. But there are titles out there that certainly enrich the reader The request came in the form of an email, but its tone suggested spidery writing on headed notepaper. “Please excuse the intrusion and presumption”, it began sweetly. “We (my wine club and I) are hoping to build a wine library, a pooled resource of no more than eight books (one for each member), and we thought you might be able to help us select the most appropriate, ‘essential’ titles: a kind of desert island wine books, if you like.” Happy to help, I answered, thinking the task would require no more than a few minutes’ pondering, maybe a little googling. Then I thought: has anyone ever selected a wine book for the actual Desert Island DiscsNeither? of the wine luminaries who I know have been on the programme had. Checking the archive, I found that Jancis Robinson (October 1996) chose George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Hugh Johnson (May 1984) opted for The Complete Works of PG Wodehouse to complement their Shakespeare and Bible. Both also had as their luxury a plentiful supply of wine (along with a pen and paper in Johnson’s case) suggesting that even wine writers would rather drink wine than read about it. Then again, since I can’t imagine Robinson or Johnson having quite the size of ego that would permit them to choose one of their own books, it rather slimmed down the potential works they had to choose from. Between them, the duo is responsible for at least four stone-cold classics, all of them books I can imagine many wine lovers choosing were they ever to get the call to sit down with Lauren Laverne.
JUST WILLIAMS A little light reading
Collectively, Johnson’s World of Atlas of Wine (in its most recent editions a co-production with Robinson) and his lesser-known historical masterpiece, The Story of Wine; the Robinson-edited Oxford Companion to Wine; and Robinson’s co-authored (with Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz) Wine Grapes provide almost everything you might need from a wine book, especially since the rise of the internet has largely obviated the need for annual wine guides and other books based on necessarily ephemeral wine ratings. Indeed, such is the definitive status of at least three of this quartet (The Story of Wine has only recently been republished by Academie du Vin), it’s been rather difficult for other serious wine reference works to get off the ground with publishers, or, in the rare moments when they do make it to publication, to find an audience. And it’s not just reference works. It’s an open secret in wine publishing that most books only just about break even or make a loss, many barely make it to three-figures in sales, and that, as Jamie Goode, one of the more prolific (and successful) of wine book authors told me recently, “there’s no money in it – unless you’re Hugh or Jancis or Parker, you do it for the love of it and to raise your profile”.
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G oode’s Wine Science would in fact be a candidate for number five on my list: a very readable After a period when the flow of new wine books slowed to a trickle, recent years have seen something of a revival in the UK
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 33 overview of all the technical nitty-gritty of winemaking and winegrowing that I’ve found immensely useful since the first edition came out in 2014. In a similar scientifically rigorous, detailed and readably informative vein, I’d also try to find a place in any wine library for Professor Jonathan Maltman’s exceptional, timely 2018 book Vineyards, Rocks and Soils: A Wine Lover’s Guide to Geology, which gently deflates many of the myths of this age of terroir and minerality. For all the hand-wringing about the travails of modern wine publishing, it’s heartening to see books like Goode’s (the second edition was published last year) and Maltman’s emerging. It’s also worth remembering that this has always been a distinctly recherché genre, and that, after a period when the flow of new wine books slowed to a trickle, recent years have seen the sector enjoy something of a revival in the UK, at least in terms of new titles. T wo relatively new publishers are largely responsible for this minirenaissance. The first, Infinite Ideas, has taken on the Classic Wine Library Series first created in the 1960s at Faber & Faber, and then run into the ground by Mitchell Beazley in the 2000s.
American importer Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route is a rollicking French wine-country picaresque first published in 1990, while Lynch’s soulful modern-day equivalent Terry Theise’s gently philosophical vinous memoir Reading Between the Vines (2010) is as good as anything I’ve read on the lifealtering joy of wine. of Jasper Morris’s vast, magnificent Inside Burgundy, published by Berry Bros & Rudd, and the eccentric, exhaustive, beautifully presented labour of love that is Ben Little’s self-published Pignolo
The other publisher that has helped change the British wine-publishing landscape is Academie du Vin Library, which has a nice line in reprinting longlost classics of wine literature such as Maurice Healy’s enchanting survey of winemaking Europe written in 1940, and Edith Somerville and Martin Ross’s late Victorian jaunt through Bordeaux, In the Vine Country, as well as Johnson’s Story of Wine It’s also responsible for my favourite wine book of recent years, Drinking with the Valkyries, a thematically arranged compilation of journalistic pieces by the presiding poetic genius of contemporary
A series of regional guides written by acknowledged experts in the region, the books’ very specificity rather rules out any place in a limited, generalist Desert Island Discs selection, although I’ve been very impressed by the mix of accessible prose and scholarly information in the examples I’ve read, notably Anne Krebiehl’s Wines of Germany, Matt Walls’ Wines of the Rhône and Anthony Rose’s Fizz. The same is true wine writing, Andrew Jefford. The breadth of Valkyries means it edges out a previous Jefford classic, The New France, for a place in the pick of eight books I made for my wine club correspondent.Thatlistiscompleted by two American books that, like Jefford’s work, are as much concerned with delivering literary pleasure as they are in the imparting of vinous knowledge.
Condrieu, buy it now, because prices are only heading in one direction V iognier is an interesting but capricious grape as it is both difficult to grow and to vinify. This prompts the question: why bother with it? To which the answer is: because it yields wines that are inimitable. Its spiritual homeland is in Condrieu, in the northern Rhône valley, where it is thought to have been introduced by ancient Greek traffickers in the third century AD. Today there are 209 hectares under vine spread across seven communes planted in steep south and south eastfacing terraces on soils rich in alluvial deposits, granite, mica, sand, clay and limestone.Atthenadir of Condrieu, in the mid1950s, after the ravages of phylloxera, two world wars and the Wall Street crash, there were fewer than 12 hectares under vine in the entire world (including the monopole, satellite appéllation of Château-Grillet) and Viognier almost became extinct. Fortunately, a handful of dedicated vignerons, led by the grape’s staunchest advocate, Georges Vernay, kept the flame alive and gradually terraces were replanted. More young winemakers were encouraged into the fold, and an international following started to develop. This coincided with official (and illicit) exports of vine cuttings that helped establish vineyard holdings in the south of France and the new world. Today, Viognier is a widely planted, and rightly revered, grape variety. It does not yield inexpensive wines, so has few admirers in the bargain-hunting community. It can take seven years to establish viable rootstock, roughly twice as long as either Chardonnay or Sauvignon, but wines made with it enjoy an incredibly loyal following among enlightened aficionados. The permitted yield in Condrieu is currently 41 hectolitres per hectare. The average yield is reputedly 37 hectolitres, but the yield in the frost-ravaged 2021 vintage came in at just eight. We can therefore predict, with some certainty, price increases and a shortfall in availability. Prices will inevitably increase. That is partially due to inflation but also because costs of everything are rising – glass, cardboard, fuel, labour, printing – never mind the grapes. Interestingly, these price increases have not fully impacted at the time of writing. So the message is, buy Viognier now if it is a grape to which you have any partiality. We know there is going to be scarcity but, strangely, retail markets tend not to react until a shortage is manifest. So we are currently in the weird pendulum swing of benefiting from the historic prices before the new reality bites.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 35 Reggio Emilia JASON YAPP
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V iognier makes wines with beautiful, ethereal scents that don’t resemble the bouquet of any other grape variety. Putting that into adjectives is not easy, but I have often tried to do so over a 30-year career, so will do so once again. Honeysuckle and acacia flowers both frequently appear in tasting notes, as do peaches, apricots and white stone fruit. Viognier has quite a rich, mouth-filling texture, but strangely often has a much drier finish that its aromas encourage one to anticipate. Good Viognier has finesse and elegance in equal measure, and it can drink very well with or without food. Opinions vary as to what the best food accompaniment to Condrieu is, but many purists argue that quenelles de brochet au salpicon de homard (pike perch dumpling in a lobster sauce) is the crème de la crème. They also maintain that Domaine Georges Vernay’s Coteau de Vernon is the top wine in the appéllation. Both are normally available at the Beau Rivage hotel and restaurant which overlooks the Rhône in the middle of the town of Condrieu. I have had the privilege of enjoying that combination in situ, and if it isn’t the pinnacle of perfection it can’t be far off Opinionsit. differ as to how much bottle age Viognier benefits from. Many oenophiles enjoy Condrieu with five or more years’ maturity, when it develops nuttier nuances and a deeper colour. Personally, I find it hard to resist its youthful fruit, so favour drinking it within two or three years of bottling. So my parting advice is, treat yourself: you know you’re worth it. Yes, it will be expensive, but think of the bragging rights – and the memories that can’t be taken away from you.
Jason Yapp is director of Yapp Bros in Mere, WiltshireCoteau de Vernon: Condrieu’s superstar
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 36 Why aren’t we buying Australian wine anymore?
The performance was affected by shipping delays, rising transport costs and spiralling inflation. There has also been a “significant decline” in exports to China, thanks to punitive tariffs, which skews the figures fairlyButsubstantially.takeChinaout of the equation and Australia’s overall export value is actually up by 5%, and down by just 3% in volume terms. So why is the UK – Australia’s most important market after the USA – looking so anaemic? Delays and shortages The Vinorium in Kent is a major importer of premium Australian wines, with around 40 exclusive agencies. Owner Stuart McCloskey says that 2022 is “by far the worst year” he has experienced for Australian sales. This is partly because the business is now unable to re-export Australian wine to its 1,000-plus customers in the EU, thanks to Brexit. “It’s just impossible, really,” he says. “The cost is through the roof.”
Then there is the issue of shipping delays, adding costs that neither The Vinorium nor its producers are keen to meet. “The wine is on the water for an average of four months now,” McCloskey says. “Global shipping is a disaster and it’s putting a lot of people off. It’s just so expensive. We’re actually now working with an Aussie shipper because no one in the UK is doing their job very well.
Availability is also a headache. “Smaller producers have had a couple of tough years,” he says. “2019 was a really hard vintage; 2020 [which was badly affected by smoke taint from bush fires] was supersmall and we’re now seeing quite a few of them favouring cellar-door sales against exporting because they can make full margin. “A lot of them have said to us, we’re not giving you an allocation this year. Or we can give you five cases of this and five cases of that and you think: what’s the point? You can sell that in two minutes, and it just doesn’t work. anymore?
“We brought a container across from Australia in March and it arrived here in June after almost 16 weeks on the water. And the UK leg from the port up to our bond at LCB was almost the same cost as the journey from Australia.”
ANALYSIS
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 37 Is the UK falling out of love with Australian wine? The latest export figures seem to suggest so. Volumes fell by 15% in the year to June 30, and value was down 10%. To put that into context, global Australian wine exports decreased 10% by volume and 19% by value. This, according to Wine Australia, was “not unexpected”.
The UK has seen a big dip in its imports from Australia. We can blame problems in global supply chains and economic angst for some of the decline. But maybe there are other issues that producers need to address. Graham Holter reports Stormy weather: the 2020 vintage was affected by smoke taint from bush fires. Now Australian producers face inclement conditions in the UK market from a variety of causes
Customers who would buy from us weekly have just disappeared since the invasion. “For us the biggest tell-tale is new ecommerce sales. Historically we would bring in 20% to 25% new business every day from all search engines. In June I think it was zero. It’s not just our customer base, it’s maybe the wider world looking at those super-premium wines and thinking: actually we can’t afford this. It’s a luxury too far. “We’re flabbergasted with the figures that we’re seeing.” McCloskey expects to bring in “odd parcels here and there” but overall he will ship £2m less Australian wine than in a normal year. The plan is to run down stock levels and then, at the end of the year, make a decision about what to do next. Mothballing the business and keeping staff on at a full salary is one option on the table. He admits to feeling a sense of “letting people down” in Australia. But he adds: “The market is not right for shipping superpremium wines. There isn’t the audience.”
Consumers are spooked McCloskey says the business has been badly hit by a downturn in consumer confidence brought about by global events. He’s pragmatic about this: “I think we got away with it so well during the pandemic and it’s our turn now to have a bit of a kick in the bum”, he says. “The impact of the Ukrainian war is the biggest issue we’ve seen. The drop-off of orders has gone through the floor. It’s quite incredible really. “Historically our order average per bottle is £33. It’s never really dropped off over four or five years. We don’t really have stock below £10, it’s just a waste of our time. But now we’re seeing, because of the rise in the cost of living, people are not spending £30 to £35 on a regular basis.
Tony Wellings, owner of The Antipodean Sommelier, which works with a number of independents, recently had meetings with some Australian producers trying to enter the UK market. “Their wines were good, but I think they were being a bit unrealistic on pricing,” he says. “It was super-premium stuff. Some of the Italian varietals from New South Wales would come in at about £40 on the shelf.”
