“I’ve asked them to hold my wines off the site because I don’t want customers to be disappointed in me. The end consumer knows who the wine is being sent by.”
Online marketplace faces furious reviews from disappointed customers and a claims of non-payment from suppliers
Another merchant told us: “I have had problems with them paying me. I’m in my third or fourth month working with them and the first order that went through I had to chase them for my payment.
report ongoing problems with the Londonbased business.
Peckham Cellars is expanding
THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers Issue 117, September 2022
One said: “I’m owed just over £3,500 and that’s for stuff we’ve sent out over the last three weeks. It’s all been dispatched, and customers have had their wine.
hereCamberwell,wecome
See page 5
Dog of the month: Sydney Brixham Wine Loft, Devon
Winebuyers, the online marketplace, is facing an angry backlash from merchants who say they are not getting paid on time and from customers who say they are not receiving the wine they ordered.
“It’s just been a nightmare. They don’t answer their phones, they don’t answer their email, or text.
Old problems return for new Winebuyers team
The site works with a number of independent merchants, some of whom have contacted The Wine Merchant to
Steve Hambleton’s review stated: “Ordered 25/6/22 and never received items, never even had confirmation although it is recorded on their website. Contacted support twice with zero response. I ordered with credit card so should get the money back. Very poor.”
Trustpilot reviewers accuse Winebuyers of non-delivery of wine ordered from website
Discussing the Winebuyers business model, he said: “We make our revenue by charging suppliers a subscription fee to list and
When asked to comment on the flurry of poor reviews on Trustpilot, Fordham said: “We had two large suppliers experience difficulties shipping to the UK which resulted in an influx in negative reviews.”
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 1,012 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 september 2022 2 Inside this month 4 COMINGS AND GOINGS Edinburgh merchants expand, and Henley bursts into life 23 THE BURNING QUESTION Are suppliers being more reasonable with minimum orders? 24 CANCEL CULTURE How indies deal with the vexed problem of no-shows 28 JUST WILLIAMS Why some of us get so argumentative about wine 36 BRIGITTE BORDEAUX Our profile of this enterprising Nottingham wine merchant 46
What options do we have if we can’t get hold of the good stuff? 50 focus
TURKEY Indies should take a fresh look at the country’s winemaking culture 52 make
£1.6m. The website was bought from the liquidators for £145,000.
THE WINE MERCHANT MAGAZINE
He added: “We are a small company and continually working to improve.”
BEYOND BURGUNDY on a date
A Seychelles-registered business, Ophidian Corp, now holds between 50% and 75% of the shares of the Winebuyers Group Ltd.
“Oneadvertise.change we have made is the introduction of various new subscription packages, and we now have a number of different packages depending on the type of supplier listing and ultimately how many SKUs [there are] within their portfolio, but we do not charge a commission.”
“The second order went through, but I will have to also chase that.”
Other reviewers have also reported contacting their credit card issuers for refunds after struggling to obtain refunds fromTheWinebuyers.originalWinebuyers site encountered similar problems in its dealings with merchants and consumers before its owner, Winebuyers Ltd, collapsed in April 2021 with debts of
On the question of unanswered calls and emails, he said: “Our system monitors all inbound supplier communication, both calls and emails, and we have no evidence of this being accurate.”
Plenty more tastings to explore as the Christmas run-in begins
Kyle Fordham, representing the business, rejected claims about late payments to suppliers. “We would need a specific example of this being the case as I don’t believe it to be accurate,” he said.
Trustpilot reviews paint a grim picture. Some are from suppliers such as Italianbased WeVinoStore. “We have shipped more than 200 orders and got paid for only 20,” it claimed. “After that they just disappear. We were contacted by plenty of other affected ex-suppliers with the same issue. I believe there are a lot of angry customers as well as we’ve stopped shipping orders as [we] never got paid.”
One customer, identified as Julie Tucker, said: “Wish I had looked at this site before I ordered from Winebuyers! No wine, no response – nothing. They have taken the money but I have heard absolutely nothing and can’t get a response from them.”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 3
Cra ing world-class Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley since 1933.
An artist’s impression of the new store
“Thanks to vigorous campaigning from the locals, the site is being refurbished and restored and turned into a parade of shops again,” says Wrobel.
“We felt relatively well prepared,” he says, “but it’s been a massive learning curve. Even things like a stock system that works across the two sites … you don’t want to reinvent the wheel so it’s trying to gain efficiencies and maximise the potential.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 4
“We’ve got wine on tap so we can offer quality wines at a really solid price point,” he says. “It feels that, in the years since we opened at Stockbridge, what you can get access to via keg now is amazing and that’s going down really well for us. We went
Second Edinburgh shop for S&G
“I guess the biggest thing is that we deal with a lot of suppliers in London, and they’ll ship up, but they only want to deliver to one site so there’s a lot of me ferrying it across town. It’s just getting to grips with things like that.”
The new shop is about half the size of “the mothership”. Wrobel says: “I’ll start off pretty much replicating what we have at our Easter Road shop. Every community is different and I’m sure over the coming months I’ll discover what people will want to drink down there and the shop will reflect that. I don’t think they will really need the huge amount of Vinho Verdhe and orange wines we have [at Easter Road], but we’ll see.”
Cornelius Beer & Wine in Edinburgh has opened a second store.
Second Edinburgh shop for Cornelius
Owner James Wrobel reports that he’s been looking for a second premises for a long time. “It’s a pretty saturated market,” he says, “and this was the first time that we found a spot we really agreed on. It’s quite local to the current shop but it is a very different part of Leith and will open us up to a whole new customer base.”
James Wrobel
“We put the offer in January and were supposed to get the keys in May and it’s been really delayed, which is annoying, but it’s not costing me any money at least.
“One of the good things about the delay is that I’ve had plenty of time to get into negotiations with the developers. They’re not giving me any fuss about the interior, but the exterior and all the signage has to vaguely match the rest of the units. They want to keep all the colours muted and
After seven years of trading in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Smith & Gertrude has opened a second site a 20-minute drive away in Portobello.
Owner Duncan Findlater says draught wine is a popular addition to the new shop.
for Lindr, which was the system that Graft recommended.“Atthemoment we have wines from Roberson on tap as they had a couple of wines that we already took that we knew wereMostamazing.”winemerchants will concede that taking that leap from one to two shops can be daunting. Findlater agrees, but he’s taking it all in his stride.
The second shop is based on the original model in Stockbridge, but expanded a little to offer a larger selection for offsales. Portobello is similar in size to the Stockbridge site but it’s not quite operating at full capacity yet.
The Stockbridge branch
“One issue is that they don’t want any exterior shutters, so I’ve got to have grilles on the inside, which means I might have my windows smashed every so often. It should be fine, it’s a pretty good street with lots of locals, in a very densely populated area of Edinburgh.”
The new shop, on Leith Walk, is part of the redevelopment of Steads Redbrick, a parade of shops which a few years ago was saved by the local community from being knocked down and being replaced by flats.
Findlater says: “It’s split into two areas, almost, and there is a private dining room, so it has a lot of potential for events and for doing the book clubs, tastings and collaborations that we already do in Stockbridge. We’ve just got the bar open at the moment, but we will get it to the point where we are opening more regularly during the week as well.”
everything the same size on the shop fronts.
McVeigh and his partners, Helen Hall and Luke West-Whylie, first spotted the new premises over a year ago and initially planned to start trading from there last November, but things are rarely that straightforward.“It’sallabitcomplicated,” explains McVeigh. “The landlord is redeveloping the building so it’s all tied up in a much bigger plan. He’s been good about it, but there have been some unforeseen things along theTheway.”move will allow the team at Peckham to “lean into the restaurant a bit more”, although there will still be some wine available for retail. The Camberwell site will also serve as a hub for the growing
Join us in the black hole
Jancis Robinson has been on holiday and Tamlyn Currin, deputising for her in The Financial Times, has used the platform to make a case for left-field metaphors in wine descriptions, rightly pointing out that books and wine courses tend to encourage an approach that is “rigid, prescriptive and pedantic”.
Peckham Cellars on expansion trail
Italian specialist Baccello has opened for business on the High Street in Christchurch, Dorset.
“I could be completely wrong with my forecasting,” he admits, “but at Christmas I have a plan in place to do hampers and gifts, so I’m expecting the retail to shoot up to maybe 35%-40%.”
Ben McVeigh, Helen Hall and Luke West-Whylie
“I had a piano teacher growing up. She was 75 and parchment thin, very strict, always disapproving. I didn’t practise my scales, and my fingers were rapped with a ruler on a regular basis.
The expansion, which is due to complete early next year, comprises a restaurant, Little Cellars, with an adjacent wine bar and store, which will be launched as the Cellar Next Door bottle shop.
Pairing wine and homicide
No mincing words on the pop-up window on the St Andrews Wine website: “We try and inject a little joy in the horrible black hole that is social media. Please follow us. We promise it will be fun.”
The smell of piano teacher
A “wine and murder escape room” is coming to Manchester Hall in the city in theTheautumn.focus of the roaring 20s murder mystery evening will be a party hosted by the fictitious Hawker Wine Estate and its wealthy owners the Von James family.“The celebrations turn sour when a storm of vengeance, lies and deceit ruins the evening,” the bumph declares. “You must stick together, hold your nerve and beat the clock in order to escape Hawker alive”, a scenario that will be familiar to anyone who’s been on one of The Wine Merchant’s buying trips.
e-commerce side of the business.
McVeigh adds: “We wanted a dedicated retail site because we have been muddling through, half using the restaurant, half using a storage unit down the road.
Peckham Cellars has big plans to grow the brand into neighbouring Camberwell.
Owner Yuanyi Li is on a mission to promote Italian wine. “I’ve lived here there and everywhere – Italy, the UK, China, Singapore – and I have the most love for Italian wine,” he says.
Future plans include Baccello own-label wine and possibly more stores to follow.
“The house smelt of potpourri and mustiness. Jancis had added a note clarifying that the term was ‘my shorthand for a smell of macerated raisins and very slightly musty velours’ but it wasn’t necessary. ‘Piano teacher’ said it all.”
“We’re really looking forward to being able to focus on the retail. It will be sort of a hybrid, but it’s split into two very distinct halves. One side is a wine shop with a tasting room downstairs and the other side is a small but perfectly formed wine bar.”
“My first lesson in metaphor came from Jancis,” she writes. “Back when I was tasked with transcribing tasting notes from her hieroglyphic shorthand, I found myself typing up a tasting note for a 1976 Mosel. It read: ‘Piano teacher’. I knew exactly what she meant.
“I’m fairly confident with the model,” Li says.“Ithink it can be easily replicated so I’m hoping this will be one of many.”
Co-owner Ben McVeigh explains that when Peckham Cellars opened back in 2019, the focus was hospitality rather than retail.“We never started out to be a wine retailer,” he says. “But as we opened just before the pandemic we set up a website and did the whole retail thing, and most people got to know us through that.”
Italian specialist has big ambitions
Bacchus THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 5
Li, who used to run a chain of over 20 sushi restaurants in Italy, is directly importing around 30% of the wine and sourcing the rest from UK distributors, but he plans to increase his importing activities.“Iamlooking into AWRS as part of my long-term plan,” he says, “but for now, the wine I import is not for wholesaling.”
Baccello is a hybrid and Li predicts that, in the first few months of trading, off-sales will only account for 20% of business.
Sheffield rivals keep it friendly
“We were sad to leave,” admits Myers, “but they have been very supportive. Barry [Starmore] has already popped in and they’ve all offered help if we need it. There aren’t many wine places in Sheffield so there is room for both of us.”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 6
The pair will also be stocking a “small spirits range”, which includes Californian gin and vodka from St George Distillery and tequila from Ten Locks.
Top: Sarah Hatton (left) and Virginia Myers and, below, the store frontage
Sarah Hatton and Virginia Myers, who met while working at StarmoreBoss in Sheffield, have opened their own wine shop in the city under the name Tenaya.
Both shops may be on the same side of town, but topography ensures a significant separating factor. “We’re at the top of a really steep hill,” says Myers. “We are a couple of miles away and StarmoreBoss is right down in the valley.
“We’re leaving the serious spirit sales to Jeff [Boss],” admits Myers. “He’s got everything under the sun.”
“It seems that people have really been wanting a wine shop and bar here for a while and they’re pretty excited, so it’s great. There is lots of residential nearby and they use this high street. There’s a good mixture of people – long-term Sheffield residents as well as London transplants and people who have stayed on afterTenayauniversity.”isworking with suppliers including Alliance, Wines Under the Bonnet, Wayward, Flint and Indigo. Myers says: “We’ve got a broad spectrum of wine but we are aiming to specialise in California. It’s just hard to get it at the right price bracket, but we have found some lovely“We’vestuff.probably got more French wine at the moment. We’re trying to get things that are female-produced and which are sustainable. Obviously not everything is female-produced because that can also be hard to find, but we are trying to focus on thoseThethings.”premises includes a bar area to seat about 15 and Myers says there will be a list of wines available by the glass.
“This will change regularly as we’ve got the whole shop to choose from,” she explains.“Itwill just give people a chance to try, and of course they can pick any bottle off the shelf or out of the fridge and drink in for a small corkage fee.”
of other suppliers including Lea & Sandeman and Thorman Hunt.
Another independent wine shop, Jacobini, opened on Hart Street last month. It’s a collaboration between owner John Hatfield, local artist Kirsten Jones and wine importer Eddie McGee.
Henley-on-Thames has long been in need of an independent wine merchant – and now two have opened within months of each other.
“We do have wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy but we are looking outside those typical areas. I’m supported very well by Ruby Willis at Yapp.”
She adds: “We do free local delivery
Top: An event at ChinChin and, below, the Jacobini interior
After a corporate life as an HR director, Fry’s growing love of wine got the better of him. He says: “My wife and I have had a coffee shop in Henley for the past year, which has proved really successful, and when the unit next door became available we had a few sleepless nights wondering whether or not to take the plunge.”
Of the 100 or so lines in stock, most are directly sourced by Hatfield and McGee as a result of their Italian and French expertise, but other countries, notably California, are also represented.
“The first one was super-nervy for me,” he admits. “Although I had done things like that professionally before, this was my first time doing it with wine, but I think I’ve found my feet. They have been really well received and now I’ve got those first-night nerves out of the way, I really enjoy it.
Jones describes Jacobini as “a creative space where people can come and enjoy a glass of wine, or a bottle”.
July saw the launch of ChinChin Henley, which is owned and run by Adrian Fry, who has already hosted three successful events at the store and has plans for many more.
“We’re discussing doing a Hundred Hills [the nearby sparkling wine producer] evening maybe a little closer to Christmas. I’ve taken a couple of customers to Hundred Hills for a tasting and we had a really fabulous experience there.”
Fry is also working with a small number
ChinChin is a hybrid with enough seating to accommodate 12 people. The wine range is broad and evolving and currently has a strong French representation. “I wouldn’t say it’s a specialist area,” says Fry. “But we are definitely looking for a quality-to-price ratio and I think there are some really, really great wines from lesser-known regions such as Languedoc and the Loire.
and we have a curated collection that is unique because we have connections with vineyards in Italy and France.”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 8
Hatfield is a fan of the enoteca model, so small plates of antipasto and tapas will be served on the premises.
Henley no longer a wine desert
Stammers says owning his own shop was something that had always been a possibility, but it took recent events to make him take the plunge. “I think I’d racked up over 22 years at Connolly’s,” he says, “and when Chris decided he didn’t want to renew the lease it brought things into focus and I decided, rather than getting a real job, I’d do this!”
Steady as she goes at Vine & Bine
Your point that the drinks industry is not united on the proposed reforms needs to be a rallying cry for the wine industry to redouble its efforts at this stage and marshal the best arguments and put them to as many MPs as possible before the autumn.
Thanks for your considered editorial (The Wine Merchant, August) about the duty reform issue that is plaguing the wine trade but not the pub trade so much.
“We want to do more with craft beers: Adam, the shop manager, is passionate about his beers. Then there’s the spirits range: tequilas, rums and more niche spirits that don’t tend to get well covered in Birmingham. Distilling is a growing scene around here, and there are a number of people coming through now though, like Spirit of Birmingham. We’ve got their vodka on the shelf and they are bringing out a whisky at some point.
A month since the handover, changes have been minimal. “There’s not been time to do anything radical,” says Stammers, “and there’s not anything that needed changing, it’s just going to be a case of gradual alterations as the weeks go by. The range will change to reflect more of the interests of myself and the team.
Duty reforms
Mark Stammers has launched Vine & Bine in the Solihull branch of Connolly’s, as reported in last month’s edition of The Wine Merchant.
To be honest it is hard enough trying to check that the duty and VAT that is charged against my duty deferment account at the moment is correct, even when it is fairly straightforward to charge. It will be nigh impossible to work out the correct tax if it is based on ABV, both for customs clerks and customers.
Every independent wine merchant will be adversely affected by the proposed reforms if they are enacted. We will end up paying about 10% more in duty overall, even after the sparkling wine rate is removed, but working out the new duty for every single wine, irrespective of whether we import it, buy under bond or duty paid, will also add a significant cost of bureaucracy. The tax goes up but the implementation of the tax also adds cost, relating to each individual wine we stock and sell.
