The Wine Merchant issue 119

THE WINE MERCHANT.

Scottish recycling scheme ‘could add 40p per bottle’

Retailers in Scotland are worried that the country’s deposit return scheme for bottles and cans could cause problems for the independent trade.

The scheme, which is meant to go live next August, will levy a 20p surcharge on most drinks containers, which retailers would be obliged to recycle.

Many independent traders agree with the core aim of the scheme, which is to boost Scotland’s recycling rates. But they say that both the drinks industry and the Scottish population in general need more clarity about how it will work in practice.

The scheme applies to producers, importers and anyone marketing or selling drinks “packaged in a single-use container made from PET plastic, glass, steel or aluminium sized between 50ml and three litres,” according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Retailers will be obliged to check that their suppliers are registered with the DRS. Although most Scottish drinks producers and importers will be aware of the scheme, it’s far from clear how many of their counterparts in other parts of the UK yet understand it or are preparing to register.

There is also confusion over how English, Welsh and Northern Irish suppliers will adjust their prices for Scottish customers to incorporate the 20p levy.

An independent magazine for independent retailers Issue 119, November 2022

The Square, Warwick

Independents call for more clarity on proposals which will see customers return empties to reclaim 20p deposits

Agathe Lamour is on the fast track to retail management at Authentique Epicerie & Bar in Tufnell Park, north London, after impressing owner Alexandre Bal with her natural hospitality skills. Read why she’s this month’s Rising Star on page 8.

DRS confusion with nine months to

go

Archie McDiarmid of Luvians in St Andrews took part in a governmentorganised factfinding trip to Norway around eight years ago to observe the successful DRS scheme there. He supports the Scottish DRS but is critical of the way the final plans are being handled.

“It seems to have got very confused in its execution versus what I think originally were some fairly laudable and sensible goals,” he says.

Richard Meadows of Great Grog in Edinburgh says one supplier has predicted that the DRS will result in the on-shelf price of drinks rising by 40p a bottle.

“I’m really hoping it won’t happen,” he says. “It’s an extra cost to the consumer. An extra tax on Scottish consumers at exactly the moment they don’t need it.”

It’s expected that many retailers will install cashpoint-sized “reverse vending machine” devices, similar to the ones seen in Norway, that scan barcodes on bottles and cans that customers recycle, and automatically refund the 20p deposit.

Meadows can sense problems with this, even though he says his premises are big enough to accommodate such machines.

“The consumer is going to have to get in their car and find the shop. And if the machine’s not working, they’ll have to find another shop, and they’re just going to dump the empty bottles. It’s going to be

like a charity shop outside,” he says.

McDiarmid at Luvians wonders if smaller stores will automatically be at a disadvantage when it comes to recycling. In Norway, he says, recycling facilities tend to be “the size of shipping containers”.

“Obviously, those tend to get parked outside big supermarkets. So if you’re making a choice about where you’re going to do the wine shopping, and you’ve got to get rid of 20 or 30 wine bottles, it’s much more practical to go to the supermarket – and then we’ve basically driven people from the independents.”

“It’s the licensing free-for-all revisited”

“In general I’m absolutely for this as a way to lower emissions, but with Biffa as the main contractor it’s going to be tough going. The start date in August will be hard on those of us in Edinburgh as the festival already has the roads gridlocked most of the day. As with the licensing change in the mid 2000s, it will have been the lobbyists for supermarkets crafting the legislation, I suspect.”

Andrew Lundy, Vino, Edinburgh

“There has been very little outreach to independents. I remember the new licensing laws coming in and quite frankly the council were not sure how to implement those either, and even now the detail is a free-for-all. Which is where I think this scheme will end up, as they have not looked at the detail.

“Right now we are not concerning ourselves until closer to the bell as they still have a lot to sort out.

“How do we deal with bottles that are sent to our wholesale customers? If our customers come back to us with their bottles, how on the high street do we store all this empty glass in small shops already at bursting point? How do we ensure that the bottles were bought from us and we don’t just become a recycling point handing out cash?

“Overall, a good concept. Just not rolled out sensibly.”

Douglas Wood, WoodWinters, Bridge of Allan

Dulwich is latest to welcome Drop

The launch of Drop in Dulwich last month marks the fifth site for the franchise-based company – and there is a lot more to come.

The group’s commercial director and head buyer, Wieteke Teppema, confirms that Ealing will be home to the sixth Drop site, opening early next year, and a further six are planned before the end of 2023.

These will all be within London, but the following year will see the company’s footprint extend beyond the capital.

Teppema says: “Our warehouse is in Staffordshire, which is bang in the middle of the UK and well placed to facilitate other franchises throughout the country.”

Teppema says Drop is attracting a multitude of talented people, such as Hayley Try Carreira, who is the owner and operator at Dulwich.

Try Carrira says: “After years in the London restaurant industry, I wanted to dive into the fun of wine. Drop has given me the perfect balance between being a business owner, working with a great network of professional people, and the latest technology with their delivery app.”

Teppema says that although the company is open to working with potential franchisees from different backgrounds, so far all its operators have come from the hospitality sector.

“The idea is that it’s people who have the experience of running businesses and working with wine, but don’t necessarily have the opportunity to raise the investment,” she says. “So Drop facilitates that through a group of investors.

“We don’t necessarily benefit from that, we just facilitate that connection. The proviso is that each of the shops buys from the Drop selection, which is something that I can put together. Currently we have a

selection of around 400 wines.

“Not each of the sites will have all of those wines available, because we account for the fact that someone in Clapham drinks differently to someone in central London, for example. Tastes vary according to the customer base. Every site has got something a little bit different – and that applies to the small plates we offer, too.”

Drop began in 2016 as a delivery app developed by Will Palmer and Ian Campbell, owners of The 10 Cases restaurant in Soho. Since then, the app

has been facilitating wine deliveries to Londoners within an hour, and the bar and shop in Drury Lane, Covent Garden, has opened.

After Palmer and Campbell announced their intention to launch Drop as a franchise business, as reported in the June 2021 edition of The Wine Merchant, franchises duly followed, the first being Drop at No 11, in Amersham: the first and, so far, only site outside of London.

Branches in Clapham and Kensington opened earlier this year.

Top: Hayley Try Carreira and, below, some of the range at the Dulwich branch

Gribbins plan a retirement tour

After almost 40 years in the wine trade, operating from their shop in Melrose in the Scottish Borders, Ian and Joanne Gribbin are retiring. They started Abbey Fine Wines in Abbey Street in 1984, relocating to their current location in Market Square 20 years ago.

“Over the years we have supplied some of Scotland’s most prestigious hotels including Gleneagles, The Witchery and Champany,” says Ian. “Private customers, however, are the lifeblood of small qualityfocused businesses and we can count some of the most loyal around, many going back almost the entire life of the business.”

Ian attributes their success to “hard work” balanced with “quality down-time in the quiet season”. “It’s the secret of longevity and contentment,” he adds.

Having sold the business to new owners George and Andrew Deans, Ian and Joanne can enjoy their retirement and concentrate on their social lives. Ian says: “We intend to enjoy catching up with old winemaker friends around the world including Ian Hollick from Coonawarra, Andrew Wigan [senior winemaker at Peter Lehmann] and Viv Thomson at Bests. The wine trade is about people and some of the characters and personalities we have met over 39 years will remain with us forever.”

First franchises for Broadway

Broadway Wine Co has made two Midlands convenience store operators its first wholesale franchisees.

Munminder Gill will cover the Black Country and Sanal Sundaresan will operate in Oxfordshire.

The franchisees won’t be operating from their own shops, but will be on the road, building the wholesale business. Gill and Sundaresan have both completed their training at the head office and warehouse and are up and running.

There are already two more franchises in the pipeline.

James Kemp and Doug Brown, owners of Worcestershire-based Broadway, partnered with Taylor Made Franchising earlier this year.

In the March issue of The Wine Merchant, Brown said the company has recognised an untapped market and was keen to recruit convenience stores to operate regional franchises.

Brown said that “smaller local convenience stores have never really offered or focused on a premium wine range”.

• Jeroboams is opening its ninth branch, in Wimbledon Village, next month, a location it has been targeting for some time.

• Pulp Fiction opened in Folkestone last month. Owner Ben Denner has set up the wine shop and bar in the former Prince Albert Hotel, on Rendezvous Street.

• Joel and Fleur Penny are waiting on licensing approval to open The Signal Post in Worthing. The couple, directors of The New Amsterdam pub in the town, hope to open the wine bar, deli and tap house in a former Ladbrokes betting shop.

Elba needs a helper

Spare a thought for Idris Elba who, as recently reported in The Evening Standard, had to axe expansion plans for his wine bar in Battersea because he just can’t get the staff. Idris opened Porte Noir with business partner, David Farber, near Kings Cross Station last year and it has been very well received, with glowing reviews. So, if Idris Elba – we repeat, Idris Elba – cannot find people who want to work for him, then what hope for everybody else?

Minty notes in his wine

For anyone uncomfortable with numerical scoring systems for wine reviews – and for those of us who may be familiar with the way pre-loved LPs are sold – a solution may have been staring us in the face all this time.

It’s fallen to Conor Strutt, manager of Peckham Cellars and a new recruit to The Wine Merchant’s roster of columnists, to identify it.

“I rate wines the way records are rated on the Discogs website,” he reports. Hence his notes will be peppered with abbreviations like G and VG+, which are fairly self-explanatory, or the highest praise of all, M, which vinyl junkies will recognise as “mint”.

A braver man

The excellent Park Vintners blog is an invaluable source of industry news, including the recent scoop that coowner Alex Roberts had been forced to resign. His transgression: sending some Bordeaux tasting notes and a beer recommendation to a friend, from a personal email account, before these had been transcribed as shelf talkers. “I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign,” he said.

Partner Wayne Blomfield spent a happy week manning the shop on his own before deciding it was time to recruit. Luckily Alex was available.

“Alex recognises that he made an error of judgement and has accepted his mistake, which is why I was delighted to welcome him back into wine retail,” says Wayne, “particularly considering the experience and stability he brings to the heart of Park Vintners.”

Ian Gribbin opened the Melrose shop in 1984

Covid’s a cruel blow for Jane

Olfactory impairment is a common symptom of Covid. While it seems that many people regain their sense of smell and taste within a few weeks, there are some who are experiencing a more lasting problem.

Jane Salt at Hay Wines in Ledbury had what she describes as a “mild case” of Covid in October 2021, and more than 12 months later she is having to rely on her team to do all the tastings for the business.

“I cannot drink or taste red wine at all,” she says. “I don’t get any fruit in it and it just smells and tastes horrible. It’s difficult to define the smell that I get from it, but it’s unpleasant.

“With white wine, I can drink it, but it’s not quite the same as it should be, so I wouldn’t trust my palate to be the best judge of white wines.”

There are no tried and tested solutions for this problem as yet. But Jane has continued to do her own research and hasn’t lost hope that her tasting faculties will return.

“I used to work in pharmaceuticals,” she says. “I’m not a trained doctor or anything but I’ve learned a lot about medicine in the past. My research indicates that it can take up to two or three years for it to come back fully and then for a very small percentage of people, it doesn’t come back at all.

“Mine recovered a little bit and then stopped and it’s been fairly consistent since. But I am hopeful because it’s all about the taste buds regenerating and I would assume if you’re older, that takes longer.

“My 24-year-old daughter got Covid around the same time as I did and although she lost her sense of taste and smell completely, it was only for a couple of weeks and it’s been fine since.”

After reading an online article indicating that melatonin or nicotine tablets could help, Jane has started taking melatonin. But when she spoke to The Wine Merchant after the first week of the new regimen, she had noticed no improvement. “It’s not going to do me any harm,” she says, “so we’ll see what happens.”

Scientists are still unclear why Covid affects people’s senses of taste and smell in different ways and why a minority of sufferers take months to regain their sensory abilities.

Some experts believe that in most cases, viral damage to sensory neurons in the nose will repair itself over time, but in rare cases can be permanent.Jane Salt

Three independent merchants win £1,000 worth of New Zealand wine

New Zealand Winegrowers has announced the winners of its independent promotion which was organised earlier this year.

Themed Pour Yourself a Glass of New Zealand, the campaign allowed retailers freedom to showcase the diversity of New Zealand wine in any way they wanted.

The judging panel was chaired by Charlotte Read, general manager of marketing at New Zealand Winegrowers in New Zealand.

Charlotte says: “The standard of entries was so hard to judge this year with some really strong entries. This is such a good initiative which is fantastic for the New Zealand category. It is great to see the efforts people go to promote New Zealand wine.”

After much deliberation, the following indies were chosen as winners:

• Amps Wine Merchants, Oundle

• Vinotopia Wine Merchants, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

• The Whalley Wine Shop, Lancashire

All three will receive £1,000 (excluding VAT) worth of New Zealand wine for their trade accounts from the suppliers they nominate.

In addition, a consumer competition took place, attracting 265 entries. Ten winners from 10 stores received £100 worth of New Zealand wine selected by the participating store.

In total, 27 retailers signed up and 34 branches were involved.

Delight in every moment.

Delight in every moment.

We’ve been sending our champagne over to you from Épernay ever since our family first created it back in 1849. Refined and elegant, it’s the perfect accompaniment to every special occasion. Of course, what constitutes a special occasion is entirely up to you.

We’ve been sending our champagne over to you from Épernay ever since our family first created it back in 1849. Refined and elegant, it’s the perfect accompaniment to every special occasion. Of course, what constitutes a special occasion is entirely up to you.

Rising Stars

Authentique, selling wine and food only from French-speaking regions, was the first shop launched by founder Alexandre Bal, who has since grown the business with The French Market and The Tufnell Park Bakery.

Bal admits that having “one or two” French staff in his business definitely helps. But where to find them?

A Facebook page designed for French people in the UK seeking work or just general advice is a source that Bal has turned to in the past. As well as recruiting his head chef this way, he says he was lucky enough to also find Agathe.

“Agathe has been working for us for about 18 months now,” says Bal. “She had experience in hospitality and also worked as a stewardess for Eurostar. She really liked what we do in terms of bakery so she started at The French Market on that side of things, but very quickly we saw how much she likes wine.

“She has completed her WSET Level 2 and will be taking on Level 3 soon. She became an assistant general manager after only eight months, and just this month I promoted her to GM at Authentique.

“She is doing really well. She’s a very bubbly person, always smiling, and someone you can see will do very well in retail because she is so good with customers. They always ask for her by name. She gives them great advice and is pretty good at selling as well.”

Agathe had already been living in the UK for a couple of years before Eurostar laid her off in September 2020.

She explains how much she enjoys her new career. “I love a challenge,” she says, “and I’ve learned a lot about wine and I’m continuing to learn so much.

“I have only been GM for a couple of weeks and I have taken on a bit of extra responsibility. I like managing my team and everyone is happy to come to work every day, that’s the most important thing.”

Agathe believes that being French certainly helps. She says: “I think I understand the products more easily and when it comes to selling cheese or bread to go with the wine, I am so familiar with these things already, but of course on the wine side there is so much to learn.

Agathe

Lamour Authentique Epicerie & Bar

Tufnell Park, north London

“We do the wine club twice a month and I help Alex with that, and it is a really good opportunity to taste new wines.” Agathe is particularly enthusiastic about Alsace wines. “I just love them, especially Riesling,” she says.

Agathe wins a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com

NOT YOU AGAIN! customers we could do without

Cooking steak ‘n’ lemon tonight?

Donald Mitherwich Visit the newish Wine Merchant website It is much, much better than the old one. winemerchantmag.com ISSUED BY THE WINE MARKETING BOARD

CHOOSE WINE.

Congratulations to the five Wine Merchant reader survey respondents whose names were drawn at random and who each win a Coravin, courtesy of our partner Hatch Mansfield.

Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York

Anthony Borges, The Wine Centre, Great Horkesley, Essex

Zoran Ristanovic, City Wine Collection, London

Daniel Grigg , Museum Wines, Dorset Riaz Syed, Stonewines, London

40. 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 november 2022

ZENO COUNTS DOWN TO ZERO

Five years ago, David Hodgson and Will Willis ran into each other at a trade fair in “a very cold, very snowy Helsinki”.

Hodgson had decided to give up drinking alcohol in his 50s. His reflections had led him to research a specific style of wine. “I said to Will, ‘I think the alcohol-free category is set for something big’,” Hodgson says. “And Will agreed. We discussed it at length, our dreams and what could be possible.”

“It was very serendipitous,” says Willis, who had been thinking something similar. Willis had already had some experience of the processes used to make low- and no-alcohol wine, having encountered Tony Dann, the founder of pioneering alcoholremoval company Conetec, in the early 2000s while he was working at Freixenet. But like most wine drinkers, he wasn’t exactly enthused by the results so far.

“People in the trade were saying, ‘The beer and spirits guys are doing it OK, but wine’s struggling,’” Hodgson says. “And so, we said let’s have a look at it: is anyone drilling really deeply into every stage of this process?”

So began the long and sometimes difficult process that would eventually result in Zeno, Hodgson and Willis’s range of 0% alcohol wines: a red, a white and a sparkling that have already earned rave reviews from winemakers and, in the case of the red, a gold medal from the IWSC with its first release.

But Zeno’s remarkable early success did not come easy. With Covid interrupting the early stages of the brand’s development, and with many of the early samples

prompting Hodgson and Willis to ask whether making a high-quality no alcohol wine “really was possible”, it’s perhaps no surprise that both embraced stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of resilience, during lockdown.

But the more they read about it, the more they realised that the ideas of stoicism’s founder, Zeno, chimed with their ideas for the brand. As well as adopting his name, Zeno’s four virtues – moderation, wisdom, justice, and courage – would become the values underpinning the brand. Another core stoic tenet, “the obstacle is the way”, also became something of a mantra during the development process.

But the keys to Zeno’s success are not just found in philosophy. Science, too, has played its part. With trained chemist Jane Masters MW joining the team, and with close ongoing relationships with both their Spanish winery and their de-alcoholisation partners, the Zeno method pushed the boundaries of the category norm, focusing on texture and finesse.

“All of our stages have Zeno ownership and passion. Our winery partner has learnt as much as we have,” says Hodgson.

“The keys that make Zeno different are better vacuum and lower temperatures,” adds Willis. “And Jane was adamant right from the start that we didn’t want to use sugar in the way it was being used to rebuild the palate once the alcohol has been removed, so we looked in other areas. The work we’ve done on mouthfeel and texturising without losing those key aromatics, finding something else that those aromatics and flavour compounds can stick to, is really astounding.”

Zeno is setting new standards for a fast-growing alcohol-free wine category, with a range that does not compromise on quality. The brand’s founders, David Hodgson and Will Willis, discuss wine, technology and Greek philosophy

Sponsored editorial Visit zenowine.com for more information Available from frederickswine.com

None of these processes are cheap. And as Willis points out, if consumers want a quality de-alcoholised wine, they are going to have to accept that “what they save in duty, they will spend on quality”.

But neither partner is in any doubt there is a market for high-quality zero alcohol wine with RRPs, such as Zeno’s, around the £10 to £12 mark.

“We don’t want to be preachy about it at all. I don’t want to force sobriety on anyone,” says Hodgson. “All we would like to do is to be part of their lifestyle choice. They might be sick of being hungover on Monday. Or they might want to drink wines on the weekend and ours for the rest of the week, or they might want to give up completely. All of these are great. It’s just being part of the change.”

Will Willis

David Hodgson

br i g h t i d eas

38: The big rebrand Frankie Cherry Reserve Wines, Manchester

In a nutshell: Reserve Wines owner Kate Goodman has worked with marketing manager, Frankie, on a complete overhaul of the company’s corporate identity, taking in all five shops and the website.

Why was it time for a rebrand? “When Kate founded the business back in 2003, her ethos of breaking down boundaries and making wine accessible wasn’t as widely shared as it is now.

“It’s now a given that independent wine merchants say, ‘we’re not stuffy, we’re fun’. So while it’s clear that the original idea behind the business was a really powerful one, and it’s still at the core of the business, it’s no longer enough to say that.

“The wine world is very competitive and there are so many other shops out there, all kind of saying a similar thing, and all selling similar products with similar prices. Obviously we work really hard to hunt out and work with amazing winemakers and producers, but there are lots of different wine companies a customer could possibly choose.

“So we’ve taken the original mission and just unpacked it a little bit and developed it. For us it’s all about attention to detail, giving customers the best service we possibly can and doing the best job we can.”

How long did the whole project take? “Kate and I started talking about it around this time last year. Then we spent a bit of time thinking about different agencies that we could work with and met with a few of them. It’s important that you really gel with them because you’re going to be working together for a long time. I’d say from the first meeting with the agency to launch, it’s been about 10 months.

“Working with an agency meant that

it was more expensive than going with a freelance designer, for example, but it depends how deep you go. We wanted to go right back to the beginning and think about where we fit in the wine world and how we set ourselves apart.

“We’re still figuring out the final costs. All sorts of new things keep popping into our minds like branding our van – we haven’t got around to that yet.”

What’s one of your favourite changes?

“I’m really pleased with all of it, but the small things are fun. We’ve added some really lovely denim aprons and branded corkscrews. We’ve now got beautiful branded tissue paper from a local supplier in Preston. I think it’s the last tissue paper mill still in production in the UK, which

is really nice. The tissue paper is a great marketing tool. When a customer buys a bottle for dinner party, wrapped in our tissue, and takes it to somebody’s house, there’s that moment of connection where they think, ‘oh, Reserve Wines – I’ll look them up and pop into the shop’. I think you’re missing a trick if you’re not doing something like that.”

How does the team feel about all the changes?

“I think change can be quite a big deal, but then it can really just breathe such fresh life into something and it kind of energises everyone again. It’s had a really positive impact on the team. I guess we hadn’t really thought of ourselves as a brand before – we were just a neighbourhood wine shop. But now that we’re thinking in that way, it really motivates everyone, because we’re all pulling in the same direction and we all know where we’re heading.”

Tell us about your online activity. “Pre-Covid, we were very focused on our physical sites. We had a website, but we weren’t really using it for online sales. Obviously the power of digital soon became very apparent but the digital space is so much more competitive, much more saturated. We have other touch points like social media, too, and we work with a social media consultant who comes and does our content for us.”

Ah, that explains the video where manager Garry shows off the new look. “Yes, that video was all about keeping things fun and just getting across the personality and the people who are part of our brand. Again, that all ties into the customer experience.”

Reserve Wines has five branches

Tell us about a bright idea that’s worked for you and you too could win a prize.

Email claire@winemerchantmag.com

Frankie wins a WBC gift box containing some premium drinks and a box of chocolates.

Top left: Boxes and signage have fun with unfamiliar grape varieties

Top right: Branded tissue paper is a conversation starter

Below: Kate Goodman and manager Garry Lui at the rebranded Didsbury branch

Big Beltie Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

The juice was unearthed on a buying trip to Xavier Roger in the Languedoc, and the name was inspired by the Belted Galloway breed of cattle, which grows a double layer of hair for winter warmth and so produces a less fatty meat. A decent, affordable Cab, with ripe berry juiciness and a leanness that suits the back story.

RRP: £10.99 ABV: 13.5% House of Townend (01482 638888) houseoftownend.com

Feudo Disisa Granmassenti Perricone 2018

From Sicily’s Monreale DOC comes this inky, brooding, 100% Perricone, a highly-pigmented variety that is in short supply these days and most commonly employed as a blending partner for Nero d’Avola. Definitely a winter warmer, with red-fruit aromas and a moreish, slightly bitter liquorice edge to the palate.

RRP: £21.95 ABV: 14%

Jeroboams Trade (020 7288 8888) jeroboamstrade.co.uk

Pierro Fire Gully Chardonnay 2020

Margaret River Chardonnay is given many compliments, but “eminently affordable” isn’t among the most common. But here, for a while at least, is one that hits rare heights for not much more than 20 quid. Lots to love here, including lemon-curd richness, zesty citrus notes, a salty tang and shards of ginger.