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 38
His entry-level Aussie wine, A Grower’s Touch, retails for around £10 and around 1,600 cases hit the market last year.
“I’ve gone out of stock a couple of times this year because it’s been more difficult to get shipments in due to lead times,” Wellings says. “Instead of 52 days it’s taking 70 or 80 days, and a lot of that is down to the shipping company who seem to be sending one ship in three up to northern Europe. The rest drops in Valencia or Malaga, which is a pain.”
Overall, Australian sales are flat, “which I’m quite pleased about because in 2021 we definitely had a Covid upside of the indies going absolutely crazy and we were 25%, 30% up. We’ve maintained sales in a year when things have got a little bit more difficult.”Wellings adds: “The only premium wine we’ve got at the moment is Charlie O’Brien’s stuff at Silent Noise and that just continues to grow – it’s about 500 cases for us and it’s between £13 and £15. That’s about 35% up in sales. So we’re not seeing a downturn but that’s maybe because we’re still growing our brands. We haven’t got masses of distribution yet.”
Happy with flat sales
Does Wellings sense any lack of enthusiasm for Australian wine among his customer base? “I think the indies are still interested if the brand’s right, the product’s right and there’s value, certainly between £10 and £20. Up to £15 is where I would concentrate at the minute to try and get some traction with the indies. Beyond that you are starting to struggle because I don’t think the consumer gets it. “When I started dealing with New Zealand, Sauvignon Blanc was going absolutely bonkers and it continued for eight or nine years. Australia had been forgotten. Brand Australia became a bit damaged with all the half-price stuff that wasn’t really half-price. Seven or eight years ago the indies wouldn’t touch Australia, it just didn’t work for them.
“Maybe these UK export figures are “From an
StuartHalliday”applausestylesforthere’sperspectiveexportnodemandtheseleanthatgetfromMcCloskey
“On top of that a few of our producers didn’t produce a 2020 vintage. With our second biggest producer, Utopos [in the Barossa Valley], we’ve shipped almost two containers in the past 18 months and basically 2020 was written off. So we’ve lost 6,000 bottles which we would have sold for £35.”
“Everyone’s so obsessed with being scored by a critic and it goes back to the old days of Parker, to a degree. But we’re seeing it more and more now and I think that’s why Australia’s got itself into a bit of a pickle, especially on the cool-climate side of things. “They’re having to please these critics, but at the end of the day critics don’t buy the wines. Produce wine for consumers, not for critics. A lot of winemakers in Australia now should be giving themselves a bit of a kicking because they’ve actually let themselves down.”
Netted vines at Margaret River, Western Australia
ANALYSIS
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 39 skewed mainly by the mults because the vast proportion of Aussie wine is still channelled through them, and they are still beating the shit out of it, really.”
Watery Shiraz? No thanks Stuart McCloskey at The Vinorium is worried that Australian winemakers are perhaps forgetting what they do best. When he produced a report into the buying habits of his customers, accounting for £23m in sales over a five-year period, it emerged that almost three-quarters of that money had been spent on Shiraz. That’s the bolder, traditional Aussie Shiraz rather than the leaner, more modern style. “When you give people true cool-climate Shiraz, customers run away from it,” he says. “We’ve bombarded customers with wines that are very Mediterranean, some that are like Bordeaux blends – everything you’d want from Europe but from Australia. We’ve had to delist almost all of those producers because we haven’t sold their wines. “I’ve been on a few Aussie podcasts and said that these lean styles are superpopular, especially from Margaret River, they get a lot of applause from people like Halliday and domestically they’re quite strong. “But from an export perspective there’s no demand for them and when we’ve brought them across, barring supercollectible wines, actually customers want richer, more textural styles. Not the old vanilla fruit bombs of 15 years ago … but they want something that Australia’s just not producing. “We’ve said to our winemakers: you’ve got to make a decision. Either you’re producing wines for your export market or your domestic market. Or you’ve got to put a barrel away for The Vinorium and we need more lees contact, more texture –more time in oak, essentially, because we want slightly richer, fatter styles and we don’t want it tasting like water.
Graham Holter reports If you were to design the perfect premises for a medium-sized independent wine merchant, you might well end up with something resembling the building occupied by Talking Wines in Cirencester. The location is easy to find, on a small trading estate on the edge of the Cotswolds town. There’s parking right outside. The shop is large and airy, with big arched windows letting in just the right amount of south western light. Adjacent to this is an office that comfortably accommodates the entire team. At the back, there’s a tidylooking warehouse, large enough to cope with the day-to-day requirements of the business.
Simon Thomson was born in Liverpool but moved to Oxfordshire as a small child,
The equivalentwine of total football THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 40 Simon Thomson, Cirencester, June 2022 MERCHANT PROFILE
Simon Thomson may be an Everton fan, but the way he’s structured his Talking Wines team bears the hallmarks of the great Ajax side of the 1970s. Everyone is happy to slip into any role that’s asked of them.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 41 Continues page 42 TALKING WINES losing his accent but retaining his loyalty to Everton FC: he still makes the regular trek to Goodison and chats at length about his hopes for the coming season. He started Talking Wines in 2013, originally in far more modest surroundings than the ones he currently enjoys.
Wholesaling is the main thrust of the business, but online sales are growing, and the shop makes a small but useful contribution. There’s no manager, and no need for one – there’s always someone in the office or warehouse who can attend to the needs of customers.
How did you start the business? I was a keen amateur and I’d done some courses and found I had a bit of an aptitude for wine. I was working for a phone company that was being taken over by Vodafone and I got an opportunity to take redundancy. That gave me the capital to start the business. I spent six months in a garage. We’ve been here since 2012 and this is ideal for us. We’ve got another warehouse across the yard that we store full pallets in and then we can replenish the ground floor level. We’re quite efficient and I think that’s the beauty of me coming from a background of supply-chain management. How big is the team? We don’t get much staff turnover – we have great people, and they all work really hard. There’s a part-time driver, a full-time driver, a credit controller and five of us on the wine side. I say that, but there’s not anyone who will say “that’s not my job”. I’ll jump on the forklift and pick orders, and so will everyone else. What’s the local market like? Cirencester wasn’t a great place to eat out for many years, but we’ve been lucky that there have been a lot of openings over the past 18 months to two years and we have picked up a lot of the accounts. Whether that’s due to a lot more people holidaying in the UK … We were supplying Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm shop, the restaurant there. He bought in an outside catering company and they used us. But I think they are having planning issues. Doing the deliveries, the queues down those country lanes, you can see why the locals could get upset by the traffic. I’m not a fan of his, but it is a good programme. Have you been shipping less wine in recent years? No, if anything we ship a bit more. Some of it is with Araldica from Boutinot, Manzanos in Spain from Alliance and we do quite a lot with Daniel Lambert ex-cellar – so we actually place the order with Patrice Tournier in Burgundy or with Calmel & Joseph in Languedoc. Sometimes we share shipments and post-Brexit, with shipping costs, that helps. What’s prompted you to import a little bit more than you were? I think we are growing on the things we ship. We have some unique wines that nobody else has – for example, we have Champagne from Yannick Prevoteau, a very tiny grower-producer. He makes just over 100,000 bottles but the Champagne is absolutely fantastic. Every Christmas we do a blind tasting in the shop, and it wins every year across anything you compare it with. We don’t really do the Champagne ‘There’s not anyone who will say ‘that’s not my job’. I’ll jump on the forklift and pick orders, and so will everyone else’
MERCHANT PROFILE THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 42
Lead times are all longer and the biggest reason seems to be the availability of glass. The pricing sweet spot is £10 to £15
Where we group ship and we have a wine that is unique to us in this area we can sometimes edge it up a bit more, and I’m quite cautious budgeting for exchange rates. I usually buy a bit better than I’ve budgeted for and that can give us a bit more margin. How many wine come through the Rolleston wholesale buying group? It’s not that many, it’s the entry-level volume lines really, so about 10 ranges.
From page 41 brands at all and people trust us. The established house that we have is Joseph Perrier, so that is our brand, if you like, and we try not to do any of the other big names. Who’s on the buying team? I generally do the buying and in terms of selection, there are five of us on the wine side who will taste and we make a joint decision. Are you aligned in your tastes? We all like freshness in wines. We tend to find that anything that is slightly confected or commercial doesn’t get through, so we are similar in that sense. Some of us like full-bodied reds and some prefer whites, so there is a mixture and we all come to a consensus. Is there a place you specialise in more than others? Not really. South America … we do a lot with Condor Wines and that has given us a great offering there. Is it harder to get quality around the £10 mark these days? I’d say in the shop our sweet spot now is the £10 to £15 mark. But because we wholesale a lot, we have things that transfer to the retail environment where we can start at £7.50. So there are still quality wines you can get under the £10 mark. We do our pricing once a year in March and since we did it this year, our transporters put a 11% surcharge on. There’s a fuel surcharge of 3.5% and now DPD suppliers are coming in with increases as well, so this may be the year that we do another price increase. We’ve never had to do that across the board before. We’ve Is France worse hit than other places? No, bottling in Spain and Italy is also an issue. Dry goods are the problem, rather than wine, and then transport. We use Freight Transport from Portsmouth and they are superb. Post Brexit their service has been just as good as it was before. We are very pleased, as we’ve been using them for a long time, that they didn’t take on any new customers post-Brexit. The fact they are coming in from Portsmouth helps. I think the more Dover-centric you are the more difficult it is. Is the retail range a mirror image of your wholesale range? Yes, there are a few wholesale lines that we don’t have in here but it’s pretty much the same. We operate at roughly 35% retail, 25% wholesale margins.
How is Rolleston structured these days? There’s a committee of five. I’m the secretary and Charles Eaton from Nethergate Wines is the chair. We employ Alexander Nall from The Southwell Vintner as the manager so he deals with suppliers and generally does most of the legwork. We’re fiercely independent and even though we meet, everyone does their own thing: we generally buy independently, apart from if there are areas that people don’t ship from, like the south of France, where members would buy from me. done it on odd things, like New Zealand Sauvignon last year. How are you finding availability from France and elsewhere?
You’re not obliged to take the whole range. We’re always looking for new members. We’ve just added Wright’s at Skipton. Julian [Kaye] is a great guy, very experienced in the trade and a volume wholesaler. What other suppliers do you work with at Talking Wines? We have quite a tight supplier base and the ones we work with we do a lot with, and try to go deep into their list rather than pick up a few wines from here and a few from there. We have to bear in mind the logistics side of it too. There’s no point diluting our range from places we already direct import from. What trips have you most enjoyed? We went with Condor to South America, that was a great trip. We went to South Africa with Boutinot a few years back, that was good. Have you got a personal favourite wine? Christmas Day I normally drink red Burgundy. Unfortunately it’s more expensive now. It’s been a funny experience, lockdown. In retail and wholesale, we are selling more and betterquality wines. Whether we can maintain that with the economic turmoil we are about to see … we’ll see how it goes. Your website is looking good and is simple to navigate. That’s nice to hear. We had it ready to go just when the first lockdown came and I said, let’s just do it. I write the tasting notes and we link through to the producers’ websites. We’re probably not the cheapest and there are always people doing deals, but we don’t chase it. I’d say 85% of our business is wholesale, and about 12% here [in the shop] and 3% online. It’s all growing. Wholesale for us had a similar reaction to retail during Covid, in that people questioned the suppliers they were using, and we offered a personal and friendly service. We had a different approach to the nationals. Would you say that approach was always appreciated by your wholesale customers? It was appreciated some of the time, sometimes you’re taken for granted. We provide training for our wholesale customers. The problem with the ontrade and hospitality is that there is such a turnover of staff, you are going back six months later to do another session and all the faces are new. Our customers trust us, so if we have a container stuck halfway across the ocean, they tend to be understanding.
‘I had spent a lot of time wondering if we’d ever make any money out of this business, but now we are seeing a decent return’
The shop has no full-time manager but is right next to the busy office Continues 44
page
How’s the business performing financially? We are growing and over the last couple of years we’ve grown very nicely, and profitably as well. I had spent a lot of time wondering if we’d ever make any money out of this business but now we are seeing a decent return. Last year the turnover was just short of £1.8m. That was our best year. Because we’ve got such good staff who have been here so long and are so efficient, we can increase in turnover without putting extra overheads on. It’s lovely to be able to pay them proper wages and reward them for their efforts and they are all incentivised on The Newington Green store has “a nice kitchen vibe”
TALKING WINES THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 43
What’s next for the business? We’re not very good at following fads and we’ve never had an outside investor. We know what we are and we’re not planning to do anything radically different. It’s a question of doing the right things all day, every day and just looking after people. That’s what we try and do. We’d like to have extra vehicles; we’d like to get the floor above, which is vacant. We’d then like to put solar panels up, that’s a project that would be very beneficial. We might push the geographical area out a little bit, but nothing massive. We’d like to do a bit more online. Nothing dramatic, just incremental growth. I’ve looked at having a second shop and I’ve done the sums, but I struggle to see how it would be profitable. If we did, it wouldn’t be Cirencester. We’re happy doing what we’re doing here. Someone once told me that the way it works economically is to have one premises, seven or 30. With seven you can put in a regional management structure and you’ve got enough economies of scale to make it work, but two or three don’t really work. The independent trade must seem a bit more crowded than it was back in 2012. There is more competition, but as long as people operate on the right principles then the more the merrier, I’d say. The more diverse the market is, the more interesting it is. streets Cirencester
MERCHANT PROFILE From page 43 THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 44 ‘I’ve looked at having a second shop but I struggle to see how it would be profitable. Someone once told me the way it works economically is to have one, seven or 30’ commission with no ceiling. On a Monday when we’re all in, we have a team meeting where we talk about sales opportunities, new wines, any supply issues, and it’s all very collaborative.