The stongest argument is that, far from simplifying the tax system for wine, the policy would massively complicate it and lead to hugely increased bureaucracy throughout the supply chain.
LETTERS
The more I think about it, the worse it gets, and the more burden it will add to our stretched accounting resource.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 9
The increased burden on the system and cost since leaving the EU has been huge (£125 extra per consignment just for import and export declarations – over 200 consignments per annum in my business = £25,000+), with freight agents, hauliers and clerks taking longer to carry out their functions with the existing post-Brexit regulation changes. I fear we will look back at this period as simple in comparison to what is proposed if that comes about.
Hal Wilson, Cambridge Wine Merchants
The rebrand may have made customers a little jumpy, but Stammers says once they came in and saw the familiar faces of the team (the two other staff members stayed on with him), they were reassured.
“There’s definitely a growing interest in local products. People are more conscious about food miles and would rather support a small local producer who, literally in the case of Spirit of Birmingham, is working up the road. We’ve seen that support on the craft beer side.”
I really feel there will be a lot of error involved in the paperwork, the calculation of tax (one clerk said it would be done manually for every import, on a piece of paper with calculator and pencil), the ABV being incorrectly reported, all of which will be impossible to check without a lot of extra personnel. Would you want that job?
I can see that the draught beer duty discount will be popular and, like you, have seen that the beer lobby has demanded that the reforms be implemented as soon as possible.Itwasinteresting that the interim government decided not to include the reforms in the published Finance Bill 2022-23 draft legislation on July 20, but did add at the end of the statement: “The government are considering the feedback received (from the consultation) and will respond in the autumn”.
Once a decision is made either way there is very little scrutiny allowed in the House of Commons and none (as far as I have been told) in the House of Lords.
Wine trade must redouble efforts
wine shop is hard, but I love it; it’s amazing. I am learning every day and you get to taste this amazing wine. Peru is famous for pisco but I have been looking for wineries in Peru and there are some that are making pet nat wines and interesting orange wines. If I had the opportunity I would try to bring some back to England. All my holiday plans are now about wine.”
rom making cider in Peru to starting a new life and career in the UK, Amjuly Del Carpio is blazing a trail of positivity and enthusiasm.
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Cellar Door Wines, St AlbansRising Stars
F
In less than six months, apart from becoming a valued member of staff, Amjuly has completed her WSET Level 2, is just about to embark on Level 3, and has her first wine trip under her belt. This may be down to her determination to say “yes” to everything and not let any opportunities pass her by.
So, what’s next, Amjuly? “I want to do this for the rest of my life,” she says. “I love working with Penny – I feel a really special connection with her and the way she thinks about business is probably the way I thought when I had my business. Penny is my boss and I try to have that respect but sometimes I see her and I just hug her! Peruvians, we want to be friends immediately with everyone and I have to try to control myself because I am so happy.”
“And the most important thing is that she wants to learn about wine and she’s crammed a whole lot of wine learning into a short space of time,” she adds.
If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com
A
“Amjuly is just the perfect employee,” says Penny Edwards, owner of Cellar Door Wines. “She has great energy and just rolls her sleeves up and gets involved in every aspect of the business, which is very important in a small company because we all need to do a little bit of everything in order to make it all work. She’s re-jigged the warehouse and she has new ideas and suggests ways to improve processes in the shop. Amjuly takes pride in what she does and is constantly looking to help to improve the business.
Amjuly wins a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve NV
glamorous and I have to look smart. I bought high heels because everyone here is so tall, and I am a small little girl from Peru. My feet were in so much pain, so you can imagine how relieved I was when Penny said: ‘No high heels here, Amjuly, because we are on our feet all day and carry “Workingboxes’.ina
“I saw that Cellar Door Wines was looking for someone and I thought this is the place I want to be,” she says. “I sent my CV and I remember Penny sent me a really nice email. When I went for my interview I was so worried about my outfit because I thought London is so
fter selling her business and moving with her English husband to the UK, Amjuly was worried she might not find a job in an industry that she enjoyed. But, while waiting for her visa in Peru, she put Google to good use.
Amjuly Del Carpio
“When I had the chance to travel with The Wine Merchant to Portugal I was so afraid,” admits Amjuly. “But I said yes, because I always like to say yes to everything because for me it is a learning thing and we don’t have these opportunities in Peru. After the trip I was selling so much Portuguese wine because it is about the connection with the winemaker, the story behind the wine, the traditions and the respect for the product. I understand all this because of my background making cider. I always had respect for the growers, the staff in the factory and for the customers.”
“I liked the idea of a tasting lounge where you could just roll up ad hoc and have a chat with me, be introduced to some new wines and hopefully make a purchase.”
Woodward says: “We’re looking to raise a minimum of £25,000. My gut feeling is that we’ll raise a little bit more. The Summertown community are interested and engaged so we’re quietly confident. If we don’t reach the £25k the project still goes ahead, it’s just that last little bit of
an idea that I’d had rolling around in my head for a little while. We do two ticketed tasting evenings a month and a lot of people buy wine off the back of it.
“Michael and I have absolutely no ambition to work at 11pm on a Friday night – we just wouldn’t be good at it. The key to it was finding someone that would buy into the new business with us. So we have a wonderful old colleague and friend, Emily Robotham, who is going to be the third
They have also engaged the services of an interior designer. “With the shops, the wine is the focus,” explains Woodward, “and that is also really important in the bar, but you have to create an environment that is luxurious so that people want to spend a whole evening.
me is the money to redecorate and put some seating in. I’ve done it for £4,000 and £3,000 of that was for the Bermar machine. So based on the first two days, that will pay itself back in 10 weeks.”
“We expect to open late February 2023, but if everything goes absolutely perfectly, maybe we’ll open in November. We’ll probably allow ourselves to focus on Grape Minds and absolutely nailing Christmas.”
money to add on the finishing touches at the end, just to elevate everything.
Ray Nicholls at Ripponden Wine Company in West Yorkshire has rejigged his shop to include a seating area for 12 people and has extended his opening hours on Fridays and Saturdays.
Owners Graeme Woodward and Michael Jelley have already secured the building and a crowdfunding scheme is underway.
Woodward and Jelley have created a separate limited company for The Summertown Wine Bar and gone into partnership with a third person. “We have two successful shops and the last few years have shown us that you just never know what is round the corner,” Woodward says.
The new site is around 3,000 square feet and on the main Banbury road in Summertown, a location that Woodward describes as “magical,” and it’s just a three-minute walk away from the original Summertown shop, making all stock replenishment a fairly simple operation.
Grape Minds in Summertown, Oxford, plans to open its own wine bar.
By-the-glass sales are now 20% of weekend tastings
“Sheowner.worked with Michael and me at Majestic and has gone on to run university bars and cellars for the last five years or so. Her passion for customer service and wine is second to none and she is the perfect person to come and work with us, so we are really excited.”
Nicholls’s approach was cautious. He began by introducing a small seating area in the window and added a wine list. As he listened to his customers it soon became clear that there was a definite hankering for a wine bar, so he gradually grew the idea and started looking at alternatives to his Coravin. He considered other preservation systems, including Enomatic, before opting for Bermar.
“We spent the best part of four months really trying [the bar concept] out, so it has been slowly-slowly, and it’s taken us a little while to get the right model, but so far so good,” reports Nicholls.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 11
The best evidence of its success is the customer who came in on the first night.
“I’m hoping that all those people who invest will be coming in over the first few weeks and will go on to be our best customers.”
“From there I introduced Sampling Saturday, where I would open a couple of bottles and have them on the counter and people would come and sample for free, and I wanted a way of making this a more permanent thing.
“I’m over the moon with it,” he says. “Takings are up 25% on Friday to Saturday the previous week and its about 20% of the total takings just for by-the-glass sales. So for a first weekend, it couldn’t have gone better.“Itwas
“In reality, it’s still just me, so I’ve not had any additional staffing costs, I’ve not moved into bigger premises, so all it’s cost
Ripponden reaps rewards of seating
Crowdfunding for Grape Minds bar
“He lives locally, but he’d never been in before,” says Nicholls. “He came along with one of my regular customers. They had a few glasses of wine, then he bought six bottles of wine, signed up to my monthly subscription service, and said to me ‘see you next Friday’. Honestly, I couldn’t have scripted it better.”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 12
There is also a vague sense that economic downturns don’t really affect the kind of consumers who buy from specialist wine shops. The average bottle price in our sector, according to January’s Wine Merchant trade survey, is £15.10, compared to a market average of £6.35. Large swathes of the customer base always seem to have money to spend, whatever the economic weather.
Spiralling energy bills will of course hit retailers directly, which is unwelcome news in itself, especially for those who have ridden out a quiet summer and are pinning hopes on a profitable Christmas run-in. And we probably shouldn’t assume that wealthier consumers will all be able to take soaring electricity and gas bills in their stride, Economicseither.expert Duncan Weldon wrote in August: “The median income for households in the top fifth of earners in Britain is around £63,000 after tax – affluent, but not rich enough to comfortably absorb a £2,500 rise in utility bills without cutting back elsewhere.”
not something that wine merchants tend to crow about, but their businesses prove remarkably resilient whenever the economy starts making clanking noises and emitting violent bursts of steam. Recessions don’t damage specialist wine shops in quite the same way as they do other trades.
We are about to find out how many people in this income bracket really regard wine as a necessity – or at least the sort of wine that specialists sell. The worry is that many will revert to what they can bundle in with their supermarket shop.
In
last month’s Wine Merchant, Stuart McCloskey of The Vinorium in Kent reported that his business’s average selling price per bottle has historically been £33, but the cost-of-living crisis has meant orders have “gone through the floor”. He said: “Customers who would buy from us weekly have just disappeared … it’s maybe the wider world looking at those super-premium wines and thinking: actually we can’t afford this. It’s a luxury tooWhatfar.” can any small independent wine merchant do in such circumstances?
There’sEditoriala storm on its way, and this time there’s no guarantee it will miss us
Making sure the range includes some sub£10 bargains could be part of the strategy, but not every business can make the sums add up by relying heavily on what most specialists would regard as entry-level fare.
We know that our trade is resourceful as well as resilient. And no recession is ever so deep that people stop buying and selling wine. But anyone who believes that the gathering storm is going to miss them altogether is likely to find their optimism is misplaced.
Unemployment will increase for the next threeReliableyears.estimates say that two-thirds of households will face fuel poverty by 2023, with typical annual bills increasing from around £1,000 in early 2020 to perhaps £4,400 by the spring of next year. At the time of writing, the scale of the pain
GRAHAM HOLTER
We are about to find out how many top earners really regard wine as a necessity
It’s
that people are about to feel is only just beginning to dawn. By mid-winter, few of us are likely to have any doubts about the human impact of the abstract numbers we keep hearing on news bulletins.
The reasons for this are often quoted in wine trade lore. The glibbest, and the easiest to discount, is that when times are hard, people need to drown their sorrows. But there’s certainly truth in the claim that, if wine drinkers are facing a squeeze on their spending, they’ll probably give restaurants a miss and economise by buying bottles to enjoy with meals at home. It would be unfair to name them, but I have certainly spoken to a number of wine merchants over the years who will quietly admit that business often booms when recession is biting.
The Bank of England signalled last month that the UK will enter recession this autumn. Inflation will top 13% and remain at “very elevated levels” throughout 2023.
Riaz Syed, Stonewines, London
Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York
Zoran Ristanovic, City Wine Collection, London
Daniel Grigg , Museum Wines, Dorset
Anthony Borges, The Wine Centre, Great Horkesley, Essex
THE WINE MERCHANT october 2021 14
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.
NOT YOU AGAIN! customers we could do without
Look, they’ve got that Sauvignon Blanc that Paula really liked … bottom shelf of that fridge … I’ll hold the door and you reach down and get it but make sure it’s from the back ‘cos the ones at the front are probably warmer … if I hold both doors open that’ll make more room for you … I don’t think they go back any further than this … can you see it? Reach right to the back … that’s it … well done, clumsy, knocking all the other bottles over! Is that the one? I think it’s the one. What do you reckon? I dunno. Maybe get two. Another one from the back but don’t let those pink ones roll onto the floor … well, you’ll just have to squeeze though, I can’t open these doors any wider can I … now what shall we get for tomorrow? This fizz looks nice but those ones at the back will be colder … you hold that door and I’ll keep hold of this one … that bloke at the counter keeps giving us the evils but he shouldn’t have so much lukewarm wine in his fridge should he? That’s it, right at the back … maybe take out some of those ones in front of it so you don’t knock any more of them over …
38. Jocelyn Fettinghurst ANAGRAM TIME Can you unscramble these Burgundy Grands Crus? If so, you win a token fungee ball. 1. Covet Seoul Dog 2. Lemon Ratchet 3. Emu’s Lying 4. Cremate Onion 5. Coldest Sins 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 september 2022 La Bulle Pajzos Tokaji Methode Tradittionelle eagerly awaited sparkling being launched at SITT exceptionalexclusiveextraordinary Egri Bikaver Korona Our best selling bulls blood for the last 20 years. Kekfrankos, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, hit the right notes for any dish Kadarka Tuske Artisanal wine, reduced yield to encourage healthy vine nutrition and the true characteristic of the terroir and Kadarka grape Discover exciting wines from Hungary with a unique sense of placeVisit us at ManchesterSITT19th September London 21 st September We stand for • Passionate family-owned vineyards • Native and Rare grapes • International varieties with a twist • Stand out wines • All your festive needs KrisztinaKoronaGunzerGallayEtyekiCenturioKuriaCsetvei TuskeTothSzeremleyPeterPajzosPannonhalmaMegyerVidaFerenc sales@hungarianwineandspirits.comContactmaluxhungarianwine_spirits
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 15
Glen Hayley, Port Phillip Estate
Partners in Wine
“All our wines are entirely domaingrown, vinified and bottled. We endeavour to grow the highest quality fruit that expresses the terroir of each vineyard. All of our wines convey a sense of the place and the season in which they were grown.”
The Port Phillip wines are new to the UK market and we’ve been working together for just over a year. Our buyer Maggie McPherson had a connection with the Gjergja family and Glen Hayley and when we placed more focus on our growing trade division, it made sense to start working with a family-owned winery that fits our buying philosophy.
£20.95 Quartier BalnarringRRPChardonnay£20.95PinotNoirRRP£24.95
JEROBOAMS TRADE AND PORT PHILLIP ESTATE
Quartier Pinot Gris RRP
Published in association with Jeroboams Trade Visit jeroboams.co.uk or call 0207 288 8888 for more information
Our portfolio specialised in Margaret River – we are the UK agents for Moss Wood and Pierro – so we wanted to represent the regionality of Australia and something from Victoria was our next step. The Quartier range of Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have a friendly price tag and the single-vineyard wines – we’re currently stocking the Red Hill Chardonnay and Balnarring Pinot – offer something more sophisticated. So there is something for everyone who has an interest in Mornington.
Our winemaking philosophy is to best preserve the inherent characteristics present in the fruit, making site-expressive wines of detail and structure. Our practices in the winery are low-intervention, and fermentation of all our wines occurs spontaneously with native ambient yeasts. This is also the case for the malolactic fermentations. The UK is our main export market. Given our small focused production, our wines are well suited to premium on-trade and independent/specialist offtradePortchannels.PhillipEstate is delighted to be part of Jeroboams’ enviable portfolio of well known and respected producers as well as up-and-coming stars. The Jeroboams team across all channels have indepth product, producers, and industry knowledge and relationships. We feel it is a great affiliation.
Port Phillip Estate is one of Australia’s most exciting food and wine destinations. Located on the coolclimate Mornington Peninsula, the domain is a specialist Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir producer
Lucie Parker, Jeroboams Trade
“We love the cool, elegant styles that are made in Mornington Peninsula –with its maritime climate it’s perfect for growing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It’s not a huge area under vine so the wines have a rarity about them that makes them even more special.”
RANGE HIGHLIGHTS
it’s a cracker. It’s the best way to travel, for me, and soak up these regions. I’ve never been to Champagne on the bike. There’s so much more to do.”
Front row tickets at Le Tour A Champagne experience on the Champs-Elysées
L
It was, he says, “a fantastic experience”.
“You can’t imagine the excitement I was feeling. I’m such a cycling nerd and I was thrilled that one of the other guests, Marcus Treacy from The Killarney Park Hotel in County Kerry, was equally nerdy. So as soon as we got there we necked a beer and a glass or two of Castelnau Champagne and then found our position on the barriers. A couple of hours of absolute
C
“I first really got into it in 2009 – that was the Wiggins breakthrough year. He came fourth but he got bumped up to third because of the Lance Armstrong debacle. It’s just become a total obsession.”
“We were in the same hotel as Team Ineos, Team Jumbo Visma and Team DSM,” he reports. “The place was buzzing and the atmosphere was electric.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 16
ike a lot of people in the wine trade, Chris Lockett is a cycling fan. He actually uses the words “nerd” and “geek”, which sound a little more extreme. Either way, when it comes to riding bikes, or watching the pros, Chris is a huge enthusiast.“I’vebeen to a few stages of the Tour de France and also the Giro d’Italia so yes, to say I’m a fan would be a massive understatement,” he says.