RRP: £21.95 ABV: 14%

Jeroboams Trade (020 7288 8888) jeroboamstrade.co.uk

Royal Tokaji Essencia 2009

Essencia is only made in exceptional vintages, 2009 being the seventh, and one of the smallest, yielding fewer than 1,400 37.5cl bottles. Free-run Furmint juice was collected in glass jars and allowed to do its thing at a glacial pace in a cool, dark cellar. How to describe it? An other-worldly symphony of dates, honey, orange peel, figs and countless other exotica. Too good for us.

RRP: £900 ABV: 1.8% Bibendum (0845 263 6924) bibendum-wine.co.uk

Clos Galena

Formiga

de Seda 2021

The late Miguel Pérez founded this Priorat estate in 1999, excited by its potential to be run on sustainable, ecological lines. His widow Merche Dalmau continues the mission. This 80% Garnacha Blanca, 20% Viognier blend is a joy, with a mixture of barrel fermentation and lees ageing adding intrigue to the citrus elements.

RRP: £19.99 ABV: 15%

Daniel Lambert Wines (01656 661010) daniellambert.wine

Poças 20 Years Old Tawny Port

From a producer tracing its history back to 1918, this masterful contribution to the aged tawny canon is 25% Touriga Nacional, 25% Touriga Franca, 20% Tinta Roriz, 20% Tinta Barroca and 10% Tinto Cão. Like the best examples of its category, there’s a lightness and elegance cutting through its nutty, cakey depths, bolstering its credentials as a festive digestif.

RRP: £41.99 ABV: 20%

House of Townend (01482 638888) houseoftownend.com

Ferraris Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato Clàsic 2020

Ruchè isn’t the highest profile grape but in Piedmont it achieves great things, making it deserving of a wider fan base. The aromas of flowers, spices and cherries here are almost worth the entrance fee in their own right, with the oak melding nicely with the earthy and gamey characters on the palate.

RRP: £29 ABV: 15% Ledbury Wine (01684 299579) ledburywine.co.uk

Green Roots Sustainable Red Wine

Maybe, when so many wine drinkers have a negative impression of the canned format, simply calling the product “red wine” is a missed opportunity. This is a perfectly serviceable Garnacha, made by Esteban Martín in Cariñena, with a simple fruitiness and honest eco-credentials.

RRP: 14.50 (three-pack) ABV: 13.5% Green Roots Wine (01435 874772) greenrootswine.com

Favourite Things

Rathfinny 2017 cuvée was ruined

A winemaker who was fired after a “monumental cock up” ruined a vintage and cost Rathfinny Wine Estate £500,000 has lost an unfair dismissal claim.

would be the equivalent of 38p on a bottle of wine and £1.35 on a bottle of spirits.

Noel Young NY Wines, Cambridge

Favourite wine on my list

For sheer quality and unbelievable value, Lustau Almacenista José Luis González Obregón Amontillado del Puerto. I live (and work) in Valencia seven to 10 days a month and tried this at a local wine bar. You could smell it for hours: it just so nutty and complex, from a solera with an average age of 19 years. Dangerously delicious.

Favourite wine and food match Sparkling Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, ideally with Boxing Day cold meats. It works so well, seems celebratory and is just a great match –and good at getting one back on form after the rigours of Christmas Day.

Favourite wine trip Quinta de la Rosa. Beautiful part of the world, great wines and ports and where I properly met Henry Butler. We had a blast: so much laughing, imbibing and daft behaviour. I lost a fight with a cactus, too.

Favourite wine trade person

Obviously Henry Butler, a great mate, one of the most thoughtful and funny people you can meet, who shares my nostalgic sense of humour. We could watch re-runs of Superstars for ages, plus he’s a great drinker.

Favourite wine shop I love John Hoskins’ The Old Bridge Wine Shop in Huntingdon: a precise, well thought-out, and laid-out, selection with always something tasty on the Enomatic.

Jonathan Medard took the company to an employment hearing after he was blamed for the problem with the 2017 Classic Cuvée. The tribunal heard that at least some bottles – around a third of the harvest – were not at the correct pressure. Owner Mark Driver was dismayed at the situation and called it “a monumental cock up of (Medard’s) making” and referred to three previous incidents where he felt Medard had made a winemaking error.

The government said the next steps of its alcohol duty review – which included measures to introduce an 18-month transitional measure for sliding-scale wine duty – would continue as planned.

Just Drinks, October 17

A statement from Rathfinny said: “We want to reassure the public that, thanks to rigorous checks in place, none of this wine was ever released to the market.”

Mail Online, October 24

Analysis of Charles Dickens’s bank account with Coutts reveals that between 1838 and 1844, he was spending the equivalent of £15,000 a year on wine.

During this period he spent more on wine than on books, toys, music, domestic staff and income tax combined.

Dickens’s well-stocked wine cellar at his death in 1870 included more than 200 bottles of port, 60 bottles of Champagne, 60 bottles of Chablis, 60 bottles of sweet wine, more than 100 bottles of claret and 20 bottles of spirits including brandy and whisky.

The Times, October 24

Dickens’s wine habit revealed Duty U-turn, but sliding tax remains

The UK government has cancelled next year’s planned freeze to alcohol duty rates, less than a month after announcing the policy.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the freeze – due to come into force in February 2023 – would no longer take place, saving the government £600m a year.

Alcohol duty will now rise in line with inflation, as measured by the retail price index, currently at 12.3%. Such a rise

The best of wines, the worst of wines

There’s a Welsh word for fizz

Pefriog, the Welsh word for sparkling, has been mooted as a blanket name for sparkling wine produced in Wales.

Andy Mounsey, owner of Velfrey Vineyard in Pembrokeshire, said Welsh wine should be showcased with a name that utilises the language and helps to promote Wales’ burgeoning industry.

Mounsey, chairman of the Welsh Vineyards Association, said giving Wales’s sparkling wine a bespoke name would bring advantages to the industry.

He said it was unclear why sparkling wine from Wales does not already have a brand identity like other countries, given that the nation is now home to 32 vineyards.

BBC, October 16

Djokovic launches two estate wines

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has entered the world of wine, releasing two labels to market with his familyowned winery.

Djokovic Syrah 2020 and Djokovic Chardonnay 2020 are set to appear in wine shops and on restaurant wine lists in Serbia.

The famous tennis player, a teetotaller, was originally reported to have planted vineyards and built a winery on five hectares of land in the Šumadija wine region in 2016.

Wines from the estate are now being released for the first time, but will only be available in Serbia for the time being.

The Drinks Business, October 24

BURNING QUESTION

�I probably spend at least an hour or two a day and I definitely think it's worth it because it is your second shop front. Having a good up-todate website is incredibly important. It shows that you’re active and that gives customers confidence that any enquiries they have will be responded to. As the marketing director I’m responsible for most of the content, uploading the product images and writing the copy, but I also get the other guys to do some writing too, just to give it a bit of variation.”

Ellie Buckley H Champagne winner H Noble Green Wines, Hampton Hill, London

�It’s being tweaked daily with stock, pictures, new tags and tasting updates. Layout and positioning does not change much as we need to give customers continuity. Small sharp bursts work for us as you can fall down lots of rabbit holes. It is all worth it as the key is to continue to create our personality. We can help, offer advice and our aim is for our customers to feel part of a tangible community. A good website will reflect your ethos and values.”

Alan Irvine The Scottish Gantry, Stirling

�At the start of lockdown I spent a huge amount of time getting the website in shape and that really paid dividends. Over the last 18 months, we have seen online activity slow down and less time was needed. We revamped it this year and the newer, fresher-looking version has just gone live and already attracted more business. It takes more of my time to load content, products and events but it’s a necessity as we gear up for Christmas. Ticket sales have really taken off online.”

Michael Boniface No 2 Pound Street, Wendover

�I don’t spend as much time maintaining it as I would like. It’s a difficult area for small indies like ourselves. We don’t have a dedicated team member to look after online sales, marketing etc so trying to compete with the big online companies isn’t an option. Where we do have success online is with tasting tickets, gift cards, group enquiries and customers using our site as a landing page to then find us. Taking our online sales to another level would require a large investment, which is something that’s on the cards for 2023.”

How much time do you spend maintaining your website?

Bob McDonald Salut Wines, Manchester

Champagne Gosset

The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584

Tower Summit 2022

Graham Holter, The Wine Merchant

Are you running Christmas fairs for your customers? What role will suppliers play?

Nish Patel, Shenfield Wine Co

We’re doing fairs twice a year, one in May and one in November.

We relaunched them this year. I was a bit nervous but we pretty much sold out. We had about 75 customers come. The ticket price is £20 and they get to taste about 100 wines. We are going to add another 20 spaces.

From suppliers, I need their time, and for them to rock up with samples. We do serious trade out of it and to be fair most of our suppliers are very supportive.

Robin

Eadon, Dulwich Vintners

Continuing our coverage of the autumn round-table discussion with a selected group of independent merchants, which began in our October edition, the discussion turns to Christmas sales, and how to make money from online wine sales.

The Tower Summit is organised in association with Hatch Mansfield.

I’m not doing one, mainly because I haven’t got round to putting one in place. We have difficulty in finding a space to do it and, where we are, there isn’t really anywhere that’s suitable. If we could find a suitable venue, like Nish, we’d ask for the suppliers’ time and some stock.

Sam Howard, HarperWells, Norwich

We’ve got 160 booked in. We launched ours in September to our mailing-list customers, then we went live on Facebook. We charge £20 a ticket. We generally buy a six-pack of everything on show and then, depending on the relationship with the agency, have some samples on top of that.

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent

We’re doing two winemaker dinners as we find them really successful. We charge £85 and guests get a four-course meal, with wines paired, and they get to meet and greet the winemaker. It’s really good value. For us it’s great local PR. We bring a caterer in for the food.

Graham Holter, The Wine Merchant

Going back to fairs, would you rather have the suppliers in attendance, or just more samples?

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs

I’m on a smaller scale, so I wouldn’t need the reps talking to my customers about wine for me. I can do that. On a bigger scale I can see why it would be quite beneficial to have their time.

Nish Patel, Shenfield Wine Co

Certainly at our tastings, with around 70 people, and 12 tables, it’s impossible to manage without a knowledgeable person behind each table.

When we relaunched them after Covid, to keep people more comfortable we split the evening in two and did two sittings for 40. The feedback from customers was great; they loved it because they said they could actually spend time with the person who was pouring the wine and get more information about the product. So we’ve stuck to that format.

James Manson, Hatch Mansfield

I was there, standing in for a colleague, and it was great – it was a really good tasting because it felt like we could really give people a snapshot of what the wine was about.

Graham Holter, The Wine Merchant

Has anyone got figures in their head about what Christmas means financially?

Nish Patel, Shenfield Wine Co

Christmas Eve is the biggest day of the year. The first 24 days of December is nearly 20% of our entire turnover.

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent

Ironically, Christmas Eve for us, it’s like everyone goes to sleep. By midday, they’ve done what they’ve needed to do and they are where they need to be. At Tunbridge Wells and Wadhurst, we close at 2pm on Christmas Eve. Our demographic is older.

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs

Last year I stayed open until 10pm on Christmas Eve and it was busy. People were

The meaning of Christmas

coming in, because no matter how much they plan, everyone forgets something.

Robin Eadon, Dulwich Vintners

We did a 12-hour day on the day before Christmas Eve and then we do a nine-to-six on Christmas Eve. Last year we did record trade on that reduced-hours day. I think there was still some uncertainty as to what was going to happen with lockdown.

Freddie Cobb, Vagabond Wines

It’s on a Sunday this year, so you’ve now got to factor everything into that weekend before – that will be your big weekend. And are people going back to work for four days before New Year’s Eve?

Graham Holter, The Wine Merchant Champagne supplies were a big problem

for a lot of indies last Christmas. Are we expecting something similar this year?

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent It’s still a problem. LVMH are a nightmare.

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs

The biggest frustration I’ve found with Champagne over the past 12 months is that we have customers who only want a certain Champagne, and it’s out of stock so they go elsewhere because they won’t change: that’s what they like. I can’t get it, so they go elsewhere. You just lose that customer.

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent We had one guy who would only drink Ruinart. We flipped him on to [Taittinger] Comtes de Champagne and that’s all he

buys now. But you get other people and you just can’t get the stuff they want. It’s all LVMH.

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs I’ve got a big shelf of about 50 different Champagnes, but we cut down massively. But, as a positive we now stock other sparkling wine so it has broadened my offering, and I’ve been able to educate my customers on how broad that category is. I went through loads of top-end English sparkling and that did so well and people have stuck with it. Gusbourne did really well for us. However, the one thing with English wine is the margins. So I’ve broadened the range, but actually I’m making a bit less money.

The festive countdown has begun. So how are our independent panelists preparing?

From left: Nish Patel, Sam Howard, James Manson and Freddie Cobb

More Tower Summit coverage overleaf

Is online retailing worth the aggravation?

Our panelists discuss the best way to make money from e-commerce, and whether the effort justifies the sometimes meagre rewards for indies

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs I’m really keen to understand how online sales have changed for everybody here since Covid and how much reward versus investment everyone thinks they actually get from online sales.

Freddie Cobb, Vagabond Wines

We didn’t really have an online presence before Covid hit, so overnight it was stressful, taking bottle shots of all those different SKUs. But it kept us going and the thing that was really big for us during that time, rather than bottle sales, was doing tastings at home. We were sending out taster bottles.

One of our stores during lockdown became a mini bottling line, so much so

that we launched our own subscription service off the back of it. Customers sign up for £20 and get taster bottles and every month we tailor-make it.

One of the first things people switched off was the subscription and we’ve seen a massive pull-back from online sales. I’d say it’s less than 5% of our total sales. We found packing and delivery hard; we were uncompetitive with our rates. We charge an £8.99 flat rate and we are making a loss. That was and still is a big question mark.

Robin

Eadon, Dulwich Vintners

We saw a huge increase as soon as lockdown hit. It went from 5% to 60%70% of our orders that were coming in through the website and our website

couldn’t cope. It was built a while ago, so we are looking to change, but it’s a massive outlay for not a huge amount of reward.

We adapted it as far as we possibly could in-house, as one of our guys does code a little bit, but it really pushed the limits so we need a complete overhaul really. But we have found that those people ordering online were just doing so because they were sat at home. Now we have 10 or 15 local people that order online.

We’ve looked at Deliveroo, but they charge so much.

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs

I have a friend who works in a shop and they have Deliveroo set up with the most basic stuff listed that people can just click and buy. If it’s £11.50 in the shop it will be nearer £20 on Deliveroo.

Nish Patel, Shenfield Wine Co

People are lazy. It is mind-boggling. So a £10 bottle of wine is coming out at £16 and on top of that they have to pay a delivery charge. Is it worth doing? I suppose so. All you’re doing is picking it up off the shelf and putting it in a bag.

In lockdown we put up a landing page and did click and collect. For the reasons Freddie gave, packaging and delivery, it’s hard to be competitive. We are a small neighbourhood bottle shop and, to a degree, if you go online you can find these

From left: Mitch Swift, Robin Eadon and Conor Nolan

products anywhere and I’m going to get undercut. So I was thinking: do I set it up under a different name?

So Mary who lives across the road, she’d go online and see The Shenfield Wine Company and think well, it’s cheaper to buy it on there than it is to walk across the road, so you’d have to do it under a different name.

You could make a 10% or 15% margin on it but it would be sales far away from Shenfield that you never otherwise would have had. That would make more sense to me.

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent We are reducing the number of SKUs based on Google Analytics that tells us which places people visit the most. We are using that data to rebuild our site and we’ll strip out a load of products that don’t need to sit there. We’ll introduce ApplePay and bring it into the 21st century.

During Covid, The Secret Cellar did phenomenal business, especially at Wadhurst because they did a lot of local deliveries and we kept some of those customers as walk-ins.

The rest of the online business is just completely random. You cannot compete on price, it’s just the range of products that you have or producers that you work with that no one else has.

We have corporate business with the Wooden Winebox Company for gifting. We have a team of people who come in to do it and the amount of cardboard we get

“People are lazy. It is mind-boggling. A £10 bottle of wine is coming out at £16 and on top of that they have to pay a delivery charge”

through is criminal. Generally online you cannot compete with The Wine Society.

Mitch Swift, The Bottleneck, Broadstairs

How long does it take to get that investment back, bearing in mind that it contributes less than 5% of your sales?

Conor Nolan, The Secret Cellar, Kent

We’ll get our investment back before Christmas. It’s not that expensive because all you are doing is rebuilding the back end and dropping new content in, and standardising the content, so all the pictures look the same. We’re not coming from a standing start.

It’s not a huge amount of money but it is labour intensive. Once you’ve got it done, all the bells and whistles and you have Stripe and Apple Pay and everything else, that’s when it all becomes much easier.

Sam Howard, HarperWells, Norwich

Don’t compete with the big guys – don’t try and be an online wine shop.

We spent £30k in 2006 with a local company to build us a website and it did the job. We spent a lot of time writing wine information because that’s what we were told Google was looking for, so we had information about grape varieties. It got older and older and older until it wasn’t fit for purpose. It wouldn’t be sized for phones.

Tower Summit 2022

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

It was 1% revenue for us as well. We took it down and went with a WordPress site and with all the plug-ins and Stripe and everything else. You can be up and running instantly with a one or two-page site.

What we’ve done is use it for ticket sales. So if I do private client mailshots, an email goes out and it’s used to process orders. Nearly 100% of ticket sales go through it and that is managing guest lists and capturing data. It’s off-the-shelf stuff.

Yes, Stripe is expensive versus our terminal in the shop, so it’s a costly way of processing a card transaction, but not when you’ve got all the GDPR boxes ticked and you’re building and adding to your mailing list.

Why we must resist the porridge

The wine trade needs to be wary of following the sanctimonious habits of those who lecture cashstrapped consumers about their food choices, says David Williams. Is drinking white Zinfandel really such a crime?

One of the more irritating features of the various economic crises that have beset the UK over the past 15 years has been the regular appearance of what I’ve taken to calling the porridge Nazis.

Bred exclusively in the more affluent parts of society, with particularly thriving colonies on the Tory back benches, the Mumsnet message board and in ex-military survivalist Reddit threads, the porridge Nazis like nothing better than to scold the poorest in society about their unhealthy and uneconomical food practices.

All it takes to bring them and then their mealy-mouthed views out into the open of radio phone-ins and viral tweets or by the work coffee machine, is for someone to state the obvious about how difficult it is to feed a family on the budget afforded by low-wage jobs or universal credit.

But what really gets the porridge Nazis going is hearing about low-income parents who have the temerity to blow whatever funds they can muster on the short-term, momentary mood-lift that comes from high-calorie, low-nutrition foods that are high in sugar and fat.

They simply can’t resist the urge to lecture, to offer passive-aggressive and unsought advice that always – always –centres on porridge, and how you can feed a family of 10 for 1p a head for a month if you are prepared to quit the Coco Pops and

pizza and buy a big bag of oats from Lidl.

My sheer revulsion at the sanctimonious – not to mention out-of-touch, cruel, and punitive – porridge Nazi worldview means

I often have to check myself whenever I find myself touching on the subject of sugar in wine, and specifically cheap wine.

If I’m being completely honest, my first reaction on tasting a line-up of purportedly dry sub-£10 red wines that are tricked up with anything from 6g to 30g of residual sugar is to wonder who the hell drinks this stuff. What sort of baby needs that much sugar in their dry wine? It’s the same reaction I have when I see a grown adult add more than two spoons of sugar to their tea: these are not serious people, I think. What trauma or neglect explains this very obvious case of arrested development?

A moment or two’s reflection along the lines of “am I the bad guy?” soon draws me back from adopting a full porridge Nazi-style position. I have to remind myself that wine communicators, whether they’re working as merchants, sommeliers or writers, are here to tell people what they might like, not what they should like. If people, as the old wine trade phrase has it, think dry, but buy sweet, what, really, is the problem?

Still, I can’t pretend it doesn’t bother me that, judged on the recent glut of autumn tastings, so many producers, suppliers and retailers seem to think the only way to make a palatable cheap wine is to plump it up with sugar. Time and again, I would come to the end of a flight of sub-£10 wines and notice the insidious build-up of sweetness lingering like the saccharine aftertaste of a Diet Coke. “Is this strictly necessary?” I would find myself wondering. What sins – of lack of fruit and concentration, of roughness of tannin and shrillness of acidity – is the sugar trying to hide? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if we tried to make wine that didn’t require these sticky stabilisers?

It’s not that I don’t like sugar in wine. Quite the opposite. There are times when I love sugar in wine. The key, as we all know, is balance. But it saddens me that, at a time when many supposedly dry wines have

I can’t pretend it doesn’t bother me that so many producers seem to think the only way to make a palatable cheap wine is to plump it up with sugar

porridge Nazis

been getting sweeter, specialist producers of unashamedly, proudly sweet wines have been flirting with extinction and bankruptcy.

Indeed, it’s an irony so bitter that no amount of sugary Zinfandel could disguise it, that the industrial gloopy sugary mess that is Gallo Apothic is thriving (it’s currently the bestselling Californian premium red, ie over £7 rrp, in the UK), at the same time that many producers in Sauternes are wondering whether the process of making their classically golden sweet wines makes economic sense at all anymore.

But that’s enough sugar-ranting. I know I need to live and let live. I don’t want to become a Nobly Rotten Fascist or a Trockenbeerenautocrat. And really, when it comes to sugar in wine, what I want is something essentially democratic: transparent wine labelling on sweetness.

By transparent, I don’t mean a sweetness scale. I don’t want a winemaker’s or a retailer’s subjective assessment of how sweet the wine “feels”, from 1 to 9 or “dry to very sweet”. What I want is the precise level of residual sugar measured in grams per litre – an objective system that treats consumers as adults, and, without judgement or condescension or smoke or mirrors, lets them, and them alone, decide exactly how sweet they want their wine to be.

In search of a fizzy drink that doesn’t have the insidious saccahrine aftertaste of a budget supermarket wine

ReadeR Competition

Win a presentation box of six premium California Cabernets from Louis M Martini

2 x Sonoma County, 2 x Alexander Valley, 2 x Napa Valley Prize valued at over £180

Louis M Martini’s decision to settle in Napa Valley after leaving his native Genoa, Italy, was driven by a desire to craft exceptional wines by sourcing the best fruit possible.

In the years that followed Prohibition, he established a legacy of craftsmanship and a passion for Napa Valley that continues to this day. The family is committed to making the best Cabernet Sauvignon possible.

Michael Eddy, who spent a decade under the tutelage of thirdgeneration winemaker Mike Martini, took over in the cellar in 2013. He is the first non-Martini family member in history to hold the title.

The grapes are sourced from five vineyards: Monte Rosso in the Mayacamas Mountains above the Sonoma Valley; Stagecoach in the ancient volcanic terrain of the Vaca Mountain; Cypress Ranch Vineyard in the warm Pope Valley; Sun Lake in the rocky Howell Mountain; and Thomann Station Vineyard, which sits behind the winery in the vast warmth of the Napa Valley floor in St Helena.

The wines are available to independent merchants through Enotria&Coe and Vineyard Cellars.

To enter, simply answer the following question:

From which part of Italy did Louis M Martini emigrate in 1899?

Email your answer, by December 5, to claire@winemerchantmag.com with the subject line Louis M Martini Competition

Competition promoted by The Wine Merchant Magazine and E&J Gallo Winery. Only UK-based wine retailers can enter. Strictly one entry per business. The winner will be drawn at random from the correct entries and notified by email and announced in the January edition of The Wine Merchant. No correspondence will be entered into.

Nicolò D’Afflitto

I caught the winemaking virus in Chianti Classico. I grew up in the Chianti Classico area, my family owns a small property there, so I grew up in the vineyards. Then I spent four years in Bordeaux studying wine, and after that I worked for a year in California. Finally, I came back to Italy and very soon I started working for Frescobaldi, at CastelGiocondo, our estate in Montalcino, in 1991.