The picturesque
of
Montfrin la Tour Blanc
One of our best sellers, this shows all the hallmarks of young Grenache Blanc with some tropical fruit notes, hints of peach and apricot and fresh pink grapefruit. Rich, satisfying and with complexity that belies its modest origins, this is a perfect aperitif or accompaniment to fresh tomato salads.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 45 As a board member of our local co-op for many years, we realised that making organic wine within the group would be impossible. And so in 2011 we made the decision to start our own cellar. Our soils are composed mainly of rounded pebbles from the ancient bed of the Rhône river, some deep sands of the actual river beds and poor soils of villafranchien gravel which allows us to obtain a diversity of juices. Working within the intersection of Provence, Languedoc and the Vaucluse is a strength which allows us to offer a variety of wines to please a large number of palates. We like fresh and fruity wines and produce these easy and fresher styles by choice. These are my preference as I do not really appreciate woody notes in wines from our area and I am passionate about making interesting wines that people will love. These styles are pleasant and good with food, and are great value for money, which satisfies a large part of our clientele. Our dry climate helps in holding back the spread of disease, but the nature of the soil, with so many pebbles, makes the work between the plants much more difficult. We grow over 15 varieties with very distinctive organoleptic qualities. Their collective ripening cycles cover quite a large stretch of time. Five years ago we began experimenting with a new variety, a white grape named Monarch, which is basically treatment-free. We produce one white Vin de France, which has been met with great success: À Mon Seul Désir. It’s made from the Viognier grape, and is very expressive and fruity. This year, a new cuvée is launched: a sparkling organic white wine, À Nos Amours. Of course we could consider producing other Vins de France, since it would be the easiest way to boost our production. But we are happy working within the rules and regulations of an AOP because it adds important visibility to our cuvées. My favourite wine within our range is Á la Rêverie Côtes du Rhône blanc: in my opinion, the most harmonious and sophisticated of our wines. We aim to reduce our environmental imprint, and seize every opportunity to do so. We have adapted ourselves to the increase in demand for organic wine. In the past 20 years the vineyards have increased from 30 hectares to about 150 hectares of 100% organic vines. After the launch of red and white sulphite-free cuvées, we hope to introduce a new sulphite-free rosé: Un Coup de dés Jamais n’Abolira Le Hasard”. THE WINEMAKER FILES // Jean-René de Fleurieu Château de Montfrin
A La Doucer d’Aller Côtes du Rhône Rouge A classic Côtes du Rhône Village blend with a fruity mouth feel. We select our oldest vines juices for their ability to add structure. The wine is aged in 600-litre barrels so wines develop complementary soft oak aromas, helping soften the tannins. This adds a level of complexity, ensuring the wines can age for five years or more.
A la Rêverie Rouge This wine really represents what we try to achieve at the winery. It demonstrates that by taking care of the vineyard and choosing the perfect ripeness, we can give the blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan soft tannins and long, light, red-fruit flavours. Perfect with any mildly spicy food.
Midway between Nîmes and Avignon on the cusp of two appellations lies Château de Montfrin - a historic estate, inherited by Jean-René de Fleurieu, who runs the family business. There are around 200 acres of land, including farmland, olive groves and 95 hectares of organically-farmed vines, yielding Côtes du Rhône, Costières de Nîmes and Côteaux du Pont du Gard wines. Wines are imported by Jeroboams Trade 020 7908 jeroboamstrade.co.uk0600
After a lifetime of farming, I have not changed my mind that the best way to know a land is to farm it. And that is what I do every day, even when times are hard. We love sharing the pleasures of life through the wines we produce on this land.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 46 Elliot Awin doesn’t have to think hard about his answer when asked if there’s a common thread running through the list of ABS agencies. “Most importantly they are all people you would go for a beer with,” he says.
“The topics of conversations you’d have might be vastly different, but they are all people you’d want to spend a couple of hours having a drink with. It’s part of why I joined the wine trade – the people. They are all different, in an interesting way.”
ABS PORTFOLIO TASTING
Wine merchant, meet wine producer
Sponsored Feature Elliot Awin
Next month, ABS’s independent customers will get to spend some quality time with these winemakers too, as the company stages its biennial portfolio tasting in London. Awin is a strong believer that people
As Awin Barratt Siegel prepares for its biennial portfolio tasting in London, partner Elliot Awin says the company’s aim is simple: to connect winemakers with the people who sell their wines
September 7, 10.30am to 6.30pm
Awin wants the atmosphere at the London tasting to capture that informal, more “touchy-feely” way of talking about wine. “It’s almost marketing B2B like we would B2C. We’ve always thought that B2B interaction should be more formulaic and professional, but actually we’ve found that a lot of the independents would rather it was more informal and relaxed.”
The Great Hall, One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA Registration: lesley@abs.wine
Below: Wines from Corryton Burge, whose winemaker Trent Burge has a long family connection with the Awins
Right: Veronica Vassala from Flavia Wines in Sicily, who will be attending the London event on September 7
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 47 who sell wine should have a direct link with the people who make wine. “Having 48 producers in front of people is so important,” he says. “ABS and companies like ourselves should just be a conduit for making introductions. We are matchmakers, so to speak, rather than salespeople. We would rather have an independent and a winery chatting to each other and building that bond and relationship. “We have a good enough relationship with both of these groups to allow that relationship to flourish. We are just there in the middle to deliver that stock. Of course, our sales team help with range selection and to help merchants understand what’s possible. But more than anything we want to see the wineries connect with customers and consumers, and that is where I think the trade is going.”
Awin talks about the “inverted pyramid” of information that flows between winemakers at one extreme and consumers at the other, with importers, wholesalers and retailers in between. “Our role is to broaden out that inverted pyramid into a straighter column of information and the best way to do that is to cut out the Chinese whispers in the middle,” he says. “Of course we’re not going to write down every little bit of information about the winery in our booklet, but if we cut out the distance from winemaker to consumer the communication will be more effective for everybody.”Atthisyear’s tasting there will be 10 Australian winemakers in attendance, as well as nine from South Africa and six from theTrentUS. Burge, winemaker at Corryton Burge in the Barossa Valley, will be among them. He exemplifies the long-term relationships that ABS has developed with its winemaking partners, and the family bonds that exist beyond the commercial links.“ABS as an Australian specialist was always at tastings in the 90s with the pioneers of the Australian industry, producers such as Grant Burge, and today the second generation of the Awin and Burge families are working together.”
There are seven ABS reps who work exclusively with the independent trade. Awin and three of his colleagues also look after a number of indie accounts in addition to their other roles. The company worked hard to support independents during Covid restrictions. “We did a lot of activity which put winemakers on screen, both in a formal way on Zoom with tasting packs sent out for B2B, and with informal chats on Instagram with a celebrity guest and a winemaker for a more casual approach,” Awin says. “It became more important that we brought the feeling of what ABS is into people’s minds rather than just looking at the order book.”
SOUTH AMERICA Alvaro Puebla (Finca Agostino) Alberto Guelo (Casas del Bosque)
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 48 ABS PORTFOLIO TASTING
“These two things are quite a headache at the moment and so we do hold a lot of stock, and we do limit currency exposure through hedging to make sure we are offering good value,” he says. “We are shipping and consolidating full containers from most places rather than shipping pallets or half pallets. Our previous stock holding for any line would have been 20 weeks on average, and we are now moving that to 30 weeks average. If there is an interruption in supply or logistics or delays, we’ve got that covered, and we find that’s really important for independents who can still draw stock off it.” The minimum order has been reduced from 14 dozen to seven dozen to give indies more flexibility. In September ABS also plans to launch a new web-based service allowing merchants to buy in even smaller quantities.“Theidea is for independent retailers to buy at wholesale prices via an exclusive B2B Shopify website,” Awin says. “They can put together a mixed case of more expensive wines as a way of bolstering their offer. We’re hoping this will allow them to dabble a bit more in our range. Sure, they’ll have to pay the DHL or DPD delivery for that, but it will be next-day delivery and at least they can be reactive to requests from their customers. “This is not to replace their current ordering mechanism. It just means they don’t have to wait until they’ve reached their minimum order to re-fill on their everyday wines. It’s another service that will help them get the right range to their customers as quickly as they need it.”
flexible friends
Quatre Vin, a Provence rosé launched by ABS during lockdown
In recent times, much has been written about the agency model and whether it’s fit for purpose in today’s wine trade. Awin says ABS is always adapting to what the market demands from its suppliers. With logistical and currency issues creating supply chain challenges, the business is able to insulate its customers from the worst effects of the problems.
SOUTH AFRICA Jacques Bruwer (Bon Courage) Kathy & Gary Jordan (Jordan Wines) Karl Lambour (Tokara) Hagen Viljoen (Zevenwacht) David Finlayson (David Finlayson Family JulienWines)Schaal (Vins Julien Schaal) Neil Bruwer (Cape Chamonix) Niels Verburg (Saboteur) USA Chuck Cramer (Terlato Wines) Meliza Jalbert (Hope Family Wines) Peter Franus (Peter Franus Wines) Maja Jeremaz (Grgich Hills Estate) Tom Monroe (Division Wines)
AUSTRALIA Graham Cranswick-Smith (Cranswick TrentWines)Burge (Corryton Burge) Simon Cowham (Sons of Eden) Walter Clappis (The Hedonist) Troy Jones (Payten & Jones) Jane Campbell (Campbells Wines) Wendy Killeen (Stanton & Killeen) Damian Shaw (Philip Shaw Wines) David Freschi (Casa Freschi Wines)
PORTUGAL Pedro Fonseca (Mouchao) Joao Vilar & David Baverstock
ITALY Alessandro Fabiano (Viver) Léon Femfert (Nittardi) Veronica Vassalla (Flavia)
ABS minimum order quantities have been halved. Elliot Awin says: “We want people to cherry-pick. We like the idea that independents should have the best range of wines for their customers and not be dictated to by suppliers.”
GERMANY Matt Giedraits (Dr Loosen/Villa Wolf) Konstantin Guntrum (Louis Guntrum) Karl Johner (Karl H Johner) Martin Luithardt (Weingut Schnaitmann) Alexander Stodden (Weingut Stodden) AUSTRIA Lorenz Hass (Allram) FRANCE Emma Jullien-Prat (Maison Montagnac) Romik Arconian (Château Canon MelanieChaigneau)Soto (Vinibegood) Vincent Bremond (Château Mont-Thabor) Viv Menon (Domaine de Galuval) Marie Leclaire (Mas de Cadenet) Lea Desprat (Desprat Saint Verny)
WHO’s coming to london?
Pedro(Ravasqueira)Branco (Quinta do Portal)
João began his wine career working with his grandfather and established his own business in 1997. The Ninfa wines come from his organic vineyards near Rio Maior in Tejo and are distributed in the south Wales region by ND John. The company is seeking similar tie-ups with other regional
Morewholesalers.information joaotmbarbosa.comat
Ninfa Maria Gomes I think this is a wine you can drink on any occasion. It has nice acidity, and is well balanced and fresh. It brings a lot of happiness to people who drink it. Tejo in the last 10 years has improved quite a lot. People understand how to make good wines and how to present them in the market. They have to understand what the market is looking for but the wines also have to have character.