“Since having the shop we’ve always done cycling tours of western Scotland, visiting distilleries,” he says. “We’ve done a tour across Italy, from Milan across to Nice through Piedmont – back in 2011, I think. I’ve cycled all around Provence. I’ve ridden up Mt Ventoux six times over the years –
“Their sensational”RéserveBrutwas
A few years ago, a friend produced a beautifully shot film showing Chris’s scenic cycle commute to his Lockett Bros wine shop in North Berwick, which is still viewable on the shop’s website.
In association with Champagne Castelnau, Champagne partner of ASO, organiser of Le Tour de France
Chris Lockett
astelnau is the Champagne partner of ASO, organiser of Le Tour de France. Knowing that Chris was an avid follower of the competition, UK subsidiary Castelnau Wine Agencies – whose portfolio includes a host of European and new world exclusives –presented him with a VIP pass to the final stage of the race, in Paris.
VIP VISIT
The house style is contemporary and Chardonnay-focused, but also characterised by long lees aging for both non-vintage and vintage Champagnes, which gives body and complexity to the wines. This amounts to five years for the non-vintage releases and 12 years for vintages, twice as long as is usually Castelnauexpected.Champagnehas
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 17
“Huge thanks to the whole team at Champagne Castelnau for such an incredible opportunity and one that will live on in my memory for ever.”
pledged that all its grape growers will be certified sustainable by 2025, five years earlier than the French requirement.government
“We couldn’t have had a better spot. You see the riders coming right in front of you on that part of the lap and then five minutes later you see them coming up the other side of the boulevard at the top end of the Champs-Elysées, where they’re coming across La Place de la Concorde, and then the far side where you see them going out towards the river again and then through the tunnel and back past us.
“The next morning started with getting a lift down to breakfast with Sep Kuss, one of the Jumbo Visma riders and one of the most talented climbing domestiques in the world. I didn’t lose it, but instead just played it cool in congratulating him on his team winning the yellow jersey.
“They do seven laps so we basically saw them go past 14 times. It couldn’t have been better. We had front-row seats and there was a massive screen right opposite us.”
“Lunch at the Bistro des Anges, in the centre of Reims, was magnificent. Snails to start, followed by fillet of beef, all helped down by numerous glasses of Castelnau Brut Réserve, rounded off the perfect couple of days.
C
astelnau is proud to employ one of the few female chefs de caves in Champagne, Carine Bailleul, who theWinemakerforshortlistedwasSparklingofYearinthe
2021 International Wine Challenge.
“We were like two little kids leaning over the barriers to see our heroes cycling past.
“It was nearly as good as being on the Place de la Concorde 24 hours earlier. But nothing could quite beat that.
G
etting back to the hotel in time for a 9pm dinner reservation turned out to be a logistical nightmare in an even busier than normal Paris. “But we were all too blissed out to care, and we eventually made it to our bistro at about 9.45pm for beer, wine, great food and chat
Left: Chris captures the action on the Champs-Elysées Above: Castelnau’s long lees ageing gives the wines their famous house style
Champagne Castelnau is available in the UK via Castelnau Wine Agencies castelnau.co.uk@CastelnauUK
till midnight,” Chris says.
“Then we were whizzing our way over to Reims and a 10.30am appointment at Champagne Castelnau. Not a Champagne I knew all that well but a thrilling tasting of four of their cuvées quickly converted me to their style. Their Brut Réserve was sensational.
keepingCastelnau’sahead
joy watching the world’s elite cyclists battle out the final and most prestigious stage of any grand tour.
“Price perception will be key to success this Christmas and we want to make sure that we are getting out messages now that our customers are front and centre of our mind. We have seen some new customers that we haven’t seen before. It’s definitely drawn some new people in.”
This sounds like an inventive way to work with other local businesses.
br i g h t i d eas
Have there been any clear favourites, cuisine-wise?
“The Wine Library sits 24 people and we provide the plates and cutlery. We encourage people to book but it’s fine for them to just rock up. In fact some people do just that, have a glass of wine and then realise that they can order a takeaway, then in it comes. We might ask the customers what they will be ordering in and then make some wine recommendations accordingly. We only provide wine through the Enomatics on Thursdays, so they are
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 18
Tivoli Wines, Cheltenham
“I’m part of a group called TURF, which is a really strong collection of independent restaurants, takeaways and retailers. There are about 45 of us in the group and we are all sharing ideas on how we can support each other. In some ways we are
“I would probably say the most popular has been the local pizza place. There have also been a couple of new businesses that have opened in recent months, including a Vietnamese one that’s been a favourite.”
“Also we are very conscious of the cost of living crisis. A lot of people might say to us that we are insulated because we are in Cheltenham, but we’ve lost over 20% of our basket spend so far this year and we might be about 10% down on pre-Covid levels, so it does affect our customers. Trying to reduce the cost of living for our consumers is something that is on our minds at the moment and we thought that bringing in your own takeaway is a cheaper alternative to going out to local restaurants.”
competitive with each other and in other ways we want to try to work together.”
36: bring your ownDavidfoodDodd
purchasing wine by the glass. We have 32 wines on, so there’s plenty of choice.”
“If you look at what Majestic and the supermarkets are doing right now, it’s a consistent 25% off. They might not be losing too much money on that but it’s certainly the message they want embedded in their customers’ minds on the lead-up to Christmas. Independents can’t offer 25% off because we don’t have the margin but it doesn’t mean we should give up. There are other things we can do and this is the result of us sitting down and trying to come up with other ideas.
Talk us through the practicalities.
Email claire@winemerchantmag.com
Has it been good for business?
Tell us more … “Firstly, we wanted to drive footfall because unless we are hosting a ticketed event, Thursdays are usually a quieter day for us in the Wine Library.
In a nutshell: In a twist on the classic restaurant offer to bring your own wine, once a week Tivoli Wines invites customers to bring their own takeaway to enjoy in its upstairs Wine Library.
“Well, even though we have said to people that they can bring food they’ve prepared themselves from home, we do try to encourage them to order takeaway because those businesses are also feeling the pinch.
Tell us about a bright idea that’s worked for you and you too could win a prize.
David wins a WBC gift box containing some premium drinks and a box of chocolates.
Papillon 2018
“There’s a soul to this business,” says Dave. “That soul isn’t just from the people who make wine, it’s from everyone who loves wines that make them feel something.”
The juxtaposition of delicacy and roughness – the papillon (French for butterfly) alongside the weathered farm hand reflects the nuanced but bold flavours in the wine. Aromatics of kirsch and sagebrush lead to notes of blackberry and liquorice on the palate. A beautiful, complex wine. RRP £69.99
This label goes back to Dave’s time working at another Napa Valley winery. When the winemaking team collected samples, they put a piece of duct tape across the bottle and wrote in Sharpie what was in the bottle. He loved the look and it inspired this label. Black cherry and a touch of minerality.
Machete 2018
Mercury Head 2019
CALIFORNIAN CREATIVITY
Art and storytelling comes to life in one-of-a-kind wines by Orin Swift
In association with Orin Swift Cellars
8 Years in the Desert 2020
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 19
Slander 2020
Orin Swift’s flagship wine encompasses its winemaking philosophy and overall ethos. Adorned with the rare Mercury dime, Mercury Head is a quintessential Napa Cab that speaks to location and overdelivers on quality. The nose of ripe and crunchy blackcurrant recalls the vineyard aromas during harvest, along with some redcurrant, fresh thyme, sandalwood and garrigue. The profound, yet classic, palate expresses blackberry and raspberry preserves, a touch of rhubarb and black tea. RRP £138.99
and his winemaking team are dedicated to expressing geographic diversity in their sourcing, creating wine blends from a range of California’s premier sites –predominantly Napa Valley. Dave sets his sights on small lots within the most coveted growing regions, ensuring that only fruit of the highest quality makes it to the final blend, resulting in a portfolio that appeals to a variety of senses. Every wine in the portfolio, from the vineyard source to the distinct artwork adorning the label, offers a unique point of view while creating a heart-skipping impression.
The wine epitomises the Orin Swift style. The aroma suggests raspberry juice and blueberry preserves with a hint of white pepper and forest floor. The perceived sweetness doesn’t carry to the palate, which is lush and enveloping with a beam of acidity. With ultra-round tannins, the wine finishes in slow motion. RRP £47.99
rin Swift is a California-based wine label and creative studio.
O
Mannequin 2019
Orin Swift wines offer incomparable storytelling behind every bottle, providing a non-traditional offering in the historically traditional luxury wine segment. Dave
Trends go in and out of style but the mannequin remains a constant. Aromas of lemon, jasmine, and a touch of yellow chrysanthemum and fresh cut pineapple. On the palate, opulent juicy peach and nectarine is balanced by an elegant finish of lemon zest, almond praline and toffee. RRP £39.99
Led by legendary winemaker Dave Phinney, the concept is a collection of art and storytelling that comes to life in one-of-a-kind labels and wine styles.
RRP £47.99
Inspired by a postman driving an old cop car, Dave Phinney set up a photo shoot using Calistoga’s moonlike landscape as a backdrop for this dynamic label. Out of over 10,000 shots, the final 12 are found on bottles of this intense Petite-Syrah based blend that appears almost black in the glass.
• Orin Swift wines are available from Enotria&Coe and The Vineyard Cellars
After graduating university a few years after a semester studying in Florence, Dave started working for Robert Mondavi Winery as a harvest worker. It was there he decided that if he was going to work this hard, it needed to eventually be for himself.
RRP £54.99
In 1998, he founded Orin Swift Cellars. With two tons of Zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others, as well as himself, and grew the company into an iconic wine house known for its uncompromising creativity.
Scotchman’s Hill Pinot Noir 2020
Condor Wines (07715 671914)
Quinta do Pinto Arinto 2018
Vida Wines & Spirits (020 7965 7283) vidawines.co.uk
Domaine de Villargeau Coteaux de Giennois 2021
Tibouren 2021
Daniel Lambert Wines (01656 661010)
RRP: £29 ABV: 14% Graft Wine Co (020 3490 1210) graftwine.co.uk
RRP: £19.20 ABV: 14% Delibo Wine Agencies (01993 886644)
RRP: £21.49 ABV: 12.5%
Vi de Garatge 2020
Lechburgdelibo.co.uk
The Fronton appellation insists that Négrette makes up at least 50% of the blend but Guy Salmona – who escaped the world of tech to follow his winemaking dream – goes the whole hog here with a 100% varietal wine, made organically from a tiny plot. Its blackberry, clove and liquorice depths are a delight.
EstateLosdaniellambert.wineHaroldosChardonnay
RRP: £12.79 ABV: 13%
Made with fruit from a range of Mendoza vineyards, this is a beautifully judged and unpretentious style of Chardonnay, where the acidity, tropical richness and vanilla seem to intersect at the optimal angles. All too easy to make disappear before your food reaches the table, but also a versatile dinner companion.
Alliance Wine (01505 506060)
RRP: £15.99 ABV: 12.5%
AbsolueChâteaualliancewine.comLaurouNégrette
Closcondorwines.co.ukCibonne
The Bellarine peninsula near Geelong in Victoria has a cool maritime climate that, on paper, suits Pinot Noir and the proof is right here in the bottle. There’s an agreeable earthiness as well as gentle plumminess and a hint of spice. The kind of wine you could confidently pour for even the pickiest Pinot perfectionist.
Hailing from Lechinta in Transylvania, this juicy, succulent but eminently quaffable red is very comfortable in its own skin. There’s natural sweetness from the medley of red and black fruits that is typical for the variety, which is not widely appreciated beyond its Romanian and Moldovan heartland. RRP: £21.69 ABV: 14%
Principia Mathematica
Summer may be on the way out but we can keep the sunshine alive with wines as hedonistic as this single-varietal from Lisboa, a new entry in the Delibo portfolio. An aroma of orange blossom, a palate of citrus fruits, just the right degree of sweetness and a steely, mineral edge, all rounded off by some judicious oak seasoning.
Giennois doesn’t (yet) have the fanbase of Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé and so its Sauvignon Blanc-based wines still come in at very attractive price points. There’s lots to love here, from the simple, joyful fruitiness to the lime-like tang and the herbaceous details that provide that Loire Valley authenticity.
2019
Tibouren is an ancient grape variety, a favourite of Napoleon, which was almost wiped out by phylloxera but just about clung on in this corner of Provence. Lithe and silky, with rich red fruit and some black pepper, it’s blended with 10% Grenache for a little extra balance and known locally as Baby Cornas.
RRP: £22.99 ABV: 14%
Organic Fetească Neagră 2019
Daniel Lambert Wines (01656 661010) daniellambert.wine
Alemany i Corrió is Catalonia’s original garage winery, working with wild-fermented Xarel.lo from a Penedès vineyard. It’s a walk on the wild side, with swirling autolytic bakery aromas, zesty lime flavours and a nutty undercurrent. You sense that its creators achieved better school grades for art than for maths.
2021
Cru Classé
RRP: £29.99 ABV: 13% Cachet Wine (07712 676466) cachetwine.co.uk
TRIED & TESTED THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 20
Majestic is calling on wine lovers across the country to help it decide where to open some 76 potential new stores.
branch in Henley
Favourite wine shop
The Mirror, August 18
The person I’d most like to be when I grow up is my old boss, John Hoskins MW. I adore The Old Bridge, his beautiful hotel and wine shop in Huntingdon. John epitomises the truest meaning of hospitality.
Magpie
Favourite wine trade person
The drinks trade is showing positive signs of recovery after the last two years, with average sales in pubs, bars and restaurants across Britain up 4% in the week to August 6 compared to the same period in 2019.
Decanter, August 4
The latest CGA by NielsenIQ’s Drinks Recovery Tracker has revealed that ontrade drinks sales saw the best average value growth in early August since the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June this year.
Overthinking a food and wine pairing can be obstructive to the sheer enjoyment you could otherwise find by eating something tasty and drinking something delicious. Give me Neapolitan pizza and chilled cru Beaujolais and I’m a happy boy.
New breakthrough on vine disease
Favourite wine and food match
My answer today is a wicked Muscadet from Domaine Haute Févrie from a single site called Gras Moutons. It has all the zip and saline zing to be expected of identikit Muscadet, but this is a really serious, savoury wine with texture and finesse.
Cider is on the up with 12% growth on 2019 figures. Spirits are close behind with 10% growth, followed by beer (5%) and soft drinks (5%). Wine, however, continues to see a decline in sales, down 11% from three years ago.
Majestic wants to open 76 branches
Favourite wine on our list
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 22
Grapevine trunk diseases have been of growing concern to vineyard owners in recent decades. Almost 20% of the world’s vineyards are affected, said the International Organisation for Vine & Wine in 2015.
BITS & BOBS
Wine lovers and vineyard owners can toast a possible fresh breakthrough in the battle against costly grapevine trunk diseases, the authors of a new study have said.
On-trade rebounds but wine is lagging
Favourite wine trip
The shop that instantly springs to mind is Kernowine in Falmouth. It was such a pleasure to stumble upon a brilliantly curated list of classic and leftfield fine wine, and under-theradar value bottles from all over.
• A delighted mum scored a huge bargain after flogging a bottle of 1982 Château Cos d’Estournel, Saint-Estèphe, she won in a 50p tombola for £185. Kerry Carty, 33, had no idea she had won an expensive bottle of wine at her daughter’s school fair.
Favourite Things
Majestic’s29
Despite the soaring cost of doing business, the squeeze on customers’ budgets and rising online competition, the wine retailer said it will continue to invest in physical Followingstores.recent store openings in Haywards Heath and Godalming, Majestic is looking for input from shoppers, who could win a year’s supply of wine if they help it find the perfect shop. This is Money, August
I haven’t been to Tuscany since before the pandemic and I’m dying to get back there. The classic wines of Chianti have a special place in my heart and it’s rare to feel such genuine warmth and hospitality.
Good weather, combined with major sporting events like the Euros final and the return of the Premier League, are thought to be responsible for the spike in sales.
New research on grapevine trunk diseases has shown how fungi can collaborate to attack a vine via a kind of “extracellularAntioxidantsbomb”.mayhelp wineries to fight back, said the international group of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Drinks Business, August 17
Jake Bennett-Day Vino Gusto, Bury St Edmunds
The funding, which will enable Drinkwell to grow its team while launching two new brands, Lean Brew IPA and Traces Wine, amplifies the consumer trend for lowcalorie drinks that meet people’s lifestyle needs.
Cat Toscanaccio,BrandwoodWinchester
Tom Bell, founder of DrinkWell, said: “In recent years the lower-calorie alcohol space has exploded in popularity, due to consumers becoming increasingly health conscious. The data backs up the fact that health and diet are really starting to take precedence amongst most consumers, which brands absolutely need to take note of if they want to not only survive but thrive in a rapidly changing market around lifestyle and wellness.”
Low-calorie alcohol retailer Drinkwell has received a £1m investment from a private investor to fuel its ambitious expansion plans.
Financial Times, August 5
Are suppliers offering reasonable minimum order quantities?
�I work with many suppliers like Boutinot, Liberty, North South and Hayward Bros. All of them have been very helpful with meeting acceptable order levels. I can’t think of single supplier we work with that hasn’t seen the need to be more flexible around ordering. Wisely they have looked at the economic climate and decided they need to survive too. All in all I am extremely happy with the suppliers we have chosen and feel we’ll take on the financial issues together.”