From 1991 to 2013 I visited no less than 20 different properties in Chianti Classico with Lamberto and Vittorio Frescobaldi. Frescobaldi was very strong in the Rùfina area, with Nipozzano, Pomino, Rèmole; we bought something in Maremma, Ammiraglia; we had Ornellaia, Friuli, but we had a big hole in the middle with Chianti Classico.

In that time I visited Tenuta Perano twice. We had to put on wigs and beards, because if they’d seen us, they would have doubled the price the day after. Sometimes, I’d visit, and two hours afterwards my friends in Chianti Classico would say, “Nicolò, we know you’re going to buy.” And I would say, “No! No! I’m just visiting!”

Frescobaldi bought Perano in 2013, in part because it’s in Chianti Classico, but mostly because it’s a beautiful place. It is in a very special position, 500m above sea level. And the vineyards are made in a very special, unique way: they are an amphitheatre, open to the south west, with very white soil. And Gaiole is the earth of Chianti Classico. We simply could not do any better.

Tenuta Perano Rialzi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione

Made entirely from Sangiovese grown in the Rialzi vineyard which rises above the rest of Perano in three natural steps. A Gran Selezione whose bold, elegant character is the result of the perfect combination of the soil type, altitude and unique microclimate of the vineyard.

Director of winemaking

Frescobaldi

When you are at the top of the Perano vineyards, it’s 27°C; in the middle it will be 30°C or 35°C, with a lot of light. It’s a very curious situation where you have three amphitheatres. On the first one, the biggest, I do the Chianti Classico; on another one, where I have a little Merlot as well, I do the Riserva. On the third amphitheatre I also have three terraces, which were created in the 16th century because the slope was too steep, and on these we make our Rialzi Gran Selezione.

You will never find an important Sangiovese very close to the coast. My experience with Sangiovese is that when it is planted at very low altitude, it is very over-jammy and over-mature. It’s very rich at the beginning of its life, but it’s not really able to age for very long. They have beautiful Cabernet and Merlot, but not Sangiovese. At the same time, if Sangiovese is planted too high, it is getting very lean and elegant but without tannins.

With Perano I had a new image of Sangiovese. The altitude brings brightness, acidity, beautiful perfume, while the amphitheatre is giving the tannin and the maturation. So I have two kinds of Sangiovese in the same glass: the vineyard is very high altitude but it’s very hot.

Cabernet or Merlot are very similar wherever they’re planted: it’s not easy to distinguish a Cabernet from Tuscany or Sicily or California. But Sangiovese is very easy. It’s a very open variety. You can tell if it’s in clay (it’s tannic); if it’s lean, it’s from sandy soils. I’m a winemaker with

Tenuta Perano is located in the heart of Chianti Classico in Gaiole. The vineyards are located 500m above sea level, well above the altitude common for red grapes, especially Sangiovese, in natural amphitheatre that captures the light and warmth of the sun.

Nicolò D’Afflitto has been working at Frescobaldi for more than 30 years and is currently the company’s head winemaker.

Wines are imported by Enotria&Coe

a big group with a lot of denominations. And all the denominations in Tuscany are Sangiovese: Chianti, Chianti Rufina, Montalcino, Montepulciano … all of them have not less than 80% Sangiovese. With another variety, the risk would be to make wines that are very similar. But I’m so lucky to have Sangiovese.

Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico Riserva

Aged in oak barrels for 24 months, the Riserva boasts wonderful spiced notes, including liquorice and clove, accompanied by roasted aromas that developed when ageing. On the palate, it has a lovely acidalcohol balance and noticeable yet velvety-smooth tannins.

Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico

Aged for 12 months in stainless steel and barrique, the sumptuous elegance of Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico is accentuated by its exquisite freshness. This beautifully balanced and delicate wine is full of flavour and has enveloping tannins.

DUNCAN MCLEAN

Northabout

Christmas 1875 was a memorable one for our family business, though not for entirely positive reasons. The Orkney Herald of December 22 sets the scene:

“On Saturday last the town was thrown into an unusual state of excitement by the report that a seizure had been made of several casks of contraband liquor, and some of those suspected of being engaged in the smuggling of it lodged in the lock-up. Early on Saturday morning, Officers of the Inland Revenue at Kirkwall succeeded in effecting a seizure of a considerable quantity of contraband gin – consisting of five casks, containing altogether 160 gallons. One was found on the premises occupied by Mr Kirkness, merchant, Broad Street.”

The “lock-up” was located, embarrassingly, in Kirkwall tollbooth, 20 yards from the shop’s front door. The accused were remanded to reappear for trial at a later date, in Kirkness’s case, March 1876. The Herald again:

“The small and not very convenient Courthouse was well filled when the Justices took their seats, and during the whole day was crowded to suffocation – the audience being literally wedged together. Outside the day was extremely cold, and snow lay thick upon the ground, but inside the Courtroom it was midsummer heat, or more. Many who were fortunate enough to secure good positions remained during the whole day, the

perspiration coursing down their cheeks, and without refreshment other than the excitement of the proceedings.”

Excitement there was, as the prosecution outlined how a certain Captain Askam of Hull bought nine barrels of gin in Holland and sailed north to Orkney, where he landed at the dark of midnight. Whatever secrecy was achieved by the hour was lost as the barrels were rolled down the street, and into the stables of the Castle Hotel. No wonder the excise officers were able to pounce – though strange they could only find five casks. Could the others have made their way out the back door of the stables and into the adjoining yard of my illustrious ancestor? The truth is lost to history. But 100 years later we did find some dried-out barrel staves in the loft above the shop.

Trial transcripts show a peculiarly jovial, even jokey, atmosphere in court. The imposition of a £900 fine doesn’t seem to have dented Kirkness’s spirits (pun intended) despite being equivalent to £115,000 now. And strangely, both the prosecution and the sheriff argued for a lower fine than the law allowed, meaning he ended up having to pay just £125.

Family legend has it that this penalty was more than covered by soaring sales … of gin.

Kirkness didn’t think he’d been caught smuggling. It was only 20 years since Orkney became integrated with the rest of modern Britain as steamships from Leith and trains to Thurso appeared. Until then, we were cut off from mainland markets, leaving us relatively poor but also largely ignored, meaning we could get on with our age-old ways of making a living. If we wanted beer, we brewed it. If we wanted wood, we sent a boat across to Bergen. If we wanted gin, we found a skipper heading for Rotterdam.

James Kirkness wasn’t a smuggler, he was a businessman. The prosecution saw it that way, as did the good folk of Kirkwall. It’s a shame that Customs & Excise took a different view.

Reggio Emilia

Locked up and fined for smuggled gin, but my ancestor was no criminal

Duncan McLean is proprietor of Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall

Family legend has it that the £125 penalty handed down to James Kirkness was more than covered by soaring sales of gin

The tolbooth and courtroom where James Kirkness was locked up and then put on trial

Broad Street circa 1860

Setting out their stall in the old dairy

There may not be another wine merchant with a location quite like Field & Fawcett. The business occupies a network of former milking stalls just off what is now a large and busy roundabout on the eastern side of the York ring road.

The dairy farm was owned and run by the parents of Cathryn Fawcett, whose maiden name Field now provides one half of the shop’s branding. The family still owns the land that F&F occupies.

Husband Peter Fawcett is the other half. His journey to starting his own independent wine merchant – with Cathryn alongside him – started in 1986 when he joined Milroy’s whisky shop in London. Working vintages in Australia and New Zealand followed – he’s half Kiwi –before he returned to London to join Wizard Wine, the warehouse-style retailer, around the time it was taking over Majestic in the early 1990s.

When the deal was done, Fawcett jumped ship back to Yorkshire, where he’d been brought up, working for Great Northern Wine Co in Leeds, eventually becoming Enotria’s man in the north, as a rep covering a patch from the M62 to the Scottish border.

Peter and Cathryn Fawcett could see that some disused agricultural buildings would be an ideal setting for their wine business, but local planners weren’t necessarily so convinced.

Sixteen years on, Field & Fawcett is one of the north of England’s most successful independents, with a spirits range that offers almost as much depth as its wine list.

“It was a steep learning curve and possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “But it was a really good company to work for. They were never on my case saying ‘you need to get X number of accounts’.”

Which takes us up to 2006 and the decision to go it alone and open Field & Fawcett.

“When I was at Great Northern, they toyed with the idea of getting this site and using it as an outpost but it got knocked back because it was green belt.

“Foot-and-mouth [in 2001] was a game changer because the government were very keen for redundant agricultural buildings to be put into some sort of effective use and start generating income.

By Nigel Huddleston

“When we decided to open our own place in 2006, we got very good planning lawyers to work on it.”

Initially, the local authority granted retail permission for a small part of the property, which has housed the main entrance, wine and a deli counter since the start. Over time, Field & Fawcett has managed to push back bit by bit, so it now

Merchant Profile: Field & Fawcett, York

occupies a further two rooms, one housing a mix of spirits and Iberian and new world wine – with France and Italy still in the original front section.

“The planners were originally worried about a load of traffic piling in,” says Peter. “Five years in, there had been no major incidents and they let us extend retail to the rest of the building.”

A third room to the rear operated as a café for a while before Covid brought a change of use to what might be the UK’s only dedicated magnums, local beer and liqueurs space.

You’ve seen some changes in 16 years. What was

the original concept?

We were very much wine-driven initially. We were 90% wholesale for the first two years. When I left Enotria nearly all of my customers came with me and supported the new business. We lost a few along the way, as you do in the ebbs and flows of business, but that enabled us to establish ourselves pretty quickly and buy a decent amount of volume to expand the range and make it more interesting. But we also had a deli and wine shop from day one and we were trying to think of a name that combined wine and food. Then a friend of ours said, “why don’t you just call it Field & Fawcett? It’s

“We were 90% wholesale for the first two years. But we also had a deli and a wine shop from day one”

Peter Fawcett, York, September 2022

got good alliteration, and it sounds established even if it isn’t”. So that’s what we did.

How has the mix changed since?

We’ve always just grown the business organically. There are no investors, it’s just us, and everything we make we just plough back into the business. We turned over £2.7m last year. We don’t engage any salespeople; I do that. Wholesale is about 60% now, 33% is physically through the door of the shop, but that varies, with about 7%-10% online.

You also had the café for a while.

We used it as a way of building footfall. There was a shed where the car park is now and the front was literally a farmyard with great puddles everywhere. We got rid of the shed, which gave better visibility from the road, but we thought people wouldn’t necessarily associate the building with being a deli and wine merchant, or if they did they would think it was expensive or a trade thing.

Once we got people coming through the building to the café, they realised we had wine on offer at £5-£5.50. But it wasn’t quite big enough to make a long-term living out of it and the wage costs were quite high. The chef’s still with us and makes our ready meals, bread and cakes for the deli. The café had served its purpose in getting us an audience and during Covid it just wasn’t practical.

How else did you change during Covid?

We traded all the way through, but the doors were shut. It was click and collect and free delivery with no minimum order anywhere in the YO postcode area, which is a huge area … and it went mental. It opened us up to a much wider audience of people who’d never heard of us. We already had quite a decent website, which helped.

And since then?

Once we reopened the doors, we moved the till to the end of the café and had a one-way system from the front to back. People just flowed through the building, out the back door and round the side of the building back to the car park. That worked really well. It gave us the opportunity to get the beer and liqueurs properly displayed. The majority of the quirky liqueurs were for the bar trade really,

but they were shut, so we thought we needed to do something with them. It’s amazing what people pick up. We had 12 bottles of Cynar, the artichoke liqueur, and we sold the lot that first Christmas.

We’ve got magnums much better displayed now and people can touch them. It’s opened my eyes about the way things are displayed. I can see why supermarkets spend so much money doing market research on how they position certain things to encourage impulse buys, especially around Christmas. People aren’t coming in for advocaat but they see a smart-looking bottle of it and think, “ooh, I’ll have a bottle of that”.

The wine range is sourced from “a lot of the usual suspects” but Fawcett also looks for wines that give the business a point of difference

“We’ve grown the business organically. There are no investors, it’s just us. We turned over £2.7m last year”

That works in a supermarket because they’re charging £10 or £15 for a litre of Warninks, but how do you get people to send upwards of £20 on things like that?

Our reputation for the quality of what we do on wine and whisky subliminally filters through to people buying other products. We use a company called Sloemotion for sloe and bramble gins. Their packaging’s very good and we get the shooting fraternity north of York who will go for that sort of thing. With more coffee and cream type liqueurs we’ve got an accessible range at £10.95 called Carthy & Black, which is made by the people who do Slingsby gin.

What about your wine supplier base?

We ship quite a lot out of Europe ourselves. In the UK we use a lot of the usual suspects. Boutinot have always been phenomenally supportive. We’ve

The premises were originally part of a dairy farm owned by Cathryn Fawcett’s parents

moved slightly away from them for retail wines, but a huge amount of our wholesale wine comes through them and the quality to price ratio is really good.

We’re also part of Rolleston Wine Group. We also use Justerini & Brooks, ABS, a bit with Fells … a bit with most people, to be honest. We work very closely with Astrum for Italy. There are some particular agencies that work really well for us. Cantina Terlano from Alto Adige is probably my favourite white wine producer from anywhere on the planet.

Has Brexit and everything that’s gone on since lessened your appetite for shipping directly?

I’ve gone slightly counter-intuitive. I ship slightly more than perhaps I should. It makes us different from other merchants – and Yorkshire’s got some really good independent wine merchants.

We were introduced to a company called Premium Wine Solutions in Verona; I can buy from Chianti, southern Italy, Prosecco, Gavi, and ship it all together. We also ship from Rioja, Majorca, and Cava from Barcelona.

The Brexit thing’s been a nightmare, no two ways about it. What used to take three weeks now takes anywhere between six and 10. We’re currently bringing in seven pallets from Italy, and even shipping at that quantity it’s costing me £8 per dozen. Pre-Brexit that would have been £3.50.

We’re very lucky in that we’ve got a barn at the back and we turned three bays into storage as soon as Brexit happened. We decided to get everything shipped here, rather than go into bond. We invested quite a lot of money in it, but it’s saved on storage costs.

I’m trying to find products that we know can get out into wholesale and get a bit of volume. Instead of shipping one pallet at a time, which we would have done pre-Brexit, we’ll ship three. It ties up a big lump of cash but in the long-term it gives us a different slant.

And a better margin by cutting out a layer of the supply chain?

I keep margins quite tight anyway [on wholesale]. Our Prosecco is a better one than we might get from Boutinot under the group label, but I feel if

“I ship slightly more than perhaps I should. Brexit’s been a nightmare. What used to take three weeks now takes anywhere between six and 10”

Fawcett has managed to allay the concerns of local planners, who were initially worried about the loss of an agricultural building, and increased traffic

I’m giving my customers a really good price then everyone’s happy down the chain. We’ve done really well with two wedding venues and a caterer that has weddings coming out of its ears. It’s Prosecco, New Zealand Sauvignon and Malbec, and lots of it. They’re also dream payers.

It’s not the most exciting thing in the world in terms of the wine, but it gives us the ability to buy in volume and means we can tack more interesting things on to the back of those shipments.

What about retail? What’s really worked for you recently?

We have American, Chile, Argentina down the middle [of the main wine room]. We had it just lying in boxes previously but as soon as we put in smarter shelves and a bigger range sales went up significantly, particularly California. It’s a region we’ve been pleasantly surprised by. We’ve got quite a following now and people will spend all across the £15-£50 bracket. You’re not going to sell a lot of Grgich Chardonnay at £52.50 but when you look

on Saturday afternoon there’s usually a gap where one’s gone.

The shelving was a game-changer in selling South America. I’d say we sell half a dozen bottles at £20£30 every Saturday and the display has got a lot to do with that.

We always wanted to be a really good retail shop. It’s where my heart is because it’s easier to engage with people. When they come through the door it’s because they want to be here. With restaurants, a lot of the time, it’s about the price. Ninety per cent of our sales of Malbec in wholesale will be under £6 ex-VAT; 90% of our Malbec sales in retail are north of £12.95.

How do you keep people coming back?

The Purple Card is one of the best things we’ve done, without a shadow of a doubt. It’s a one-off membership for £25, but maybe we should have made it annual. We always used to do 5% discount on six mixed bottles and 10% on 12. We had an awful lot of people coming in once a year at

Christmas. We were giving the discount away and wouldn’t see them until next year.

With the card you get 10% off all wine regardless. The idea is to get people in regularly, coming here rather than Sainsbury’s when they want a bottle when they’re driving home on a Wednesday night.

There are also certain offers just for Purple Card holders. It doesn’t have to be cheap either. We had some fantastic Carménère off Hatch which would normally be over £50 and we did it for under £30 and sold the lot.

Round the shop there are certain wines that have a purple price which will be anything from 20% to 30% off. It might be that the price has gone up from the supplier and we don’t want to buy more, so we want to push the stock through, or that the vintage is changing. We thought we might sell 150 cards, but we’ve actually got 700 members.

We don’t offer a discount on spirits because the margins are already smaller.

Spirits are obviously an important part of the business.

I always wanted to have a decent whisky section because I’d been at Milroy’s and whisky had brought me into the trade in the first place. But the gin thing took off before we really

“We always wanted to be a really good retail shop

It’s easier to engage with people. With restaurants, a lot of the time, it’s about the price”

developed the whisky side of the business. We went from 10 gins to something like 400 at one stage. It began to slow down after three or four years as the supermarkets started to muscle in.

Rum hasn’t exploded in the way gin did but it has grown quite a lot. But the surprise this year is definitely tequila. It’s all these American celebrities like George Clooney and The Rock getting involved. We sell a lot of reposados for sipping and customers aren’t afraid to spend a bit of money. It used to be slammers but people are treating it as a serious spirit category in its own right.

And how is whisky doing?

We do really well with a brand called Filey Bay, from The Spirit of Yorkshire. It’s a good story: it’s their own farm, their own barley and their own brewery, Wold Top. The glass comes from a factory in Leeds, the labels are done in Scarborough; everything is done within about a 30-mile radius, apart from the capsule. It’s got great local provenance.

And beer?

It’s mainly local beers. It’s pretty rare that people come in to buy beer specifically. It will be an add-on purchase, but it goes really well and that’s purely down to having it much better displayed than it was before. We’re constantly having to refill the shelves on a Friday or Saturday. It all helps to boost the basket.

Spririts are an important part of the business, due in part to Fawcett’s time at Milroy’s, though margins are lower

Around 700 customers are Purple Card holders, entitling them to a 10% discount on all wines for a one-off fee of £25

Bottle Shock

Mostof our customers want us to send them technical notes (known as fiche techniques) for the wines that we sell them. In its starkest form, an FT is a spec/data sheet, the kind used in manufacturing to be read by computers. A colourless numbers game. Yet, wine, being a product from a place and a person, requires much more detail so that one may mark this bottle from that, and tell the real story behind the rigid, frigid facts.

Yes, to some, wine may be no more than the functional sum of its physical and chemical interventions. And measurements. The product with the pure commercial purpose. Yet, the tech sheet that yields only the facts tells us nothing.

Personally, I want the inside track because I like to follow a wine’s journey from the final flavour in my mouth back to the very origin of the vine. Learning about wine truly involves deepening and broadening one’s education and delving into geography, geology, climatology, farming, microbiology, local history and regional culture and gastronomy as well as the influences on, and personality of,

the grower in question. All these elements and -ologies are contributory factors to the terroir and origin of the wine. Wine, after all, has this remarkable potential to channel time and place.

And, as a grower, one should surely be proud to talk about farming and the unique relationship between the vineyard, the vine, the land and the person.

For all that accurate relevant information is incredibly difficult to acquire/extract, even when one appeals directly to a vigneron.

Its effect upon young Barnacle was to make him repeat in a defenceless way, ‘Look here! Upon my SOUL you mustn’t come into the place saying you want to know, you know!’ – Little Dorrit

Although it can be put into a bottle, it can’t be put into box. Thus, though the wine may be touched by the winemaker, it comes from nature and the vineyard and is therefore so much more than is dreamt of in our meagre FT philosophy.

Other producers don’t buy into the magical mysteries of terroir. For them, wine is little more than a juice that gives pleasure; they don’t want it mystified nor made pretentious, so they also surrender as little information as possible. If you are able to elicit the grape variety or a blend from them, then you may retire wreathed in garlands of victory.

Neither of these positions is quite satisfactory from the point of view of the importer, nor the retailers to whom they sell, as the more information one may acquire from the grower, the more one is able to tell the story that in turn helps to sell the wine.

I am also somewhat of a wine-romantic, and thirsty for stories. I want to know which way the wind blows in the vineyard and when. I want to know how the vignerons tend their vines. When you visit a vineyard, you gain insight purely by being in the same environment as the vines. You witness how the vineyard is part of nature itself. You see flowers, weeds, grass, bees, butterflies and birds. You sense how the sunlight plays on the vines. You touch the soil. You are aware of an energy. The beauty of wine lies in the intangibles, the world beyond lab analyses.

Onepurist reason for playing coy, advanced by some vignerons, is that a wine is neither the sum of glorified winemaking approaches nor simply the processing of materials into a commercial product. Such partial truths, it is averred, do a disservice to the real truth, a fascinating tale of blood, sweat and growers’ tears and natural happenstance.

It behoves those of us involved in selling wine to empower and inspire our customers in their choices. The more we know, the more we can communicate information in an interesting and digestible format. And that information can, in turn, be passed on to others. Producers should therefore be willing to divulge their process, the better we may understand that each and every wine is the aggregate of countless processes and endless decisions. As regards the fiche technique, any information is better than nothing, but more information, by definition, allows us to see the much bigger picture.

Reggio Emilia

The tech sheet that yields only the facts tells us nothing about the wine

Doug Wregg is director of sales and marketing at Les Caves de Pyrene

QUINTA DO CRASTO

One of the oldest estates in the Douro, Quinta do Crasto is admired for its table wines as well as its ports, which are distributed in the UK by Enotria&Coe

Theproducer behind some of the Douro’s finest ports and table wines, Quinta do Crasto has a long history in Portugal’s leading fine-wine region, with the earliest records dating back as far as 1615. Over the past century, the estate has cemented its position at the top of the Douro hierarchy under the ownership of the Almeida-Roquette family, with Miguel and Tomás Roquette the fourth generation to take the helm.

A long-term favourite in the Enotria&Coe stable among British retailers and sommeliers, Quinta do Crasto ports and table wines have been in the UK market since the early 1980s and they continue to set the standard for the Douro.

The Wine Merchant caught up with Quinta do Crasto export director Rita Magalhães Camelo to discuss the estate’s history, its quality-conscious approach to port production and its latest plans for its ports in the UK market – including some exciting port-and-food-matching ideas and a very special new tawny.

Quinta do Crasto port wines, you won’t forget a meeting with the Roquettes. Their hospitality and joie de vivre, combined with the enchanting location of the winery, are an experience not to be missed.

The family owners of the estate proudly live up to the motto coined by their forefather, Constantino de Almeida: “Honore et Labore” [There is honour in hard work]. You can find it signed on all Quinta do Crasto ports.

The motto also informs a special new project at Quinta do Crasto, doesn’t it? Yes, the HONORE project, which commemorates Quinta do Crasto’s 400year history, pays homage to the men and women who, through the centuries, invested in cultivating the vineyards and creating unique authentic wines that have long been recognised as some of the finest worldwide.

A special wine was chosen to commemorate this date in the history of one of the oldest quintas in the Douro. HONORE is a very old tawny port, over 100 years of age, from a very limited number of casks containing wines made before 1918, from Constantino de Almeida’s private stock, which has been nurtured over three generations on the quinta. It’s a limited series of 400 bottles (one bottle for each year the company is celebrating). An outstanding wine beyond compare; the perfect way to mark such a historic event.

really smooth tannin extraction, since the seeds of each berry are not mechanically crushed, and so they release much less of the astringency. Also it allows a greater maceration of the grape and, consequently, a greater extraction of colour and phenolic compounds.