You can tell if the wine has been foottrodden because it’s velvety smooth and more elegant. It’s totally different. Barbosa Vinhos, Tejo wine region
Ninfa Grande Reserva Tinto This is 100% Touriga Nacional vinified in oak and aged for 24 months in barrique. It’s a complex, beautiful wine and very elegant with a very long finish. Ninfa Espumante Reserva Blanc de Noirs This is 100% Pinot Noir aged between 18 and 24 months. We are currently selling the 2016 vintage. It’s a beautiful wine with very fine bubbles; the mousse is beautiful.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 49 We planted our first vineyards in 2000. Since the beginning I’ve only worked with grape varieties that I like. We started with Touriga Nacional, Aragonês and Syrah. We took out the Syrah in 2014. Our terroir is very similar to Burgundy and the Côtes du Rhône and our Syrah was a very French style. But I think it’s a grape that can perform well in a blend. We planted Pinot Noir in 2004, first of all to make sparkling. In 2011 we made a red for the first time and that was really great. It was aged in small barrels. Now we have more than one hectare of Pinot Noir. It’s a very difficult grape – very capricious. You never know what’s going on but when it’s good it’s really, really good. We are in the north west of Tejo, in the foothills of the Serra d’Aires e Candeeiros mountains and 15km from the Atlantic. In the past few years it has not been the heat that we’re concerned about. It’s the rain that’s coming out of season. Because we are working organically, last year we just got 20% of our normal white crop. This year we have had heat after the rain, which reduces the risk of oidium and mildew. We have a big Atlantic influence and the soil is very salty. Our wines are very fresh and elegant. We have some salt mines here very close to our land – the ocean was here many years ago. All the limestone is very salty. The wines become very mineral, not boring wines. A lot of people are doing things to give their wines more salinity, but we don’t need to. We waited until 2009 to plant our white grapes because at that time in Portugal white wines were not very well accepted. Nowadays we sell much more white than red. I have Sauvignon and Fernão Pires, which we call Maria Gomes; we have Alvarinho, and last year we planted Chardonnay. I am not a fan of Chardonnay but I am a fan of Chablis. The Chardonnay I usually taste is very fat and I don’t like this kind of wine. I told my children that if our Chardonnay becomes like a normal Chardonnay, we’re going to replant. This year we’re going to have for the first time a very old variety called Olho de Lebre, which is a totally different grape. In the 50s it was planted in Tejo. I’m very excited about it. I think it will have a very nice acidity and a totally different nose and flavour. We have to wait and see, but I think it’s going to be very nice. We do some foot-treading – we’re going back to the old ways. It’s more gentle on the skins, and all the good things are on the skins. In the pulp it’s just water and sugar. We do some Pinot Noir this way, and the Vinhas Velhas, which is a blend of red and white grapes. Also Alvarinho, and that’s it. We are a small team and it’s usually done by myself and my children, and our guests.
THE WINEMAKER FILES // João Barbosa João M
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50 Loire wine producer LangloisChâteau has been making wine since 1885, but its longevity is no barrier to progress. A recent and significant leap forward is a move to full organic certification for Saumur still wines, from the 2020 vintage, and Sancerre from 2024.“Langlois-Château has a long link with sustainable viticultural practices, going back to 2000,” says general manager François-Régis de Fougeroux, “so it was a natural progression to work on organic certification.“Atfirstwe had six hectares of vineyards which we worked on for 12 years to see the impact of being organic, and then in 2017 we started the certification process, and we now have 30 hectares of organic vineyards.”Thecompany’s complete holdings – including those for sparkling wines – comprise vineyards in the Saumur, Saumur-Champigny and Sancerre AOCs, and parent company Bollinger added 60 hectares in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé with the acquisition of the family-run Hubert Brochard estate in July.
Langlois-Château is a major player in Crémant de Loire and Saumur sparkling wines, but its investment in organic viticulture and winemaking practices is helping it take a lead in updating the reputation of the region’s still wines.
With 200,000 spectators watching top quality vintage acts over three days, it’s kind of the motor racing world’s version of Glastonbury. The team was kitted out in crimson Langlois-Château polo shirts for ease of identity in the crowd, and VIP passes provided access to the pits, to get just metres away from the action during
The fast track to winemakingsustainableLanglois-ChâteauhasalongassociationwiththeLeMansClassiquemotorracingevent.Buttheproducerisjustasdevotedtosustainableviticulture,withagrowingcommitmenttoorganicfarminginitsLoirevineyards.Agroupofindependentmerchantswasrecentlyinvitedtotastethedifferenceforthemselves–andtospendanunforgettabledayattheraces. Published in association with www.mentzendorff.co.ukMentzendorff
“The most important thing it brings is gaining a nice balance in the soil and that has led to more balance in the wines with extra freshness and acidity,” says de Fougeroux. “This line of acidity helps us to build fresh, elegant, easy-drinking wines, but also wines with more complexity and maturity.”
The Wine Merchant tagged along with a group of indies, who all already list Langlois-Château wines, when they were hosted by the producer and UK agent Mentzendorff on a three-day trip to the region last month. The trip provided the opportunity to catch up on LangloisChâteau’s still-wine progression and included a day at the Le Mans Classique 24-hour motor racing event, of which Langlois-Château is an official sponsor.
“Our Vieilles Vignes still whites from Saumur or Saumur-Champigny reflect more the terroir and special place of the vineyard. They are really balanced and elegant wines and the price is very good compared to Burgundy or other regions.”
De Fougeroux adds: “Crémant de Loire production has grown from 6 million to 23 million bottles in less than 15 years and more than 50% of those wines are on the export market.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 51 driver handovers. The partnership is a perfect fit for Langlois-Château, de Fougeroux believes. “We are the vineyard closest to Le Mans,” he says. “It’s a high-quality event and we as a team are engaged in making high-quality wines. Also, a third of visitors to Le Mans are from the UK, and that’s a key market forTheus.”trip itinerary includes a winery visit and a tour of Langlois-Château’s extensive cellars, housed in caves burrowed into the hill under its adjacent Saumur vineyards. We are given special access to a library of old and rare bottles of sparkling wine dating back as far the 1883 vintage. The limited quantities of the vintages stashed away – just one bottle each of the 1883 and the next oldest 1911 – mean the corks stay in, but naturally there is plenty of opportunity for tasting more contemporary stocks. These include the Quadrille brand (RRP £28), an Extra Brut that’s a four-way blend of Chenin Blanc (50%), Cabernet Franc (20%), Pinot Noir (20%) and Chardonnay (10%), and whose label celebrates the winery’s association with four legs as well as four wheels, through a partnership with the local equestrian institute Le Cadre Noir. Over lunch during the winery visit, there is a chance to taste the Quadrille 2016 –light in colour, fresh and fruity – against the 1994, displaying a lush yellow-green hue and a caramel/crème anglaise character on theDepalate.Fougeroux says the earliest picking windows for grapes have come forward by almost three weeks, from mid-September to the end of August, since he first joined the company in 2001. “Studies show we have the same climate now as Bordeaux had 30 or 40 years ago,” he adds. “Bordeaux wines have around 14% or 15% alcohol today, whereas we are at 12.5%-14%. “It means we have more freshness but without the green character that used to be associated with Loire Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. “Our winemakers used to obsess about how to get the right maturity in the berries but that isn’t an issue anymore. “We have more yield on the vines for sparkling wines and we pick earlier to keep the freshness that’s essential. For still wines we pick later but can now find a nice balance. Langlois-Château’s indie guests were given VIP passes to the Le Mans pits
Langlois-Château’s reds also reflect climatic and stylistic evolution, alongside ageing potential. The Saumur-Champigny 2020 (RRP £15) has all the freshness and drinkability Langlois-Château is seeking from its modern approach, while the 2015 vintage of the same wine shows an additional soft and silky elegance. On fizz, the aim for the Bollinger-owned producer is simply to be “the best sparkling wines outside of Champagne”.
JEFF FOLKINS, DALLING & CO, KINGS LANGLEY, HERTFORDSHIRE “They’re good wines and they’re great value. The Saumur rosé is absolutely exceptional for the price. They tick a lot of boxes: the wines are great, the pricing’s great and the presentation of them is great. That’s why I’m quite happy to have seven or eight wines on the shelves. It’s a well-regarded corporate enterprise but it feels like a small family producer. And we like the people. We always enjoy working with people we like.”
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PAUL WARDLE, CORKS OUT, CHESHIRE “We sell Langlois-Château crémant by the glass and we have Sancerre in our machines. The wines are class and every single one we’ve tasted on the trip has been fantastic. It’s really good on affordability and the value you get from the price points. People like crémant as a cheaper but quality alternative to Champagne. We had Langlois-Château’s Sancerre red, which is rare to see, and people found that an interesting talking point.”
WHAT INDEPENDENT MERCHANTS SAY ABOUT LANGLOIS-CHATEAU WINES
“The Langlois-Château crémant is fantastic value for money, looks good and the branding gives the impression it’s a small winery and an artisanal product, but because it’s actually quite big we know we’ve got reliability, year in year out. It always tastes good and our customers love it and are happy with it.”
“The Sancerres are beautiful. We do some of the highest price point Sancerres in our Enomatics and they do really well. A lot of people love Sancerre but sometimes they’ll pick any bottle based on the region’s name; they want a French Sauvignon Blanc but that’s as far as the mindset goes. We like to give them something that’s got a lot more character and complexity that they’re not really expecting – and you can definitely do that with some of the wines we’ve tasted. We’ve got the rosé too and it doesn’t stay on the shelf for very long.”
“We’re starting to see a big evolution in the UK, and in the US. Last year, crémant hit 1 million bottles in the UK market and, as a producer, we have seen a huge“Consumersincrease. want to drink something a bit different, more complex and with an identity of its own, and I think it will continue to grow, especially when Champagne prices are going up and there is not always enough available.”
Simon Parkinson of Vinsanto in Chester adds: “Crémant is generally the only nonChampagne we put on the by the glass. For non-Champagne drinkers it’s incredible value.
GEORGIE TOMS, SALUT WINES, MANCHESTER
SIMON PARKINSON, VINSANTO, CHESTER “We list Langlois-Château’s crémant, Sancerre and the Saumur Blanc Vieilles Vignes. We’ve started taking the old vine Chenin-Sauvignon which is spectacular. We’ll definitely stock the Quadrille. I don’t know why we’d never looked at it before. There’s almost never a time when there isn’t one of its wines on our menu, and normally two. I don’t think there’s a single other winery that has that consistency of presence on our wine list.”
“We get people coming in and asking for crémant and wiping us out over a weekend,” says Georgie Toms of Salut Wines in Manchester. “If they get a taste for it, people realise it’s a great alternative to Champagne. But a lot of people don’t realise how close, geographically, they can get something else that’s sometimes half the price. The wines here are beautiful; really well balanced.”
The feeling among wine merchants on the trip is that crémant represents a good-value stepping stone for consumers between Prosecco and Champagne.
The consequences of keg I just dropped in to see what condition bottle conditioning was in North Yorkshire’s Black Sheep Brewery enlisted the help of comedian Maisie Adam to confront popular misconceptions about cask ale. A YouTube video shows Adam reading out real-life tweets and ridiculing the views held in them, including ones that “95% of real ale does taste like warm arse piss” and “real ale is for old men, metalheads and weird folk guys in their twenties”. It seemed for a while back there that cask beer had reached its own end of history, to borrow a phrase coined in 1992 by the political scientist Francis Fukuyama. Just as the global world order seemed to have settled into a consensus around western neo-liberalism after decades of tension and rancour between conflicting ideologies, real ale became accepted as something that could not only comfortably co-exist with other branches of the beer world, but was actually acknowledged as the true mark of quality. For a while it even seemed like the Campaign for Real Ale might disappear, its agitating work in favour of the cask ale process complete. So how did we end up back at arse piss and weird folk guys? Well, one answer is that the settlement around real ale’s status was a mirage all along, conjured out of the beer preferences of a generation of gatekeepers of consumer taste, who have all now been superseded by a younger generation of radical thinkers. For them, what the beer tastes like and the image it projects are more relevant than a political position on how it’s made. Tied in with this is the inexorable rebirth and rise of keg beer, with young brewers using modern hop strains and kicking back on filtration to deliver flavoursome beer that is also cool, in both the physical and image senses. As well as finding acceptance with many old men and metalheads, such beers also reached out across the bridge to the mass market drinkers of premium lagers that the ageing gatekeepers had all but forgotten about. This all rubbed off on the off-trade, of course. Keg beer is relatively easy to keep and doesn’t require the high throughput of cask to keep it fresh – great for hybrid locations that want to do draught beer without the faff. And in packaged beer there’s been a post end-of-history shift from bottles to cans. Yet while the social media trolls still have much to say about cask ale, there’s very little noise about its packaged equivalent, bottle-conditioned beer, the subject of as much heated discourse as real ale was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Bottle-conditioned beer is still out there; it’s just that no one’s really that bothered about it one way or another anymore, which is a shame. Essentially, bottle-conditioning involves introducing a small amount of sugar into a bottled beer before sealing it, inducing a second fermentation with the yeast residue left over from the first one. This produces a small amount of alcohol and soft carbonation; crucially, beers produced in this way will mature in the bottle, much the same as with wine ageing in oak casks or glass, bringing complexity, depth, balance and texture.