Champagne Gosset
Julie Vinomondo,Mills Conwy
Investors seek refuge in fine wine High hopes for low-calorie drinks
�I think they generally changed during Covid and it was like,‘any order you want to put in, we’ll support that’, and it seems like most of those changes have stayed. New suppliers seem to have some of the highest minimum orders. I wonder if it’s creating a two-tier supplier agreement: if you’re a longstanding customer they’re like ‘fine, whatever you can order,’ but for new accounts they are more prescriptive.”
�I think some of them are a bit nervous about the financial environment at the moment and so some are almost encouraging us to order smaller amounts. Short answer is yes, I think they are being more flexible. I think they’re worried about customers defaulting. Some suppliers have offered me a discount if I pay up front, so they are happy to take a smaller margin rather than someone defaulting.”
Mark Banham Morrish & Banham, Dorchester
The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584
Revenues at the fine wine merchant reached £80m in the six months to June 30, up 37% on the same period last year. That puts the London-headquartered company on course to beat 2021’s record revenue of £126m.Themerchant’s online wine trading exchange, LiveTrade, was responsible for the majority of growth, reporting sales 53% higher than the comparable period last year.
? QUESTIONBURNINGTHE
The Drinks Business, August 23
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 23
�We haven’t enquired, but it hasn’t been offered either. The increased costs affect everyone, so it’s difficult to say ‘I’m not going to pay that, or I need a better deal’. We look at it as a two-way street: we would never really ask too much of suppliers, as it has to be a collaboration. Companies like Thorman Hunt … it’s a privilege to deal with them, they are such nice people and their wines are so good. It’s the same with Alliance and Liberty.”
Ashton McCobb H Champagne winner H Appellation Wines, Edinburgh
Bordeaux Index, the world’s largest fine wine trader, is toasting surging sales as investors flock to buy rare vintages in part as a hedge against rampant inflation.
Deposits, refunds and booking systems
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 24
CULTURECANCEL
had 1,100 covers booked in Oxford alone and in 24 hours we lost 800 of those. They’d all paid a £10 deposit and we had to refund every single one. It was horrendous. It took ages just to do the refunding.”
Paul Morgan, owner of Fourth & Church in Hove, East Sussex, has also invested in a booking system. He explains: “Our reservation system can be set up to
ANALYSIS
“We don’t take deposits unless it’s tables of eight or more, and we request a deposit of £10 per person. We did that pre-Covid for bigger groups. But if they phone up, as most people do, and say ‘we can’t come anymore because someone’s got Covid’, we do a refund. We can’t not.
Kent Barker, who runs Wilding in Oxford and Salisbury, and Eight Stony Street in Frome, Somerset, says: “We didn’t take bookings pre-Covid. We put them in place at vast cost, because booking systems are expensive. But actually we never looked back, because it made life a lot simpler and more efficient.
When it comes to last-minute cancellations, the Covid excuse has become as ubiquitous as the old classic of a family bereavement. Four merchants tell Claire Harries about their experiences.
Illustration by Fiona Blair
“In the Christmas week of omicron we
She says: “We have teamed up with the fine dining restaurant next door. On Fridays and Saturdays they do the food and we do the drink, which is brilliant. We have had people ringing up about half an hour before to cancel. There’s not a lot we can do about that, to be honest, but we do try to make it obvious that we’re not impressed.
Hayes is less forgiving when it comes to ticketed events. “My big portfolio tasting sold out in about three weeks,” she explains, “and for events I always make them pay up front for a ticket. If they cancel too close to the day, we don’t give them their money back and they tend to take it on the
“It’s been a strange few months,” adds Fitz Spencer. “You can normally understand and see the pattern throughout the year, but not so much this year.
He says: “In general people are very good and we are very busy so we can normally fill a table with a walk-in. But I’d much prefer it didn’t happen.”
“We make it very clear there are no refunds. We’re quite happy to roll it over as a credit to another event”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 26
“It’s a ticketed event and we charge between £80 and £120, which is normally for around six wines with paired courses. We are very clear that there are no refunds. If for some reason they can’t make it then we are quite happy to roll that over as a credit to the shop or a credit to dinner or to another event of their choosing, but we don’t give money back.”
Excuses, excuses …
Counting the cost of the no-shows
The general public can be fickle and unreliable, so cancellations and no-shows have always been inevitable. It’s definitely nothing new.
“If they cancel and don’t give us 24 hours’ notice then they lose that deposit. When they make a booking online our policy is explained. Most people read it, but you get some that don’t.
Morgan at Fourth & Church says: “We do what we call a Sunday Session once a
“It’s only a tiny amount who do that – I’d say about 5%.”
Kent Barker takes the view that while it is an issue, “it’s not a growing issue, it’s fairly stable”.
“Usually,chin.if people give enough notice, then I can re-sell their ticket, in which case I’d refund them.”
“It’s not just us, it’s the same throughout the town. When we came out of Covid it was like a greyhound coming out the traps: everybody wanted to get out and now it doesn’t help when the government screams doom and gloom out there. The small
“We ask for five days’ notice if it’s a corporate booking, and after that the deposit is non-refundable. We did have a corporate event booked before Christmas last year and they cancelled so they lost their £1,000 deposit, but they did come and re-book in January-February time.”
“I very rarely end up taking the deposit, because it always, always throws up another chapter of issues to deal with. People can get very hostile with you publically and they never quite give the whole story – they call you out as being unreasonable or mean. It might be via social media or just word of mouth.”
Ann Hayes at Ann et Vin in Newarkon-Trent, Nottinghamshire, doesn’t take deposits for tables in her courtyard, but
over the summer she’s found that there are plenty of people waiting to fill any spaces left by flakier customers.
Fitz Spencer, owner of Honky Tonk Wine Library in Plymouth, says: “We’ve always had a booking policy. It used to be through the week but now it’s Fridays and Saturdays where we ask for a deposit of £15 a head.
month, which is a wine tasting at lunchtime and we do that for between 24 and 32 people, depending on the event.
ANALYSIS
automatically deduct that money [£20 or £30 per head] once we have selected a no-show or cancellation option, but I don’t set it up that way. I want to discuss the situation with the customer who booked before anything is done and then we make an informed decision.
“I also try to say, in a calm way, that if they had turned up for their table and I had not got it for them – if I’d given it to someone else because I thought they were going to spend more money – I would be in breach of that contract.”
Above left: Kent Barker of Eight Stony Street
“Saying that, a lot of people are as good as gold. I’m not going to judge someone on what they are telling me is a lie or not, you just have to navigate the least problematic way. There are ways of meeting in the middle.“When we came out of the pandemic and everyone was loving restaurants and had really been really missing them, they were vocal about how reasonable it was to take a deposit. Now it’s gone back to ‘everything is shit about restaurants’.
“It’s all very boring to have those sorts of conversations with people but I try to explain that if you booked a theatre ticket or an airline ticket, or a hotel room, it’s the same thing.
Below left: Anne Hayes of Anne et Vin
“People are still blaming some form of Covid when they cancel. If someone has the virus and they’re in a group, I can understand that they may not want to be together.”“People do use Covid a lot,” agrees Paul Morgan, “and they still use family bereavement quite a bit, or ‘my husband has lost his wallet and we’re all looking for it’ – that’s a great one.
micro-businesses are thriving, but we need the public to be confident and keep coming out and doing what they want to do.
Above right: Fitz Spencer of Honky Tonk Wine Library
Middle left: Paul Morgan of Fourth & Church
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 27
David Williams is a mild-mannered guy, but even he is sometimes consumed by the red mist. Why should wine, of all things, get people so worked up? Shut up and read on, if you must know …
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 28
But anger in wine tasting isn’t always about interpersonal dynamics and pop-
I mean the kind of tetchy, passiveaggressive, niggly, huffy sort of anger that so often comes out when two people disagree on a wine.
Tell me about it. Tell everybody about it. We’re all so cross so much of the time. And while it may be possible to spin the line that being angry at Putin or Boris Johnson or the boss of Southern Water or BP could have the useful role of spurring us on to political action, for most of us, most of the time, it leads to nothing more than spluttering and muttering, and feelings of impotence and despair. To borrow from Aristotle, we might have the right targets, but berating them late at night on Newsnight cannot be said to be using anger in the right degree, time, purpose or way. Besides, getting cross at politicians and other people in the public eye is only the start of it. Anger gets everywhere. Even,
Or it might be an expression of defensiveness or imposter syndrome on one or both sides: I’m out of step with everyone, I look stupid, the only way to save face is to double down on my opinion and to put the case in an exaggeratedly passionate way that is totally out of keeping with my frankly rather lukewarm feelings for the wine.
nger, according to most psychologists, is not always a bad thing. It is, as that dear little ball of red-haired rage Johnny Rotten once had it, “an energy” that can in some circumstances be harnessed to make us or the world better. The trick is knowing when to start and stop. Or, as Aristotle put it unimprovably some two and half millennia ago, “Anybody can become angry – that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”
Anger is so infuriating
B
A
JUST WILLIAMS
Aristotle, or possibly John Lydon
Twitter is where the rage is most visible, and “wine Twitter” is a place where the weird grudges, slights, and aesthetic dogma of wine merchants, sommeliers, writers and influencers (so many writers and influencers) with too much time and too many opinions on their hands comes into the harshest pixelated light.
perhaps especially, into our routine daily lives. Even into our generally hospitable and equable wine trade.
Sometimes, when a disagreement flares up, it’s not really about the wine. It might be a battle of egos: how dare you challenge my view, which can only ever be the right view since it’s my view, me, the greatest taster who ever lived?
ut, as someone who believes the cartoonish caricatures we all become on social media are a symptom not a cause of our age of anger, I’m more interested in the ways anger manifests itself offline. In tasting, for example. I don’t mean red-faced, apoplectic rage, something that I’ve only ever encountered once in a tasting setting (and which was funny and a little ridiculous rather than disturbing).
Sometimes it’s to do with a gap I perceive between the quality and the price, an anger that is directed at the cynicism, greed, or even delusion of its producers.
f course, if I were to take a step back and view this situation through the eyes of a dispassionate observer, someone who doesn’t spend their life working with and thinking about wine, the figure I would see – the unedifyingly grumpy man raging away at a glass of purple liquid – is ridiculous, entirely out of touch, and very clearly not angry at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way. It’s a glass of wine, you absolute lunatic, not some terrible injustice.
But the red mist can descend even when all the information I have to go on in is right there in the glass. Too dull, too extracted, too much oak, too “natural”, too forced, too sickly. On some days these may raise no more than an irritated sigh. But on others, and most of all when this opinion
psychology. You can get angry – or at least, I can get angry – at wine when no one else is around. Or more precisely, I can get angry at whatever vague, abstract personage or business is responsible for it.
is not shared – nay, disputed! – by a fellow taster, the hackles rise, the eyes narrow, the lips purse, and the argument begins.
But if you really care about something, I’d argue (passionately, intemperately) that you’re inevitably going to get roused to anger about it from time to time. And, while we might not want to encourage more rage in an already-angry world, provided it’s at the right time and in the right place and for the right purpose, anger, in wine as in everything, can be nothing more than a sign that you care.
Why am I angry? What, to use the modern parlance, are the triggers?
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 29
Sometimes, when a disagreement flares up, it’s not really about the wine. It might be a battle of egos: how dare you challenge my view, which can only ever be the right view since it’s my view, me, the greatest taster who ever lived?
But you could say the same about almost any human endeavour that doesn’t come under the category of “life or death”, from literature and music to gastronomy and football. To an outsider not initiated in the aesthetic disputes of a given field, any passionate debate looks absurd and out of proportion.
O
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 30
The emphasis is on sharing knowledge,
P
Alentejo, a place where secrets are shared
Hundreds of producers in the Portuguese region are working together to make big progress on environmental and social issues, to the benefit of all
For samples of Alentejo wines, contact Eleanor Standen: eleanor@randr.co.uk
ideas and best practice across Alentejo. WASP has developed a knowledge-sharing network to allow good ideas to spread quickly. Some of these include the use of regenerative farming which, in a droughtprone region like Alentejo, is showing very positive results. The difference here, as WASP manager João Barroso says, is between “trying to survive in a desert, or, thriving in a garden of Eden”.
Published in association with Wines of Instagram:vinhosdoalentejo.ptAlentejovinhosdoalentejo
In its first year, WASP signed up 93 members. There are now 517, all striving for a more efficient use of resources, the reduction and reuse of winemaking by-products, and a resulting decline in operatingMemberscosts.conduct a self-assessment every year, so that improvements can be made (for example) in the way vineyards understand and deal with pests, or wineries conserve water in the cellar, or businesses recruit and train staff.
lenty of wineries would like to operate in a more sustainable way. That’s laudible. But when an entire region comes together, with the same environmental and social ambitions … that’s when you sense that a real difference can be Alentejomade.began its sustainability journey as far back as 2013, formally introducing the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme two years later. The scheme –known by the acronym WASP – supports improvements in the way the industry looks after nature, and its people, and at the same time improves the economic performance of the region’s wine industry.
55% Arinto, 25% Viosinho, 20% Alvarinho. Slowly fermented in stainless steel and then left for six months on fine lees with occasional bâtonage. Passion fruit, pear and lime characters, with refreshing, spicy grapefruit.
Herdade dos Lagos
Meet two of the producers
Herdade dos Lagos, in the Vale de Açor de Cima within Mértola in the south of Alentejo, had been practising sustainability for more than 40 years when it joined WASP in 2015. Since then, the estate – which is owned by the Zeppenfeld Kreikenbaum family from Germany – has been expanding beyond its organic certification.
60% Syrah, 30% Alicante Bouschet, 10% Touriga Nacional. Aged for six months in stainless steel with 10% of the wine maturing in French oak. Notes of cranberry jam and cherry blossom. Silky, dry tannins.
Thirty-six flowmeters have been fitted around the vineyards to monitor water consumption by the vines. The estate is also working on four sustainability projects with the University of Evora, ranging from biodiversity and ecosystem studies through to a doctoral thesis.
Coelheiros White 2021
80% Arinto, 20% Antão Vaz, from vines at 300m altitude. After fermentation begins in stainless steel, 30% of the must is fermented in French oak and left on fine lees. Fresh, balanced and exuberant.
Imported by Vintage Roots
The estate has installed 68 bird and bat boxes, with 23 of them occupied. It has also monitored birds of prey in the vineyards, ranging from resident species such as buzzards, kestrels and tawny owls through to summer visitors including black kites and booted eagles, and winter migrants like red kites.
Coelheiros Red 2021
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Controlling irrigation has cut water usage by more than 71% over the past seven years, and seen otters return to the estate’s dams. Four arrays of solar panels have also been erected to produce electricity on site.
100% Syrah, grown on granitic soil, again at 300m altitude, with a high clay content and low fertility. As with the white, a portion of the must completes its fermentation in barrel before some fine lees ageing.
Coelheiros.pt Seeking UK distribution
HDL Tinto 2020
HDL Touriga Nacional 2018
Herdade de Coelheiros
HDL Branco 2021
Planting cover crops has helped its soil’s organic matter content to rise from 0.75% to 4%. Growing olives and carobs, and rearing sheep, has not only stopped the vineyards being a monoculture, but also brought in diverse revenues when wine markets have fluctuated.
Aged for eight months in stainless steel with 10% of the wine maturing in French oak. Complex, with aromas of black fruit, jam and cocoa. Velvety, balanced and slightly spicy, with a flavour reminiscent of ginger,
Coelheiros Rosé 2021
50% Touriga Nacional, 50% Touriga Franca. The wine ferments in stainless steel and is left on its skins for five days, before a year of oak ageing. Concentrated but fresh, with up to eight years of ageing potential.
Herdade de Coelheiros has converted 48 hectares of vineyard to organic farming and has used no herbicides for the past five years, with the amount of copper used on each hectare falling from more than 2kg in 2020 to 0.97kg in 2022. Grass has been seeded or has grown spontaneously across 51 hectares.
After a pools championship round, Pernod Ricard, Jascots, Liberty and Moët Hennessy progressed to the semi-finals, before a final game between Pernod Ricard and Liberty. A tightly contested match ensued, and Pernod Ricard won out under the August sun, triumphing for the second year in a row.
www.polroger.co.uk 01432 262800 Twitter: @Pol_Roger
Each game was played over 10 minutes in a rugby sevens format, refereed by former professional rugby players Nathan Hines and Jack Clifford.
The victorious Pernod Ricard team
The teams comprised members of the wine trade, from companies such as Rémy Cointreau, Freixenet Copestick, Jeroboams, Lanique Wines, Jascots, Moët Hennessy, Pernod Ricard, Liberty Wines, Berry Bros & Rudd, Stannary Wines, Hallgarten & Novum, Maison Marques et Domaines and Lea & Sandeman.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 32
In total, £3,205 was raised for the charity, the largest sum so far in the history of the competition. With 18 teams attending, this was the highest attendance at the competition since it began four years ago.
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
Fun in the sun at the Pol Roger Touch Rugby Tournament in aid of the Drinks Trust
Barbarians FC, Gilbert Rugby, St Paul’s Cathedral, Charlie Allen as well as all the teams, and refreshments provided by Timothy Taylors and Igo Wine.