Is port is under-appreciated as a gastronomic wine? If so, how can retailers help to change perceptions? I think port consumption is in a transitional phase, and we are, albeit slowly, starting to see some changes in the traditional way it’s consumed – a glass at the end of a meal or with a cigar and good conversation. There is an understanding that we need to broaden the range of occasions when port is consumed and bring this nectar to a wider audience.

There are positive signs that this is beginning to happen. We are seeing greater consumption of new vintages, particularly among younger drinkers. And there is the democratisation of port that has come with the fresh and trendy port tonic cocktail.

In tasting menus, we are also starting to see some innovations, where port wine accompanies one of the main dishes. This doesn’t mean that the way people drink port is going to change overnight. But we are certainly seeing a wider range of possibilities where a port can work perfectly well.

Port is a small and crowded market in the UK. What do you think makes your wines stand out and why should independent merchants explore the range?

Apart from the impressive quality of

Foot-treading is still important to you. What difference does the process make? Yes, for port wines, Quinta do Crasto has maintained the centuries-old tradition of treading the grapes in the old stone lagares, always selecting the best grapes of vinhas velhas [old vines]. It’s about much more than preserving a historical process. Working in this way also gives us

Do you have any favourite food matches for the Quinta do Crasto range?

Outside of traditional pairings, I would recommend a glass of slightly chilled Quinta do Crasto LBV to go with a juicy steak with Roquefort cheese sauce. With a 10 year old tawny or a young colheita I would suggest a starter with foie gras on caramelised apple slices sprinkled with crushed nuts.

Miguel, Jorge and Tomás Roquette

Crafting California Cab since

Louis M Martini works with some of the most prized terroir in the Napa Valley – and it shows in its wines. A selection of independents tasted five from the range in a recent online masterclass

World-class Cabernet Sauvignon is something we readily associate with the Napa Valley, a point that was proved in the Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976. But Louis M Martini’s work began more than three decades before then.

As creator of one of the first five wineries built in the valley after Prohibition’s repeal in 1933, the company has been on a mission from its inception to identify the best sites for Cabernet.

From the rebellious, visionary Louis M Martini to his scientifically minded son Louis P Martini and then the innovative, award-winning Mike Martini, the business has evolved and developed under the stewardship of its family members.

The current head winemaker, Michael Eddy – only the fourth in the company’s history – learned his craft from Mike Martini during a decade of mentorship and is fascinated by the opportunities he sees in site-specific Cabernets that tell the story of some of California’s best terroir.

The Wine Merchant invited a group of independents to sample five wines from the Louis M Martini range, which are available via Enotria&Coe and The Vineyard Cellars, at a recent online tasting hosted by luxury fine wine ambassador Jake Crimmin.

Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 £13.65 DPD

Most of the grapes come from two of Louis M Martini’s crown-jewel vineyards in Sonoma County: Frei Ranch, in the Dry Creek Valley AVA, and Barrelli Creek vineyard in the Alexander Valley AVA. By California standards, this is relatively coolclimate terroir, and the fairly mild summer of 2018 has accentuated the natural elegance of the fruit. There’s a little Petite Sirah in the mix to round things out.

“If you compare it to the others, it’s a little more pyrazinal and crunchy but we’re still getting that bright red fruit,” says Jake. “It’s quite grippy, with firm tannin, but still with that approachable, fruit-driven style.”

Definitely a wine that will come into its own with some protein: Jake recommends a ribeye.

Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

£19.85 DPD

Most of the fruit comes from Barrelli Creek, where the gravelly soils encourage the

vines to extend their roots deep into the ground in search of water. It helps gives the wine extra complexity, enhanced in 2018 by a later harvest.

All lots are aged and evaluated separately before the final blend is married together in barrel. In total, the wine spends 18 months in a combination of French and American oak, 36% of which is new.

The fruit feels generous and ripe and although the alcohol has reached 15%, the wine remains balanced by its fresh acidity. Monta Cimdina from Vinvm in Isleworth “loves the nose”, with its toasted oak and baking spice nuances.

“We’re getting into cassoulet territory here,” suggests Jake. “Big, earthy, rich stews.

“I’m definitely getting more of the high notes in this wine. More pepper and spice and a little perfume; some violet.”

John Kernaghan of Liquorice Wine & Deli in Brentwood says: “A much more upfront classic Californian Cab. Very approachable.”

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 £25 DPD

Grapes are handpicked from premium Napa Valley vineyards including William Hill, Sun Lake, Cypress Ranch and Sage Canyon. A slightly later harvest delivered beautifully developed fruit with marked complexity.

Although Cabernet dominates the blend, there’s also 6% Petite Sirah, 2% Petit

Founder Louis M Martini, pictured left

shows masterclass

Feature produced in association with Louis M Martini

Wines are distributed by Enotria&Coe and Vineyard Cellars louismartini.com

Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec, and 1% Merlot.

There are enticing flavours of black cherry, blackberry and plums, underpinned by an acidity that keeps the wine vibrant and perky.

John Kernaghan notices the confident tannins and wonders if this is the Petite Sirah and Merlot making their presence known.

“I think Petite Sirah, certainly,” says Jake. “But I’d probably say a lot of it is coming from the Cabernet as well, that structure and tannin. And certainly, now it’s opened up a bit, we’re also getting those menthol and eucalyptus high notes.”

Monte Rosso Gnarly Vine Zinfandel 2017 £36.41 DPD

The Monte Rosso vineyard in the Sonoma Valley was bought by Louis M Martini in 1938. With an elevation of between 213m and 396m, its clay/loam soils suit a number of varieties including this old-vine Zinfandel.

ripeness, resulting in concentrated fruit of particularly high quality, rich flavours and layers of complexity. Little wonder winemaker Michael Eddy describes it as an “outstanding” vintage.

Cataratto vines thriving at the 19ha Kelbi vineyard

The wine is aged in a combination of French (53% new) and American oak barrels (25% new) for a total of 16 months.

It’s the highlight of the tasting for Alex Downie of Connaught Wine Cellars in central London, and for Monta Cimdina, who describes it as “delicious … I love the hint of cinnamon”.

Alfie Colling of Blanco & Gomez in west London adds: “This type of Zinfandel makes you fall in love with the grape. There’s a vibrant nose of perfume and minerality. The palate is rich and structured with a good balance of dark fruits and complexity to it.

“The high alcohol is very well integrated. There’s a long finish with spicy notes of cinnamon and pepper ... very pleasant to my taste.”

Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 £68.91 DPD

Consistently moderate temperatures allowed grapes to ripen fully and evenly, creating near-perfect harvest conditions. Every block is picked at optimum

The wine is produced in small quantities in a micro-winery. Grapes are gravityfed into small, open top fermenters for cold soak. After fermentation, the wine is racked into oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and ageing.

Alfie Colling of Blanco & Gomez is a fan, describing it as a “classy” Cabernet with an interesting profile. “Strong oak and spices on the nose,” he says. “A deeply layered palate with fruity and liquorice notes. Hints of plum and a pleasant seam of vanilla; smooth and great balance on the finish. A fabulous vintage.”

Michael Eddy: only the fourth head winemaker in the company’s history

Vines at the aptly named Monte Rosso

THE DRAYMAN

Making a living in a box

The out-of-town beer shop where growlers are the star attraction

The niche beer retailing market has slipped into a convention around ramming shiny, shouty cans of pale ale between scaffolding planks. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that but it’s become a bit boring, so it’s refreshing from time to time to see someone who’s prepared to shake things up.

One such is The Filling Station, in the Cambridgeshire version of St Ives, where cans play second fiddle to mainly local draught beers, sold in refillable bottles from US-style growler systems.

“Refilling a glass bottle uses 66 times less CO2 and water than buying aluminium cans from the supermarket,” says owner Matt Kelly. “People are into the novelty, but it tastes fresher and it’s better for the environment.

“And the margins are better: on packaged it’s around 35% but on draught it’s 60%.”

But it’s not just the product emphasis that sets the Filling Station apart, it’s the location and the property too. The shop is housed in a converted shipping container on a patch of grass between a drive-thru McDonald’s and a drive-thru Costa, on the town-edge Abbey Retail Park that’s home to a Papa John’s, a Subway and a couple of other independent businesses, including indie wine merchant EJM Wine.

The Filling Station was founded last year by Kelly, a former Carlsberg sales, national accounts and marketing executive, who took redundancy when the Danish brewer merged its UK operations with Marston’s.

His business was inspired by working with Carlsberg’s craft brands Brooklyn and London Fields while handling casual dining accounts such as Zizzi, Jamie’s Italian and the shipping container-led food and entertainment chain Boxpark.

“The location is kind of where I wanted it to be,” says Kelly. “It’s got good footfall and it’s a mainstream market, because the ethos is to take craft beer to the masses – to demystify it and make it more approachable, and get more people drinking better beer.”

The 40-foot container was sourced from a Midlands company. “I had CAD drawings of the interior drawn up and they fitted it out.

“You can have one of three conditions of container: new, shipped-once or used. Mine is a shipped-once one. It’s sprayed black and clad in cedar, and the supplier did the insulation, the ply lining and put the power in.

“The landowners put in the facilities for water and the internet and then it got

craned on to the plot. We then fitted it out like a shop using local builders and decorators.

“I used some contacts from the Carlsberg days to fit out the cellar and sourced the dispense kit from a company in Lithuania.”

Planning was a lengthy process – “as if we were trying to build a nuclear power station” – complicated by the fact that the location had previously been susceptible to flooding.

The retail space is tiny, taking up around a third of the container, with the rest accounted for by cellar equipment and storage. Since the initial opening, Kelly’s added an outdoor space that’s been used for events, and there are plans to upgrade with an adjacent smaller container to host these indoors.

It’s a set-up that’s not just about novelty; the location brings serious commercial benefits over the high street, says Kelly, who, despite sourcing the container, has handed ownership to the landowner and now pays rent on it.

“You can strike a deal with retail parks,” he says. “The rent is significantly lower than it would be on the high street because it’s done on square footage.

“We also got some sample rents from other shipping container businesses like Box Park in London and managed to grind [the landlords] down a bit.

“It is cheaper than the high street, but I didn’t want to be on the high street.

“You just become another shop and high streets are in either in flux or in decline. It’s not where we want to be.”

Diogo Campilho Quinta da Lagoalva

On the nose, I like to make very new world styles of wine. Very fruity and showing the grape character in terms of aroma and in terms of typicity. But in terms of the palate, I prefer the European style. We don’t make big, high alcohol wines with lots of sugar. For me, in the mouth wines should be very elegant, very gentle. I like my wines to show the terroir and the typicity of the grape variety.

Nuno Falcão Rodrigues Casal da Coelheira

In the past it was not so easy because the region was known for bulk wine and high yields, but this is not the reality now and our image is changing. The quality of our wines has been recognised domestically and worldwide. We have so much diversity; we are able to produce very fresh white wines, full-bodied reds, traditional fortified wines and interesting sparkling wines. I think Tejo is going in the right direction.

Antonina Barbosa Falua

Tejo has grown a lot in recent years, both in terms of quality and the popularity of its wines. Part of the richness of the region is its diversity. There are three very different sub-regions, which makes it possible to produce many styles of wines, with very different profiles and characteristics. Every day, we have a greater connection to the soil and the way we conduct our agricultural practices.

Winemakers of Portugal’s Tejo region

João Barbosa

João M Barbosa Vinhos

We waited until 2009 to plant our white grapes because at that time in Portugal white wines were not very well accepted. Nowadays we sell much more white than red. I have Sauvignon and Fernão Pires, which we call Maria Gomes; we have Alvarinho, and last year we planted Chardonnay. I told my children that if our Chardonnay becomes like a normal Chardonnay, we’re going to replant.

Martta Reis Simões

Quinta da Alorna

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.

do Cartaxo

We are always encouraging our members to use new methods and techniques in their vineyards, and we reward the good quality of the grapes they deliver to us. We already have some key strengths in the Tejo region: our indigenous grape varieties, the characteristics of our terroirs, and the climate. We keep investing in modernising our methods and technological capability.

Pedro Gil Adega Cooperativa

Tejo has become a hit with independent specialists in the UK. Throughout 2022, we’ve invited a number the region’s producers to tell their stories in The Wine Merchant magazine.

In association with Comissão Vitivinícola Regional do Tejo cvrtejo.pt

When a region is home to an unusually high percentage of the world’s finest and most famous red wines, it is perhaps not surprising that its other strengths occasionally get a little overshadowed.

A recent event hosted by The Wine Merchant and Bordeaux/Bordeaux Supérieur Wines, however, served as a timely reminder of just how good the “other” styles of France’s largest and most celebrated AOC wine region can be.

A showcase for Bordeaux’s modern dry white and rosé wines, the event was presented by Bordeaux expert and wine educator Laura Clay, who gave a fascinating overview of the variety on offer in these categories in the Bordeaux AOC’s varied terroirs, which included a 12-wine “tour d’horizon” tasting.

Clay, a self-confessed fan of the Bordeaux/Bordeaux Supérieur appellations with their mix of “tradition, ambition and the will to experiment”, kicked off her roundup of Bordeaux’s outstanding dry whites and rosés with an intriguing statistic: until the late 1950s, white varieties made up around 50% of the Bordeaux vineyard.

These days the number stands at 8% of the total, but, as Clay pointed out, the 4,504ha of white varieties that are currently planted are very much focused on quality over quantity. Indeed, Clay believes Bordeaux whites are some of the “most underrated wines in the world”.

Rosé wines, meanwhile, have been enjoying a bit of a boom. According to Clay, just 10 years ago “they barely registered on a graph” of total Bordeaux production. These days some 4,310ha of Bordeaux

More to Bordeaux than

Our recent online tasting put whites and rosé wines through

vines are dedicated to rosé, which now accounts for 5.8% of Bordeaux wine produced each vintage.

Leading the way, varietally speaking, for whites are rich, golden-hued Sémillon (45% of white plantings) and lively, exuberantly aromatic Bordeaux native Sauvignon Blanc (43%), which together form the backbone of the classic white Bordeaux blend. But the tasting illustrated the importance, too, of Bordeaux’s other white varieties: floral-fragrant Muscadelle and the rare, spicy, pink-skinned Sauvignon Blanc mutation, Sauvignon Gris.

The white wines tasted were all blends, all featuring one or both of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc in varying proportions.

And while the wines had much in common – the consistent use of night-time or earlymorning picking to preserve freshness was one modern fashion highlighted by Clay – they also reflected subtle differences in terroir and different winemaking emphases (the amount of time on skins or lees, for example).

Rosé wines rely on the same noble grape varieties used for reds, with Merlot (the most important), Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc the main players, joined by complementary varieties Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenère. As with the reds, Bordeaux’s rosé wines are generally blends that draw together the competing strengths of the different components,

OUR FEATURED WINES

Château Belle-Garde Bordeaux Blanc 2021

80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Sémillon Beautifully balanced with lovely rounded texture; serious with good depth. A food wine with delicious “punchy Sémillon coming through,” said Russell Paine of Clipper Wines, Southsea.

Château La Rame Bordeaux Blanc 2021

95% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sémillon Grapefruit, lemon, nettles and passionfruit: beautifully complex, ageworthy dry white from a famous Ste-Croixdu-Mont sweet wine producer. “Very smart and classy,” said David Williams of The Wine Merchant.

Château de la Vieille Tour Bordeaux Blanc 2021

30% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Sauvignon Gris, 40% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle

Classic blend showing great skill. Lively, fresh, mouthwatering; white peach and citrus. “Just what you’d be looking for from a Bordeaux Blanc,” said Laura Clay.

Château de Parenchère Bordeaux Blanc 2021 40% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Sémillon, 20% Muscadelle Citrus, lemon balm, white flowers and stone fruit, nice peppery finish, great texture. “I like the richness and

opulence; and it looks good too,” said Henry Butler of The Butlers Wine Cellar.

Château Labatut Cuvée Prestige Bordeaux Blanc 2021

60% Sémillon, 40% Sauvignon Gris “Super-expressive,” said Emily Silva. “This is stunning, but then I love Sauvignon Gris,” added Richard King of Dronfield Wine World.

Château Dudon Bordeaux Blanc 2021

66% Sémillon, 34% Sauvignon Blanc Peach, grapefruit and delicious roundness on the palate. “Very appealing fruit combination and texture,” said Williams.

Château de Bonhoste Bordeaux Rosé 2021

50% Merlot, 50% Cabernet Franc

“Lovely! Really different,” said Kat Stead of Brigitte Bordeaux. Riaz Syed of Stonewines in Barnet added: “It would pair very well with food: soft fruit, great balance and enough acidity to cut through.”

Château La Rame Bordeaux Rosé 2021

50% Merlot, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon Strawberry character, citrus and green pear. Elegant. “Both of Château La Rame’s wines are really good,” said Russell Paine of Clipper Wines.

What the merchants said

Château Caminade Haut Guérin Bordeaux Rosé 2021

80% Merlot, 20% Malbec

Notes of strawberry and raspberry travel sweets. “It has an attractively sharp finish, and is really stylish,” said Clay.

Château Lamothe-Gaillard Bordeaux Rosé 2021

100% Cabernet Franc

Raspberry with real lift and kick of cranberry – “zippy”, said Emily Silva. “Very attractive acid balance, freshness and length,” said Williams.

Château Peychaud Un Air d’Été Bordeaux Rosé 2021

80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc

Multi-award-winning rosé produced on gravelly soils. “Really nice elegance and roundness to this,” said Clay. Williams added: “Lovely spicy note coming through.”

Château Suau Bordeaux Rosé 2021

100% Cabernet Sauvignon

“Lovely and surprising flavour for such a pale wine,” said King. “Very concentrated,” added Silva. “Very pale, delightful nose and a secret flavour,” said Paine.

although the tasting featured two singlevarietal wines.

According to Clay, the growth in the volume of rosé production has been matched with a vast improvement in quality. What was once regarded as a by-product of red wine production is now treated as a serious style in its own right, with vineyards earmarked for rosé production and grapes picked early specifically for the purpose. There’s diversity, too, with a range of different styles, colours and production methods that is sadly all too rare in other roséproducing regions – but, as with all the region’s wine styles, is very much a feature of Bordeaux.

a common thread of salinity across the white wines that is very attractive and really makes me long for seafood.” Emily Silva, Oxford Wine Company

“The white wines show so much better if they’re not too cold, and especially if there’s Sémillon involved.” Henry Butler (pictured), The Butlers Wine Cellar, Brighton

“Cabernet Franc brings some really appealing floral notes and slight herbaceousness to Bordeaux rosé.” Kat Stead, Brigitte Bordeaux, Nottingham

“It’s nice to have rosés with a bit of flavour! And we love Bordeaux blanc. We have to convince people that they are much more interesting than New Zealand at a comparable price point, but, once tried, customers are hooked.” Richard King, Dronfield Wine World, Derbyshire

“We’ve been doing well with Sauvignon-based Bordeaux, especially over the past year.” Andrew Imrie, KWM Wines & Spirits, Newry

“We’re lucky in that our customers love everything Bordeaux. It would be great to have a selection of quality and expressive rosés and whites to offer.” Shane Slater, Sheldons Wines, Shipston-on-Stour

“There’s

Four hundred years of catching up to do

challenge now, he argues, “is about transitioning from black participation to black ownership … being involved in the entire value chain”.

Sander himself has been a winemaker since leaving high school and now farms 17 hectares of his own land, which he converted to organic viticulture. Siguqa is the proud owner of “the first and only 100% black-owned farm in Franschhoek”, a statement he says he finds rather bittersweet.

“South Africa has been free for 28 years,” he says. “Why did it take such a long time for [black people] to be farmers?

Black ownership of Cape wineries is happening, but the challenges are huge

By Graham Holter

Why aren’t there more black faces in the South African wine industry? It’s a question that has been put to Cape winemakers ever since the end of apartheid.

It’s asked with the best of motivations. But in one crucial aspect it misses the point. Black people have been involved since the very beginning. It’s just that their names did not appear above the door.

Making sense of South Africa’s postapartheid racial settlement is not something that can be achieved by parachuting a white European journalist into a Cape Town exhibition hall for a three-day trade event. But there is a striking contrast, that only the most incurious mind could ignore, between the colour of the skin of those pouring the wines, and that of the people clearing away the empty glasses.

That’s not to imply that the winemakers at the show want it to be this way. Or to suggest that there are no black people running the stands. But when I attended my first Cape Wine expo, back in 2002, British journalists who demanded to know why so few black wineries were in evidence were told they were perhaps expecting too much too soon. Two decades

on, looking around the exhibition space, it would take a keen eye to spot signs of progress.

At last month’s Cape Wine show, Wines of South Africa organised a seminar titled Black Excellence, hosted by Africa market manager Matome Mbatha. It was a chance to hear about four genuine success stories involving black-owned wineries, and to understand the struggles involved in building such businesses from scratch.

“There have always been black people farming these vineyards,” says Wade Sander of Brunia Wines in Stanford, Western Cape. “This is not a new thing.”

Paul Siguqa is the founder of Klein Goederust in Franschhoek. “Our biggest inspiration is our parents, the farm labourers,” he says. “You would go to all the wine shows, all the awards shows, and the accolades would go to the farm owner and the winemaker, and never the person that works the land.

“My mother used to say that in South Africa, you have the farm owners: they talk about intergenerational wealth. On the other side, you have the farm workers. We talk about intergenerational labour. And at some stage that needed to change.”

Sander makes the same point. The

“The answer to that is purely our history. The history of oppression, the history of apartheid, and the history of segregation. Segregation went a lot deeper than depriving people of economic opportunity. It went as far as preventing people from having interpersonal relationships; to me being able to farm with my neighbours in an environment where we support each other.

“Land is the biggest barrier to black people participating in the industry. It took me 15 years to save enough money to buy what was a totally rundown farm.

“In my beautiful valley of Franschhoek you pay up to a million rand per hectare, and we’re talking about farming land, so that’s really expensive.”

Wade Sander had a similar struggle to find a suitable plot that was within budget. “We basically went from coast to coast; Swartland, all the way through Stellenbosch. In most of the more established wine regions and wine routes, there was no chance that we could afford land.”

Ntsiki Biyela is originally from KwaZulu-Natal, a province noted for sugar cane and bananas but not grapes. She started Aslina Wines in 2016, having taken advantage of a scholarship to attend university in Stellenbosch. Her wine course was in Afrikaans, a language that she struggled with. But this only strengthened her resolve to complete her degree.

Biyela is a board member of Pinotage Youth Development Academy, which trains young South Africans for careers in the

wine industry. In many cases they already live in the Cape winelands, but don’t necessarily feel like stakeholders in the wine industry before they sign up to the academy.

Biyela talks about the young people who she has helped to mentor: “They didn’t know anything about wine and, worse than that, were living among the industry people [with] that feeling that they don’t belong here”.

The academy is playing its part in correcting this. “We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary,” Biyela says, “and it was fantastic to see all these young people who are now working in different jobs and being successful in their own right. And actually making a difference.”

Rüdger van Wyk is an acclaimed producer of cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at his Kara-Tara Wines estate in Stellenbosch. He got his first break with the Cape Winemakers Guild protégé programme, which immersed him in wine and gave him the chance to visit wine regions in France.

“When I got back I had the opportunity to be employed by Stark-Condé wines as assistant winemaker,” he says. “Jose Condé has actually played a massive role in my

life as a mentor.” Condé has a stake in the business, and provides useful access to export distribution networks.

It’s daunting for young black winemakers like van Wyk to break into an industry that has already had nearly 400 years to establish itself. Paul Siguqa at Klein Goederust talks about the risks involved in starting from scratch and waiting for the investment in land, vines, equipment and people to start paying back. “I cannot afford to make any mistake, being a first-generation farmer,” he says. He was not too proud to ask a neighbouring winemaker for advice and mentorship, a request he says was received warmly.