Most of the very best packaged Belgian beers remain bottle-conditioned, as do many from traditional British ale brewers. But within the modern craft brewing community, it’s a dying art. Even Sussex brewer Hepworth, a go-to source of advice and inspiration on bottling in the last couple of decades, has installed a canning line. With no particular big commercial gain to be had, bottle-conditioning is increasingly seen as a complication with little material gain. One notable exception is London brewer The Kernel which, with its plain brown-label aesthetic, doesn’t need the canvas of a can to daub cartoon graphics on. It has stuck to bottles and bottle-conditioning as an article of faith: one that delivers arse piss-free authenticity, longevity and character.
THE DRAYMAN
A few brewers are also can-conditioning, though it remains a relatively niche practice. But for the majority of conventionally-canned beer, there’s only a short shelf life in which the beer remains at its best before succumbing to the aggravating impact of oxygen.
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In the modern craft brewing community, bottle conditioning is a dying art
Fernão Pó is another family-owned Palmela winery that began releasing wines under its own name relatively recently. Its winemaker is João Palhoça. “I always blend my Castelão,” he declares. “It’s not a perfect variety. Sometimes it lacks body and structure and colour. To get good [single varietal] Castelão you need 80-year-old vineyards, and I don’t have those.” So he marries his fruit with Touriga Nacional and, of all things, Tannat. These are, he says, the “salt and pepper” that bring alive his spicy ASF 2019 wine. Then there’s Herdade Espirra in the Pegões sub-region, where the old-vine Castelão grapes are trodden by foot and fermented naturally. The wines emerge from French oak full-flavoured but with a roundness and softness that’s a world away from rougher-edged supermarket examples. There’s a rumour going around that someone is making Castelão with carbonic maceration, and we track down the man responsible. It’s Filipe Rodrigues of FR Wines (pictured), a pharmacist in his day job, who has breathed new life into the Comporta vineyard planted by his greatuncle in the 1970s. His Macaca Muda wine is a Castelãodominated field blend, which means there’s Baga, Tannat and even a little Fernão Pires in the mix. “I don’t like Castelão that’s over-extracted,” he says. “So I do a semi-carbonic maceration and age the wine for nine months in used oak.” It’s yet more proof that, while Castelão may be a signature grape for Setúbal, it’s a variety that relies on human ingenuity as much as it does on those warm, sandy plains.
Just a short drive from the elegant metropolis of Lisbon, the Setúbal Península is one of Portugal’s less feted winelands. It’s a landscape of gentle limestone hills and sandy plains, where the heat is moderated by Atlantic breezes.
The Setúbal Península of Portugal is gradually making a name for itself in the UK independent trade as merchants discover the value that the region offers at a range of price points.
Setúbal wines have traditionally been made on an industrial scale, and in their homeland they are mostly associated with supermarket labels. That’s a problem for producers – both large and small – who are increasingly crafting premium wines but worry that the region lacks the prestige to command prices to match. But it needn’t be an issue in the UK, where Setúbal is effectively working from a blank sheet of paper and has the potential to establish itself from a higher starting point than it enjoys in its domestic market. That’s certainly the way the eight independent merchants on our July buying trip to the region saw it, anyway. Castelão is king of the reds To generalise, red wine production in Setúbal is dominated by Castelão, a variety with red-fruit flavours and modest acidity and whose rustic character can make it an awkward choice for single-varietal wines. This generalisation was tested to its limits during our three-day visit, being validated and debunked in equal measure. Castelão was to prove more enigmatic, and perhaps more enticing, than most of us had been expecting.FilipeCardoso is the fourth-generation winemaker at Quinta do Piloto in Palmela, which began bottling wines under its own name as recently as 2013. He makes a single-varietal Castelão from old vines, softened by a spell in lightly toasted oak, and – especially served slightly cool – it’s nothing like the more extracted styles that you’d find in mass-market iterations. “Castelão has been made for centuries in this region and we understand it very well,” he says. “I think Castelão has to go the same route as Baga in Bairrada. Castelão is our difference. It’s a wine that’s very difficult to copy in other places.” He’s happy to indulge the variety in his premium wines. “It’s more like Pinot Noir,” he says. “It’s very elegant. I think now it’s even becoming trendy.”
Eight indies joined our recent buying trip and were impressed by wines from terroir that its producers regard as Atlantic, rather than southern European. Graham Holter reports
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“For me, we have the best white grapes in the world,” says João Palhoça of Fernão Pó. Thirty per cent of Setúbal’s production is white, with Fernão Pires thoughcentretakingstage,Arinto, Alvarinho, andLoureiroChardonnay,Pinot
Atlantic waves
Whites keep things simple Setúbal is a seafood region, a point that’s proved several times over the course of our visit. Although lightly-chilled reds sometimes accompany the grilled catch of the day, it’s naturally the whites that make the most classic pairing.
BUYING TRIP TO PORTUGAL
The PDO for Setúbal’s fortified wines dates back to 1907, though the wines are not particularly well known beyond the region itself, and the bars and restaurants of Lisbon, where they are popular as an aperitif. Just 7% of production finds its way into export markets. Two main types of Moscatel are grown. One is Moscatel de Setúbal, which is the local version of Muscat of Alexandria; the other is Moscatel Roxo, an early-ripening purple-coloured member of the Muscat family. Roxo nearly disappeared from these parts at one point, with farmers frustrated by its popularity among the bird population. But it’s been enjoying a revival in Setúbal in recent years, with plantings recovering to more than 50 hectares. Fermentation is stopped with the addition of grape brandy and achieves an alcoholic strength that can be as low as 17% and rarely more than 19%. Most winemakers we meet seem to believe Moscatel de Setúbal makes their most successful fortified wines, though a few make the case for the richer, more perfumed Roxo, with an aroma that Vasco Penha Garcia, head winemaker at Bacalhôa, compares to Paris by Yves Saint Laurent. But you sense it’s Moscatel de Setúbal that he enjoys more. “It’s crazy to think we make a wine with a grape variety that doesn’t ripen properly here,” he concedes. “But I think we make the best Muscat of Alexandria fortified wine, because we’ve planted it in a place where we have to pick it with 12.5%. Then we macerate. We don’t top up the barrels, so we allow oxidation. The aromas concentrate as the sugars are released and we can make a fresh, very sweet, fortified wine.”
Bacalhôa’s best examples are intense and powerful, with an unmistakeable note of oranges and, more specifically, marmalade. At the José Maria da Fonseca Estate, export director Renata Abreu says there’s a more precise and calculated approach to Moscatel in the vineyard these days. “In the past we picked Moscatel in September or October,” she tells us. “Nowadays we decide when it’s the right time to harvest: sometimes in the first week of August, depending on the maturation of the grapes. It depends on the year and the weather we have in the spring and the summer.”
There are also decisions to be made in the winery. João Palhoça of Fernão Pó likes to keep his Moscatel on its skins, with the brandy, for six months.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 55 Blanc are also authorised in the Palmela PDO.The wines tend to be simple and refreshing, though not overly acidic, often with a gentle, aromatic appeal, and a distant hint of salinity on the finish. These are typically described by the producers as entry-level wines, though they are rarely bland. Verdelho is also cropping up in PGI wines, adding an extra degree of richness for those that require it. A few producers also make whites from Moscatel; wines with rose-petal aromas but which are bone dry on the palate. These are split-personality wines that tend to induce a double-take. They’re an interesting talking point, but not the real reason why Moscatel thrives in Setúbal. Fine-tuning the fortifieds
The winemakers just need to believe in it, and we just need to ship it.
“That’s why, when we age it, we have a lot of things to marry and evolve and give complexity to the wine,” he says.
‘Castelão is a variety we understand very well. It’s very elegant. I think now it’s even becoming trendy’
Ocean breezes take the edge off the Setúbal heat and can even add an extra layer of flavour
Aiming higher Our trip has been a crash course in understanding a region that feels like it’s in transition; a region full of modest winemakers, with wines they no longer need to be modest about. The producers we meet seem genuinely gratified by the reaction to their more interesting wines, and intrigued by the suggestion that these could gain a foothold in the UK independent trade. Many – perhaps most – will still need to make the sums add up by concentrating on the grocery and bulk wines around which the region has historically structured its business plan. But Setúbal doesn’t have to settle for just that. There is good stuff here.
Another 100% Castelão wine, this time from the winery’s oldest vineyard, where the vines are untrellised. A deep and complex iteration of the variety, layered with toast and spice but leavened with a fresh acidity. Herdade Espirra Pavão de Espirra Tinto 2017
Fernão Pó ASF Unoaked 2017
This interpretation of Moscatel was a pleasant surprise for our tasters. Amjuly del Carpio describes it as “very delicate” while Tom Hemmingway says the “lighter, fresher, naturally sweet” style would have customer appeal. A VerdelhoSerenada2021
Sangue ColheitaRealTardia Moscatel Graúdo 2020
José Maria da Fonseca DSF Moscatel de Setúbal Superior Cognac 1999 This Moscatel is fortified with Cognac, adding extra layers of complexity to an already characterful wine. “Just an explosion of orange peel, apricots and hazelnuts, and the length of finish is amazing,” says Bridget Hoult.
BUYING TRIP TO PORTUGAL A
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MoscatelBacalhôade Roxo Rosé 2021 “Moscatel Roxo was a nice discovery and I enjoyed it as a rosé, particularly the 2021 from Bacalhôa, mostly for the unusual rose scent,” says Coralie Menel. Jane Taylor is also a fan. “Delightfully different, with the exuberance of the grape neatly tamed,” she says.
Venâncio da Costa Lima Foral de Palmela 2016
Quinta do Piloto Vinha do Pardais Sauvignon Blanc/ Fernão Pires 2021 Both the red and the white blends with the Vinha do Pardais label were well received by the group. For Paola Tich, the white is “a stand-out for value, the Sauvignon adding lift but not dominating the blend.”
This white variety made a number of cameo appearances during the trip, and impressed with its fruitiness and freshness. This example is brimming with citrus and floral characters, but also a mineral saltiness enjoyed by Paola Tich. few of our favourites
Casa Ermelinda Freitas Vinha da Fonte Reserva 2016 This wine is a masterclass in the art of the blend, consisting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Castelão, Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouschet. Full bodied, with a pleasant seam of vanilla, it has spicy elements as well as luscious dark fruit.
In the words of Tom Hemmingway, this is a more concentrated style of Castelão with “a good balance of fruit and depth of flavour”. He adds: “I felt it was very good for the price, with attractive packaging.”
TOM HEMMINGWAY, HIGHBURY VINTNERS, NORTH LONDON Setúbal has a lot of potential and all the ingredients to succeed in the UK market. There is an excellent quality-to-value ratio, which is paramount. UK consumers will not be knowledgeable about the region, so work will be needed to address this. The area seems to be undergoing a renaissance, and it is encouraging to see smaller producers experimenting and bottling their wine. It reminded me of South Africa when a small number of enormous wineries dominated the market share. Smaller producers need ‘The UK potential
This classy example of 100% Castelão was a hit with Bridget Hoult. “It has a year in French oak and another year in bottle; I found this wine to be refined with lovely notes of pepper, deep dark fruit and a lovely long finish,” she says. “Beautiful.”
Herdade do Cebolal Clarete 2021 This Castelão is made with very little skin contact, offering another example of the variety’s versatility. According to Jane Taylor, the wine is “utterly delightful … all smoke and flint, followed by delicate red fruit.”
This Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blend was an unexpected hit among merchants who assumed only Portuguese varieties would hit the high spots. “Spicy and with lots of red fruit and soft tannins – very pleasant to my taste,” says Amjuly del Carpio. Adega GrandeCamolasEscolha Old Vineyard 1931 2017
PHILIPPE POLLEUX, PEOPLE’S WINE, EAST LONDON Among the fortifieds. I believe that the Moscatel de Setúbal has the most potential. I found more acidity and freshness than in Roxo.Itis a very complicated sale as it is very seasonal, and people can be put off by the alcoholHowever,level.the wine can be kept for a long time and served by the glass. In a hybrid wine shop/bar, it can be popular and a fun addition to a wine list. I think the potential of Setúbal in the UK market could be huge. In my opinion, they focus a bit too much on the red production while they have the ability to produce very popular crisp white wines.
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From left: Jane Taylor, Dronfield Wine World, Derbyshire; Amjuly del Carpio, Cellar Door Wines, St Albans; Coralie Menel, Grocery Wine Vault, east London; Bridget Hoult, Hoults, Huddersfield; Lloyd Beedell, Chesters, Abergavenny; Philippe Polleux, People’s Wine, east London; Paola Tich, Vindinista, west London; Tom Hemmingway, Highbury Vintners, north London to collaborate and pool knowledge and resources to compete better so they can stand out from the crowd. From the Castelão examples I tried, I preferred expressions which used little or no oak to maintain the purity of fruit. Castelão, made from the hills with its higher acidity levels, benefited from being made in this style. I believe the lighter expressions of Moscatel have more potential from a sales perspective. This style is easier to explain to our customers and can sit alongside other dessert wines worldwide. The more aged Moscatels could compete with port and sherry but will require more explanation.
