24 minute read
BRIGITTE BORDEAUX
Merchant Profile: Brigitte Bordeaux, Nottingham
A steep learning curve, even for a teacher
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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
By Nigel Huddleston
The 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.
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.
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. “We had to go and sit down with the planning officer to convince him we were opening a reputable establishment with well-behaved guests”
“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].
“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.”
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.
“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.
“But the dream was to open a place like this, though I had no idea how to go about doing it.”
So how did you go about it?
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.
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.
Was there ever a thought of giving up?
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.
I spent the autumn term teaching and trying to
Kat Stead, Sherwood, Nottingham, July 2022
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.
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 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.
What was the design approach with the physical shop and bar?
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.
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.
And how did you go about filling the shelves?
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.
The outside seating area extends the bar’s seating capacity How did that own-label wine come about?
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,
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.
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.
How has the supplier base expanded?
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.
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 our bestsellers.
We’ve 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,
Enotria and Liberty were the company’s original two suppliers. These days there are about 16 on the roster
Maltby & Greek, Marta Vine for Portugal, Dreyfuss Ashby for South Africa and the Loire.
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 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.
Do you have a favourite region or country? Do you feel obliged to say Bordeaux?
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.
What’s the best thing about running a wine shop?
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 The Wine Merchant magazine
and, on the back of that, we had some Hungarian winemakers who did an event in our garden, which was really successful.
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.
We thought 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.
There’s a lot going on in the world at the moment. What are the biggest challenges facing businesses like yours?
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.
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.
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 the community.
You can go to 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.
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.
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.
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.
DUNCAN MCLEAN
Northabout A long tradition of fine wine and exotic food has its roots in wars with France
The shop pictured circa 1910
The 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 ambition.
For a century 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 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.
So it was 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.
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.
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.)
After 163 years, I think we’re just about working out how to keep them happy.The biggest change since 1859 has been the democratisation of wine
Reggio Emilia Duncan Mclean is proprietor of Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
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
You 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.
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.)
“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.
“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.”
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 limitededition wines don’t do as well as hoped, the directors – and their friends and families – will happily snap them up for their personal enjoyment.
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.
“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.
“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.”
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 Hunky Punk.
Aside from the sustainability credentials, is there any other theme running through the wines that Frederick’s offers? “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 in.
“Fratelli 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.”
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.
“We want 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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
From left: Guy Smith, Stuart Bowman-Hood and Will Willis
SOME KEY AGENCIES
Passel Estate, Margaret River
“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.
“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.
“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
Des Annereaux, Bordeaux
“We have an exclusive on this. It’s organic and unbelievably good.
“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.” annereaux.com
Aegerter, Burgundy
“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.” aegerter.fr/en
Château La Sable, Luberon
“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
Jesus Madrazo
“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.”
Lozano Family, Rioja and La Mancha
“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
Julia Kemper, Dão
“Julia is a real live wire, a real experimenter and very high profile in Portugal and a lot of export markets, but she hasn’t done much here yet. From high in the mountainous Dao region, Quinta do Cruziero has been part of the Melo family for more than 400 years. Now farmed biodynamically, the wines are so focused and refined and wellnoted by international wine critics. This is a real find for us.” juliakemperwines.com
Sponsored by Frederick’s Wine frederickswine.com 07823 344173
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE AND WIN WBC PRIZES
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
PRIZE 1
100 x personalised six-bottle jute wine
or beer bags, printed in two colours on one side. Made from sustainable jute with a wipe-clean, strong laminated lining. Your branding, message or artwork will be applied to the side in spot colour. Value: £550
PRIZE 2
Pulpsafe transit packaging. WBC’s famous Pulpsafe system offers the highest levels of protection for shipping your bottles. It also boasts the greenest possible eco-credentials and is a cinch to use. Its flexible nature allows for some variations in bottle shapes and sizes that more rigid material wouldn’t accommodate. Value: £250
PRIZE 3
72 rolls of personalised tape printed in two colours. This 50mm tape is a great way to get your brand onto your packed items. Available in PVC-Poly and paper, to suit a wide range of packing needs, giving your packaging a polished and professional finish. Choose from white, kraft or clear. Value: £200
HOW TO ENTER
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.
Correct entries received by the closing date of Tuesday, October 4 will be entered into a draw with five winners selected at random.
Ts & Cs: This competition is jointly organised by WBC and The Wine Merchant. ONE entry per business. Retailers only. Entries received after October 4 will not be considered. No correspondence will be entered into. Winners will be named on November 15.
PRIZE 4
VacuVin retail kit. Exclusive to WBC, this wine accessory countertop display contains Vacuvin’s best-selling accessories. These include 12 wine save stoppers (sets of two); 11 active wine coolers (silver); 10 wine saver pumps and stoppers; and nine winged corkscrews. Value: £230
PRIZE 5
Mathusalem Sommelier Champagne
sabre. The ultimate Champagne accessory, helping to carry on the tradition of sabrage. Comes with a rosewood handle and supplied in a wooden presentation box. Value: £120
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