Van Wyk picks up the point. “Seeing fourth, fifth, sixth-generation farmers, I already knew that I was behind, you know? I needed to start somewhere but I also wanted to make the best. I wanted to work with the best and learn from the best in South Africa.”

The seminar is brimming with positive energy. The speakers, and even some of the attendees making points from the floor, are greeted by warm applause. It’s easy to leave the room with the feeling that real change is underway.

Official figures report that, as of 2002, South Africa has 82 black-owned wine brands (out of around 2,600 producers in the country as a whole) and 71 black economic empowerment farmers. There are 313 hectares of black-owned vineyards supported with technical assistance. There are bursaries and training schemes that seem to be making a difference, and the effects will doubtless become apparent in the coming years, maybe even as soon as the next Cape Wine.

But perhaps, just as we were told back in 2002, we should not expect too much too soon. Back in my hotel room, on a news channel, a regional politician is quietly but forcefully reminding his audience that his community still does not have the promised access to basic amenities. All the time this remains the case, he insists, the struggle for equality, which many assumed would have ended in the mid 1990s, must continue.

We’re rightly impatient for a fairer racial balance in the Cape wine industry, and perhaps the scales are beginning to tilt, just a little. But this is a complicated country. Many of its black citizens still yearn for proper access to drinking water. Wine must seem like the most distant of dreams.

Black people have been involved in the Cape wine industry since its inception

Chris Alheit of Alheit Vineyards

Samantha O’Keefe of Lismore Estate

Kaapzicht winemaker Danie Steytler

Marelise Niemann of Momento Wines

Pieter Walser of BLANKBottle

Philip Myburgh of Myburgh Bros

Jean Smit of Damascene Vineyards

Rüdger van Wyk of Kara-Tara Wines

Miles Mossop of Miles Mossop Wines

Five talking points from Cape Wine 2022

1. South Africa needs fairer prices for its wines

At the previous Cape Wine, in 2018, Wines of South Africa reported that about a quarter of the country’s grape growers had left the industry in the past decade, mainly because their businesses were unprofitable. Covid restrictions have created acute difficulties for Cape wine producers in recent years, but there’s a structural problem that predates the pandemic.

South Africa entered the international market as a supplier of bargain-priced wine and since then its farmers have struggled to achieve fair, and in some cases even break-even, prices for their fruit, even as the reputation of Cape wines has soared.

Erik Laan of The Vineking in Surrey says: “The quality of their wines is simply getting increasingly better. And dry goods costs are rising significantly.

“The South African wine industry feels its wines are being sold too cheaply – something they have argued for some time. Prices will have to go up over the coming years.”

Nik Darlington of Graft Wine Co already sees movement. “Prices have certainly risen since my last visit in 2019, finally, and they needed to for the sake of winemakers and sustainability of grape growing alike,” he says.

2. Chenin Blanc just gets better and better

It’s possible to taste your way through several dozen Cape Chenins and not find any two that are alike. Not only is Chenin South Africa’s most planted white variety, but the country has more Chenin planted than the rest of the world put together. Long gone are the days when the wines invited comparisons with rivals from the Loire. In fact, some winemakers think there’s a good case for a more enthusiastic reclaiming of the old local name, Steen, to accentuate the individuality, and confidence, of the South African style.

But how to define that style? Broadly, the flavour spectrum ranges from zesty to fruity to buttery but there are thousands of nuances in between. For white wine lovers, especially those on a budget, Cape Chenin always offers something that fits the bill.

3. Producers are having fun with their wines

There’s a tangible restless energy in South Africa’s wine scene. Producers could be excused for taking a bit of a breather and allowing export markets to catch up with the fruits of their recent labours. Instead, the Cape industry is brimming with new ideas and experimentation.

Hal Wilson of Cambridge Wine Merchants was delighted to

encounter variations on “skin contact, whole bunch and carbonic maceration, amphora, concrete egg and qvevri ageing, more foudres and old wood, reductive and oxidative fermentation and ageing, and the use of SO2 during and after ageing”.

He adds: “That’s a big change from oenology-degree orthodoxy, and probably not embraced to the same extent anywhere else in the world. There are different outcomes, for sure, but not the divisions among winemakers and commentators that I am accustomed to seeing.”

4. More local expression

“A big theme of recent years has been growing interest in regional flavours,” says Nik Darlington of Graft, “whether at larger Wine of Origin level or drilling down to the smaller wards and, in rare instances, single vineyards.

“For example, I managed to spend quite a bit of time with winemakers from Breedekloof and Hemel-en-Aarde. They’re poles apart in almost every respect, the latter steadfastly terroirdriven and premium-focused from its inception, the former grounded in larger co-operatives and bulk wine – but, like many other regions, taking the bold but necessary steps down the road of premiumisation.”

Darlington adds: “The best winemakers have been banging the terroir drum for years, of course, but I can see this feeding through to all levels because it is something South Africa, with its rich geological and microclimatic diversity, can do so well.”

5. New superstar winemakers

Nobody thinks that South Africa’s winemaking royalty is about to be dethroned anytime soon. David & Nadia, Chris and Andrea Mullineux, Eben Sadie, Adi Badenhorst, Chris Alheit … these names, and many more, are clearly at the top of their game and continue to innovate and surprise. But new names are joining them. The unassuming Jean Smit of Damascene, hailed by Jamie Goode as South Africa’s most exciting winemaker, is crafting world-class wines from some of the Cape’s most exceptional sites. Syrah maestro Duncan Savage, Tim Atkin’s Cape winemaker of the year, is really hitting his stride. Sakkie Mouton, whose first vintage was in 2018, is developing a devoted fan base with his maritime-influenced varietals from barren vineyards overlooking the Atlantic. If jealousies and rivalries are creeping in, these certainly didn’t show at Cape Wine. Indeed, the togetherness and bonhomie among South Africa’s winemakers is one of the industry’s most enduring, and attractive, characteristics.

the spirit of artisans

What are the ingredients of the perfect Armagnac? Janneau cellarmaster Jean-Noël Dollet explains his methodology with a group of independents, and it’s every bit as complex as you might imagine

Founded in 1851, Janneau has been crafting fine Armagnac for the better part of two centuries now.

A reference point in the Armagnac production zone between Bordeaux and Toulouse in Gascon south west France, Janneau is renowned for its relentless focus on quality, with an artisanal approach that makes for some truly distinctive and beautifully poised Armagnac that are among the world’s finest spirits.

Today, the responsibility for maintaining Janneau’s high standards lies in the hands of the company’s talented cellarmaster, Jean-Noël Dollet.

With experience working at some of the leading names in whisky and Cognac, Dollet has a unique perspective on what it takes to make fine Armagnac – a perspective he shared with an audience of wine merchants in a fascinating online tasting of five highlights of the Janneau Armagnac range, held in association with The Wine Merchant in October.

It starts in the vineyard Dollet began the tasting by outlining the complex range of variables that shape the flavour, texture and quality level of Armagnac.

First comes the terroir and climate. Dollet explained that the Armagnac growing area sits at the confluence of three climatic influences: Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental. Generally speaking, that makes for a growing season of warm days and cool nights that is perfect for

producing ripe but balanced and aromatic white grapes.

The region is further differentiated by its three sub-regions, each of which, Dollet said, also has its own micro-climate, which in turn makes for a slightly different style of base wine.

Sheltered by the Landes Forest in the west, the largest sub-region (with 3,480ha) is Bas-Armagnac. With its more pronounced Atlantic influence, and its soils a mix of sand, silt and clay, it tends to create slightly lighter eaux de vie, Dollet said. The clay-limestone of Armagnac Ténarèze (1,588ha) in the centre of the region produces more robust styles, and the limestone of eastern Haut-Armagnac (with just 68ha in production) leans to the

fruity and delicate.

Then you have the grape varieties. Unusually in the context of world-class grape eaux de vie, Armagnac producers have four varieties to choose from and, again, each adds something different to the Janneau blending palette, characters which in turn are shaped by the vineyards where they are grown. Ugni Blanc is the relatively neutral mainstay, joined by Baco 22A, which brings richness and roundness, elegant Folle Blanche and fresh Colombard.

Behind the scenes at Janneau

As Dollet said, however, while the raw ingredients are crucial, Armagnac is not the same as wine. And it’s in the Janneau cellars where the magic really starts to happen.

One of the defining features of the Janneau approach is its use of two distillation methods: continuous distillation and double-distillation.

As Dollet explained, continuous distillation, which is the most common in Armagnac, employs the area’s distinctive column still, the Armagnac alembic, creating a rich and powerful eau de vie with an alcohol content between 52% and 60%.

Double distillation, which made a return to the region after being banned for almost 70 years following an intervention from Janneau in 1972, is a more complex operation.

Using a Charentais pot still, it requires two successive distillations to create an

intensely fruity eau-de-vie of 72% abv.

The twin methods add yet another level of complexity to Janneau’s blends even before they begin their years- or decadeslong mellowing journey in 400-litre French oak casks. Dollet said he likes to source his barrels from small cooperages, both for the attention to detail they offer, and to allow him greater flexibility on how those casks are made, specifically the level of toasting.

Of course, it is the time in wood, and the quality of the wood, that shapes so much of the finished spirit’s character. But Dollet stressed that time out of wood is no less important. Uniquely in Armagnac, Janneau uses an aeration process to maintain the ideal level of oxygenation in which the barrels of the same lot are regularly emptied and mixed together before being divided and replaced in new casks.

For Dollet, the process is crucial in maintaining the freshness, balance and harmony that are among Janneau’s defining characteristics.

Janneau XO & Janneau XO 20 ans Blend

Janneau’s superb XO is a blend of single and double distillation, of Ugni Blanc and Baco and of Bas-Armagnac and Armagnac-Ténarèze. Dollet says that he usually ages the lighter Bas-Armagnac eaux de vie for less time than the more robust Ténarèze components, which need longer in the cellar. The youngest components have spent 10 years in barrel, while the oldest have been ageing for more than 30 years. It’s amber and slightly brown in colour, and has a nose of candied fruits, prune, caramel and peppermint, while the palate is intense with flavours of dulce de leche, sweet almond milk cake, more candied fruits and a peppery finish.

The XO 20 ans, meanwhile, uses only single distillation. The youngest aged component is 20 years old, while the oldest has been ageing more than 32 years. It has a deep amber colour and a nose of walnuts, hazelnuts, vanilla and ginger, while in the mouth it’s silky and filled with candied fruits, bitter orange and Sichuan pepper spice.

Cellarmaster Jean-Noël Dollet

Janneau 1984 Vintage Armagnac & Janneau 1968 Vintage Armagnac

Dollet says what he likes about Janneau’s single-vintage Armagnacs is that they are all different, with each vintage being a blend of subregion, distillation methods and grape varieties, while retaining the same “family personality” found throughout the Janneau range. Janneau has vintage stocks going back to 1872, and Janneau releases are always at least 20 years old, but Dollet stressed that the key to quality is not just age. The ageing has to be managed, with the same aeration process that marks out the rest of the portfolio.

One important difference between the vintage Armagnacs and the XO and VSOP, Dollet added, is the abv: 43% and 40% respectively. According to Dollet, the powerful character of the vintage styles is more appealing to serious connoisseurs who prefer a higher abv, while the blends are targeted at a wider audience who tend to prefer lower alcohol levels.

The 1984, a blend of Ugni Blanc and Baco from Bas-Armagnac and Armagnac-Ténarèze, using both distillation methods, has an arresting sweetness with liquorice and acacia honey, exquisite balance and a long, liquorice-inflected finish.

The 1968, which is 100% Baco from Bas-Armagnac, has taken on a wonderful deep amber colour with green tints, and a nose inflected with vanilla and rancio notes and a rich, smooth palate filled with prunes, and great length.

merchant feedback

Tom Brady, The Oxford Wine Company

“A wonderful tasting and a fantastic insight into the Janneau range. The use of a classic alambic charentais to add weight, depth and complexity to the portfolio really helps set these Armagnacs apart from a lot of their competitors. A real feature is the orange zest and sultana notes which crop up time and again and offer a point of difference compared to the traditional fig and raisin notes I’m used to in this category.

“I was particularly impressed by the freshness of the XO 20 ans with its delicate orange blossom notes perfectly in line with the richness of ginger, baking spice and dark chocolate. The VSOP was rich, creamy and packed with candied orange zest. I often find Armagnacs of this age slightly sharp in texture but again this was characteristically smooth and mouth-coating despite the spirit’s youthfulness.”

Shane Slater, Sheldons Wine Cellars, Shipston-on-Stour

“Our hosts gave us an excellent introduction to Armagnac, the grape varieties grown, the characteristics of the three main growing areas and how each affects the quality and flavour of the eaux de vie. It was very informative and allowed me to position Armagnac against Cognac and other grape-spirit products.

“The first taste of the VSOP set the tone – a lovely smooth liquid, flavours of orange peel, clove and other spices. A nice warm feeling on the back of the throat but no alcohol burn: a sign of a well-made spirit.

“The XO was a step up in intensity and depth of flavour. The two single vintage expressions were fascinating to try. Both were distinctive in their own way, showing characteristics of their grape varieties and growing locations, and that age is not the only driver of quality.

“My favourite was the XO 20 Year Old, rich and smooth, with citrus fruits, caramel, chocolate and spice on the palate. A real treat. Thanks to Jean-Noël Dollet from Janneau for for demonstrating that wellmade Armagnac is an excellent and often more affordable alternative to Cognac.”

Sponsored by Fells

Visit fells.co.uk or armagnac-janneau.com for more information

Qvevri is having a bit of a moment, probably about time too considering the technology has been around for all of 8,000 years.

Although most prolific in contemporary, often independent wine shops, and on the lists of forward-thinking wine bars and restaurants, qvevri wines are dripping into more traditional discourse too. Even Majestic stocks them.

These large clay pots buried underground originate in Georgia and are being adopted all over the world for fermentation and élevage. They are not cheap, or easy to clean, or easy to transport. So why bother?

Qvevri appeals to the artisan. Mud is meticulously applied from the bottom up, each layer being allowed to set before the next is applied. There is no mould, and the best tools are one’s own hands. Terroir freaks can also get their hands dirty. Much like oak, the provenance of the raw material can have a significant impact on the final product: yes, there is a mud quality spectrum.

At three months per pot, the patience required matches that of winemaking, and every qvevri is romantically unique. They are the ultimate vessel for vignerons who consider themselves philosophers first and winemakers second. Such people are not in short supply.

You need only enter a wine shop or restaurant to see an increased presence of esoteric, indigenous grape varieties. These provide a fairly unquenchable checklist for thirsty wine nerds to taste their way through and offer a point of difference for consumers. Qvevri can fill a similar role; sparking conversation and opening the door for new vinous experiences. It also has science on side.

Theporosity of qvevri depends on how it has been treated and whether it is covered with concrete. In Georgia, there is a raging and ideological debate around the benefits and drawbacks of this. Concrete will affect the ingress of oxygen and therefore the final style of the wine. Think barrique vs botti.

One effect is guaranteed, though: convection currents. The shape of the

CONOR STRUTT

Counter Culture

vessel promotes microbiological streams that circulate lees and other sediment through and around the wine. This movement creates a textural oddity. Imagine the creaminess experienced from lees-stirring but without the yoghurty, bready aromas that usually go with it. For me this is the USP. Texture and mouthfeel combined with purity of fruit? Yes please.

Qvevri use does not automatically create a particular wine style. I have tasted white, red, even rosé wines produced in qvevri. The creamy-not-creamy sensation is most detectable in the cuvées lower in phenolics, namely whites and rosés. But the traditional and most famous use is for the production of amber wines – the original orange wine, or orange wine before it was cool. Hipster purists please form an orderly queue.

Compared to stainless steel and, one

might argue, oak barrels, qvevri is a more accurate representation of the grit, dedication and sacrifice necessary to make truly great wine; at least that’s what I tell the hipsters who come into the shop. Combine orange wine’s inextricable pairing to the current natural wine frenzy and –poof – qvevri is set to make waves for quite some time.

Admittedly, there will be a large contingent of the wine drinking population who have not heard of, or do not care about, this comeback of ancient techniques. But with qvevri-aged wines now coming out of Rioja, Tuscany and even Bordeaux, even the most classical of the classic wine world ought to be paying attention.

Qvevri wines aren’t just for hipsters. They truly reflect the winemaker’s art

Conor Strutt is general manager of Peckham Cellars in south London

Qvevri at Telavi, Kakheti, Georgia

Aleading influence in the Maule Valley’s renaissance as a fine wine producer, Las Veletas is a traditional Chilean estate making expressive, award-winning red wines from very old vines.

One of the most exciting developments in the recent history of Chilean wine is the revival of one of the country’s traditional winemaking heartlands: the Maule Valley.

As Rafael Tirado, winemaker and partner at rising-star Maule producer Las Veletas says, “The history of the Maule is that it always had the biggest plantations, but that had been forgotten. It was considered a place for bulk wine. But our passion at Las Veletas – our idea – was to recover the image of the Maule. And today it is now considered alongside Maipo or Colchagua or Casablanca as one of the best areas in Chile to make wine.”

Tirado, and his partner at Las Veletas, Raúl Dell’Oro, have played a key role in turning around the Maule’s reptuation. But they always knew the area was capable of something special. Tirado, one of Chile’s most respected winemakers, had come to the region in the early 1990s, “because I was really curious about different places and try to discover other options and other places that increase the diversity and complexity in Chile”.

His search initially took him to the eastern side, and the cooler sites in the Andes. Dell’Oro, meanwhile, had been working the land on the west, towards the Pacific, and the dry area of San Javier. Soon the two had teamed up to form Las Veletas and make the most of a climate that, with its cooling evening breezes coming in off the ocean moderating the sunny, dry Mediterranean climate, was perfect for cultivating balanced red wines.

Not the least of San Javier’s attractions for both partners was the stock of very old País and Carignan vines that thrive in the region’s granite and clay soils. “We are not sure exactly how old they are, but they are at least 80 years old and some maybe as much as 100 years old,” Tirado says.

“For me Las Veletas is all about searching and discovering and recovering forgotten places in Chile, and it was a fantastic to

discover these old plantations.”

Making magic in Maule

Tirado clearly loves working with both varieties. “The problem in Chile is that a lot of the time people have tried to make País like Cabernet Sauvignon, with a lot of pump-overs and extraction,” he says. “We understand that País is different. The tannins in the skins can be a little rustic, but I love the tannins in the stems: so now we have 30% to 50% whole-cluster. And I don’t do anything apart from put it in the tank and keep an eye on it.

“I find a fresh, fresh wine, so drinkable, with nice grip of tannin in the mouth, full of flavours and aromas, nice fruit, and – something very different about País –earthy flavours: it really expresses the soil character.”

There’s a similar winemaking approach to the Carignan. “Carignan is great: the power, the colour, the high acidity, the soft tannin, but easy to drink,” Tirado says. “The old plantations are fantastic: it’s so easy to make a good wine. It’s funny because, with other varieties, you work and you complicate a lot to get the mouth feel and the tannin you want, but with Carignan, it’s all go. Just ferment and go.”

The approach is clearly working. Launched this year, the company’s latest project, Almaule, an unoaked singlevarietal País from a plot of 60-plus-year-

old vines, earned 97 points from Decanter, the latest in a string of awards and endorsements from critics including James Suckling, Tim Atkin, Robert Parker and Patricio Tapia.

The plaudits have been evenly distributed across the Las Veletas portfolio which takes in eight red wines. Tirado is particularly impressed by the performance of Cabernet Franc in the San Javier terroir. “It grows beautifully; the colour, the tannin, the elegance and the acidity,” Tirado says.

“The blend with Cabernet Sauvignon works really well. The wines are much fresher and more drinkable, with more acidity and more fruit, but softer in the mouth, than in the Maipo.”

The two Cabernets are among the new plantings overseen by Tirado and Dell’Oro to complement the old-vine Carignan and País. The estate also has Carmenere, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Mourvedre, Cabernet Franc and Viognier. The combination offers Tirado plenty of options for more experimentation as Las Valetas – and Maule – cements a reputation at the forefront of fine Chilean wine.

Sponsored editorial Las Veletas is available in the UK for the first time, imported by Frederick’s Wine Co. Visit frederickswine.com

Rafael Tirado and the team at Las Veletas are changing perceptions of a familiar region, making authentic, expressive wines from ancient vines

Sustainability

Doing the right thing

The wine industry is facing up to its responsibilities

By David Williams

In psychology, there’s a concept known as semantic satiation, in which a word or phrase is repeated to the point where it temporarily loses meaning for the listener. According to the dictionary definition of the term, after a few repetitions of any word or phrase, all we can perceive is a “series of meaningless sounds”.

Over the years, there have been many times when I’ve experienced something akin to semantic satiation as I’ve gone about my business as a wine journalist, a job which entails a great deal of listening to winemakers, merchants and marketers explaining their ways of making and selling wine.

It’s happened with “terroir”, with “mineral”, and with “great wine starts in the vineyard”: all of which have at times become, through often-unthinking repetition, little more than verbal tics, substance-less syllables, “meaningless sounds”.

In recent times, however, the wine trade buzzword I’ve struggled most to hold onto as its content dissolves into white noise all around me is, without question,

sustainability.

Of course, the meaning-straining ubiquity of sustainability isn’t only the fault of the wine industry. As a word (if not necessarily as a set of practices) sustainability has spread its green or greenwashed fingers all over wider society in recent years. Suddenly, it seems, everything is sustainable (or rather, everything is described as sustainable): from cereal and sock brands to cruise liners, football teams and government departments – even, in one of the more grimly hilarious uses of the word I managed to dig out on the internet, military hardware. (Let’s build a “sustainable army with a net-zero bootprint”!)

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that it’s rare to hear the same definition of sustainability twice. Indeed, it can sometimes seem like there are as many interpretations of sustainability in circulation as there were species of animals in the pre-Anthropocene world. There’s an imprecision about sustainability, a set of sometimes-confusing and conflicting ideas about what it is and what it should be that,

as well as being hard to pin down, is also open to bad-faith use and abuse.

Abuse? Well, in wine, as in every other industry, it’s all too easy for companies to exaggerate the good or conceal the worst of their business by taking advantage of the shades of grey in the definition of the term and making use of the sheer range of practices that could, given a fair descriptive wind, come under the banner of “sustainable” without falling foul of UK consumer protection law.

Unlike with organic, Fairtrade or biodynamic – terms which are all much more tightly defined – the meaning of “sustainable” remains somewhat broad, elastic, and open to interpretation. In the UK, even under the strictest interpretation of the legal guidelines published by the Competition & Markets Association on making environmental claims on goods and services, the word sustainable can in effect be used by any producer, no matter how filthily carbon-intensive or socially ruthless and reckless they may be. Provided they can make some form of substantiated claim that at least some of their business practices have some form of sustainable benefit, there is very little anyone can do about it.

Defining sustainability

There are, however, encouraging signs of change, with a combination of governmental, international, and wine industry-specific initiatives working towards tighter definitions and greater transparency for consumers and making it much more difficult for companies to greenwash their brands.

Most of these efforts start from the widely adopted core philosophical tenet of sustainability. As the UN has it: “Sustainability consists of fulfilling the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations, while ensuring a balance between economic growth, environmental care and social well-being.”

For the past 20 years, the UN has also had a working definition of

Sustainability

sustainability in the shape of the “10 principles” of its Global Compact, which run as follows:

Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

All of which, while perfectly useful in setting the terms of engagement, is not entirely helpful when it comes to instructing, defining and, ultimately accrediting, sustainable day-to-day business behaviour.