BRIDGET HOULT, HOULTS, HUDDERSFIELD
I believe there is a market for both blended and single-varietal Castelão. We tasted some beautiful blends, but the most important factor of any of the wines is the winemaker and the choices that they make. Young, fresh or aged, oak or no oak, old vines or not … this is a very interesting grape and has a great place in the market. It offers options for a lovely fresh wine to pair with a fish dish, or a deep big hug of a wine to curl up with on a sofa on a cold evening with a good book. I had tasted a Moscatel de Setúbal before coming out, but I was amazed at the differences that can be achieved – and also the discovery of the Roxo grape. Wow: loved it. I really loved the slightly drier unfortified Moscatels which work perfectly as an aperitif, but the depth of flavour of the fortified Moscatels we tried was also amazing. I have every intention of making an orange cake to enjoy with a Moscatel de Setúbal very soon. I believe either would work for the UK market; it’s about how you sell them to the customer. Great from the fridge door, and the most important thing is they last – if you allow the bottle to last, anyway. They are located on sands, next to the sea; they have great seafood and fish cuisine; so they could market their white more easily and have a very glamorous image.Pretty much all wineries had fantastic Fernão Pires blends. Maybe after Pinot Grigio and Picpoul, we could have a trend of Palmela white ... potential of Setúbal could be huge’
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022
A outlookbetter Champagnefor
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 58 In the sales and marketing departments of Champagne, the worst of times seem to have been followed by the best of times. A year in which the global market for Champagne plummeted in a way not seen even at the height of the financial crash in the late 2000s, segueing into a year of record-breaking growth. First, the worst. In 2020, Champagne sales around the world dropped by almost a fifth, down 18% to 245 million bottles. Things were in freefall almost wherever you looked, but it was the performance of its three leading export markets that hurt the most: sales were down by 20% in the USA and the UK, and by 28% in Japan. In total, Champagne sales shed €1bn in value, down to €4bn. Fast forward to the end of 2021, however, and the picture was completely transformed. As the world’s bars and restaurants, albeit somewhat haltingly and haphazardly, returned to something like normal, and with many drinkers having already replaced their on-trade spending with more expensive take-home habits
The Champenois endured a wretched 2020, but exports of the world’s favourite fizz are bouncing back, including in the UK market. There’s also evidence to suggest that stable and more premium pricing is leading the way for the category, as David Williams reports
Shipments to the UK were up by 32% in 2021, and 9% up on pre-pandemic levels
Still, the CIVC urged caution, pointing out that a view that combined the highs and lows of 2020 and 2021 is rather less rosetinted than one focused solely on more recent successes. “Thanks to exports and the consumer’s devotion to fine cuvées, Champagne will reach a record turnover of more than €5.5bn,” said Jean-Marie Barillère, president of the Union des Maisons de Champagne and co-president of the Comité Champagne. “[But] the average shipments in 2020-2021, at 280 million bottles and €4.9bn, remain under the pre-pandemic levels (300 million bottles, €5bn in 2019).” Barillère and the CIVC are also quick to point out that, while 2021 was a great year for Champagne’s sales directors, it was rather the opposite for those who ply their trade in the vineyards. Indeed, the story of the two viticultural years of 2020 and 2021 is in many respects the complete opposite of the sales cycle. In 2020, despite the restrictions imposed by Covid making the harvest more logistically difficult, Champagne’s growers were nonetheless given a welcome boost by the quality and quantity on offer.
It’s still far too early to say with any conviction exactly how the challenging conditions have affected the finished wines, but word from various 2021 vins clairs tastings suggests that quality may trump quantity, and that, for the best and most fastidious producers, 2021 represents a return to a “classic” Champagne style.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 59 CATEGORY FOCUS (including sparkling wine) than their prepandemic norm, Champagne sales took off. According to figures released by the Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne, total shipments of Champagne in 2021 soared back up by 32% versus 2020, to 322 million bottles. The news was good at home: French sales were back to 2019 levels, up by 25% on 2020. But it was even better overseas, with Champagne exports setting a new shipment record: 180 million bottles, worth €5.5bn.
The glorious growing season followed the equally bountiful 2018 and 2019 to complete what many observers believe to be a trio of vintages that will go on to be ranked alongside the legendary glorious run of 1988, 1989 and 1990. As with much of France (and indeed England), however, 2021, by contrast, presented a series of meteorological challenges that had many veteran growers talking of the most difficult vintage of their working lifetimes. Certainly, it was the smallest in a long time: you have to go back to 1985 for a smaller harvest, with late and severe spring frosts and humidity reducing crops by 30%, while the seemingly never-ending summer rains brought a plague of downy and powdery mildew. Average yields were down to 7,300kg/ha, way below the 10,000kg/ha limit set by the CIVC.
The UK: Finding the right level One country the Champenois are looking at with justified optimism is the UK. After that 20% dip in 2020, UK shipments of Champagne were back up by 32% in 2021, from 21.6 million bottles to 29 million bottles. Importantly, that figure was also considerably up on pre-pandemic levels: by 7% versus 2019. That’s still short of the consistent 30+ million-bottle average of the 2010s, and far off the giddy 39 million-bottle heights of pre-crash 2007, but the Champenois are hoping that the UK market is finding a much more sustainable level, with more stable, premium pricing, and fewer discount-driven oscillations than have been the case for much of the 21st century. That seems to be backed up by figures from market researcher Nielsen which show growth in the off-trade value of Champagne (up 18%) outstripping growth in volume (+11%), and with the average retail price slowly ticking up: in figures up to the end of March 2022, the average price for a bottle of Champagne stood at £26.70, up by around 7% on 2021.
In the context of the past two years, however, the Champenois can surely be allowed a few moments to break open a bottle or two from their own supply and savour their successful recovery from the worst of times.
Outperforming Burgundy or Bordeaux in auctions
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 60 FOCUS ON CHAMPAGNE
Of course, Nielsen, with its historic bias towards the supermarkets and multiple specialists, is a notoriously poor source of information about what’s going on in independent wine merchants. But the Champenois have been buoyed by consistent evidence of Champagne’s increasing importance at the very top of the market. According to Liv-ex, Champagne has been the strongest performing fine-wine region in auctions and the secondary market over the past year, outstripping Burgundy and Bordeaux and the increasingly strong performance of Italy’s and California’s biggest names. The Liv-ex Champagne 50 index, which tracks the performance of 50 leading Champagne brands, was up by some 40% in 2021 alone, with prices rising a further 15% in the first quarter of 2022. Individual Champagne brands are also beating off rivals such as Screaming Eagle, DRC and Petrus as the most in-demand names in fine wine. Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 was the single most-traded wine on the Liv-ex platform, with Dom Pérignon 2012 not far behind, and with Cristal 2013 and 2014 also taking a place in the top six. Put together, Louis Roederer also led the way in total trades on Liv-ex in 2021, accounting for sales totalling £6m, with Dom Pérignon, Bollinger, Krug and Taittinger Comtes de Champagne also enjoying successful years.
It will be interesting to see if Champagne can retain its place at the top of the finewine tree, given that many observers put much of its recent success down to the launch of wines from outstanding vintages such as 2008, 2012 and 2013, the quality of which is not matched by 2014 and 2015.
David Williams picks out some of the most intriguing Champagne releases from recent years of interest
The small, family-owned house of Henriot has always prided itself on its mastery of the art of the blend. In part, that skill is expressed in blending grape varieties and the uniquely Champenois art of blending vintages and reserve wines. But Henriot also draws on the unusually diverse range of vineyard plots it has collected over the years: 140ha (345 acres) spread over 29 villages. All of which background is explanation enough for the name of the house’s latest release: L’Inattendue (“the unexpected”). The first in a series of single-vineyard, single-varietal, single-vintage wines, it kicked off with a 100% Chardonnay drawn from the Avize Grand Cru in the 2016 vintage. But the wine will change from year to year, with the chosen cru and variety based on decisions made by the winemaking team during tastings of the vins clairs.
Champagne Philipponnat 1522 Grand Cru vintage releases
Bollinger PN (Mentzendorff) In a similar spirit to L’Inattendue, PN, Bollinger’s first new addition to its range for 10 years, back in 2020, was all about the singular. In this case the singular grape variety, Pinot Noir, with which the house is most identified. According to Bollinger, PN “offers a fresh vision of Bollinger’s savoir-faire and vineyards. Each edition will feature a different cru from the base year, carefully selected by Champagne Bollinger, so that each new version will be an elegant reinvention of the original cuvée”. The first two editions – PN VZ15 and PN VZ16 – were based on Pinot Noir from Verzenay from (respectively) the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with reserve wines making up 50% of the blend. The latest release, launched in June this year, is PNTX17, which has Tauxières as the main source, alongside Verzenay and Avenay, with 2017 as the base vintage and the oldest reserve wine coming from 2006.
It seems a little absurd to talk about a family that has been in Champagne for five centuries as a “rising star”. And yet, in the year in which it celebrates its 500th anniversary, that’s exactly what Philipponnat seems to be: a house with a long-established cult reputation that is breaking through to a wider audience with its range of critically acclaimed Champagnes. The latest releases are all part of a series that explicitly references Philipponnat’s historic credentials, a trio of vintage wines in the house’s 1522 Grand Cru range: a 1522 Grand Cru 2015, 1522 Rosé 2014 and the long-aged 1522 Grand Cru LV 2002.
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 62 Tammy Nell, David Nieuwoudt and Alex Nell of Cederberg FOCUS ON CHAMPAGNE
Henriot L’Inattendue (Fells)
Champagnes
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Launched earlier this year, the new Champagne Charlie stands out from the prestige cuvée crowd by drawing heavily on Charles Heidsieck’s enviable collection of reserve wines. A non-vintage wine, the first, “bottled in 2017” release is a 50/50 Chardonnay/ Pinot Noir blend of 20 different wines, based on the 2016 vintage, but with 80% of the final blend made up of reserve wines.
FOCUS ON CHAMPAGNE
Roederer Collection 242 (MMD) There was something almost shocking about Champagne Louis Roederer’s launch of Collection 242. It’s not that there wasn’t space in the market for another cuvée from one of the region’s most successful houses. It’s more a matter of what the Roederer team felt they had to do to make space for it: how many other brands are prepared to remove their flagship brand while it’s still selling well and consistently ranks among the best of its kind on the market? Any residual sadness left by the demise of Brut Premier soon dissipated as the quality of its replacement became apparent. The new wine draws heavily on a perpetual reserve, aka solera, which Roederer says is an attempt to retain the wine’s style far into the future, safeguarding its “freshness and minerality” against changes in the climate. The first release, which was based on the 2017 vintage, is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier from the company’s own biodynamic vineyards. The name, incidentally, refers to the number of times the company has made a multi-vintage wine since its inception in 1776.
Champagne de St Gall Influences (Daniel Lambert Wines) With its members owning vines in top premier and grand cru villages across the region, the over-performing co-operative Champagne de St Gall is well-placed to take advantage of the fashion for terroir-driven Champagne. And that’s exactly the motivation behind de St Gall chef de cave Cédric Jacopin’s most recent new project: a quartet of Influences wines, each of which expresses a different village in the de St Gall portfolio, with a wine apiece from the grand cru villages of Ambonnay, Cramant and Oger, and one from the premier cru village of Vertus.
Charles Heidsieck Champagne Charlie (Liberty Wines) Champagne Charles Heidsieck’s tribute to its eponymous legendary founder was first created by the no-less legendary chef de cave Daniel Thibault with the 1979 vintage. Given free rein to make a wine that best expressed the house style, Thibault changed the blend and elevage each year depending on the conditions. Only five vintages were made before the cuvée was discontinued when Charles Heidsieck was bought out by Rémy Cointreau in 1985. Those vintages were much sought after by collectors, however, and the house, now flying high as part of the EPI Group, gave current chef de cave Cyril Brun the task of developing a new Champagne Charlie cuvée.
Varnier-Fanniere
Sourcing grower Champagnes has become easier in recent years, he adds. “We have longstanding relationships and we ship from our producers on a regular basis.“Itwas a little bit more challenging a few years ago when the market was dominated by grande marque Champagne. “But more and more growers realised over the years that, to be independent, they had to make their own wine rather than sell grapes to the big houses. “Selosse and Prévost set the tone and a lot of growers at some point worked with them and it started a movement.