The games took place at Barn Elms playing fields, with Barnes RFC hosting a post-match raffle to raise funds for the Drinks Trust.
With the tournament growing in size each year, Pol Roger Portfolio looks forward to hosting again next year on August 10 for more wine-trade sports fun and to raise even more money for charity. Details for submitting teams will be posted closer to the time.
O
PERNOD RICARD EDGES OUT LIBERTY WINES IN CHARITY THRILLER
n August 11, Pol Roger Portfolio hosted a touch rugby tournament in order to raise funds for The Drinks Trust.
Raffle prizes were contributed from the
“What fascinates me about wine is the relationship with the land, the experience of living the seasons, with something that takes a whole year to develop agriculturally and then perhaps many more years to
very year, Southern Wine Roads puts a special marketing focus on two native Greek grapes, one white and one red.
make into a finished product.”
As she points out: “Greece was very good at producing sweet wines, and back in the 19th century there was a big export market for Mavrodaphne and sweet Muscat wines, and Vinsanto from Santorini was known to be exported to the courts of Europe during the Middle Ages under the Venetian rule.”
E
Could Greek wine be on the verge of achieving something big in the independent trade?
Greece is the word
G
Political turmoil in the 1970s set the industry back, but by the 1980s a new breed of young winemaker was starting to emerge, often educated in overseas wine schools. And as wineries modernised and vineyards were replanted with the help of EU investment, the scene was set for Greece to claim its rightful place among the world wine elite.
“On returning to Greece, he established his winery and bottled his first ‘personal’ wine in 1978: a light sparkling rosé wine called Lady Frosyne, which is still going and which we import, following the local tradition of sparkling wines that dates back centuries in the region of Epirus.”
reece is finally on the independent trade’s radar. In The Wine Merchant’s most recent reader survey, just over a third of respondents named it as one of the most exciting wine producing countries, placing it in sixth place in the top 20.
Maria is a firm believer that, even in the distant past, Greece had the terroir and the grape varieties to make high-quality wines.
Maria Moutsou sees no reason why not.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 33
For Maria Moutsou, the wines of Greece have always been a passion. A Greek native, she founded Southern Wine Roads in 2014, convinced that the UK market deserved access to a wider range of wines from her homeland.“Moreor less every family in Greece has a connection to a vineyard,” she says.
In association with Southern Wine Roads
“Our first PDO classification system was formed in the early 70s,” Maria says. “The first modern winemaker to study oenology outside Greece – in no less a place than Bordeaux itself – was Lefteris Glinavos, with whom we collaborate. He still heads the winery, in his mid 90s, together with his son Thomas.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 34
S
“The variety originates from the eastern Mediterranean and more specifically the island of “MuscatSamos.isnot only the grape with the most PDO classifications in Greek wine but the one with a multitude of regional names, showing how popular and interwoven with people’s living it has been. Of those names, about 15 are now commonly used throughout Greece, from Thrace to Crete and from Samos to the Ionian Sea.
Next year attention will turn to Avgoustiatis (“such an interesting grape … it has the character of a Tempranillo or a Sangiovese, but more intriguing and delicate aromas, often floral, including violets and desiccated roses”) and Muscat, which has been one of the most praised Greek grapes throughout history and the most decorated one, claiming no fewer than six PDO designations, more than any other Greek grape variety.
“The Muscat varieties found in Greece are mainly Muscat Blanc, which is the dominant one, and Muscat of Alexandria, with anecdotal plantings of Muscat Ottonel also“Muscatreported.blends are an amazing way to enjoy the grape in wines made to accompany food, as they offer the opportunity to combine a generous nose with a more substantial body and a matching, refreshing acidity, as we see in Papargyriou Muscat Blanc.”
“In some PDO areas Muscat must be made only into sweet wines. Samos is one of the exceptions, expanding the offering of wines made on the island. This is a great dry example from vineyards in the Fterias area, at 800m altitude and with sandy clay soils. The yield is low and the wine has a refreshing acidity.”
Garalis Terra Ambera MuscatAmphoraof Alexandria
“Muscat being such a long living and fascinating grape variety, it has produced many different styles of wine, from sparkling to sweet. This one is like a Moscato d’Asti: a Charmat method sparkling wine with lovely mousse, delicate sweetness and low alcohol from a stopped fermentation. It’s the perfect companion to parties.”
She is hesitant to offer generalised advice to any indie thinking of expanding their Greek range. “You have to take every case on its merits,” she says. “Each merchant has its own clientele, priorities and the individual preferences of the owners and staff.” But the SWR teams stands ready to guide Greek wine novices through the process.Whatare
“A versatile 50-50 blend of Muscat and Assyrtiko from a family winery. The grapes are cultivated at 850m in limestone soil in the northern Peloponnese. The Muscat is very fragrant and prominent on the nose, very lifted and delicate. The Assyrtiko gives body and alcohol. Both have high acidity and the combination is simply genial.”
“I used to say, as a joke, that you can have a vineyard on your balcony in Greece, and it would produce something interesting. You can find a plethora of microterroirs a stone’s throw from each other. For example, if you are in the Peloponnese you might think there should be some uniformity of terroir, but you can get into another enclosure between mountains within 80km or100km and then you have totally different climate influences: wind reaching from the west rather than the north, the concentration of humidity being
Vakakis Ti Amo Sparkling Muscat Blanc
Vakakis Pythagorean Theorem Dry Muscat Blanc
Vakakis Kalypso Under Sea Aged Dry Muscat
“Muscat is an amazing value grape, very appealing; ancient and modern at the same time, versatile, and it performs beautifully in its home,” Maria says.
“The word Muscat comes from the Greek word μόσχος, meaning fragrant.
Papargyriou Blanc Dry White Blend
“This is made by a more delicate Muscat variety from the island of Lemnos. It doesn’t have the linearity of Muscat Blanc but the aromas are exotic. Made by a natural wine producer, it spends 45 days on its skins in amphora, the clay vessel adding layers of warmth and earthiness.”
According to Maria, there is no reason
why Greece shouldn’t emulate some of the recent UK market successes of Portugal.
Greece’s most exciting wine regions right now? “It’s difficult to give one single answer,” she says.
outhern Wine Roads is steadily increasing its trade with the independent sector as more merchants take a more serious look at what Greece has to offer.
This year has seen the turn of Roditis and Mavrodaphne, both of which were featured in a recent online tasting for independents run in partnership with The Wine Merchant.
“This is an experiment continuing the trend for under-sea wine ageing of the past 10 to 15 years. The wine matures for two years 20m under the sea, where the temperature is cooler and more uniform, and light reach is limited. This is another example of the innovation that is happening in Greek wineries right now.”
“I think Greek wine definitely deserves more attention to this intrinsic detail and to its vast winemaking history. There is so much depth and variety in winemaking right now in Greece, and a lot to discover for novices and fans alike.”
Vakakis Filion Vin Doux Muscat Blanc
Vermood Bianco Muscat Blanc Vermouth
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 35
“Greece might not look big on a map, but I always say it’s big in its detail.
Maria Moutsou started the Southern Wine Roads business in 2014 association
Vakakis Pythagorean Pyramid
Vakakis BarrelEpogdoonPythagoreanAgedMuscatBlanc
Vakakis Pythagorean Cup Semi-sweet Muscat Blanc
maria@southernwineroads.comwithsouthernwineroads.comTelephone07775714595
“Muscat Blanc still wine (from within the PDO Muscat of Rio) is distilled with citrus fruit peels, herbs and spices to create this sublime drink. Producers of sweet Muscat are experimenting with other styles in order to diversify their offer. I love this over ice. The alcohol level is low (18%) so you don’t really need a mixer.”
Muscat Blanc & Muscat Noir
“A very serious sweet wine, made from older vines at 650m altitude. After meticulous selection, grapes are laid to dry in the sun then gently pressed, delivering a dense must that ferments with its own yeasts. The wine matures in French oak for 12-18 months. A rich wine with a broad palette of flavours.”
“A versatile wine, thanks to its generous grapey and summer fruit flavours, high acidity and residual sugars, which create the perfect balance to allow it to be enjoyed throughout a meal. It’s ideal with charcuterie and patés, as well as light desserts, on its own or as a mixer for dry sparkling wines.”
different and the flora and fauna becoming very local and distinct.
“This wine style is the most popular and the most exported out of Samos. It’s made by stopping the fermentation with spirit at 15% abv to achieve the desired residual sweetness and capture all the grapeyness, summer fruit flavours and a hint of nuts. Perfect with Christmas pudding and all kinds of brioche and panettone pastries.”
In
“A double-bill rosé wine made with black and white Muscat grapes. The must stays for a couple of hours with the grape skins and then ferments at low temperatures to create an exceptionally fruity and aromatic wine. It has the most exotic nose you can find, loaded with rose petal aromas and notes of pomegranate and quince.”
So how did you go about it?
Was there ever a thought of giving up?
A steep learning curve, even for a teacher
“I started saying to people I wanted to do something in wine. I wasn’t quite sure what but, as I’d been a teacher, I thought maybe it would involve wine education.
T
By Nigel Huddleston
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 36
“We had to go and sit down with the planning officer to convince him we were opening a guests”withestablishmentreputablewell-behaved
Like her former pupils, Kat Stead has had to work hard to get the results she was hoping for – in her case at the wine shop and bar she opened in November 2018
he allure of wine tempts people from all sorts of professions into running a wine shop. Kat Stead was an English teacher in a secondary school when a chance encounter at a wine tasting in a Nottingham restaurant set in motion a chain of events that ended with her opening the wine merchant with the best name derived from a sixties French actress/classic wine region pun.
“To accompany the monthly tastings he used to write a blog and he had a nom de vin, Corkmaster [taken from the honorary name of the head of a snooty wine group in the US sitcom Frasier].
We spent the whole of 2018 taking two steps forward and one step back. We couldn’t get a commercial mortgage because the business wasn’t up and running. We got turned down for planning permission at first because we had residents either side. We had to go and sit down with the planning officer to convince him we were opening a reputable establishment with well-behaved guests.
“He told me I needed to come up with a wine name to write the blog. We were batting names around – Marilyn Merlot, things like that – and Matt, my partner, came up with Brigitte Bordeaux. I was calling myself that writing the blog for a few years.”
Merchant Profile: Brigitte Bordeaux, Nottingham
I spent the autumn term teaching and trying to
We moved close to here in 2017 and we were out walking – it was a really cold dark January afternoon about four or five o’clock. We passed by and saw the building was up for sale. It was an old antique shop. The way it was laid out was ideal, because my dream was to have the shop in front and the bar behind.
Kat’s encounter at the restaurant, back in 2012, was with Laurie Moran, who ran the Wine in Nottingham enthusiasts’ group. She joined the club, started studying for WSET qualifications and eventually agreed to co-run it as Laurie was spending a lot of time in France.
Brigitte Bordeaux is a cool-looking hybrid with a great garden, in a Victorian property on a main arterial road out of Nottingham, north towards Mansfield. It’s a little off the main drag, but just a hundred yards away the road turns into a busy high street with a mix of shops and cafés, indies and the odd chain, including Wetherspoon’s, which has taken over half of one of the city’s busiest bus depots.Known as Sherwood, the locale is a destination spot that also caters to two residential areas: the affluent Mapperley Park and the not-so Carrington.
We got halfway through 2018 and it looked like it wouldn’t happen, but by that point I’d decided I was going to do it somewhere, wherever it was. Because it was taking so long, the vendor put it back on the market at one point and we were looking at other premises.Eventually we got permission but we had lots of conditions. Initially, we were only open until 9.30pm at the weekend but we’ve managed to change that to 11pm now.
Teaching began to lose its lustre after Kat had her first child in 2015. “I was finding the workload too much,” she says. “Before having kids I’d quite happily spend all day on a Sunday marking books.
“But the dream was to open a place like this, though I had no idea how to go about doing it.”
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 37
Kat Stead, Sherwood, Nottingham, July 2022
We used to deliver to some people two or three times a week who we’ve never heard from since, and lots of customers discovered us through that and have stayed with us. That pushed us to get the online store up and running.
So you didn’t buy the property outright? We ended up buying the flat upstairs and taking a lease on the ground floor, with a really good deal on the rent and an option to buy the ground floor at a later date for a fixed amount. We got a really great deal but we also put a lot of money into doing it up. We opened on December 14, 2018, and I finished teaching the following Friday. There was a lot of initial interest, because we were new, and then days at the beginning of January 2019 when there were no customers. But it gradually built up.
Then early 2020 happened. The pandemic was a whole different way of doing things. Before the first lockdown was announced we started offering deliveries even though we didn’t have an online store. That was more of a long-term plan.We could have stayed open but we decided to close and we were at full capacity with deliveries. It went absolutely mad. I did call-forwarding from the shop phone to my mobile, and from late March through to May this place turned into a warehouse, with boxes and boxes of wine. All my suppliers were wondering why I’d gone from ordering really small amounts of wine to huge orders.
We’ve kind of gone with the French thing: it’s red, white and blue, and the red is a kind of wine colour. We scoured all the auction houses for furniture and the maps on the wall, picking up various things. The tiles in bathroom and the backroom were what we were putting in our dining room at home.
And how did you go about filling the shelves?
get this place set up and get funding. I got turned down for my start-up loan while the workmen were mid-job, so it was all a bit stressful. But I’m really glad I did it now, looking back.
I was in Green Man Wines in Dublin and they had tables made of wine boxes. That gave us the idea for our tables which are basically IKEA tables with wine boxes cut up to make the tops.
What was the design approach with the physical shop and bar?
I just emailed a list of wholesalers and suppliers from my living room on my Hotmail account – and got two responses. Enotria and Liberty were the ones that got back to me, so when we opened it was just with the those two, plus our own-label.
When I did my WSET Level 2, I met these guys who had a place in Bordeaux and wanted to import their neighbours’ wines. We drove out there, tasted the wines, and they were really great, and, brilliantly,
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 38
How did that own-label wine come about?
The outside seating area extends the bar’s seating capacity
“Obviously the wines that you’re mad about are not always going to be the best sellers in the world. But if I really love a wine I’ll end up putting it on the shelf”
Have you consider shipping wines yourself?
We’d like to start. I’m having French lessons to try to make that easier when it comes around.
I like to have a broad range and some niche things, but for most people who come here the average bottle spend is £12-£15. Price point is important at the moment, particularly with the cost of living. We can’t compete with the supermarkets on price and people come here for the experience – but it’s good to be able to offer good value. I’m always on the lookout for a really good bottle of wine that’s around that £10, £11, £12 point. There are certain wines that sell themselves and others that you have to work a bit harder to convince people of.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 39
What do you look for in a wine or a supplier? Interesting wines from new regions and different grape varieties. Obviously the wines that you’re mad about are not always going to be the best sellers in the world. But if I really love a wine I’ll end up putting it on the shelf. Even if it’s too obscure or expensive we’ll still end up selling a bit of it.
I love thinking of new things to do – tastings and promotions. We do online and social media giveaways and the like. We get involved in things like International Sherry Week, Bordeaux Wine Month and 31 Days of Riesling, to get people excited about wines they may not otherwise be.We’ve done quite a few Greek tastings recently, with wine clubs and societies. I started off working with Best of Hungary after a tasting Wine Merchant magazine
Do you have a favourite region or country? Do you feel obliged to say Bordeaux?
Maltby & Greek, Marta Vine for Portugal, Dreyfuss Ashby for South Africa and the Loire.
Initially, the rep from Enotria saw an opportunity and basically came and stocked my shelves for me. When we opened it was about 75% Enotria, and 25% Liberty.
we found we could put our own labels on them. It was really cheap as well. We had those as our house wines for the first year but unfortunately they stopped importing them. We’ve been searching for something to replace it since then, but we haven’t come up with anything so good.
How has the supplier base expanded?
What’s the best thing about running a wine shop?
Enotria and Liberty were the company’s original two suppliers. These days there are about 16 on the roster
No, it changes all the time. At the moment, I really don’t have a favourite, though we’ve probably got more French stuff on the shelves than anything. We’ve got some really interesting Greek stuff, Hungarian stuff … those countries that have their own indigenous grape varieties are quite interesting. Italy is so vast and varied. That’s the great thing about wine; I like most of it.
It’s so different now. When we first opened we probably had three or four facings of each wine, but now we don’t do that because we have many more wines. But Enotria have always been good to us and they have some great wines that are still some of ourWe’vebestsellers.probably got 15 or 16 suppliers. I’m a sucker for discovering new wines and suppliers and we use a lot of specialists like Best of Hungary,
There’s a lot going on in the world at the moment. What are the biggest challenges facing businesses like yours?
So having got this far with the business, are there things you wish you’d done differently? Nothing major jumps out. It’s a constant learning curve. I’m really bad at saying yes to everything and doing tastings for free and that sort of thing.
Your location is near a lot of money in Mapperley Park. Have you tapped into that? I’ve started a wine club: on the last Monday of the month we deliver a case of wine. Quite a lot of subscribers are in Mapperley Park, but it’s also the sort of area where people might have their own cellar and buy from Berry Bros. It has a residents’ association and we did their Jubilee thing at the local cricket club. Things like that are good to get us noticed.Wethought it was going to be cancelled because of the apocalyptic weather forecast. Then we heard mid-morning that it was going ahead, so we were a bit annoyed that we had to go and do it – but it was worthwhile because lots of people came out and drank Nyetimber.