But that’s where industry-specific bodies are increasingly making their presence felt. In wine, the body that is doing most

to provide clarity on sustainability is the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, a non-profit coalition of more than 60 stakeholders that includes producers such as Treasury Estates, Grupo Avinea (Argento), VSPT and Journey’s End; retailers such as Lidl, Systembolaget (the Swedish monopoly), Whole Foods Market, Waitrose and The Wine Society; importers such as Enotria&Coe and Finland’s Vingruppen; packaging providers such as closure giant Amorim; industry associations such as International Wineries for Climate Action, The Porto Protocol and Great Wine Capitals; and accreditation and certification bodies such as The Fairtrade Foundation, Terra Vitis, and The British Standards Institute.

The involvement of the accreditation bodies is a clue to one of the SWR’s most urgent priorities: to “lead the development of global sustainability reference standard”. A key part of the body’s Operational Plan for 2022-2023, therefore, was to carry out a “global mapping and benchmarking of existing regional and local standards”, which springs from an acknowledgement that, as the body itself puts it, “producers need guidance” and “marketers and consumers need clarity”.

This is no small task. Talking to some of

the players involved in the SWR, you soon get a sense of just how all-encompassing sustainability is for those businesses that are taking it seriously – and just how many different actions it requires. At Enotria&Coe, one of the founding members of the SWR, for example, the new corporate sustainability strategy has 18 different categories, evenly divided across three broad headings: “environmental impact”, “a fulfilling workplace in the community”, and “duty of care”.

Actions range from investing in a new fleet of energy-efficient delivery vehicles to switching all of the company’s cardboard boxes and inner packaging material to 100% recycled and compostable sources, while on the social side, the company trained 16 mental health first aiders in 2022. It also found time to carry out a thorough audit of the sustainability of its suppliers.

It’s a similar situation for one of the producer members of the SWR, Grupo Avinea: the Argentinian company behind Argento and Otronia. According to Andrés Valero, the firm’s sustainability leader, the Argento brand is already certified organic and Fairtrade and it has a sustainability programme with specific goals on best practice that also takes in targets on issues

such as food safety and food security, and vegan production.

“We have to be very clear that sustainable wines have many different criteria, it’s not just one,” Valero says. “You may have a consumer who is focused on social fairness, and Fairtrade will be what they are looking for, and if they are worried about climate change, then it will be the carbon footprint, but if they are looking for nature and agriculture then organic practice or biodiversity practice will be their focus.”

Tuscan Michele Manelli, who has become something of a spokesman for sustainability in Italy through his pioneering work at his Montepulciano estate Salcheto, makes a similar point. “We have worked a lot on the environment, and there is still a lot to do there. But what we also need to do now is to move on the social side, to create a more respectful culture between companies and their staff and their wellbeing.”

Beyond organic

Even from a strictly environmental perspective, however, there’s a general sense among committed sustainable producers that, while what happens in the vineyard (including the adoption of organic or biodynamic practices) remains vital, it is far from being a panacea. Other measures, specifically those concerning energy and water use and packaging, can be at least as important when it comes to addressing issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and resource scarcity.

“Organic imposes certain processes on you which are not always great for biodiversity, and it consumes more energy, because of the high mechanisation it requires,” says Manelli, whose own estate has long been certified organic. “It is the best way to go, especially when you’re making quality wine, but it’s not perfect and we shouldn’t forget that it has its own issues and that it has to be part of a more complex calculation.”

Sam Thackeray, joint managing director of Enotria&Coe, takes the same view. “People will go for the headline organic or biodynamic. But when you investigate

some producers that’s all they do. They don’t believe in doing anything about their community or water use – it’s like a graphic equaliser, you have to get all the different levers in balance.”

with our packaging suppliers and with other grape growers, helping these small producers, not only to produce grapes, but to work sustainably as near to the practices that we have as possible.”

For a supplier like Enotria&Coe, meanwhile, advancements in sustainability will also require the participation of the company’s customers, among them thousands of small restaurants and independent retailers, as well as its producers and other suppliers. Even apparently trivial changes in the customer base, such as the way they deal with invoices and delivery notes, can make an enormous difference, Thackeray says.

This is very much the view taken by one of the global leaders on wine sustainability, Torres. The sheer scale of Torres’ efforts to get to grips with its carbon footprint over the past 15 years is remarkable: the company invested €15m in renewable energy across the business, as well as experimenting with various means of carbon capture and lightweight packaging. The result was a drop of 27% in its CO2 emissions per bottle by the close of the last decade, putting it well on the way to its target of being carbon neutral by 2040.

When I visited Torres in Penedès to take part in a day’s conference devoted to climate change and the wine industry in 2019, Miguel Torres Snr told me that, while he was sure setting his own company on a sustainable path was the right thing to do, it would never be enough unless other companies took similar decisions. That’s why Torres joined forces with Jackson Family Estates to form the International Wineries for Climate Action, “a collaborative working group of environmentally committed wineries focused on a science-based approach to reducing carbon emissions”.

Valero also identifies collaboration as an essential component of sustainability. “The next step is how we bring everything we know to the rest of our supply chain,” he says. “To achieve sustainable development, it’s not enough to work only in our company, we also [have to] interact

“Using a paper delivery note is just not acceptable in a modern digital environment, and customers have to step up and take responsibility for switching to digital. It terrifies me the amount of paper we print in triplicate: 25,000 units a night.”

In a similar vein, Thackeray would like to see retailers asking themselves if they “can find digital alternatives for everyday marketing collateral. And if you are using printed, can you ensure it’s printed on FSCcertified paper?”

He also urges merchants not to be timid with their own customers when it comes to imposing sustainable initiatives. “Consumers know you can’t go into Sainsbury’s and get a plastic bag for free anymore, so independents can be confident and put your foot down on the issue. There’s an idea you don’t want to upset your customers. But if you articulate it, the end consumer has already been trained.”

None of the measures Thackeray recommends to retailers is expensive. Indeed, like everyone else I’ve spoken to about sustainability, he is convinced that, as well as being the right thing to do, sustainability makes “good business sense”.

Valero agrees, saying that “the largest investment is in time and thinking”, and pointing out that the best performing companies on indices such as the Standard & Poor 500 have “sustainable core values”. Sustainability is increasingly what the wine consumer wants and expects, in other words. Even if they still aren’t always sure exactly what it means.

For Enotria&Coe, advancements in sustainability will also require the participation of customers, including independent retailers

Argento was born with a very specific philosophy: that organic production helps us to make the best wine possible. In 2010 we started developing our own vineyards with this working philosophy, doing some extended research on the soil, on the climate – all the local characteristics. As a result, we are the largest organic producer in Argentina, and we offer a whole portfolio of sustainable products at a great variety of price points and places.

We started with an organic winemaking philosophy, but we had to translate this into a business model. The vision of Argento is to lead sustainability culture in Argentina, but also create brands that have a high value with consumers all over the world.

We want to convey the message that it’s possible to be sustainable and economically healthy – and, as we adapt to events such as climate change, sustainability will become more important.

Organic wine is becoming more and more popular. According to the OIV, from 2005 to 2019-20 there was a 500% increase in organic vineyards around the world, to 500,000ha, or 7% of the total. In Argentina it is still only 4% of the total. But the annual growth is around 38%. In terms of consumers, despite global wine consumption going down 3%, organic consumption has risen by 120% and the UK is one of the top consumers of organic wine: it almost doubled from 2019 to 2022.

How Argento led the way with sustainability

Argento is Argentina’s largest organic wine producer. But green viticulture is just the start of the Mendoza-based company’s commitment to sustainability, as Argento’s sustainability leader, Andrés Valero, explains

In association with Bodega Argento bodegaargento.com

Sustainability isn’t just about vineyards. We are also Fairtrade-certified. All our vineyards and wineries are certified under the local sustainability protocol, as well as in food safety and vegan production.

The Fairtrade certification focuses on everyone in the winemaking process in the vineyards and the winery. The certification guarantees that we implement safe working conditions and fair pay. And every time we sell a bottle with Fairtrade on the label, five cents of each euro goes to a fund for our workers to invest as they

choose in their communities. Last year, some chose to invest in three local schools, which play a very important role in rural communities, while others invested in a football club for kids, and in a community diner. Our workers know what is needed.

Packaging for us is a big deal, although it is part of the supply chain where we have the least control. What we can do as a company is to use bottles that are as light as possible. All our cardboard comes from recycled sources, and the bottles have a high level of recycled material.

If we want to be a sustainability leader, we must convince others to come on the same journey. Bodega Argento is a founder of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable and I am one of its trustees. SWR is trying to define some targets, for everyone involved in the wine supply chain. We are members of Bodegas Argentina, and actively participating in the update of its Sustainability Protocol, the local certification for the wine sector. The current version is focused on environmental practice, but it’s been updated to include social sustainability.

We are participating in the 4 Per 1,000 international initiative. This organisation believes that soils that are richer in carbon are better adapted to the impact of climate change. We are also part of the United Nations Global Compact, which defines 10 principles of corporate sustainability regarding human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. We also work with a local network of companies against child labour.

ABOUT BODEGA ARGENTO

Argento first appeared in 1999 with the aim of producing pure, elegant fruit-driven wines that embody the essence of modern Argentina. Today, Bodega Argento is a benchmark in the Argentinian category across Europe.

100% of Argento’s 322ha of vineyards are organic and Fairtrade certified. It has implemented drip irrigation in all its sites. It invested in a residual water treatment plant and is aiming to use 100% recycled packaging within five years.

It received full sustainability certification in 2019. Argento is now also fully vegan certified.

Chief winemaker Juan Pablo Murgia

Encompassing over 600 hectares of vineyards across the Douro, 19 quintas and 15 farmers, Lavradores de Feitoria is a wine company with enviable skill, and a commitment to delivering elegant, balanced wines. It’s also determined to create a viticulture business in the Douro Valley that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

Every single farmer in Feitoria is a shareholder in the business. This not only knits a neatly bound community of growers and winemakers, but also supports a sustainable viticulture industry in the region. Feitoria wants the industry to thrive, not only survive, and so farmers are paid above the market price, giving them a wage that they can live on. This model extends to all staff.

There’s a strong desire to retain vineyard identity across the group and, to support this, growers and winemakers are being encouraged to minimise their use of additives and non-organic interventions in both the vineyard and winery. Today, one of the quintas has full organic accreditation.

Feitoria produces both blended wines – very much in the tradition of Douro winemaking – and “terroir” wines. One of the key objectives is to reflect the characteristics, qualities and individuality of specific sites. It works to understand the diversity of grape varieties, vineyard plots, altitudes and soil types that make up its 600 hectares. With knowledge comes the ability to produce consistently top-quality, complex and characterful wines, for which Feitoria is now well known.

Aware of the current consumer trend to a more sustainable, plant-based diet, Feitoria is in the process of securing vegan certification for all of its wines.

The company’s new winery is located at Quinta do Medronheiro. Here, there is a technical team made of up winemaking director Paulo Ruão and winemaker Raúl Pereira, alongside head of viticulture Margarida Martins and viticulture consultant Nuno Magalhães. It is down to them that “whether it’s big volume or wines with great ageing potential, the wines are balanced, elegant and food friendly, and always with a Douro identity”.

Export manager Marling Espejo adds: “As the wines are all made centrally, guidance comes from the winemaker about how he

Lavradores de Feitoria: an ethos built on trust and respect

would like the vineyards to be managed so that we can maintain our identity through our wines. That said, we benefit from a diverse set of terroirs, so we do want to maintain the individuality of the quintas. Because the farmers are all shareholders, there is a unity among them to all pull in the same direction.”

Lavradores de Feitoria has recently launched a new project, Trust & Respect. The scheme is currently awaiting accreditation. At its heart are economic and social programmes that form part of the company’s sustainability plan. These include paying for grapes and staff wages at sustainable levels. The long-term plan is that producers outside of the Feitoria group could apply to be accredited and, once approved, carry the Trust & Respect logo on their wines.

While the Feitoria team feels passionately that a model that supports sustainable viticulture and winemaking in the Douro should have been in place long ago, not everyone agrees.

“There is some opposition to the Trust & Respect scheme from large wine corporations in the Douro, as it threatens their low-pricing model,” Espejo says. “It is an exciting time for Lavradores de Feitoria, but a tense time for the region. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for

the Douro, but we hope that the Trust & Respect scheme leads people in the right direction.”

It is no secret that the Douro Valley has its challenges, especially around labour shortages. What Lavradores de Feitoria is proposing is both sensible and sustainable. Given its plethora of great quintas, premium vineyards and winemaking talent, it is in prime position to lead by example. It is showing every year that it is possible to make great wines at affordable prices, while ensuring that everyone, from growers to winery staff, is fairly rewarded for their endeavours. What’s more, it’s proving it can be done in an environmentally friendly way, too.

With Marling Espejo, in association with UK importer Raymond Reynolds Ltd

Setting the standard

Sustainability is such a broad term. What does it mean to Lanchester Wines? The owners, Tony and Veronica Cleary, had the foresight to get massively ahead of the curve with sustainability. We’ve spent about £10m on renewables since we started in 2011, with wind turbines, solar panels and heat pump technology, and we now produce more renewable energy than we use.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all sustainability solution, so we use what’s best in each location. This means turbines at our HQ on a windy County Durham hill and open-loop water source heat pumps at our Gateshead warehouses by the River Tyne, which take heat out of disused mine workings. We were the first commercial building in the UK to do this and have learnt a lot on our journey, which we’re sharing with other businesses interested in this system, such as The Sage in Gateshead.

Right now, our primary project is the ongoing development of Greencroft Two, our new 22,000m2, £20m home for our sister business, Greencroft Bottling. Constructed with sustainability front of mind, the building will be one of the most advanced thermally efficient buildings in the market with state-of-the-art insulation panels. The PowerPanels in the roof will have two megawatts of solar power which will create around 1.7m kilowatt hours of electricity per year. We’re spending more than we might otherwise on a new

building, investing an additional £3m in sustainable practices. We’ve even adjusted the gradient of the roof to make the most of the sun.

What about the wineries you work with? What steps have they taken? We’re very selective about who we work with, actively seeking suppliers who share our belief in wine, obviously, first and foremost, but equally the sustainable side of it. Every time we work with wineries or

Yes, very much. It gives you integrity, which I think is key. We try to be proactive, not reactive, and can only do that because the Cleary family are 100% on board. We’re looking at continuously changing technologies, what we can use where, and we want to share that, you know? We’ve been talking about having an industry forum on this.

Tell us more about some of your producer partners.

We work with a company called Tombacco of Italy, it’s a phenomenal company, which has just received Equality Sustainable Wine certification for their approach which includes a solar farm and Israeli irrigation systems for water preservation – that’s really important when we’re talking about this sort of stuff. They just happen to be an organic winery too.

producers, one of the first things we talk about is how they approach sustainability.

It must be reassuring for those wineries to look at the steps that Lanchester Wines and Vintrigue have taken and see you match your words with deeds.

In Chile we work with Matetic, who supply our Ventopuro range. They’ve got the Wines of Chile Seal of Sustainability and a brilliant plastic recycling facility and a woodworking workshop that benefits their community. They also have a tree project, planting one native tree for every 100 cases of wine sold.

And in Napa Valley we work with Trinchero, who are hugely into their sustainable farming and massively into community projects. Coincidentally, these are all family-owned businesses.

Mark Roberts

Lanchester Wines has spent more than £10m on green technology and believes that both it, and its wine-producing partners, can go even further toward making the global wine industry more environmentally and socially responsible. Director of sales Mark Roberts explains why

In association with Lanchester Wines and its independent-focused division, Vintrigue Wines

What tangible benefits do producers see? Do sustainable initiatives make or lose them money?

A lot of wineries were doing these things anyway, it’s just that they weren’t being talked about so publicly. Water preservation has been at the heart of it and farmers have been eager to work with local communities, partly through providing employment and maintaining their crops but also ensuring the community has a viable future. It does cost money. Our own investment in sustainability benefits us now, but it’s mostly an investment for the future. Like, if you look at organic viticulture, it’s much easier to spray than to go through organic certification and have those practices. There is a cost, but there is a benefit, a massive benefit.

You know, if you’re going to drink a decent wine, you want to make sure that it’s got integrity.

Could more premium wine be shipped in bladders and bottled in the UK?

For sure! If you start with great wine, you should end with great wine regardless of how its been transported. Our sister company Greencroft Bottling constantly invests in the latest state-of-the art equipment. We are an incredibly modern bottling facility and we treat that wine the way the winemaker would want it to be treated.

If you’re shipping wine across the world, it’s vastly better for the wine to be in a bladder, to cope with temperature variation. It’s undeniable; the science

is there to say it is fine. And in terms of sustainability, shipping in flexitank can more than double the volume shipped: a 20ft container could carry 13,200 75cl bottles (9,900 litres) or one flexitank of 24,000 litres (32,000 bottles). With that comes a significant win on the environmental front, with CO2 savings of up to 40%. We’ve worked it out as around 2kg of CO2 per kilometre travelled.

And we’re now bulk packing wines that are sitting on shelf for about 20 quid; we call this Boutique Bulk. We hosted a round table a couple of years back, with some seriously high-end pub operators, an MW and some others from the trade. Their honest feedback was that the consumer doesn’t care how the wine is shipped.

Is the problem mainly that premium wines that indies prefer simply aren’t shipped in bladder-sized quantities?

Yes, a lot of indies and their producers don’t really have 24,000 litres they want to ship at any particular point. So we have steels that can ship up to 1,000 litres if needed. You can have split tanks. The juice is so good; it really is insanely good kit.

The other side of this is formats. We’re looking at moving towards cans, which almost have that stigma of screwcap but, actually, if you really are serious about sustainability, if you have a container of 187 glass versus a container of 187 cans volume, it’s a saving of 23.5 tonnes.

How can a big company like Lanchester Wines connect with small independent merchants over issues like sustainability?

We’re an independent too. We’re 100% family owned, and the business was started in a living room back in 1980. I’ve been here nearly 10 years now, and my mandate was to reinvent our wine credentials, really, as a group of wine companies. Vintrigue was born out of the fact that I wanted people to see our ethics and the ethics of our wines.

We are the only wine importer, certainly in the UK, that goes as far as we do in terms of sustainability.

Clockwise from top: the Greencroft Two bottling plant; a community woodworking project by Ventopuro; and Tombacco vineyards

Chivite broadens its horizons

Moving beyond the Navarra DO has given the producer the freedom to explore, experiment and innovate

Listening

to Patrice Lesclaux talk about “what’s next” for Chivite, it’s hard not to think of novelist Kurt Vonnegut’s reflection on invention –“we have to be continually jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down”.

It is well known that Julián Chivite Marco was the founding father of the Navarra Denominación de Origin in 1967. It is, therefore, eyebrow-raising that his son, Julián Chivite López, has steadily been moving away from the DO.

For clarity, the move is not geographic. Chivite’s vineyard, Finca Legardeta, is firmly located within the DO boundaries, albeit at its most northerly point, where the vines enjoy a very cool Atlantic/ Continental climate.

The change is the decision to label every one of the Chivite wines as IGP Tres Riberas. Why? It allows the Chivite team to explore, experiment and innovate to the maximum, free of the restrictions of the requirements set by the DO.

The message hit home in 2015, with the first release of the premium Las Fincas Rosado. The wine was a collaboration between Chivite and 3-Michelin star Spanish chef Juan Mari Arzak. The aim was to create a world-class Spanish rosado that would fit on the wine lists of Spain’s finest restaurants.

The wine was thoughtfully and carefully created. The team wanted a lighter salmonpink coloured wine, with the finesse and textural complexity that would make it at home in the fine dining scene. They achieved what they wanted, but by direct pressing the grapes, which was strictly forbidden.

The DO didn’t allow it in 2015, and Julián had no choice but to label the wine as IGP 3 Riberas. Arguably, Chivite was pushed rather than jumped. But stretching his vinous wings felt good, and the decision was made to move the full Chivite range out of the Navarra DO.

Above all else, Chivite is focused on making outstanding wines from its Finca Legardeta, and it is seizing every opportunity to do so.

Lesclaux explains: “We have some varieties that have not worked as well as we would have liked – such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon – and we are pulling them up. Now we have the space and the freedom that comes with IGP to experiment fully.” He continues: “We know that Tempranillo does very well in certain parcels, but our experimentation can extend much more broadly: Mencía, Monastrell … even Albariño. Why not? We will also have more flexibility with clonal selection.”

Chivite has quite a vineyard playground to work with. Finca Legardeta rises from 450m to 600m above sea level. The proportion of clay and limestone varies with altitude, though the calcareous sandstone bedrock is consistent across the 250 hectares. Longidentified as one of Spain’s great vineyards, Chivite has been a member of the Grandes Pagos d’España since 2004.

Currently only 148 hectares of the 250 available are planted to vine. There is a good deal of room to play with, and given the undulating nature of the land, there are a vast number of new potential parcels to identify. As Lesclaux says, “there’s lots of work to do with soil analysis and better understanding of the different areas, but this work is well underway”.

The Chivite ranges have been rejigged, with the possibility of more wines to come.

Arguably Spain’s finest white, Chivite’s Blanco, is swimming in 99-point scores, gold medals and global critical acclaim. It comes from a plot known as Las Mercedes.

Chivite recently launched the singlevineyard Vino de Guarda Tempranillo. All the

grapes come from a south-facing parcel called La Isla. Covering a modest 7.5 hectares, at 500 metres, the calcareous soils here have a significant presence of pebbles. Lesclaux says this plot of Tempranillo is the most northerly in Europe. Vino de Guarda means “wine with ageing potential”. 2017 is the inaugural vintage of the wine.

This clear articulation about the plots, and their unique qualities, opens the door for further premium wines, perhaps made from varieties not traditionally allowed in Navarra.

“We have a five-year plan to add more parcels, and our new-found freedom opens up so many possibilities for us,” says Lesclaux. “We are really excited to have a new white wine in development, for release next year, which will be the white counterpart to the Tempranillo Vino de Guarda.”

These wines will sit a level up from the Finca Legardeta mono-varietals that showcase the qualities of the property’s vineyards, among the most northerly in the Iberian Peninsula. Enotria&Coe lists the Chardonnay & Garnacha (92 points, Decanter) in this range.

Let’s not forget Chivite’s commitment to thrilling rosado wines. This year Las Fincas Rosado 2021 was a gold medal winner at the Drinks Business Global Rosé Masters and among “the best 15 rosé wines in the world.” El País also voted the wine Spain’s best rosé this year.

New this year is an oak-fermented sibling to Las Fincas. Las Fincas Rosado Oak Fermented 100% Garnacha spends six months in French barrels.

The Chivite rosado line-up will finish with the very limited production Colección Rosado. This is a Tempranillo/Garnacha blend that has been aged for 14 months in new French oak.

Lesclaux concludes: “The move to IGP has been so positive for us … customers are curious and there’s new and renewed interest in the wines. We are proud of our reputation as a producer of outstanding wines, not just at home but abroad. We are now in a position to give both our agronomist and winemaker the flexibility they need to push the quality levels even higher and deliver exciting wines to our customers.”

When did you start to take sustainability seriously?

After a few years working as a quality producer, I wanted to grow the business – to internationalise and invest. As part of this process, I thought it was important to develop a new business responsibility, which was focused on quality but also about a new business model.

What were your first steps?

The first step was building an energyindependent “off-grid” cellar from 2009 to 2011. At the same time, and with a lot of support from the research and academic world, we set out to measure our environmental impact. We became the first cellar to assess and identify our carbon footprint in 2009. That showed us what impact the cellar has. But it also showed us how big a part is played by the packaging: an important finding that drove us to invest in that direction. In two to three years, we introduced new packaging that weighed below 380 grams, the lightest glass bottle available and by far the most eco-friendly.

What other measures have you taken? We are certified organic and we work our vineyards according to European organic protocols. We produce our own fertilisers by composting, and engergise our soils with 500 biodynamic preparations. Wooden materials, plus cardboard, come from controlled sources and responsiblymanaged forests. We purify and recycle 100% of our waste water, including from spraying machines, and adopt a system that allows us to internally differentiate more than 98% of waste materials.