Growing it alone
winemakers over to raise awareness.
aka the perpetual reserve); or even on the packaging (Ruinart’s lightweight recyclable sleeve). Among the most interesting developments in Champagne this decade, however, has been the greater respect for Champagne’s “other varieties”.It’satrend that starts with what has been traditionally regarded as the weakest of the traditional trio, Pinot Meunier, which is increasingly being championed in single-varietal cuvées, from the likes of Billecart-Salmon and Gosset, after years of being pushed by growers such as Jérôme Prevost. Other growers are looking even further afield to make fine wines from the lesser-known bunch of varieties that are permitted but vanishingly rare in the region, such as Drappier Fromenteau (a 100% Pinot Gris) and grower Benoît Lahaye’s Jardin de la Grosse Pierre, a field blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Fromenteau, Gros Plant, Teinturier and, apparently, numerous unnamed others from a vineyard planted in 1927.
Fischer says the shops work hard with tasting events, sampling or inviting
“The wines do cost a bit more but it’s the same for pretty much any wine region,” he says. “You can get a reasonably-priced Burgundy from a big house or co-operative, but if you want a bottle that is a bit more special and a better expression of the terroir you have to pay a little bit more.”
The Good Wine Shop prefers to support Champagne’s little guys rather than the grandes marques
Champagne’s other varieties If the single most significant development in Champagne in recent years has been the rise of the terroirdriven wine, with multiple singlevillage, single-vineyard and single-plot cuvées taking their place in portfolios of producers great and small, the region has also been exploring other new approaches to the way it goes about its business. New releases may focus on the vinification (such as Billecart-Salmon’s 100% oak-fermented Sous Bois); on how the reserve wines have been incorporated in the blend (various takes on the non- and the multivintage, various uses of the solera, The Good Wine Shop champions grower Champagne in its west London stores. It imports directly from Varnier-Fanniere and Hubert Paulet, lists several others, and runs a Grower Champagne Month every June. “This year our tastings across the stores were mostly oversubscribed and we had to put on second events to fulfil demand,” says the company’s Bastian Fischer. “It’s definitely something people are very curious about.”
Fischer concedes that many people still look to the reassurance of big names like Clicquot and Möet when buying Champagne as a gift, but adds: “A lot of people also love the idea that grower Champagne is something a little bit different that hasn’t just come from Majestic or a supermarket. We don’t actually get much push back on that; a lot of our customers are perfectly happy buying it as a gift.”
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 65
“There are a lot of fantastic grande marque Champagnes out there, but the growers are able to give a better expression of where they are really from, because the big houses are actually just making blends from across the region. Rather than just making Champagne as one big style, the growers are focusing more on terroir and origin.”
Registration through Lesley@abs.wine.
theEngland,newcountries,BetweenPortfolioBerkmannTastings350and450winesfrom20willbeonshow,includingadditionsfromArgentina,Chile,France,Greece,Italy,SpainandUS.
Monday, September 12 Temple Room Grand Hotel 27 Colmore BirminghamRowB32BS
Tuesday, September 13 Aspire, 2 Infirmary Street Leeds LS1 2JP
Wednesday, September 7 Great Hall 1 Great George Street London SW1P 3AA
Portfolio Tasting
Tuesday, September 6 Lindley Hall 80 Vincent Square London SW1P 2PB Wine Agencies
ABS
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 66 MAKE A DATE Jeroboams Trade Late producers.showretailThePortfolioSummerTastingwholesalearmofthewestLondonchainwillhave300winesonpouredbysomeofitsfavourite
Wine establishedThisTradeGBTastingisachancetomeetlong-andnewerEnglish wine producers, with free-pour tables themed around styles and one for Trophy winning wines from this year’s Wine GB Awards. There will also be a focus on wines that have gained Sustainable Wines of Great Britain accreditation. To register, contact Julia@winegb.co.uk.
La Diferencia/ La Differenza
Monday, September 12
Raymond Reynolds Autumn Tasting A chance to explore the evolution of the importer’s portfolio, which specialises in single-estate wines from Portugal, Spain and Germany. Registration via info@raymondreynolds. co.uk.
The biennial tasting will provide an opportunity to meet new producers who’ve recently become part of the ABS portfolio, including Flavia Wines from Sicily, Corryton Burge of Australia, Spain’s Bodegas Chaves and Hanna Winery from California. More familiar names from the portfolio will also be in attendance, with at least 45 growers flying in.
A separate guided tasting session will feature wines from Antinori (Cervaro della Sala, Guado al Tasso, Tignanello), Ridge Vineyards (Monte Bello) and Vega Sicilia (Unico).Lunch in London will come from Jonny Lake (ex-Fat Duck) of Michelin-starred Trivet. In Leeds, food will be courtesy of acclaimed Chinese restaurant Tattu. There will also be the chance to connect with the teams from Berkmann’s Spirit Cartel offshoot and Veraison, its in-house wine education outfit.
This is a collaborative event between Condor Wines and Marcato Direct. The, er, difference in the two names reflects the company’s specialisms: South America for Condor and Italy for Marcato. Condor will be hosting masterclasses with Amanda Barnes, author of South America Wine Guide, and Thibault Lepoutre, François Lurton’s low intervention winemaker. To register visit condorwines.co.uk or, as a Marcato Direct customer, scan the QR code.
The Brewery, 52 Chiswell Street London EC1Y 4SD
Monday, September 12 The Beeswing 24a Minshull Street Manchester M1 3EF
There will also be the chance to sample new vintages and wines from producers who’ve recently joined the portfolio. The event will take place at “an iconic SE1 art gallery”. Contact events@ jeroboamstrade.co.uk to register and the secret will be revealed.
Emaili info@berkmann.co.uk
Wednesday, September 7 Central London TBC
More
Tuesday, September 20 Cecil Sharp House 2 Regent’s Park Road London NW1 7AY Hatch Mansfield Autumn Tasting The Hatch team will be showcasing new wines and vintages from across the portfolio. The line-up includes names such as The inwhoandsinceGraftAutumnAnniversaryGraftTastingWineCoiscelebrating10yearsthefoundingofbothRedSquirrelKnottedVine,thetwoimporterscametogethertoformthebusiness2019.
The Dirty Dozen This collaboration between 12 specialist importers – Astrum Wine Cellars, Carte Blanche Wines, Clark Foyster Wines, FortyFive10˚, H2Vin, Howard Ripley Wines, Maltby & Greek, Raymond Reynolds, Swig, The Wine Treasury, Ucopia Wines and Yapp Bros – will ensure an eclectic mix of wines from small and select winemakers. information and info@dirtydozentasting.com.registration:
The tasting promises a “tight and mouthwatering selection” of 100 wines from its portfolio, including some mature vintages in keeping with the occasion. Register at graftwine.co.uk.
Tuesday, September 27 Central London venue TBC Taittinger, Louis Jadot, M Chapoutier, CVNE, Esperão, Gaja, Esk Valley, Kleine Zalze and Zuccardi.Registration required: contact rachelhollinrake@hatch.co.uk.
Tuesday, September 20 New LondonTowerArmouriesofLondonEC3N4AB
Vines in Alsace
Lucrezia Povero will be flying in from Cascina Vèngore in Terre Alfieri, a small DOCG in Piedmont, to show its range of organic wines from Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato, focusing on the Nebbiolo, Barbera and Arneis grapes. Marco Bertone from the family Piedmont wine producer Agricola Marrone will also be there. Matawhero in Gisbourne, New Zealand, is one of Vindependents’ newer producers and owner-winemaker Kristen Searle will be showing its naturally dry-farmed whites, including Chenin Blanc and barrel fermented Chardonnay.
Tuesday, September 13 Glaziers Hall 9 Montague Close London SE1 withThisConnectionsFrench9DDevent,organisedinpartnership
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The Wine Merchant, will feature more than 80 wines looking for UK representation, from all parts of France, including Roussillon, Burgundy, Crémant d’Alsace, Loire, Champagne and Bordeaux. The line-up includes several sulphitefree wines and French kombucha.
Tuesday, September 13 Brettenham House London WC2E spirits.totalOverPortfolioVindependents7ENTasting20producerswillbeshowingaofmorethan400wines,andsome
The event is open to all independent wine merchants, not just Vindependents members. To register, contact louise@ vindependents.co.uk.
The Vindependents tasting takes place on March 21
21. NOT GOING ON HOLIDAY Phoebe Weller of Valhalla’s Goat in Glasgow is one of the few people in her neighbourhood staying put this summer. That means Co-op yellow labels aplenty – and time to refine the format of Omelette Wars Berocca #drinkresponsibly. I say swapped, what I really mean is I “paid for” by waving my shiny device at the beepy money box which then fiddled with the numbers in the numbers app on said shiny device. Rory makes a good and generous omelette according to my rules, which are: beat eggs, hot fatty pan, minimal additions (the Lanark Blue was excellent,
Vineyards in the Hunter Valley A re you on holiday? Kelvinbridge is. This month as everyone is on holiday, there have been some “free lunches”’. Of course, as we know, there is no such thing as a free lunch, but I thought I might give you a break from my existential angst this month. Yellow labels proliferate in the Co-op, revealing items usually snaffled up by the parents of the posh kids: four kinds of chickennuggets with baconnaise? Yes please! Rottencake and the Hippy Shop are overestimating frolicking picnickers or dealing with hayfevered fuzzybrainers who order and then wander away, lured by a motheaten Argyle sweater, quirky Hawaiian shirt or unfathomable vintage shell suit in Mothcentral next door (yes, there are three next doors, what of it? You just haven’t heard about Mothcentral as they only smoke fags and look worried, which are two very unluncheonlike activities).Rory,the Chief Chef from the Hippy Shop (who could go under many names: Rory who I apparently went to uni with (yes I did, I just didn’t go to any lectures or the graduation – 2:1, joint honours Anthropology and English Lit), Basketball Rory, Rory who had a crush on Sam Clare but then everybody did #MeToo, Rory who has an unfeasible amount of children, Rory, who, unfathomably, gave me notes on an Amazing Lunch. “Preppy Pal,” he said in reference to the Imaginary (Kitten/ Pepino) Episode, “is a bit try-hard.” Do you know who’s a bit try-hard, Rory? YOUR FACE. Kidding! #TBT) came in with an unclaimed omelette, which I “swapped” for two Schofferhofer Grapefruit – essentially Rory, thanks). In Omelette Wars, another as yet unmade TV show, people would share their idiosyncratic and incorrect omelette making techniques in front of a live, braying, caged studio audience. On reflection perhaps this show could be called Breaking Some Eggs A re you getting away, Phoebe?” my Fanstomers ask and no, I’m not getting away, I’m VERY HAPPY not packing my motheaten clothes (thanks Mothcentral), choosing places to go or what to eat, pretending to relax somewhere that is a good 15 degrees hotter than my threshold (my threshold being a place where you can put a jacket on if you’d like but you don’t need to put a jacket on), seething with frustration at other people and my own people, returning without luggage, with many digits missing from the numbers in the numbers app on the Shiny Device and with a new flavour of Covid. That being said, I am sick to the back teeth of being here with Americans asking for something they “can’t get back home”. This raises some questions, doesn’t it – where is home? Do I know what every offie in the world sells? And most importantly, do we live in a globalised economy run by lizards who, yes, might bottle something you can’t get at home but would you actually like to drink it? I tell you what you won’t get at home, Eric the Pumpman’s Mint and Kiwi green ‘n’ sparkly gin, which again, unfathomably, they still don’t want to buy. This unique product will be prominently promoted for Hallowe’en (spooky gin) and also Christmas (elf gin). Happy Holidays!
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 68
Sheepskin wine cooler Sheepskin is a natural insulator and, in the hands of Dutch design company Kywie, it makes an extremely lux wine cooler. Available in a huge range of colours and sizes to accommodate cans as well as wine bottles, these eyecatching coolers will keep prechilled drinks cold for up to four hours. Visit Kywie.com for more details
The Daiquiri is a great, refreshing late-summer cocktail because it can be adapted very easily to accommodate a variety of seasonal soft fruits. It might require a tiny tweak of the sweetness element to suit the particular fruit or the ripeness of the crop, but the basics would be the same for Daiquiris made with strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. 1 fresh plum 5cl white rum 1.5cl sugar syrup 1.5 cl freshly squeezed lime juice Peel the plum and cut into quarters, removing the stone as you go. Muddle the fruit in the bottom half of a shaker. Add the liquid ingredients, ice, and the top half of the shaker – then shake and strain into a chilled Martini glass.