When you’re a public sector worker, you think people who run their own business automatically make lots of money. But you discover that’s not how it works at all. The bills keep coming in. You think you’re doing OK and you get a fat bill.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 40
So many people tried to scare the living daylights out of me in the run-up to opening with that intake of breath and “do you know what you’re doing?”, making me think it was attempting the impossible.
and, on the back of that, we had some Hungarian winemakers who did an event in our garden, which was really successful.
“When you’re a public sector worker, you think people who run their own atnotdiscovermoney.makeautomaticallybusinesslotsofButyouthat’showitworksall”
When I was applying for a start-up loan from First Enterprise they wanted a 25-page colour business plan. They asked me what experience I had and I told them I’d worked In Wetherspoon’s when I was at university. I remember sitting there at midnight getting pictures of fridges off the internet at midnight to put into the business plan. When you’re in the middle of that, people suggest things that are massively important that turn out not to be. I could quite easily have let people scare me into not doing it. But here it is.
The cost of living and people’s disposable income. We are a bit of a premium thing. That’s why it’s really important to have really good value wines on the shelves, wines for under £12 that don’t price people out of the market. If we can get a good deal we pass it on to our customers.
But that’s aIl part of the enjoyment as well – the reward. We’re very lucky, touch wood, that we have a great customer base. We’ve got regular customers who are only shop customers and we’ve got others that are only bar customers, and some who are both. Our tasting events are very popular and we’ve got people who come to probably over 50% of them. We get to know people and become part of theYoucommunity.cangoto the supermarket and spend six quid on a bottle of wine. If you come here there’s a lot more choice and better wine, and you also have a chat and get a different experience.
The shop pictured circa 1910
Reggio Emilia
MCLEANDUNCAN
he Orkney Islands might seem a surprising place to find one of the longest-established wine merchants in the country. But Kirkness & Gorie is busier than ever, 163 years after its opening was announced in the pages of The Orcadian in June 1859. It’s still in its original location in the heart of Kirkwall, opposite St Magnus Cathedral, and still owned and run by the same family. Which shows either remarkable persistence on our part, or a terrible lack of Forambition.acentury or so, we’ve thought land travel the best way to move freight across the country. Big stretches of water, fresh or salt, are obstacles that must be overcome
It’s true, the islands are popular with the upper middle classes of Islington and Morningside, but our shop can’t rely entirely on their short-season custom. Like the four generations of the family preceding us, we see local trade as our bedrock: farmers of cattle, fish and wind, butchers, teachers, and traffic wardens. (Actually, we don’t have any traffic wardens.)After163 years, I think we’re just about working out how to keep them happy.
T
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 41
A long tradition of fine wine and exotic food has its roots in wars with France
by bridges or ferries. It wasn’t always that way. Until the mid-20th century, the sea was a much quicker and more reliable way for freight and people to move long distances.Soitwas that Orkney – 20 miles off the north coast of Scotland – established itself as an unusually open and cosmopolitan trading centre a thousand years ago, and has remained so ever since.
British wars with the French were of great help to Orkney. Rather than risk the dangers of the English Channel, shipping would go “northabout”, around the top of the country. Trade routes from London, Hull and Leith on the east, and Glasgow, Liverpool, and Cardiff on the west, all passed these islands. Stopping to refuel or shelter from bad weather was a frequent occurrence. Scapa Flow is, after all, the biggest and safest natural harbour in northern Europe. International shipping often docked too, whether to pick up supplies before a long ocean journey, or to recruit crew – Orcadians were born sailors.
So, it’s no surprise that, when money started flowing into the islands due to the export of cattle and other agricultural products in the 1840s and 50s, enterprising Orcadians set up businesses to capitalise on the availability of, and taste for, exotic food and drink. We have receipt books going back to the 1860s showing sales of Champagne, claret, and any number of obscure fortified wines as well as coffee, preserved fruit, and even pasta. For a while the shop advertised itself as an “Italian Warehouseman”, the generic name for fine wine and food shops before “delicatessen” entered English usage.
Northabout
Duncan Mclean is proprietor of Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall
The biggest change since 1859 has been the democratisation of wine
The biggest change since 1859 has been the democratisation of wine. It’s no longer the preserve of the landowners and lairds who came up to their island summer houses for a spot of hunting and fishing and ordered a few cases of Mr Kirkness’s excellent shop-bottled Margaux or Haut Sauternes. What was that exactly? I don’t know, but we still have the loose labels.
“We have been so involved with NPD, winemaking and blending,” Smith says. “It’s something we still want to do, so one of our points of difference is L’Entente.
the wines that Frederick’s offers?
edition wines don’t do as well as hoped, the directors – and their friends and families – will happily snap them up for their personal enjoyment.
“So we are working with family growers, pretty much all organic – certainly sustainable – and we simply choose wines that we love and that we believe in.”
The company has clearly not gone overboard with its overheads, and has a small staff. But Smith insists that the team stands ready to help its independent customers above and beyond offering keen pricing.“Wewant to be at as many events as possible so we do want to help with tastings in shops – and so do our producers, who want to come over and meet people,” he says.
“Everyone’s costs are going up and we know that keen pricing and sensible stockholding are the key to supporting the vibrant independent sector, and cash flow will be tight for the foreseeable future.
From left: Guy Smith, Stuart Bowman-Hood and Will Willis
“We have a minimum order of 10 cases of six and if someone goes much larger than that then we’ll be flexible: if it costs less to transport then we’ll charge them less.“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible because we’ve all been there. I’ve run shops, Will’s run shops and in fact in our cellar door we have a wine shop.
ou can tell when someone loves their job. Guy Smith, like the other two members of the Frederick’s Wine team, has worked for some big companies in the drinks industry. But, chatting from an old cider cellar on a Somerset farm, dog sleeping not far from his feet, you sense that he’s found his spiritual home.
Frederick’s is now ready to introduce the portfolio to the independent trade. The team talk a lot about their “hearts ruling their heads” with the way the business is run, joking that if some of the limited-
“I would say we all go for freshness, nothing over-extracted. And that sense of place is best represented by family ownership. This is really important to us as it means we are always working with the decision-makers who are ultimately building their dream, which we all want to share
“We’re never going to compete on entrylevel but that’s not really our thing. Our opportunity is offering unique, familyowned wine gems, often never seen before in the UK. It’s real hand-picked, handchosen, hand-sold wine.”
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Y
“We’ve all worked for big corporations and we’ve all done massive projects but at some point you’ve got to go back to your heart and soul,” Smith says.
The team behind Frederick’s Wine know all about working for big wine companies. But their heart lies in sourcing limited-production wines from sustainable, family growers that will appeal to indies
Smith also sits on the board of WineGB and makes wine from his small Somerset estate under the Smith & Evans name. He produces a craft cider too – “we’re in Somerset, so it’s the law” – labelled as HunkyAsidePunk.from the sustainability credentials, is there any other theme running through
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 42
Like partners Stuart Bowman-Hood and Will Willis, Smith worked in various high-profile beverage businesses, handling upscale wines as well as mainstream brands, before establishing Frederick’s in 2018. (The name was borrowed from Smith’s faithful black Labrador, who lived a happy life roaming the small vineyard which is also part of the set-up.)
“It’s a bit of an umbrella brand. It’s all organic and vegan, and we’re just about to do a bee-friendly certified wine, biodynamic, sulphur-free … it’s really focusing on trying to do the right thing, and we have producers who want to do this with us in France, Spain and Italy. The idea of developing our own brands is really exciting and goes a long way to satisfying our creative urges.”
Yet there’s a sense that the range has been more carefully assembled than that would suggest. In addition to importing wines, Frederick’s is also creating some of its own unique labels.
“Fratelliin. Fanucci (vignano.com) is a great example of this: three brothers who have returned to their native Tuscany to produce fantastic organic wines, not just Chianti. Everything has a little family twist.”
“We have an exclusive on this. It’s organic and unbelievably good.
“There’s a French phrase – ‘if you put your hand in the vineyard, it will take your arm’, and I think that applies to them. Wendy and Barry bought a house in Margaret River, then a bit of land, and then in 2011, when a vineyard came up for sale, they bought the whole estate.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 43 The Newington Green store has “a nice kitchen vibe”
very high profile in Portugal and a lot of export markets, but she hasn’t done much here yet. From high in the biodynamically,years.moreMelobeendoDaomountainousregion,QuintaCruzierohaspartofthefamilyforthan400Nowfarmedthe
Sponsored by Frederick’s Wine frederickswine.com07823344173
Aegerter, Burgundy
Des Annereaux, Bordeaux
“Wendy and Barry Stimpson grow Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon on this 6ha estate, which also includes a western ring-tailed possum sanctuary (hence the name Passel, the collective noun for possums). They are aiming purely for quality.
“We were introduced to Virginie and Jean Marc by Guy’s cousin and once we tried their organic wines we just had to buy them. The first vines were planted in 1967 on steep slopes at 250m above sea level. The sandy soils lend themselves not only to the name of the estate but also the incredible freshness and expression of pure fruit flavours.” chateaulasable.com/en
“Julia is a real live wire, a experimenterrealand
Château La Sable, Luberon
SOME KEY AGENCIES
“The fact that we could get hold of a Burgundy producer who could do the whole of the region amazed us. The maison is based in NuitsSaint-Georges. These passionate people are daring enough to leave the beaten track and offer all consumers, beginners and experts alike, carefully picked selections, new blends and different bottles.”
wines are so focused and refined and wellnoted by international wine critics. This is a real find for us.”
Passel Estate, Margaret River
Jesus Madrazo
“Focusing on small quantities of seriously great quality wines which are regularly awarded internationally, this is their first foray into UK and we are all super-excited to be their partner.” passelestate.com
aegerter.fr/en
Julia Kemper, Dão
“It comes from a single organic plot called L’Ane Mort (Dead Donkey) in Lalande de Pomerol. Don’t let the name put you off, this is delicious. It is owned by the Hessel family who have been at Annereaux for centuries. One of the reasons the wine is so good is that it contains 2% Petit Verdot which adds grip and freshness. It’s beautifully balanced and so great to drink on release, but will also age.”
Lozano Family, Rioja and La Mancha
“Jesus was the winemaker at Contino for 17 years. His father founded Contino so his family is one of the founding families of CVNE. He chose us because he’s known us for over 20 years. He is rightly considered one of Spain’s leading winemakers, with a worldwide following.”
annereaux.com
“Founded in 1853 in Villarrobledo, La Mancha and now in its fourth generation, at a large, modern, state-of-the-art winery, Jaime Lozano just wants to make something that is exceptional and new to this market. With grapes sourced mainly from their own vineyards, Lozano have been shipping bulk and bottled wine here under various labels for decades, but their Rioja is new and they have some amazing 80 to 100-year-old viticultural stock.” bodegas-lozano.com/gb
juliakemperwines.com
Can you find all 10 differences between the two pictures opposite? If you can, you could be among the five readers who win one of five prizes generously provided by WBC, the trade’s trusted supplier of wine boxes, packaging materials, shop display equipment and so much more
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THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 44 COMPETITION SPOT THE DIFFERENCE AND WIN WBC PRIZES
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Mark all 10 differences between the two pictures, on image B, using a Sharpie pen or similar. Take a clear shot of your edits and send it to claire@winemerchantmag.com with the subject line Spot the Difference. Make sure to include your name, address and business details.
Mathusalem Sommelier Champagne
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THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 45 BA
“Somewhere in the UK there is someone wanting to buy an expensive Burgundy from our website at least weekly, and they do.”
So why does it have such enduring appeal? “Because worldwide demand for wine in general, and by extension topend wine like Burgundy in particular, simply outstrips supply, so the trade has continued to sell it,” he says.
orming an educated opinion on the state of play with Burgundian wines can be challenge, since a dwindling number of us have the ability to buy and enjoy them. That situation looks unlikely to improve any time soon.
customers, on finding out prices on the secondary market, have told me their cellar is now ‘too expensive to drink’ – which perpetuates demand, regardless of price.
Beyond Burgundy
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 46 ANALYSIS
“The writing has been on the wall for a decade or more that Burgundy is mostly poor value … demand simply outstrips supply”
Short harvests and spiralling prices aren’t making life easy for Burgundy lovers. So why does the trade persist, and what are the alternatives? Graham Holter reports
The 2021 vintage is being described as a “classic”, which may be good news for those – like Tom Innes, of Burgundy specialist Fingal-Rock – who were alarmed by the “super-ripe” reds that 2020 produced.
“We’ve seen the Burgundy market change dramatically in the last few years: prices have risen exponentially, and allocations have, for the most part, been drastically reduced, in some cases by over 80%,” says Sebastian Thomas, buyer for Howard Ripley Wines.
“Top-end Burgundy is all about the growers and their reputations, much more so than most other regions, and new money seems to come in when existing customers drop out. Several historical
So there may be more typicity in the 2021 wines. But savage spring frosts contributed to another Burgundy shortfall and prices are only heading in one direction. Burgundy fans, it seems, should be braced for more disappointment.
or those who conclude that Burgundy isn’t offering value for money, what are the alternatives? Yapp Bros has been “sourcing some great Pinot Noir from other locations, like the Pfalz”.It’sa part of the world that is also performing well for Howard Ripley.
“So we still sell all our allocation from Rousseau, Roumier, Coche-Dury and Lafon. Dauvissat Chablis is more sought-after than ever, as is Leflaive Puligny at every level. Nearly every bottle of Côte de Nuits on our list currently sells for three figures, yet nothing is older than 2014.
“The sought-after growers are pretty immune to price hikes, but there is some price resistance at the less glamorous end. However, diminished quantities mean that little is left unsold. How long that continues – in a vintage like 2021 for instance, which is perceived as difficult – remains to be seen.”
At Tanners, private sales director Robert Boutflower believes that “the writing has been on the wall for a decade that Burgundy is mostly poor value”.
Jason Yapp of Yapp Bros adds: “With increasing demand, smaller harvests and inflation, the outlook isn’t too promising.
Robert Boutflower, Tanners
Jason Yapp: “The difficulty is securing stock”
“A very small harvest, pitiful quantities, some some extraordinary levels of alcohol, and lots of colour – more like Rhône than Burgundy,” was Innes’s take.
F
“I think people are pretty sanguine about rising costs. The real difficulty is securing stock.
F
“According to a specialist Burgundy buyer I know, the entry-level price for Burgundy is now £26 a bottle.”
“Climate change and greatly increased know-how mean that Germany consistently produces excellent reds and whites,” says Sebastian Thomas. “It’s not surprising that our sales of the considerably cheaper German wines have increased: in the last two years we have seen 75% growth in dry whites and reds.
in the Pfalz, Lehnert-Veit on the Mosel, Braunewell in the Rheinhessen.
Boutflower at Tanners is hesitant about nominating viable Burgundy substitutes. “We’ve been here before,” he says, “with New Zealand and Oregon, let alone Germany and Romania.
“Some growers seem to be happy with what they achieved,” says Charles Lea.
Top left: A junction in the Côte d’Or Bottom left: Vineyards in the Pfalz
Even Patagonia is on Lea’s Pinot radar. The company has achieved “remarkable success” with the Chacra wines of Piero Incisa della Rochetta, “which far outstrips the volumes of all our German Pinot”.
“Yes, Germany is one place to look for value Pinot,” Lea says, “and we import several which have a following: Petri
harles Lea, director of Lea & Sandeman, believes that “Burgundy still has a lot to offer” – including, in some cases, value for money. Indeed he argues that there are “Bourgogne rouges which regularly trump the latest ‘exciting’ wines from elsewhere”.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 47
“German Pinot Noirs are filling the price gap left by Burgundy, and demand is particularly strong for them. As a result, we have taken on four new growers this year, and will start with five more next year.”
“Quality is on the up, as you’d expect from the increasingly warm weather in these northern climes. But it is far from the only place, and we have had success with Land of Saints in California and Illahe in Oregon, as well as Rippon, Black Estate and Felton Road in New Zealand.”
“We’ve got a magnificent Slovakian entry. But they are all a bit of a hand-sell, a ‘trust-the- merchant’ purchase, and come with their own baggage. ‘Germany? Is that Liebfrau Pinot Noir, then?’”
Burgundy importers will make a proper assessment of the 2021s this autumn.
“It’s always a bit of a mistake to prejudge the quality level, even if we know that quantitatively the 2021 harvest was poor to disastrous for some. We look forward to our tastings in October and November when we will get a good look at the wines.”
“It’s not helped by Pinot being inclined to change its style in other countries.
C
Even so, Lea & Sandeman is quite excited about some of the Pinots it is discovering beyond Burgundy’s borders.
Foeder for Wood-agedthoughtbeersdemand a slower approach from volume-hungry brewers
The foeder is catching on in a small way among some of the UK’s best brewers. Sour beer specialist Burning Sky in Sussex, Manchester’s IPA evangelist Cloudwater and London hop variety explorer The Kernel have all deployed foeders to create some of their most enchanting brews that enhance and exaggerate their house styles.
a brewery will have one or two such giant barrels to ensure achieving the consistency of style that they are known for. But experimentation is very much the modern way, as we know, and New Belgium Brewing in Colorado is one that’s famed for its use of big oak outside of Belgium, its so-called “foeder forest” of differing barrel shapes and sizes each delivering its own subtle spin on the foeder style.