Do you have official sustainability certification?

We publish a yearly sustainability report based on the Equalitas standard management system, which monitors environmental sustainability based on carbon footprint, water footprint, and biodiversity. The criteria are not only environmental but social, and economical too, it’s really the most complete model that exists. We were in a group of the first five wineries ever to receive the Equalitas certificate in 2017.

But your concept of sustainability is about more than the environment. Yes. From mid-2014 to 2015, we started investing in our social situation. We established a transparent relationship with the workers, involving them with the decision making, and being fully transparent about career plans, study and

Twenty years of sustainability

Having made the switch from grower to high-quality wine producer in the 1990s, Salcheto has been a pioneer of sustainability in Italy since Michele Manelli took up the reins at the estate in Montepulciano, Tuscany, in 1997.

Manelli tells The Wine Merchant about the environmental, social and qualitative advantages of taking a genuinely sustainable approach to wine production.

personal development. Then we have a welfare plan, which is probably the most talked-about thing we have done. It’s the result of these interactions, of listening and monitoring our staff’s welfare needs.

It covers many things. Some of our workers’ kids might need some support for their studies or for medical care. They may be a migrant who simply needs help in visiting their relatives back home, or to be able to study or go to the theatre more often. We create a budget for each of them to spend on top of their salary, which is already the best possible, to support the idea that they need to take care of themselves.

It all sounds expensive. It doesn’t cost anything to be sustainable … or at least, it costs the same. Being sustainable allows you a lot of flexibility. After nearly 20 years focusing on sustainability, I’ve begun to understand that if you are prepared to look for it, there

is always a solution that is simultaneously the best for the environment, for quality, and for sustainability. It’s just a matter of looking for this specific solution, instead of just looking for quality or profit.

Have your sustainability practices also brought commercial advantages? At first, our investment in sustainability gave us a clear identity, a good reputation, without creating new business. But this has changed in the past three or four years. We really have the feeling that we are getting listings and preferences from our clients because of our focus on sustainability. It’s also made us more attractive to consumers. I think we’re doing the right thing because our sales have been growing very well in the past few years, but I am sure this is due to a combination of everything we are doing. And I am always insistent on this: we don’t sell our product just because it’s sustainable, it has to be a good wine, at the right price.

In association with UK importer Astrum Wine Cellars

Beyond greenwashing: a deep dive into sustainability

Acouple of years ago, the team at Entoria&Coe began to think about how they would mark the company’s 50th birthday in 2022.

The occasion was obviously a cause for celebration: as it approached its half-century, Enotria&Coe was firmly established as one of the UK’s favourite wine suppliers. But it was also, as such landmarks tend to be, a moment for reflection.

And so, in late 2021, Enotria&Coe “had a long, hard look at our way of working”, says the company’s joint managing director Sam Thackeray. The process, which was also prompted by the changed realities caused by Covid, covered all parts of the business. But it was soon clear that one area above all required the most urgent attention.

“We realised that we weren’t doing things very well from a sustainability point of view,” Thackeray explains. “Fundamentally, what we sell is a demerit good. It comes from all over the world, and we forget it’s arriving in a nasty dirty ship and then on a smelly diesel van … all the things nobody likes to think of.”

Thackeray says the wine trade often obscures this central fact by a form of “greenwashing … people will go for the headline ‘biodynamic’ or ‘organic’. But when you investigate some producers, that’s all they do”.

Enotria&Coe quickly came to understand that the concept of sustainability was much

Feature produced in association with Enotria&Coe

broader. “It’s like a graphic equaliser,” Thackeray says, with dozens of different levers, representing a vast number of environmental and – equally important –social issues, both in the workplace and in the wider community.

Inspired by this heightened awareness, Enotria&Coe became one of the founding members of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, the only global, independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder forum, designed to incorporate the whole wine value chain. And it was through its work with SWR that the company settled on a working concept of sustainability that helped shape its strategy and priorities for 2022 – a year in which the company carried out a vast array of initiatives that have placed it at the very forefront of sustainability in the UK wine trade.

Sustainable progress

The list of E&C’s advances is hugely impressive. It has switched to an energy provider that uses 100% renewable energy, and now has a fully digital wine list, with any professionally printed collateral now printed on Forest Stewardship Councilcertified paper, and with the number of pages printed in-house decreasing by 65% from January-June 2019 to the same period in 2022.

E&C also sends zero waste to landfill from its combined warehouse and head office. And in September 2022, it

introduced an energy- and fuel-efficient fleet with new vehicles across its nationwide distribution network.

The company has also sent out an important signal about how seriously it takes its responsibilities on carbon emissions by signing up to the Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework, which measures carbon footprint per pound earned.

“For a business like ours, this is particularly important given that higher sales are very likely to correlate with more deliveries and a higher carbon footprint,” says Thackeray. “According to our annual SECR analysis, our intensity ratio [total gross CO2 emissions relative to annual turnover] fell by 16% from 2020 to 2021.”

On the social side, meanwhile, E&C trained 16 mental health first aiders in 2022, while its charity and social committee leads local volunteer projects and fundraisers to support charities including The Drinks Trust, Room to Reward and Drinkaware. Ticket sales for the fine wine tasting at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2022 raised money for the Ukraine Crisis Appeal by the Red Cross. E&C has also supported its staff with a range of training, apprenticeship and sponsorship opportunities.

All parts of the supply chain

As impressive as each of those achievements is, Thackeray is aware

that they only account for part of the E&C supply chain – which is why the company undertook a massive survey of its suppliers, quizzing them in detail on their approach to sustainability.

The survey found that 58% of E&C’s suppliers have some form of sustainability policy already in place, and 70% have future sustainability goals.

“You have to really look at what’s going on,” says Thackeray. “The onus is on us to provide our customers with that information and visibility.

“We could see that, as agents and partners, we occupy a privileged position that we could harness to influence the producers we work with for good.”

That attitude is typical of the new E&C approach to sustainability. Adopting the approach has not been easy, or, in the short term, cheap. But Thackeray is convinced it will pay off in more ways than one. He gives the example of switching all of E&C’s warehouse and head office lighting to LED bulbs, which the company will undertake in January. “It’s a large a capital outlay, but it will be recouped in savings in 18 months, which is a relatively short timeframe.

“And ultimately, it all evens itself out. There’s some temporary pain potentially, but in the long run it’s a no-brainer. It’s to do with attitudes and how we want people to engage with us. We have no choice from an ethical-moral standpoint, but crucially it makes good business sense, too.”

Enotria&Coe has put sustainability at the heart of its business and is now setting the pace on a range of environmental and social issues. Joint managing director

Sam Thackeray talks The Wine Merchant through the company’s sector-leading sustainability initiatives

Precision-engineered wines

Luigi Bosca winemaker Pablo Cúneo believes he’s lucky to have near-perfect conditions to work with in Mendoza. But his wines, including the icon Paraíso, are also the product of a meticulous approach in the vineyard and the cellar, as a group of invited independents recently discovered

LuigiBosca has 120 years of history in Mendoza, and its owners, the Arizu family, are one of Argentina’s most pioneering winemaking forces.

The vineyards are described by head winemaker Pablo Cúneo as a “treasure”, some containing ungrafted wines that predate phylloxera. But the business has always been more focused on the future than the past, introducing the idea of “precision viticulture” in the 1960s and driving the idea of the Luján de Cuyo DOC, which was introduced in 1989.

It’s now widely forgotten that Malbec was once in almost terminal decline in Argentina, thanks to a slump in domestic consumption. But Luigi Bosca kept the faith, replanting and renewing its

vineyards in the 1980s and upgrading its winery technology in the 1990s.

Today, the focus is on working as sustainably as possible. “We admire and respect nature,” Pablo tells a group of independent merchants gathered for a tutored tasting over lunch in London.

“We have been gifted with a land that’s almost the perfect place to grow vines. We have to work in a sustainable way, to protect this land and give it to our next generation in the same state or better.”

De Sangre White Blend (RRP £21.49)

This Chardonnay (50%), Sémillon (35%) and Sauvignon Blanc (15%) blend is a complex but somehow seamless wine

that showcases the personality of each variety. The fruit comes from coolclimate Tupungato, with the Chardonnay fermented and aged in oak before blending with the other varieties, which are fermented in stainless steel.

The wine exemplifies Pablo’s proud hands-off approach to healthy fruit. “I like the citrus and floral character,” he says.

“Some herbal notes. On the palate, what you look for is balance, for roundness. And for acidity, which is the element that helps the wine to be paired with food.”

Rebecca Smithson “absolutely adores” the wine. “The harmony of these grapes creates something so unique,” she says. “So soft and elegant yet with a beautiful precision to the acidity. ”

Luigi Bosca Pinot Noir (RRP £19.49)

The Uco Valley fruit is picked early to maintain freshness, with 70% of the juice spending nine months in oak. A portion is allowed to bleed away, and effectively vinified as a white wine, with the rest macerated in the usual way.

“If you had asked me 20 years ago about Pinot Noir or white wines in Argentina I would have said it will be a big challenge to achieve high or world-class wines,” says Pablo, “but today I say, of course we can do it. We’ve had to go to the coolest areas. And we have learned a lot in winemaking.”

Nikesh Jani says the wine illustrates how “the grower, winemaker and terroir can work together to create something beautiful”. He adds: “The nose and palate all seemed very effortless, but there was a

Pablo Cúneo: “I always say we didn’t choose Malbec, Malbec chose us”

great balance between ripe fruit character, and a perfumed, stalky freshness.”

Luigi Bosca Malbec (RRP £23.49)

“I always say that we didn’t choose Malbec, Malbec chose us,” says Pablo. “It loves the sun and needs a long period to ripen. It’s a sweet, round, gentle wine with red-fruit character. Not every country in the world has its own grape variety so we have been blessed.”

He adds: “This wine used to be 100% Luján de Cuyo fruit, until the 2016 vintage. Then we start using 60% Uco Valley grapes in order to bring some freshness and nice acidity to balance the ripened, sweet character from Luján.”

Rebecca Smithson enjoys the Uco Valley component, describing the wine as “a Malbec unlike any other I have tried”.

“So delicately soft with hints of strawberry,” she says. “I learned a lot from this wine; definitely one to challenge preconceptions of what a grape can do.”

De Sangre Paraje Altamira Malbec (RRP £23.49)

As Pablo explains, the wine is sourced from two parcels within a particular vineyard in Altamira, a small sub-region in the extreme south of the Uco Valley.

“Altamira has a particular character, which is violets,” he adds. “You will find some violet notes, floral notes and a blueflowers character, which is the expression of that area. That’s what we wanted to show in this wine.”

It’s one of the stand-out wines for Rebecca Preece. “It’s a unique expression of the terroir of Altamira,” she says, “and reveals a leaner, more floral and mineral side to Malbec that is typically not seen on UK shelves and expected even less by Malbec drinkers.”

She adds: “It was wonderful to learn that this elegance and versatility, along with characteristic violet notes, are a result of the exposure to the westerly cooling influences of the high Andes, unlike the notably plummy wines found central and eastern Mendoza.”

Los Nobles Malbec (RRP £46.99)

Pablo and his team benefit from precision viticulture and it’s only appropriate that that precision winemaking should follow. The style of this Las Compuertas wine has evolved as its creators have fine-tuned it.

“If you taste the ’14, ‘15 and ‘16 you would see that the oak has more presence in the wine,” Pablo says. “Here we still age 100% of the wine in oak, but not new oak.”

He adds: “The oak has less impact on the aromatics, but we still use oak because it’s very important for the ageing. The question is the type of oak, for balance, and to follow what the wine needs.”

Geraldine Shearer describes Los Nobles as “a full-bodied wine with a modern palate”. She adds: “I think this would be easy for me to sell. Anyone who is into Amarone or the general perception of Malbec would love this wine, and I think it would also raise their expectations.”

Paraíso (RRP £110.99)

This icon wine makes a statement not just for Luigi Bosca but for Mendoza more generally. It’s described by Pablo as an homage to Finca Paraíso, home of three generations of the Arizu family which still owns the business, though the grapes come from three sites across the Uco Valley.

Malbec, which makes up 70% of the blend, does a variety of jobs depending on the site it’s from. One parcel contributes freshness, minerality and the red-fruit character; a second brings a distinctive black cherry and lavender element; the third adds a violet-tinged sweetness. The Cabernet beefs up the tannins and delivers some spicy notes.

Unsurprisingly, the wine is our star performer. “Intense, yet elegant, and without a hint of pretentiousness,” says Rebecca Preece.

Conor Strutt describes this as the most enjoyable wine he’s tried for some time.

“The aromas were impressive: ripe plum, coupled with lavender and earl grey tea from the Malbec and dark berries with spicy herbaceous notes from the Cab,” he says.

“The aromatic intensity on the palate was enough to slide the 50% new oak into the background where it was picked up half way through the mid palate.”

But the wine’s main attraction is its texture, he argues. “Spiced velvet was what I wrote down at the time, and that goes some way to trying to define it,” he says. “Malbec’s textural generosity and Cabernet’s firmer more defined structure formed something amazingly special.”

Consumers may not be used to spending north of £100 on Argentinian wine, but the group agrees that Paraíso would more than hold its own against more famous wines in that price bracket.

Carlos Blanco says: “Even though we tasted an early vintage [2019], the wine is actually ready for drinking now, and this is not what would you expect from a highend wine usually.

“Paraiso is a cuvée that certainly has a market in the UK. There is a clientele that appreciates good, elegant and very wellmade wines, regardless of provenance.

“It is a wine that, tasted blind with its peers, would certainly be the winner in many cases.”

OUR GUESTS

Carlos Blanco, Blanco & Gomez, west London

Rebecca Preece, Oxford Wine Co

Conor Strutt, Peckham Cellars, south London

Rebecca Smithson, Bottle London, north London

Stuart Young, Aspen & Meursault, south London

Geraldine Shearer, Cellar Door Wines, St Albans

Nikesh Jani, Vagabond Wines

Feature sponsored by Bancroft Wines For more information contact bancroftwines.com or call 020 7232 5450

ribera to rioja three days with CVNE

“F

These words from Victor Urrutia, CVNE chief executive and member of the founding family, resonate throughout a trip to Rioja and Ribera Del Duero, involving five merchants.

Four wineries were on the itinerary, put together in partnership with UK importer Hatch Mansfield: Bela, Imperial Cellars, Viña Real and Viñedos del Contino.

Founded in 1879, in the town of Haro in Rioja, the Compañía Vinícola del Norte

de España (CVNE) owes much of its early success to a Bordeaux disaster, and arguably a label typo.

The phylloxera outbreak in France suddenly made Rioja an important source of wine for the thirsty French. The first barrels of wine were transported from CVNE’s Imperial winery by rickety train from Bilbao to Bordeaux. The bottle labels had a misprint which confused the V for a U – but once the wine became a multi award winner as Cune, there was no going back for the two founder brothers.

Today CVNE is still run by a small team of five people whose trust and respect for each other makes the company continue to thrive, grow and evolve.

This historic tapestry provides the backdrop for a visit that starts at the Bela winery in Ribera del Duero, in the company of Carlos Delage, CVNE’s export director, who takes care of us throughout our stay.

Our journey to the winery takes in a parched landscape, but arrival at Bela reveals a vineyard in full fruit and midharvest, and the single-vineyard grapes thriving. These regimented lines of vines, responsible for producing some of the region’s best-known wines, stretch over 82

hectares and guard the cutting-edge wine cellar crafted from wood, metal and glass.

As the sun pokes through the clouds and streams into the wood-slatted façade, Carlos talks about the technical hoops the winemakers go through in order to create the Bela wine.

The tasting room overlooks a magnificent cellar containing 10,000 barrels and we sit down to a delicious lunch of tortilla, manchego cheese and Iberico ham accompanied perfectly by Arano Crianza.

Sara Juan is part of the head winemaker team at CVNE (all bar one of whom are women). She takes us on a tour of the winery, telling us we’ve missed the arrival of the latest fruit by a couple of hours. The winemaking process is proudly traditional: cold maceration prior to fermentation in stainless steel tanks, followed by nine months of ageing in French oak barrels.

That evening we navigate the buzzing streets of Logrono for a tapas tour and vote the mushroom tower on a bed of garlic butter-soaked bread, accompanied by the

or the future, I look to the past.”

Charlotte Gingell joins the Hatch Mansfield team and a group of eager indies for a trip to the Spanish producer’s stunning estates, where modernity meets tradition and a family ethos still holds sway

Carlos Delage, CVNE’s export director

appropriately named Los Carismáticos 2019 (also enjoyed earlier at the winery) as a highlight, with the pork belly parcels a very close second for naughty factor.

The next day, as we drive past the Sierra Cantabria, which separates Rioja from the Basque country, it becomes clear how much CVNE has gained in hectarage over the centuries. Carlos points out that even some of the smallest sites dotted between the hills have vines adapted to produce quality fruit, whether conditions are windblown or sun-baked.

hello haro

Our first stop of the day, Imperial in Haro, combines the rustic charm of the original CVNE facility with state-of-the-art technology. The optical sorting system is put to full-time work in the courtyard to ensure that every grape meets exacting standards.

Gathering in the wine library, we hear the intriguing story of the Corona 1939 Semi Dulce bottles which were discovered without labels behind a false wall after a clean in 1980. This wine was made by the women workers in 1939, while the men were called to the ravages of civil war. We all agree it was an extremely worthwhile clean and theories abound as to why the wine needed to be hidden, later to become the only white Rioja to be awarded a

100-point score.

At the tasting in the enchanting Garden Room, we discuss how the Imperial Wine label is a faithful friend to the merchants, the iconic badge proving an instantly recognisable shelf pleaser.

Leanne Oliver from Cru Wines in Bradford on Avon carefully guards one tasting glass. “I did not expect to walk away from a trip to Rioja and choose a white wine as my standout, but the Monopole Clásico is simply divine,” she says.

“It’s a drink to be shared with friends; deep and rich. I literally can’t wait to drink this wine again.”

Simon Dale from The Secret Cellar in Kent agrees and “loves the history behind it and the quality that the small addition of Manzanilla brings to the party”. Melinda Cuccharia from Moreton Wine

CVNE is still led by a small team of five people whose trust and respect for each other makes the company continue to thrive, grow and evolve

Left to right: Simon Dale, The Secret Cellar; Daniel Williams, The Bottle Shop; Leanne Oliver, Cru Wines; Francesca Amato, Hatch Mansfield; Melina Cucchiara, Moreton Wine Merchants; Anna Ruddock, Hatch Mansfield; Charlotte Gingell, The Wine Merchant; Andrew Morris, Cheers Wine Merchants

Merchants in Gloucestershire “will be ordering the magnums for the Christmas market”.

As we taste, Carlos shares an important company ethos: CVNE wines “have to be easy drinking now and beautiful drinking in the future”. The Cune Organico 2019 shows a wonderful full body, and is made with an award-winning approach to sustainability that even includes glue-free cork. We enjoy the Asua Crianza and Reserva, both 100% Tempranillo wines with beautiful labels that we agree are perfect for roast dinner partners.

There is time to reflect on the diverse personalities of each winery as we leave the Rioja Alta region heading for our third port of call, Viña Real in Rioja Alavesa.

the real deal

James Bond is on everyone’s lips as we enter this space-age 30,000 square metre winery which was built by slicing the top off an unsuspecting mountain. Inside we immediately gravitate toward the vinification cellar, which deploys an arm at the top of a giant seven-legged pyramid to dispense grapes from a height into huge stainless steel tanks. But as Bond has taught us, appearances can be deceptive, and Viña Real has been making wine since 1920 with the original site still encompassed in the shiny new building.

Our tour is fascinating, punctuated with the theme of old and new in perfect unison. At Viña Real there is said to be more wine per square metre than anywhere in the world. Carlos proudly shows us around the caves, the “bank vault”,

Urrutia, CVNE’s chief executive

where bottles caked in decades of dust are ventilated by two holes in the roof opening out into the vineyard planted directly above our heads. Later we look out for these holes while treading the terroir, which varies in composition from sand at the top to clay, then pebbles that stretch down to the river Ebro.

After taking in the technology we are all ready for lunch and, over a delicious chilli-sprinkled gazpacho, we are treated to a barrel-fermented 2020 Viña Real Blanco which is universally praised for its complexity. This is followed by a delicious cod with salsa which Carlos pairs perfectly with the Viña Real Reserva. Simon Dale of The Secret Cellar declares this wine “quality at a great price … superb value for money”.

Melina Cucchiara from Moreton Wine Merchants loves the Viña Real Gran Reserva, served from magnum. “We’re all going to die!” she exclaims, before qualifying this alarming outburst with “… eventually, so we might as well drink excellent wine.” There is laughter, and relief, all round.

The Viña Real Bakeder 2019

translates as “Beautiful Peace”. Carlos tells us this wine was “made to drink a lot of” and it shows beautifully as a young wine fermented for 11 months in French oak. Viña Real Rosado was the first rosé released by CVNE and is “a delicate wine with a bright acidity which has opened up a whole new market”.

Before we leave, Raoul, our driver, takes us up to the top of the vineyard so that we can take in a breathtaking view. This sets us up perfectly for our visit to Viñedos del Contino the next day, awaiting us at the bottom of the valley. We pick and sample yet more of the irresistibly sweet grapes and agree that Viña Real is the perfect example of how faithful CVNE is to its roots while continuously developing and moving forward.

happy harvest

It has become obvious to all just how drinkable the CVNE wines are, especially with Carlos’s fantastic food pairings. When we ask him which is his favourite of the four wineries, the reply comes without hesitation: “Contino.” And we soon realise why.

At this picture-postcard winery, set in a 16th-century converted château, we meet assistant winemaker Jordi Frances who treats us to what is for many the most

James Bond is on everyone’s lips as we enter this space-age 30,000 square metre winery which was built by slicing the top off an unsuspecting mountain

Victor

special moment of all our tours. We taste the wines straight from the stainless steel, concrete and oak containers. Later Leanne Oliver from Cru Wines reflects on what she describes as a “lucky” opportunity, “comparing the wines at different stages of punching down and fermentation. It was made more special because we heard how much love and attention is put into every bottle directly from the winemaker”.

Jordi beams when he tells us that “harvest is the happiest time”, and we feel fortunate to be visiting at this crucial moment in the winemaking calendar.

The eternal quest for improvement has led to the creation of a mini winery below in the ancient caves. Here, the winemaking team is examining in minute detail what is happening at each stage of fermentation inside the containers. We make our own contribution to science by forcing down the dense must, watching the mixture bubble up again to the surface. It proves an extremely satisfying moment for all.

We taste the Contino wines over our final delicious lunch of lamb chops, cooked over vine trimmings, served in a gorgeous room looking out onto 62 hectares of vineyard. We discuss how many of the wines really open up over the three-course feast, with Contino Graciano 2017 proving a highlight for Andrew Morris of Cheers in Swansea.

“This wine is so interesting,” he says. “Although we have sold it in the past, I don’t think I had ever tasted it. Bloody lovely and a definite restock on my next order. “

Daniel Williams of The Bottle Shop agrees. “I’m a fan of the variety and I like the execution here. Delivering a bigger profiled wine that retains elegance within one single variety from a single site takes some doing.”

For Simon Dale of The Secret Cellar, Viña Del Olivo 2019 is “even better on second tasting, both elegant and fruity”.

Jordi pours for us the Contino Gran Reserva 2011, “the perfect blend of every plot”, and thanks us for being great guests after admitting his initial nerves at hosting.

As he says goodbye in the sun-drenched courtyard, Jordi’s humble admission only increases our gratitude for all the wonderful experiences shared with the CVNE team. The company’s passion, and constant quest for progress and discovery, ensure a timeless relevance in its wines. And with such a past and present, the future looks exciting and bright.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH HATCH MANSFIELD

For more information about CVNE wines, contact Hatch Mansfield: visit hatchmansfield.com or call 01344 871800.