Netlon protective sleeves are perfect for stopping bottles clinking together when inside a gift pack or hamper and can also be used to protect labels on valuable wines stored in a wine rack. They stretch out for easy application but shrink back to fit snugly over any wine, Champagne or spirit bottle, protecting it without obscuring the label. These netlon sleeves are made from 96% recycled plastic bottles, are 100% recyclable, and available in black or white. £57 excluding VAT for a 300-piece pack. From wbc.co.uk plum daiquiri
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Recycled Plastic Bottle Protective Sleeve
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 70 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 info@fells.co.ukcontact: www.fells.co.uk @FellsWineje_fells top selection 23 Cellini Street London SW8 Telephone:Contact:info@topselection.co.ukwww.topselection.co.uk2LFAlastairMoss02039580744@topselectionwines@tswine World class sauvignon blanc from breathtaking vineyards in southern Austria. SUPPLIER BULLETIN
Auxerrois, Coteaux de l’Auxois. The Coteaux de l’Auxois vineyards once extended to 5,000 hectares but phylloxera and then two world wars caused them to all but disappear. SimonnetFebvre is reviving these historic wines in its vineyards close to Montbard. This Auxerrois is delicate, yet persistent, with plenty of fruit on the nose and palate and freshness on the finish.
hatch mansfield New Bank House 1 Brockenhurst Road BerkshireAscot SL5 9DL 01344 info@hatch.co.uk871800 www.hatchmansfield.com@hatchmansfield THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022
THE WINE MERCHANT june 2022 71 LOUIS AGENCIESLATOUR 12-14 Denman Street London W1D 7HJ 0207 409 www.louislatour.co.ukenquiries@louislatour.co.uk7276
Simonnet-Febvre is an historic still and sparkling wine producer located in northern Burgundy. Its range has four parts with wines from Chablis, Grand Auxerrois, Coteaux de l’Auxois and Cremant de Bourgogne. A few highlights: Crémant de Bourgogne P100 Blanc de Noirs NV. Made from 100% Pinot Noir and aged on lees for a minimum of 24 months. Simonnet-Febvre’s Crémant de Bourgognes are made in the town of Chablis from grapes sourced from the surrounding hillsides. A perennial staff favourite. Chablis Bio. A new addition to the Simonnet-Febvre range in 2020. This is just one of four fully certified organic Chablis in the range. A classic unoaked Chablis characterised by flinty, saline notes.
Irancy. A great Burgundian red, from the Grand Auxerrois. The village of Irancy sits in amphitheatre which protects the vines from northerly winds and gives a south southwest exposure. It is a Pinot Noir dominant blend with 5% César, an ancient French variety that gives structure and colour.
THE WINE MERCHANT march 2022 72 vintner systems The computer system for drinks trade wholesalers and 16importersStation Road BucksCheshamHP5 www.vintner.co.uksales@vintner.co.uk1DH 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. gonzalez byass uk The Dutch CoopersWoodcockBarnHillGreen Lane St Albans AL4 9HJ 01707 www.gonzalezbyassuk.cominfo@gonzalezbyassuk.com274790@gonzalezbyassuk SUPPLIER BULLETIN THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022
jeroboams trade 7-9 Elliott's Place London N1 8HX 020 7288 www.jeroboamstrade.co.uksales@jeroboamstrade.co.uk8888@jeroboamstrade@hnwines hallgarten wines Mulberry House Parkland Square 750 Capability Green Luton LU1 3LU 01582 722 www.hnwines.co.uksales@hnwines.co.uk538 THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 73
Increased range of no added sulphites wines Since sulphur is a natural by-product of fermentation, all wines contain sulphites and it is a legal labelling requirement to indicate when more than 10mg/l are present. Sulphur dioxide is an antioxidant which has been used since classical times in the preparation of many foods such as dried fruits for example. Some people are sensitive to an excess though, and many winemakers have cut down on the amounts used. The EU has set minimal limits and organic and biodynamic wines have stricter criteria still. “Natural wines”, while lacking a legal definition, are produced with as few additives as possible so generally have very little or no added SO2.
www.libertywines.co.ukorder@libertywines.co.uk5350@liberty_wines august 2022
Château Peybonhomme les Tours, Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux Blanc 2020 Glou-Glou Gamay, Domaine Dupre 2020 Chenas Naturellement, Domaine Aufranc 2020/21 Château Picoron, Tattarrattat Merlot 2021 Domaine La Voute du Versus Cinsault 2021 Contact us for trade prices.
IWC Trophy-winning Champagnes
The IWC Rosé Champagne Trophy went to Charles Heidsieck’s Rosé Millésimé 2008, a vivacious wine underpinned by great freshness and structure, while their Blanc des Millénaires 2007, the latest in just seven vintages produced of this rare cuvée since 1983, which showcases the saline minerality and exceptional texture of the Côte des Blancs’ best Chardonnay, won the IWC Vintage Blanc de Blancs Champagne Trophy. The wonderfully gastronomic Piper-Heidsieck Essentiel Cuvée Réservée Extra Brut NV (in magnum) scooped a trophy for the second year running, this time the IWC Non-Vintage Classic Blend Champagne Trophy. Our congratulations to all! 7720
There was much for our Champagne producers to celebrate at this year’s International Wine Challenge awards ceremony last month – an evening that saw Cyril Brun of Charles Heidsieck crowned IWC Sparkling Winemaker of the Year. Impressively, it is the 17th time that the house has claimed this title and the second time for Cyril since taking over as chef de cave in 2015.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 74 SUPPLIER BULLETIN richmond wine agencies The Links, Popham Close MiddlesexHanworth TW13 6JE 020 8744 info@richmondwineagencies.com5550@richmondwineag1
The Daniel Thibault Trophy for IWC Champion Sparkling Wine (Daniel was the chef de cave at Charles Heidsieck until his untimely death in 2002) was awarded to the Rare Champagne Millésime 2008, the latest release of this complex, distinguished and pure prestige Champagne, of which only 11 vintages have been declared since 1976. The 2008 marries 70% Chardonnay, mainly from the Montagne de Reims for freshness and precise minerality, with 30% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims for its sheer intensity and powerful silky texture.
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THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 75 BERKMANN wine cellars 104d St John Street London EC1M 4EH 020 7609 www.berkmann.co.ukindies@berkmann.co.uk4711@berkmannwine@berkmann_wine We are delighted to welcome you back to our headline event. Featuring over 400 wines, it’s the ideal opportunity to reconnect with the people and places at the heart of our range. To register, scan the QR code or contact your Berkmann account manager. PORTFOLIO TASTINGS Save the dates for our 2022 tastings London Monday 12th September | Leeds Tuesday 13th September SCAN HERE TO REGISTER buckingham schenk Unit 5, The E www.buckingham-schenk.co.ukinfo@buckingham-schenk.co.uk01753BracknellEasthampsteadCentreRoadRG121NF521336@BuckSchenk@buckinghamschenk The Brunilde di Menzione range is a great example of how good southern Italian reds can be. Offering great taste, quality and personality, Brunilde di Menzione wines have won multiple international awards. Covering the regions of Basilicata and Puglia, the range includes classic indigenous red grape varieties such as Primitivo, Negroamaro, and Aglianico. ManduriadiPrimitivo Brindisi Aglianico RiservaManduriadiPrimitivo
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 76 SUPPLIER BULLETIN NORTH SOUTH WINES Drayton Hall, Church Road West Drayton UB7 7PS 020 3871 www.northsouthwines.co.ukhello@northsouthwines.co.uk9210 Visit the new Wine Merchant website It is much, much better than the old one. (Not hard.) winemerchantmag.com
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 77 mentzendorff The Woolyard 52 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD 020 7840 www.mentzendorff.co.ukinfo@mentzendorff.co.uk3600 For more information, please contact your Mentzendorff Account Manager Taylor’s and Croft, among the most distinguished of Port houses, have developed new Port and Tonic, pre-mixed cans to create the perfectly refreshing serve! Chill and enjoy straight from the can or serve over ice with a citrus slice. Taylor’s Chip Dry & Tonic Croft Pink & Tonic The Perfect Summer Serve AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL WINE AGENCIES 28 Recreation Ground Road LincolnshireStamford PE9 1EW 01780 www.abs.wineorders@abs.wine755810@ABSWines We are so excited to be bringing all our growers to London for the ABS Portfolio Tasting taking place on Wednesday 7th September 10:30 -18:30. It will be the first time in several years that many of our producers will have been in the UK. The Great Hall, One Great George Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3AA Email lesley@abs.wine to register • NEW LOCATION
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THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 78 They’re all smiles to your face … Famille Helfrich Wines 1, rue Division Leclerc, 67290 Petersbach, 07789chris.davies@lgcf.frFrance008540@FamilleHelfrich walker & Wodehouse 109a Regents Park Road London NW1 8UR 0207 449 www.walkerwodehousewines.comorders@walkerwodehousewines.com1665@WalkerWodehouse
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Château l’Hospitalet wins Platinum Join us in congratulating Gerard Bertrand on receiving an excellent score of 97 points and a platinum medal for their Château L’Hospitalet Grand Vin Red 2020 at the recent Decanter Awards.
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https://gcfprivatewinedaysoctober2022.eventbrite.co.uk « PEOPLE, TERROIRS, PASSION » SAVE THE DATE 10:00am
Located on the coast, Château de l’Hospitalet looks down on the Mediterranean from a height of 100 metres. Having a Mediterranean climate with mild winters, the vineyard enjoys exceptional climatic conditions. The heat from the abundant sunshine is stored in the limestone during the day and released to the grapes at night. The Mediterranean also has an effect, minimising temperature differences, and the altitude of the vineyards counteracts the summer heat. The colour is a brilliant ruby. The intense nose is dominated by spicy and red-fruit, strawberry, aromas. The mouth presents silky and fine tannins underlining the fruity freshness of this wine, which is a delicate blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre. Embankment (10-minute walk) - Charing Cross (10-minute walk) are invited to GCF’s Private Wine Days –Ultimate Portfolio Event the first time, Les Grands Chais de France will be showcasing the best bits from its entire portfolio in London, as well as launching its on-trade Signature Range of 22 top properties selected for wine making excellence. highlights will include: new international award-winning properties in Chile, Spain, Germany and Hungary, Calvet the UK’s no 1 pan-appellation French brand, Crémant from every French producing region, a range of zero % wines and spirits and much, much more… you thought you knew GCF, think again, a lot has changed and it’s time to take a new look… to 5:00pm both days Floor, 10 York Road, London 4th & 5th
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STRICTLY TRADE & PRESS ONLY October
2022 THE ULTIMATE PORTFOLIO EVENT
THE WINE MERCHANT august 2022 79 Q&A
“I’d like to be as good on drums as Roger Taylor. Fat chance!”
Jess Hutchinson Managing director, Vindependents
What’s your most treasured possession? My pallet of bottles sat outside waiting for our Petit Manseng to go in. They are surely now worth more than my house.
Jess Hutchinson was brought up in Devon and, after completing a BA in French, Spanish and European economics, joined Majestic where she spent five years as a store manager. After that she worked for five years as sales director at Charles Taylor Wines before launching her own business, Tamar Selections. She is co-founder and managing director of Vindependents, and winemaker at Domaine d’Audaux in south west France, where she lives with her husband Jamie and their two daughters. What’s the first wine you remember drinking? Really rough wine out of a 1-litre plastic bottle from a French supermarket. My mum used to give me some mixed with water whenever we were on holiday in France. I hated it! What job would you be doing if you weren’t in the wine trade? I would probably be a TEFL teacher. During my first week working at Majestic I was offered a job teaching English in Costa Rica. I got the call when out delivering 12 cases of water to a second-floor flat in the middle of August, so I was quite tempted. But I decided to stick it out in the wine trade and see where it got me. How do you relax? In the bath with a glass of wine and a good book with the door locked so no one can disturb me. What’s the best book you’ve read recently? I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. It’s one of these books you can’t put down and keep thinking about for weeks afterwards. It’s a spy thriller (which I don’t usually like as I’m a bit of a wuss on the violence front), full of action and really well written with lots going on and great characters. The plot is spy agent versus Muslim terrorist who is developing a biological weapon: a virus with a fatality rate of 100%. Give us a Netflix recommendation. The Good Place. Although it’s an American series it has a very British style of humour. Do you have any sporting loyalties? None, although as I live near Pau I have to pretend to be enthusiastic about Section Paloise Rugby. Who’s your favourite music artist? I’m learning the drums, so my current enthusiasm is for Queen, as I’d like to be as good as Roger Taylor. Fat chance! Who’s your favourite wine writer? Jancis Robinson, as she has just written up our first vintage of Syrah and given it a lovely note. You can ask any historical figure a question. Who, and what would you ask? Jesus. I’d ask him for the secret of turning water into wine.
What’s your proudest moment? Other than producing two whole human beings, it would be starting my business. Any hidden talents? I’m part of our local theatre group called Les Bouffons de Castetnau. We do one play a year and this is my third. We usually do a tour of five or six performances with all the profits going to local schools. I have so far played a teenage boy, a legal secretary and, currently, a crazy Italian woman who’s been dumped by her boyfriend and is out for revenge. Trying to understand all the nuances of French comedy is hard enough, but learning all the lines is super hard work and performing is terrifying.
What’s your favourite place in the UK? Dartmoor, where I grew up. We’re granting you three wishes. Go. 1. You’d be crazy if you didn’t want world peace. 2. To be able to fly – when I was little I used to cry about the fact this was impossible. 3. Five more wishes.