THE DRAYMAN
The wood harbours natural yeasts that contribute to tartness, acidity and grip in the beer
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 48
The worlds of beer and wine are also colliding in a foeder on occasion. Belgium’s Three Fonteinen brewery makes a beer co-fermented with Dornfelder grapes in a foeder as part of its extraordinary range of sour beers.
There’s
often an impatience in the beer world to find the coming major trend. Saison, goze and numerous variations on IPA are just some of the beer styles that have been subject to next-big-thing speculation in recent years, sometimes with justification, but frequentlyHowever,without.somebeer styles should demand attention not because they’re about to change the brewing landscape, but because of their inherent mystery and magic. It would be wrong to pretend that foeder beers are going to transform the market any time soon, but they’re worth celebrating just because of what they are.
A foeder (from the Dutch, and sometimes seen as foudre in its French variation) is essentially a large oak barrel, of up to 600 litres, the construction of which is a particular specialism of certain cooperages.
In addition to the barrel infrastructure, foeder beers require a commitment to time, setting product aside for sale months and years down the line, a given in wine and whisky but alien to much of the brewing world, where a culture of churning out volume for short-term sale gains takes precedence. And with a certain unpredictability about the outcome, using foeders is an inhibiting leap of faith for all but the bravest in the industry. But for those that do take the brave step – and their drinkers – it’s a patience that brings rich rewards.
The Belgian brewer Rodenbach, whose Grand Cru is beer-world royalty, is among the most celebrated users of foeders for lengthy maturation, which can in some cases stretch from months into years. The wood harbours natural yeasts that contribute to tartness, acidity and grip in theNormally,beer.
Belgium’s De Ranke has taken foeder use way out there too, with an imperial porter – Back to Black – that’s spent nine months in oak.
The foeders at Rodenbach
I don’t have favourite grape varieties, but if I have to name a few, among the white ones, Fernão Pires, Arinto and Sauvignon Blanc; for the reds, Castelão, Tinta Miúda and Touriga Franca.
At Quinta da Alorna we have vineyards in two of these soil types. For example in the Charneca, where we have the largest area of vines, there are very poor soils, with lots of sand and pebbles. The wines have a unique freshness and elegance.
I am not from the Tejo region. I came to Quinta da Alorna at the invitation of the winemaker and general director at the time, Nuno Cancela de Abreu. We had worked together in Bucelas in the Lisboa region, years before. When the opportunity arose to join the Quinta da Alorna team, I immediately accepted.
The Tagus is the great dominating element of the region, starting with three distinct types of soils. Then the climate: the river manages to moderate the temperature. The days are hot but the nights are cool.
Wines imported by Alliance Wine
There are two words to describe the Alorna winemaking style: fresh and elegant. We have always looked at oak as a complement, to enhance the primary aromas of the wine. So the choice of suppliers of barrels, the different types of oak and toasts, has always been very precise.
Tejo has definitely seen changes in the past decade. There has been remarkable joint work done by the CVR Tejo and its producers, very focused on promotion and marketing at a national and international level. The Fernão Pires grape variety, for example, has once again been given some limelight in the wine world thanks to an ongoing campaign in recent years.
Quinta da Alorna Touriga Nacional Red
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.
THE WINEMAKER FILES //
We have a total area of 2,600 hectares, divided into 160 hectares of vineyards, 500 hectares dedicated to agricultural crops and about 1,900 hectares of forest. This forest area also helps to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. In addition, there are currently six photovoltaic power plants on our property.
Made exclusively from Touriga Nacional, a Portuguese variety with a distinctive and unique aromatic profile, this wine represents the elegance and freshness of the Charneca.
Marquesa de Alorna is the product of unique weather conditions and a selection of the best grapes. Six varieties gave rise to this 2017 vintage, coming from different terroirs, between Charneca and Lezíria. This wine is a tribute to a very important woman in the history of Portugal.
Quinta da Alorna Reserva Arinto & Chardonnay
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 49
Quinta da Alorna stands out, not only for the quality of the wines it produces at the estate, but also for its agricultural, forest and natural spaces. The estate is located on the south bank of the Tagus River, near Santarém, with the entrance marked by one of the world’s rare trees, known as Bela Sombra [“beautiful shade” in Portuguese].
I have always been involved with the vineyard, being the granddaughter of farmers. Every year I participated in the harvest at home. Later on, my father became especially interested in wine and opened a wine store. Wine was always a constant presence. At this stage, when I was 16 years old, I began to find the whole world of wine fascinating and two years later I started my oenology degree.
Grande Reserva White
This wine is a classic from Quinta da Alorna. The blend of Arinto, a Portuguese grape variety, and Chardonnay has been a winning bet for over 20 years. The two varieties complement each other perfectly.
Chief winemaker Martta was named as the best young winemaker of Portugal in 2012.
Martta Reis Simões Quinta da Alorna, Tejo wine region
Sitting majestically in the Tejo region, Quinta da Alorna has a wide array of vineyards which are worked in a sustainable and socially responsible way, looking after both the land and the workers.
Marquesa de Alorna
Yet Turkey’s dazzling plethora of indigenous grape varieties and styles offers plenty of opportunity for indies looking to build difference into their ranges.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 50
T
COUNTRYFOCUS
he popularity of Turkish restaurants in the UK has given the country’s wines plenty of on-trade exposure, but they remain pretty much invisible in the independent off-trade.
The aromatic profile of the white grape Narince and Pinot Noir-esque Kalecik Karasi both make for food-friendly varietals.There’s joy to be found in blends too. The vibrant and fleshy Büyülübağ Vedat Millor 2018, imported by Gama UK, brings the structured, bold tannins of the Bogazkere grape together with the soft fruitiness of Okuzgozu.
Bath-based Novel Wines reports interest in producers such as Kayra and Chamlija, with by-the-glass sales playing an important part in converting customers. Novel quotes repeat purchase rates on
Barnaby Eales believes independents should take a fresh look at a country where the winemaking scene is changing
Eastern promise How demand is slowly building for Turkish wines
Turkish reds were once viewed as indulgently-oaky, to suit the domestic market, but Chamlija’s Marcel Biron
bottles of Turkish wine of 35% to 40%, outstripping any other wines on its shelves. Specialist Turkish wine importers Winehouse Warwick and Taste Turkey both talk about increased demand among the trade and consumers, with interest sparked both by holidays in Turkey and dining experiences in restaurants in the UK.This year has already seen the arrival of one new Turkish wine specialist on the retail landscape, with the coffee/wine shop Dharma Coffee opening in Hove and Richmond, west London. It is hosting Turkish wine tastings and has plans to sell online.Ona visit to Winehouse Warwick, I tasted new wine releases from Chamlija, including Turkey’s first Assyrtiko, an outstanding wine with lush, bright flavours of lime, cucumber, and a river-long finish.
Below: Late afternoon in Istanbul
off-trade.Government support for exporters is thin. Having hit producers with a ban on alcohol promotion and advertising in 2013, it piled on a near 50% increase in a “special alcohol consumption” tax this year. VAT and excise duty are already high and inflation hit 61% in March.
Alp Törüner, owner of Büyülübağ, has been making wine on the island of Avsa in the Marmara Sea, off Istanbul, since 2005.
Left: Pruning at Kavaklidere Below: Street coffee in Istanbul
For reds, like the island’s native Ada Karasi variety, Törüner uses slow maceration, gentle extraction, no enzymes
2020 is far from that, its perfumed spice and silky tannins a characteristic of the indigenous grape variety Papazkarasi, which the producer has reintroduced to the hills around Thrace in the west of the country, where it planted vines in 2010.
With no public aid to promote wines, Turkish producers are at a disadvantage against those from, say, Greece or Georgia, whose government offers substantial support to export and promote wines.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 51
But that shouldn’t put off retailers looking for unusual wines that already have some on-trade traction from the Turkish restaurant boom.
“I have waited 10 years to get this quality,” says owner Mustafa Camlica.
of product, but in difficult times there are plenty of obstacles for it overcome if we’re to see more Turkish wine in the UK
and, often, wild yeasts, to make softer wines. When making fresh and fruity white wines from native grapes, Törüner abstains from using oak to allow the flavours and aromatic profile to shine.
Chamlija’s winemaker Selin Özdemir Baran is one of several women winemakers making fine wines from specific plots of vines found at high altitudes across the diverse, mountainous regions of Turkey.
Turkish winemaking is becoming more geared to suit the palates of contemporary, international drinkers, with American, French, and Italian consultants playing a part
Turkish winemaking in general is becoming more geared to suit the palates of contemporary, international drinkers, with American, French, and Italian consultants playing a part in viticulture andSmaller,production.quality wineries have emerged and the big guns of Doluca and Kavaklidere have developed their own ranges around native grapes. Turkey has the fifth largest vineyard area in the world and is thought to be home to between 800 and 1,200 varieties.Thecountry has a lot going for it in terms
A 44% fall in the value of the lira against the dollar hasn’t translated into a big increase in exports, as producers often trade in other currencies.
Monday, October 3
The Stables 1 Park Village E London NW1 7PX
Monday, September 26
AlongTastingwithmore
The Roundhouse Camden Chalk Farm Road London NW1 8EH
showcasingTheAutumnBrosTastingWiltshireimporterwillbe50to60winesfromits list. These include a combination of Yapp classics from the likes of Jean-Louis Chave and Domaine Graillot, and exciting new wines from both the traditional French heartlands and further afield.
Languedoc Tour Trade & Press
Top Selection will be launching three new agencies: Maison Lavau (Rhône), Domaine Mia (Burgundy) and Tenuta Di Sesta (Montalcino), with the winemakers alsoToattending.register,email matt@topselection. co.uk.
Two producers – Barone Pizzini (Franciacorta and Maremma) and Domaine Paul Mas (Languedoc) – will be in attendance.Registerat trade@vintageroots.co.uk or call 0118 932 6566.
2IETSavoy Place London WC2R 0BL
Hallgarten & Novum Regional
Monday, October 3
Tuesday, October 4
from the region will be on show, and a dozen visiting winemakers will be leading an exclusive tasting.
Moreno
AroundTasting50wines
Vintage Roots will be visiting London and Bristol showcasing a selection of 80 organic, biodynamic and natural wines, including new finds for 2022.
Tuesday, September 27
Tuesday, October 4
Yapp
board.agenciesfavouriteMorenoPortfolioWinesTastingwillbeshowcasingallitsproducersalongwiththenewithasrecentlybroughton
The Groucho Club London W1D 4QB
The company will also be showing a selection from the its festive offers.
To register, contact sarah.charlwood@ hnwines.co.uk.
BristolArnosPaintworksValeBS4
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 52
There will be a mix of wines already available in the UK and others seeking representation.Highlightsofthe event include interactive wine talks on the terroir and sustainability of the Languedoc region and a photography exhibition by artist Georgia Glynn-Smith.Formoredetails and to register, contact mbourgeois@sopexa.com.
La Mimosa 3 Thompsons Lane Cambridge CB5 8AQ
To register, email sales@moreno-wines. co.uk.
London Canal Museum 12-13 New Wharf Road London N1 9RT
3EH
Vintage Roots Trade Tasting
Top period.withAPortfolioSelectionTastingwalk-aroundtastingof150+winesafocusontheautumnandfestive
Contact Simon Stuart: simon@yapp. co.uk.
familiar wines from the portfolio, the team will be showcasing some of their more recent finds from around the winemaking world.
Tuesday, September 27
MAKE A DATE
Music, oysters and jamon will all play a role in the proceedings, the organisers haveMoreno,promised.known for its Spanish Wines, is now part of the same group as Boutinot.
Other highlights will include awardwinning properties in Chile, Spain, Germany and Hungary.
Thorman Hunt Portfolio Tasting
Following on from the London tasting at 67 Pall Mall, Thorman Hunt is going on the road with its autumn tastings to Bristol and Manchester.
11 Cooper ManchesterStreetM22FW
The Boscaini family: Alessandra, Sandro, Bruno, Mario, Giacomo, Raffaele and Anita
250 years since the first Boscaini grape harvest in the Vajo de Masi vineyard.
London W1T 1RL
A crémant from every French producing region will be on show, as well as a range of zero alcohol wines and spirits. GCF’s winemakers will be present, to shine a light on their respective regions of France.
Tuesday & Wednesday, October 4 & 5 10 York Road
ThisCelebrationsAnniversary250theventwillbecelebrating
Masi’s
Tuesday, September 27
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 53
The walk-around tasting will feature all five Masi estates – Masi Agricola, Serego Alighieri, Canevel, Conti Bossi Fedrigotti and Masi Tupungato – and will be a journey from Masi’s roots in Valpolicella Classica, across the Veneto, to its pioneering, organically-run estate in Argentina.
19-23CarouselCharlotte Street
It will be introducing new agencies as well as showcasing a selection of seasonal favourites.Contactvanessa@thormanhunt.co.uk.
GCF 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.
Registration: emma@eviva.co.uk.
Grands Chais de France Private Wine Days
Tuesday, October 4
London SE1 7ND
To register, contact Elisa Pierato: elisa. pierato@berkmann.co.uk.
Paintworks Event Space Bath BristolRoadBS4 3EH
Tuesday, October 4 Salut Wines
spectrum of styles from the region, from classic Atlantic-influenced Albariño to leesaged whites, blends, traditional-method sparkling wines and some rare Galician reds.
Monday, October 10
will be presenting wines from a selection of recent vintages.
Tuesday, October 11
wines will be featured at this tasting and producers will be on hand to talk about the fruits of their labours.
For further details and to register, contact alison@dillonmorrall.com.
MoreTastingthan100Beaujolais
ATastingClassésnumberoftheregion’schâteaux
ThisMasterclassShowcaseBaixas&isachancetotastea
Crus
Bordeaux Grands
8 Patriot Square
Church House
This is an opportunity to discover or rediscover the region in a walk-around tasting and through three masterclasses hosted by Victoria Daskal, Anne McHale MW and Emily Harman.
They include Château Branaire-Ducru, Château Canon, Château Canon La Gaffelière, Château Gazin, Château Guiraud, Château Léoville Poyferré, Château Montrose, Château Pontet-Canet, Château Rauzan-Ségla and Château Smith Haut Lafitte.
Rías
Town Hall Hotel
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 54 MAKE A DATE
To register contact mbourgeois@sopexa. com.
Albariño grapes growing on a pergola in Rías Baixas
The Great Hall
There will be a mix of wines that are already imported and some that are looking for representation.
The Art of Ageing masterclass will be led by Sarah Jane Evans MW.
Bethnal Green London E2 9NF
Dean’s LondonYardSW1P 3NZ
London SW1P 3AA
Thursday, October 13
Trade & Press
For further information contact celine@ otaria.co.uk.
Beaujolais Colours
One Great George Street
For more information and an invitation, contact, uk@napavintners.com.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 55
Adelsheim Vineyard, Domaine Serene and many more.
The 38-43ViewLincoln’s Inn Fields London WC2A varieties.1,000withOregonBoardOregon3PEWineTastingisaworld-classwineregionover900wineriesandmorethanvineyardsgrowing72grape
Wednesday, October 26 Edinburgh (venue TBC)
Vines in Oregon’s autumn sun
Sud de France Top 100 Discovery Tasting
Napa Valley Vintners will be showcasing a number of wines in London and Edinburgh.
Taste Napa Valley
At this tasting there will be representatives from more than 25 Oregon wineries pouring more than 75 different wines.Wineries represented will include Citation, Chateau Bianca, Three Feathers, Stoller Family Estate, Solena Estate,
Tuesday, October 18
An event to bring together the new lineup of the 100 winning wines from the 10th edition of the Sud de France Top 100.
Yet 70% of these wineries produce fewer than 5,000 cases of wine annually. So the message is very much small production, high quality and big impact.
Monday, October 24 US Embassy 33 Nine Elms Lane London SW11 7US
Visiting producers, including independent boutique wineries as well as acclaimed negociants and cooperatives, will be on hand and there will be an extra 100 cuvées covering the whole of the Occitanie region available to taste. This year, 60% of the selection is seeking UK distribution, while the rest is available within the UK.
To register, email owb@wearelotus. co.uk.
Monday, October 24 London (venue TBC)
For more information and to register, email Sebastien du Boullay: sebastien. duboullay@occitanie-london.com.
THERECLAIMINGSTREET
What would life be like without cars? Would nature heal and might citizens tap into a serene, strawberry-scented higher plane of wisdom? Phoebe Weller of Valhalla’s Goat in Glasgow is about to find out
somehow we were also in shade and the tarmac gave way to warm white sand dryly dribbling through my toes. I said something wise and true and hilarious and Jordan laughed with doe-eyed appreciation at my wiseness and trueness. We drank demisec Champagne, which lifted our spirits and relaxed our bellies and necks but did not inebriate us one whit. The afternoon passed gently, with a soft breeze generated by multiple and varied butterflies and kingfishers and biggerthan-average bumblebees that beat their wings kindly to cool our warm but not overheated brows.No,wait, that’s not true. On Sunday they closed the whole of the Great Western Road to cars and we thought about having a picnic in the middle of the road and even managed a
Vineyards in the Hunter Valley
n Sunday they closed the whole of the Great Western Road to cars and we had a Picnic Lunch in the middle of the lumpen road outside the shop, because obviously no cars meant no customers.
At first, the human beings couldn’t really handle the new-found emptiness of the road but rather kept to the narrow path between Eddie (who has dropped the “godblessya” from his dirge, leaving an awkward but welcome empty moment after his request for change) and the Hippies’ extensive fruit and vegetable display. Later, humans were spotted tentatively toeing the Car Domain and exploring the elemental crags of its surface. But it was too late. One tanky smokedwindow 4x4 broke the rules, screamed down the road and the spell was broken.Maybe there is a bright new future where everyone stops atomising themselves in the comfort of their leased cars, where unarmoured humans could amble, prance and just enjoy being for a little while – not rushing to somewhere or from somewhere, just enjoying being. It might even be one where Jordan likes cheese, but maybe that is a dream too far.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 56
22.
wee prance, but the customers kept coming in almost as if they didn’t need to drive in their comfortable little boxes to get here, although thanks, customers, for navigating the endlessly unhelpful, expensive and entirely impractical public transport “system” that feels like Glasgow City Council is, how do you say, having a laugh.
No we won’t open the subway after six on a Sunday because you should not be going anywhere at that time on the Sabbath – this is Scotland. What a relief it was to not have the endless line of traffic sitting there, burning old silty plankton right outside the front of the shop, frustrated by their inability to move but not frustrated enough to get out of their cars, demand better public transport or balance on two wheels to get them from a thing to a thing or to buy a thing or to see a thing.
O
We had a fennel salami that Jordan had cut up all nice from the Hippy Shop, a delicious razorsharp baguette from Rottencake, a perfect bit of Brie de Meaux all mouldcrust and teeth-buzzing yellow, and Jordan said “isn’t cheese the best?” and I nodded, my entire head singing and reeling from the throb of a sensation like stopping falling upstairs. There were perfect Scottish Strawberries that weren’t half rotten gifted to us which we ate greedily, the juice rolling down our young chins and all over our fingers before miraculously disappearing, leaving us unsticky and satisfied as if we had had a magical shower with no wetness.
The sun beat down on the road but
The Vindependents tasting takes place on March 21
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 57
SPICED RUM SIDECAR
Frio white wine decanter with ice bowl
This 100% recyclable magnum gift box is new to the market from WBC. With a textured finish and luxury envelope closure, it will keep wines and Champagnes safe and secure with premium strong card and a featured bottleneck
The Sidecar is a much underrated and under-made classic that’s most usually associated with Cognac. But, as we head into autumn, this variation deploys an altogether hipper spirit. The myriad rums on the market allow ample room for experimentation to try to find the perfect base, while the spice elements nod towards forthcoming Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations.
Spread the caster sugar on a saucer. Rub the lemon around the rim of the glass and dip the glass in the sugar to make a coating on the lip. Put the rum, triple sec and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into the glass and garnish with another lemon wedge.
Magnum gift boxes
Starting at £2 excluding VAT, magnum gift boxes are available in black or cranberry and can also be printed on for corporate gifting or customised randing. WBC’s full range of off-the-shelf protective packaging, wine boxes for bottles is in stock now and available for next-day delivery. wbc.co.uk
5cl spiced rum
By filling the detachable bowl with ice before placing the decanter on top, the wine will be gently chilled while aerating. Not just for white wines either: a little warm water can be added to the bowl to help reds reach their ideal serve temperature. Water or ice aside, there’s nothing to stop you adding fairy lights instead. Waitersfriend.com £65
Maximiseholder.itsfull
Caster sugar
gifting and e-commerce potential by pairing it with shredded paper and the recommended shipping outer to keep it safe in transit.
Wedge of lemon
2.5cl Cointreau/triple sec 2.5cl freshly squeezed lemon juice
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 58 condor wines Henge Court Thame OX9 2FX 07508 825 www.condorwines.co.ukorders@condorwines.co.uk488Condor_WinesCondor.Winescondor_winesCondorWines richmond wine agencies The Links, Popham Close MiddlesexHanworth TW13 6JE 020 8744 info@richmondwineagencies.com5550@richmondwineag1 RWA invites you to our Autumn Portfolio Tasting in Bristol Date: Tuesday 27th September 2022 Time: 10am to 4pm Venue: The Airstream | Main Courtyard | Paintworks Event Space | Bath Road | Bristol | BS4 3EH Please RSVP to tim@richmondwineagencies.com and we very much hope to meet you there! SUPPLIER BULLETIN
Cru Heretaunga Albariño. An Albariño from Howell Vineyard, located on the southern borders of the warm Bridge Pa appellation which features stony red tinged soils, infused with calcium, fed by a natural stream flowing through limestone hills nearby. Notes of peaches, salty air, and honeysuckle. A great accompaniment to seafood.
Introducing Smith & Sheth
The brainchild of Steve Smith MW and Brian Sheth, Smith & Sheth is a contemporary negociant. Both partners share a love of wine and an affiliation to New Zealand, and their aim is to create something truly exceptional, selecting only the best fruit from differing terroirs in Heretaunga (Hawke’s Bay, pictured) and Marlborough. Some highlights:
Steve Smith MW will be in the UK this October.
hatch mansfield New Bank House 1 Brockenhurst Road BerkshireAscot SL5 9DL 01344 www.hatchmansfield.cominfo@hatch.co.uk871800@hatchmansfield Hatch AutumnMansfieldTasting Tuesday 20th September 2022 at the Tower of London 10am to 6pm Please register soon because space is limited STRICTLYfrancescaamato@hatch.co.ukTRADEANDPRESSONLY Please join us f r THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022
Cru Wairau Sauvignon Blanc. An old-vine Sauvignon Blanc, sourced from Marlborough’s gravelly Wairau vineyards, along with fruit from the cooler clay soils of the southern valley hillsides. Aromas of lime and passionfruit; a refreshing salty acidity.
THE WINE MERCHANT june 2022 59 LOUIS AGENCIESLATOUR
www.louislatour.co.ukenquiries@louislatour.co.uk7276
12-14 Denman Street London W1D 7HJ 0207 409
Cru Heretaunga Syrah. An expression of two sites: Mangatahi, offering cool-climate fruit, and Omahu, adjacent to the Gimblett Gravels, giving exceptional ripeness to red grapes. Naturally balanced, with juicy raspberries, black pepper, and a touch of anise.
The Dutch CoopersWoodcockBarnHillGreen Lane St Albans AL4 9HJ 01707 www.gonzalezbyassuk.cominfo@gonzalezbyassuk.com274790@gonzalezbyassuk
An opulent nose shows tart tatin, caramelized apples, and crème brûlée.
Gold Medal winning Chardonnay
gonzalez byass uk
THE WINE MERCHANT march 2022 60
Decanter World Wine Awards 2022 Gold medal 95 points
VIEW CATALOGUEPRODUCTDIGITALOURONYOURPHONE
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.
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International Wine Challenge 2022 South African Chardonnay Trophy & Gold medal 96 points
SUPPLIER BULLETIN THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022
vintner systems
The computer system for drinks trade wholesalers and 16importersStation Road BucksCheshamHP5 www.vintner.co.uksales@vintner.co.uk1DH
Pure, intense and refined Chardonnay that wouldn’t look out of place in the Cote de Beaune. Nuanced oak with patisserie and citrus peel flavours with lovely definition supported by chiseled acidity.
Whitehall Chardonnay, Elgin, South Africa 2020
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.
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 september 2022 61
New wines from McLaren Vale and Chianti Classico –and our first from Georgia
MMAD is a new venture from (and acronym of) Shaw + Smith’s Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith MW, winemaker Adam Wadewitz and David LeMire MW, who in early 2021 bought an existing site in the sought-after, high-altitude Blewitt Springs area of McLaren Vale, attracted by the old vine Chenin Blanc, Shiraz and Grenache. Strikingly perfumed and structured, their debut releases illustrate this vineyard’s great potential.
The Dievole estate in Chianti Classico has ancient origins, with records of its name –from “Dio Vuole” or “God willing” – dating back to 1090. Its purchase in 2012 by Alejandro Bulgheroni started the renovation and organic certification (from the 2017 vintage) of over 150 hectares of vineyards. Made by Luigi Temperini with the support of Alberto Antonini, the wines include a rich and complex Trebbiano and “Vigna di Sessina” – the best selection of Sangiovese from this outstanding, fossil-rich site.
...
liberty wines 020 7720 www.libertywines.co.ukorder@libertywines.co.uk5350@liberty_wines THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 The Wine Merchant Magazine Essential Oil
We are excited to welcome three new additions to our list this month. Bedoba (meaning “Day of Luck”) hails from Kakheti – Georgia’s most important wine region – near the eastern border with Azerbaijan. Made by winemakers Nugzar Ksovreli and Thierry Fontannaz from Saperavi – a teinturier grape and Georgia’s signature red variety – fermented in a combination of stainless-steel tanks and traditional clay qvevri vessels then aged in used American oak barrels and 5,000-litre wooden vats, the wine is savoury and spicy with fresh acidity, soft tannins and a seamless texture.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2021 62 SUPPLIER BULLETIN
is not yet available. While we work on that, the only way to experience the heady, just-printed aroma of your favourite trade magazine is to get your own copy, and breathe it in while it’s fresh. If you don’t qualify for a free copy, you can subscribe for just £75 a year within the UK. Email claire@winemerchantmag.com for details. Or you can read every issue online, as a flippable PDF – just visit There’swinemerchantmag.com.noregistration,and no fee. And, sadly, no aroma.
Louis XIV described Tokaj as ‘the wine of kings and king of wines’ when he tasted it. In 1630 the greatness of the Oremus vineyard was first recorded and today it enjoys the highest universal recognition. The Álvarez family, of Vega Sicilia fame, founded Tokaj-Oremus in 1993. The estate is based in Tolcsva, where a modern winery was connected to the maze of cellars which have been found there since the 13th century.
The wine of kings and king of wines
TOKAJ-OREMUS buckingham schenk Unit 5, The E www.buckingham-schenk.co.ukinfo@buckingham-schenk.co.uk01753BracknellEasthampsteadCentreRoadRG121NF521336@BuckSchenk@buckinghamschenk
To find out more about our range of dry and sweet Tokaj from Oremus, get in touch with your Berkmann account manager now or email info@berkmann.co.uk
Founded in 1796, Finca Casa Lo Alto is a 160ha estate based in Utiel-Requena and is one of the oldest wine producers in the area. The estate is surrounded by almond groves and pine trees and is blessed with an exceptional terroir. The Mediterranean climate makes it ideal for growing Bobal, Garnacha and the native white variety Tardana. Casa lo Alto winemaker Victor Marqués is an advocate of minimal intervention, which gives his wines their unique character.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 63 BERKMANN wine cellars 104d St John Street London EC1M 4EH 020 7609 www.berkmann.co.ukindies@berkmann.co.uk4711@berkmannwine@berkmann_wine
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 64 SUPPLIER BULLETIN 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
Matthew Jukes, Daily Mail Weekend, November 2021
I still cannot quite believe the value offered by this stunningly rewarding wine...The colourful label gives you an idea of the open, refreshing flavours in this engaging red.”
For more information, please contact your Mentzendorff Account Manager
“
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 65 mentzendorff The Woolyard 52 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD 020 7840 www.mentzendorff.co.ukinfo@mentzendorff.co.uk3600
Hailing from the Alentejo region of Portugal, the Geno Branco and Geno Tinto are made by the Cartuxa winery exclusively for distribution by Mentzendorff in the UK. The name Geno is derived from an old dialectal term for a young farmer, who is depicted on the eye-catching label designed by artist, Antonio Palolo, whilst the wines themselves are deliciously fresh and approachable.
“
The white counterpart to the red Cartuxa, this is a glorious slice of Alentejo sunshine and stunning local flair. Juicy, ripe and mildly exotic, it also has crisp acidity and masses of charm.”
This classically London Dry style gin is produced from both grape and grain neutral spirit together with 13 different botanicals to create a perfectly balanced Juniper-forward Gin. Hints of fresh citrus, cardamom and a special South African ingredient, Rooibos (Redbush tea) adding a floral element to this refreshing and zesty gin. For further information contact your Account Manager
Gary & Kathy Jordan of Jordan Estate, Stellenbosch, also have a home in the UK, where they have produced and launched their very own gin. Mousehall Sussex Dry Gin is Mousehall's signature gin. The botanicals are distilled in a traditional 400L Copper Pot Still at the historical and medieval Mousehall Country Estate in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Mousehall Sussex Dry Gin is made sustainably and handcrafted by the Jordan family, with daughter Christy at the helm, in their Distillery & Winery at Mousehall Country Estate.
AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL WINE AGENCIES 28 Recreation Ground Road LincolnshireStamford PE9 1EW 01780 www.abs.wineorders@abs.wine755810@ABSWines
Over the years, Glenn and his team have racked up an impressive 339 gold medals and 127 trophies across various wine shows. Founded in 1977 by Irishman Dr John Lagan, Xanadu is a true pioneer of the West Australian wine region of Margaret River. With a rich history of producing wines of uncompromising quality, Xanadu wines are renowned for their distinct character that embody all that is Margaret River. This Mediterranean climate and gravel sandy loam soils deliver ideal conditions enabling Chardonnay and Cabernet to flourish. These varieties, alongside Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, are the primary focus at Xanadu.
are invited to GCF’s Private Wine Days –The Ultimate Portfolio Event For 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. Other 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… …if you thought you knew GCF, think again, a lot has changed and it’s time to take a new look… https://gcfprivatewinedaysoctober2022.eventbrite.co.uk « PEOPLE, TERROIRS, PASSION » SAVE THE DATE 10:00am to 5:00pm on both days 16th Floor, 10 York Road, London STRICTLY TRADE & PRESS ONLY October 4th & 5th 2022 THE ULTIMATE PORTFOLIO EVENT
Huge congrats to chief winemaker Glenn Goodall at Xanadu wines on being named as 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year.
Congratulations to Xanadu
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 66 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
SUPPLIER BULLETIN - Embankment (10-minute walk) - Charing Cross (10-minute walk)
You
In the fashion industry. I worked for Katherine Hamnett in my early 20s and enjoyed the all-female environment, and Katherine’s desire to work with ethical
tells a different story. I was born in Nottingham, but my love for Liverpool comes from their strength to fight for justice and their hate of our government and the newspapers protecting them. In Liverpool you still cannot buy The Sun Good on ‘em, and they’re pretty good at football too.
How do you relax?
With a glass of good wine.
Do you have any sporting loyalties?
What’s your proudest moment?
What job would you be doing if you weren’t in the wine trade?
Any hidden talents? Emotional intelligence.
materials and not exploit workers. She was at the forefront of this movement.
Giving birth to my amazing sons. Dillon (pictured), my eldest, is 25 and after completing a history degree started working for me in the wine industry and fell in love. So after completing his WSET Level 3 and going to Kerala in India to teach English to local women, he joined me at Flora Fine Wines and manages the bar. Milo, my youngest, just turned 19, has finished a creative media course and is wondering what to do next. He helps us in the bar to earn some extra money washing up, but he’s not discovered the wonders of wine yet.
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. It breaks down class barriers and looks at how we behave in different environments. Also I love Dorset.
Vega Sicilia 1968, with my grandparents at a birthday party. I was only 14, so just had a small glass, but it captured my heart.
We’re granting you three wishes. Go. My mother meets my kids. Speak fluent Spanish. Humans to care more about other humans and their surroundings.
Abbi Moreno’s Spanish-born grandparents established the famous Moreno Wines business in 1968. She became managing director in 1997 and left shortly after the company was sold to Boutinot in 2016. She took over the original Moreno store in 2019, which is now a wine shop and tapas bar trading as Flora Fine Wines.
THE WINE MERCHANT september 2022 67
Who’s your favourite music artist? Oh, I have so many. Freddie Mercury, Nina Simone, Brother Man …
Abbi Moreno
What’s the first wine you remember drinking?
What’s your favourite place in the UK? Dorset by the coast. We used to go camping there every year, when the kids were little.
Give us a Netflix recommendation.
Q&A
What’s your most treasured possession? Pictures of my mother, pre digital. She died two weeks after my 16th birthday and I miss her every day. She was an art historian at Leeds Uni and although I never knew her as a grown woman, I know she would have been proud of what I have done and how I have grown as a woman. She was an active feminist. In the early 80s she started an all-female photographic studio in Leeds to help young female artists have a space to work freely in an industry dominated by men, as the wine industry is. As women, we deal with misogyny every day of our lives, but little is done or said about this.
Boyz. It’s morally twisted and it looks at superheroes and how they exploit their powers. Those that you think are good are rotten to the core.
Only to Liverpool FC. Strangely enough I am not a Londoner, although my accent
What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
Flora Fine Wines, Maida Vale, London
Who’s your favourite wine writer? I struggle with this as I feel that honesty is lost in the wine industry. But if I had to pick one it would be Jancis Robinson.
“Aged 14, a glass of Vega Sicilia captured my heart”