For more information about CVNE, visit cvne.com

Viñedos del Contino, perhaps the jewel in the crown of CVNE’s estates

My dad got taken into hospital. The cancer has sneaked into his marvellous and poetic brain and this is not a good thing. Neither is the state of the NHS, which is alarming, sickening, wrong. Four hours in an ambulance to get into A&E. The queue of ambulances waited outside all day every day for the week that he was in. He was one of many broken people being shunted about corridors, making room for more broken people with nowhere for them to go. Don’t get old or sick for the foreseeable future.

Also don’t get a Chicken Caesar wrap from WH Smith.

In Scotland we used to call it John Menzies, one of those Scottish words that we pronounce completely differently from how they’re spelled/spelt. You know, like Milngavie, or the vocative of Màiri.

Ah, WH Smith. I think it was Wordsworth who said the only reason WH Smith still exists is because they operate where there is no other option. Train stations. Airports. Hospitals. As Fleet Admiral of Off Licence of the Year (South West Scotland) 2017 I have some thoughts about how shops should be: full of great stuff at the correct price, (wo)manned with fantastic, knowledgeable people with the freedom to drink lots of tea, have an Amazing Lunch or two and talk to other humans about the state of being human while occasionally selling some wine – a solid business model. This is not the business model of WH Smith, which radiates bad energy like (more cat than kitten, now) Pepina’s most recent dirty protest on the hall carpet. I bought a Chicken Caesar wrap, my favourite of the premade sandwiches and pretty unfuckupable. Some kind of white meat-like substance. Some kind of garlicky mayonnaisey goo. Bit of lettuce. Parmesan waved over it. That is unless you’re WH

Vineyards in the Hunter Valley

24. THAT'S NOT A WRAP

Phoebe Weller of Valhalla’s Goat in Glasgow discovers that WH Smith still has a genuine point of difference: it has found a way of ruining one of the easiest and most fool-proof of lunchtime staples Smith and have failed to fill the wrap with anything at all. Strung out, tired, sad, I ate half a wrap and bit into the other half to find nothing. I thought perhaps it had all been trapped in the bottom but there was nothing there. Enough of this, I murmured to myself. Enough of this, I said loud enough for a table of doctors to turn around.

This wrap has nothing in it, I said to

the woman behind the WH Smith counter when she realised me braying “I would like to be served by a human” was not some glitch in the matrix.

But you’ve eaten it, she said.

No, I have taken a bite from it, I said, just to see if it was empty, and indeed it is. We stared at each other.

This is a wrong thing to do, I said. A wrong thing to do to people at their lowest ebb, to give them a Chicken Caesar wrap with no Chicken Caesar in it.

But you’ve eaten it, she said.

There is nothing in here, I said, unfolding the tortilla over the Galaxies for a pound.

What do you want me to do about it? she said.

Stop selling people Chicken Caesar wraps without Chicken Caesar in them, I said. It wasn’t me that filled it, she said, it was the machine. Do you want another wrap?

No, I said, I would like to hide under a table with a bottle of Pomerol.

We looked at each other but sadly did not connect as humans.

The replacement wrap stayed in my bag for several days before bursting and emptying itself over my laptop. Thankfully, being a WH Smith wrap, the clear-up was pretty minimal.

Maltby & Greek Portfolio Tasting

The specialist importer of wines from Greece will be hosting more than 20 producers, many of whom will be showing their wines in London for the first time.

Masterclasses will take place during the day.

For more information and to register, contact info@ maltbyandgreek.com.

Monday, January 16

Vagabond Wines 51 Gracechurch Street London EC3V 0EH

French Wine Discoveries

French Wine Discoveries is back to showcase wines from across the country’s diverse regions.

Producers representing most of the French wine regions will be showcasing their wines, many of which are aimed at specialist independent retailers.

For more information and to register, contact projets@wine4trade.fr.

Monday, January 16

Hilton Dublin Charlemont Place Dublin D02 A893

Wednesday, January 18

Millennium Gloucester Hotel Harrington Gardens London SW7 4LH

Australia Trade Tasting 2023

The Australia Trade Tasting is the biggest and most diverse showcase of Australian wine in the UK, featuring more than 700 wines from over 170 producers.

Expect to see everything from familiar international superstars to the small boutique newbies and wines seeking UK representation.

The event aims to give visitors a taste of Australia’s diverse styles of wine, from classic to contemporary, rogue to the refined.

For more information contact uk@ wineaustralia.com.

Tuesday, January 24

The Royal Horticultural Halls

The Lindley Hall 80 Vincent Square London SW1P 2PB

Hallgarten & Novum Wines Annual Tasting

This two-day tasting will showcase the depth and breadth of the Hallgarten & Novum Wines portfolio. More than 700 wines will be on pour, from around 150 producers, many of whom will be in attendance.

The tasting will also include many lines that are new to the portfolio. The buying team has sourced additions to the range from pioneering producers from countries including Greece, South Africa and the USA. Contact sarah.charlwood@hnwines. co.uk.

Monday and Tuesday, January 30 and 31

The Royal Horticultural Halls

The Lindley Hall

80 Vincent Square London SW1P 2PB

Taste wines from Margaret River at the Australia event on January 24

Amazing Amarone

It’s the finest and most iconic wine of Valpolicella, a region in which the Bolla wine company has made its home since 1931, honing and perfecting the Amarone style and setting new standards for a wine that’s sought out by wine lovers all over the world

There is a place in north eastern Italy, not far from Verona and Lake Garda, that a wine lover cannot miss: Valpolicella.

As an appellation, Valpolicella, which extends into the eastern part of Verona province, is made up of a little under 20,000 acres. Its most historic area of wine production is in the western region, known as Classic. This zone includes five municipalities: Negrar di Valpolicella, Marano di Valpolicella, San Pietro in Cariano, Fumane, and Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella.

The Bolla wine company, founded by Alberto Bolla in Soave in 1883, has its headquarters in San Pietro in Cariano, where Alberto decided to move in 1931 to make red Valpolicella wine.

Valpolicella benefits from a mild climate and, thanks to its many gentle hills and abundance of water, has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Here people have

always made wines with local grapes, most of which are red, the most important being Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella.

Today, the main wines are Valpolicella (a fresh and fruity everyday wine), Valpolicella Ripasso (a full-bodied Valpolicella with the flavours of Amarone), Amarone (a dry red wine made with dried grapes) and Recioto della Valpolicella (a sweet red wine).

The finest and most iconic wine of Valpolicella is Amarone. The grapes destined for its production are carefully selected on the vine and harvested by hand, then placed in small, shallow crates and dried in specially ventilated drying rooms for at least 100 days. The local farmers refer to this as “the grapes’ resting time”: a period during which the berries lose water and weight and sugars are concentrated. This process is followed by meticulous vinification and long ageing in wood. The outcome is a dry, rich red wine with a wide range of aromas and flavours including cherries, plums, chocolate, tobacco, mint and dried fruits. The wines have a velvety texture, and are sought after and appreciated all over the world.

Bolla and its Amarone della

Valpolicella

“Amarone is a vital, energetic wine because it is made from dried grapes, yet is also fresh, with excellent acidity and long life,” says Bolla’s director, the winemaker Christian Zulian.

“As a wine it represents a rare combination of factors: native varieties which have never changed, with a special

aptitude for drying, and a winemaking know-how that has been perfected over the centuries. Man, environment, nature: a very rare interaction”.

In the past, a dry red wine made from dried grapes was not widely known because the style didn’t conform to public tastes at the time. But it was Alberto Bolla’s favourite wine. When he turned 80, his first son, Giorgio, who was also a winemaker, decided to make a special bottle of such a wine, as a gift. He labelled the bottle Recioto Amarone Riserva del Nonno 1950.

It was April 13, 1953 and the very first bottle of modern Amarone as we now know it was born.

“It was Bolla that gave dignity to this wine, which up until then had been only made for family consumption,” Zulian explains.

“Amarone della Valpolicella is a DOCG, which represents the highest quality among Italian wines. The competent authority has certified as DOCG all our bottles of Amarone, even the very first ones from 1953. We are the only wine company to obtain this accreditation.”

Today, Bolla manages over 700 acres of vineyards in the Classic Valpolicella zone. The grapes that produce its top Amarone wines come from the best vines on the hills of Negrar, Marano, and Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella.

Depending on the blend of varieties, their origin, and the ageing process, three different Amarones are made: each of them original and recognisable, yet unmistakably Bolla-style.

Bolla winemaker Christian Zulian

Feature sponsored by Bolla

For more information, contact Gruppo Italiano Vini S.p.A. 37011 Calmasino –VR-Italy +39.045.6269662 m.fossati@giv.it

Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico

The grapes come from terraced vineyards in the hills of Negrar and Marano, carefully selected and then placed in Bolla’s drying rooms for 120 days. After pressing and fermentation in steel tanks, malolactic fermentation takes place in barriques and large casks. The wine is aged in barriques of French and American oak and later in large casks for two years. It spends another year in concrete vats, and at least three months in bottle before release. As a wine it is warm and mouthfilling, with aromas of small berries,

cherries and spices, and long and clean, with a lingering finish.

Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico “Rhetico”

Rhaetians were a pre-Roman people who made wines much appreciated by the Romans themselves. This Amarone aims to recall those times. The grapes are from our vineyard in the village of Torbe, in the Negrar hills. The blend includes just Corvina and Rondinella varieties. The final wine has aromas of sour cherry, cocoa and sweet spice, succulent on the palate, with a clean and long finish.

Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico Riserva “Le Origini”

This is the most important of Bolla’s Amarones, the Riserva: a blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella from old vines in the Marano hills. Ageing takes place in large casks for many years to create a wine that’s rich and round, with intense notes of red fruits, cherries in brandy, and tobacco. The wine is long and velvety on the palate, nuanced with dried fruit, cherries, plums, and chocolate. A wine that’s worth enjoying quietly on its own, or perhaps savouring with some good roasted meat.

Developing the next generation

The Drinks Trust and Louis Jadot are helping more people find a route into a career in the independent wine trade through a WSET training package

Atthe beginning of this year, The Drinks Trust presented to the industry the product of six months of careful planning and strategy: its new educational and training programme, Develop.

The charity introduced the initiative to alleviate long-term financial difficulties with a proactive funding and training programme that delivers opportunity and skills to colleagues seeking to improve their career prospects. And, for the first time in its 136-year history, The Drinks Trust will also assist those looking to begin a career in drinks and hospitality, to help address the staffing crisis.

The programme was conceived with the ambition of training and educating the next generation of drinks hospitality industry professionals. Develop is the first of its kind and genuinely unique in the industry.

Since its launch in March 2022, Develop has received the generous support of leading industry businesses as partners in the programme. These include Campari Group UK, the Champagne Academy, Moët Hennessy UK and the newly recruited programme sponsor, Maison Louis Jadot, the official sponsor for independent merchants.

Louis Jadot, distributed in the UK by Hatch Mansfield, has partnered with The Drinks Trust to support the Develop initiative with a complete training and support package exclusively for those working in the independent wine merchant sector, with a focus on Burgundy.

As part of The Drinks Trust Develop programme, Louis Jadot sponsors 20 places on WSET Level 1 in Wine for Independent Merchants courses.

Highlights within the initiative – all courtesy of Louis Jadot –include an online Burgundy masterclass with a selection of Louis Jadot wines, a tasting with a Louis Jadot ambassador, and an educational trip to Burgundy for the highest-scoring individual.

Develop has the ambition to help build the sector back to its former strength, creating opportunities for those who need them the most. The ground-breaking service is aimed at people working in the hospitality and drinks industry and those who are

dreaming of a career in the industry, and is the only full-service initiative on this scale that helps applicants throughout their whole journey, from industry-leading training to employment.

The Develop programme will grow the industry in the longer term, placing The Drinks Trust at the heart of the sector and the community it serves.

Operator groups have joined forces with the Trust to deliver training and job opportunities to Develop graduates, with Gaucho Restaurants, M Restaurants and Vagabond Wines the first groups to support the initiative officially, since joined by Angela Hartnett’s Murano, The Ivy Collection, Doyle Hotels and many more.

TheDrinks Trust’s Develop initiative aims to help around 550 beneficiaries in its first year of operation. The Trust works closely with leading skills and education providers to deliver training, vocational and classroom-based courses.

These providers range in specialisms across beer, wine and spirits, and have skills-based trainers offering services across interviewing techniques, CV writing and how to research and approach businesses looking for staff. These include the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, Mixology, European Bartender School and Barfection. As well as these courses, Develop provides an extensive free online library of hospitality resources hosted by EdApp, and the opportunity to join The Drinks Trust’s Drinks Community platform and its mentoring programme. More training opportunities will be added in the coming months, and the Develop offer will grow to include more options for more people.

Since the programme’s launch in March 2022, over 456 beneficiaries have been assisted with the Develop programme, with courses, online training and bursaries. Courses are available to anyone who has worked or is currently working in the drinks and hospitality industry or is a new entrant to the industry.

Courses have varying eligibility criteria, which candidates should consider before applying. To apply for any Develop courses, visit drinkstrust.org.uk/get-help/develop

Highlights within the initiative include an online Burgundy masterclass with a selection of Louis Jadot wines, a tasting with a Louis Jadot ambassador, and an educational trip to Burgundy for the highest-scoring individual

Notes from the shop floor

The Nutbourne harvest, where dogs are friends and the tractor is feared

early start one harvest day when Gregory informed me he’d “been up since six with the cows”. I quickly found out that I was almost completely useless to the vineyard and winery team except for in one way: my ability to lift crates of grapes. So I was duly utilised to good effect and onto the back of a tractor I went, often accompanied by Peter or Gregory.

I’ve just finished my first harvest. As I’ve been involved with wine since 2007, you’d be entitled to say, “about time”. Nutbourne Vineyards in West Sussex was my choice of venue for my mid-life work experience.

I’d heard tales of these fabled harvests, with the word on the street claiming they were everything from “bloody hard work” to “enormously rewarding,” or even (slightly euphemistically) “camaraderie building”. I was told it was an intensive course in wine production and that I “would learn a lot”. I did. Not least the importance of sustained graft; what my colleague accurately termed “commitment to harvest”.

The stunningly beautiful Nutbourne, in the foothills of the South Downs near Pulborough, West Sussex, is in one of the key areas of English wine production. It’s a family-owned and run operation with husband-and-wife team Peter and Bridget Gladwin still the beating heart of the business, after over 30 years of running the show.

Their sons Gregory, Oliver and Richard are heavily involved too, having been brought up in these idyllic surroundings. All aspects of production happen on site, which I found attractive, and meant I was involved in both labelling and disgorgement, in addition to nervously rotating the press with six tonnes of grapes inside.

There are 26 acres under vine here and the Gladwins also have a business raising livestock, and an estate of six restaurants in prime west London locations. The restaurants are a customer for everything the vineyard and farm produces, in true “farm to fork” fashion. Farming is a way of life for the Gladwins, and damn, do they put in a shift.

I thought better of moaning about my

We picked the white Germanic varieties first: Bacchus, Reichensteiner and Huxelrebe. A portion of the Bacchus and Reichenstiener is old-vine and trained in the Geneva double curtain method. It’s very characterful, and beautiful to look at, but hard to find the grapes. Easier to find, but harder to lift, was the Scott Henry-trained Pinot Noir, its double cordon producing indecent amounts of fruit. This parcel of vines, nearest the windmill and winery, was by far the most prolific. “It’s always been a great site,” Peter informed me.

Growing grapes is agriculture and while vineyards may look pretty, and the end product deemed worthy of beard-stroking contemplation, shit needs to get done. As a member of the “core” harvest team, my job was to get on with it, and follow orders. This was hard enough in itself, with instructions often being meted out beneath the deep bellow of an ancient tractor. (I did get to drive the tractor a few times, but please don’t ask me to reverse a trailer round a corner.) But honestly, this simplicity was refreshing; as I heard many of the casual pickers comment, “it beats looking at a computer screen all day”. It’s also cheaper than the gym, and (probably) healthier than lying under a sunbed. Yes, I did check my step count on my phone regularly.

I learnt the hard way that the only way to avoid complete exhaustion on picking days was to load up on food, early doors. At any point I could be called away from a sedate and scenic picking role to “boxing”: getting the crates ready for the pickers by chucking them off a tractor down the rows, or “picking up”, which is what it sounds like: heaving sometimes as much as eight tonnes a day back to the winery. I came to fear the ominous rumble of the tractor as it neared our rows.

I’ve gained an appreciation of wine production, the craziness of it all hinging on three weeks of intense graft after a year of waiting

Then there were the dogs. Chip, a crosseyed and raggedy thing who longed to make everyone a “stick slave” and play fetch with him. This would be great if (a) we had the luxury of such a pastime and (b) he didn’t have tendency to pre-empt his partner’s move, which could cause a nasty surprise. There was also Rupert, a beady-eyed farm dog with a voracious hunting instinct, and Rusty, the blue-eyed baby Welsh Collie, with a tendency to pee indoors. Hanging out with these guys compensated for many an aching muscle. So, the all-important question: would I do it again? Hell yes! Will I be able to do it again? Probably not. But I won’t forget

it. I’ve gained an appreciation of wine production, of the craziness of it all hinging on two or three weeks of intense graft, after a year of waiting and preparing. Also, an awareness that it can be done in this country.

Indeed, as we sipped on a Nutty Vintage 2018, after a long day in the vines, with the sun draping the windmill in hazy gold, it was easy to see how this site could one day be revered in a way that Burgundy or Champagne is now.

A château in vineyards near Sopot, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria

FIZZY SNOWBALL

Astrum Wine Cellars is chipping away at the Warninks/ supermarket dominance in advocaat by shipping one from

By The Dutch, a Schiedambased outfit founded as recently as 2015 that’s also doing a nice line in genever gin and aged Indonesian rums. The advocaat is made with Dutch eggs and Madagascan vanilla and is billed as suitable for a range of cocktails. The Snowball is the classic iteration at this time of year, of course, but this boozy take replaces the traditional lemonade and lime cordial with a sparkling wine of personal choice. 5cl advocaat 15cl sparkling wine

Juice of a quarter of a lime Maraschino cherries

Ice cubes

Put the a few cubes of ice, the advocaat and lime juice in a shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a flute or tall cocktail glass. Top up with the sparkling wine. Garnish with a couple of cherries.

Tim Peyton has been a wine lover and independent retail operator since 2009

Remírez De Ganuza and El Escocés Volante join Walker & Wodehouse

We are delighted to announce that Remírez De Ganuza (Rioja) and El Escocés Volante (Aragon) have joined our portfolio. They join an already extensive and renowned range of Spanish producers.

Remírez de Ganuza, established in 1989, has established a name for itself in Rioja for its rigorous grape selection and an obsession with quality. It is renowned for revolutionising some of the traditional methods in the area, introducing improvements both in the vineyard and in winemaking. One of the most notable systems is that of separating the Tempranillo bunches into two parts – heads and tails – for different wines. Remírez de Ganuza has over 80ha of Tempranillo, Graciano, Grenache, Virua and Malvasia spread throughout the Sierra Cantabria mountains.

Escocés Volante was founded by Scotsman Norrel Robertson MW when he landed in Spain in 2003 and was mesmerised by the quality of the terroir and Garnacha vines of Aragon. His mission is to seek out and revive Old Garnacha vineyards and make wines that are a true expression of the terroir. Norrel has a focus on sustainability, keeping an eye on the impact of winemaking on the surrounding environment and local community, employing a vineyard team from the local village of Aniñon.

LOUIS LATOUR AGENCIES

12-14 Denman Street London W1D 7HJ 0207 409 7276 enquiries@louislatour.co.uk www.louislatour.co.uk

Cognac Frapin

Cognac Frapin, still in founding family ownership, can trace its history all the way back to 1270. Uniquely, Cognacs are made entirely on the family’s 340-hectare estate which includes Château de Fontpinot, its distillery and ageing warehouses, with a roof designed by the famous Gustave Eiffel. Cognac Frapin lies solely in the Grande Champagne area, which is regarded as Cognac’s best appellation, and is highly prized for both the quality and intensity of its spirits. Frapin is a step above due to its longer than expected ageing requirements. Some highlights on offer currently for Christmas:

VSOP

Best VSOP – Premium: Master 2022, The Cognac Masters A versatile Cognac, great in cocktails, but delicious on its own, with a fruity grape and floral bouquet and a discreet hint of vanilla.

VIP XO

Best XO – Ultra-Premium: Master 2022, The Cognac Masters

This is rich, composed of mixed spices and flowers characteristic of very old Grande Champagne Cognac distilled over lees. This exceptional Cognac reaches its optimum balance after ageing for several decades.

Château Fontpinot XO

Cognac of the Year: Taste Master 2022 (Global Spirits Masters) This XO Cognac is the fruit of long ageing, in their dry cellars which gives it a subtle, complex and refined bouquet of wildflowers, candied fruit and rancio notes.

Since its foundation, Caliterra has been at the forefront of sustainable wine production with an approach based on sustainable viticulture, community commitment, environmental preservation and eco-friendly packaging. This commitment has seen Caliterra achieve many firsts including being one of the first wineries in Chile to obtain its sustainability certification, and becoming the first Chilean winery to receive CarboNZero certification through natural off-setting. The coming months will see even more focus on sustainability as Caliterra continues to strive for a perfect balance between nature and human intervention.

PÉTREO CARMENÈRE 2020

A vibrant example of Chile’s signature varietal: unique freshness with subtle spice, fresh berry fruit and a racy finish. Named for the clay and sedimentary schists found in this hillside plot, only planted with Carmenère and Malbec.

gonzalez byass uk

The Dutch Barn Woodcock Hill Coopers Green Lane St Albans AL4 9HJ 01707 274790

info@gonzalezbyassuk.com www.gonzalezbyassuk.com

@gonzalezbyassuk

vintner systems

The computer system for drinks trade wholesalers and importers

16 Station Road Chesham Bucks HP5 1DH sales@vintner.co.uk www.vintner.co.uk

Vintner Systems has been supplying specialist software solutions to the wine and spirit trade in the UK and Ireland for over 30 years.

After 300 installations at a wide range of business types, we have developed the ultimate package to cover everything from stock control and accountancy to EPOS, customer reserves, brokering and en-primeur.

Whether you are a specialist wine retailer, importer or fine wine investment company, our software will provide you with the means to drive your business forward.

jeroboams trade

7-9 Elliott's Place London N1 8HX 020 7288 8888 sales@jeroboamstrade.co.uk www.jeroboamstrade.co.uk @jeroboamstrade

hallgarten wines

Mulberry House Parkland Square 750 Capability Green Luton LU1 3LU 01582 722 538 sales@hnwines.co.uk www.hnwines.co.uk

@hnwines

Regenerative viticulture is the way forward for Blank Canvas

Matt Thomson and Sophie Parker-Thomson are immensely proud to work with the Holdaway family in Dillons Point, Marlborough, whose Holdaway Vineyard is home to their Blank Canvas Sauvignon Blanc and Abstract Sauvignon Blanc, the latter sourced from a dry-farmed parcel.

Brothers Robert and Richard Holdaway are passionate about regenerative viticulture, a holistic and site-specific approach, with flexible and transparent use of inputs, that Matt and Sophie believe is ultimately better for the overall environment than a rules-based, one-size-fits-all regime.

Regenerative agriculture puts soil health at front and centre of the farming system and genuinely addresses mitigating the impacts of climate change, as it is defined by measurable beneficial ecological outcomes and validated by evidence seen in practice or trials.

Putting biodiversity and the ecosystem first improves vine health and leads to better quality of fruit. The Holdaways are trialling a 100% biological programme – meaning no fungicides (organic or chemical), no copper and no sulphur – with the intention that the whole vineyard be managed in this way.

The Holdaway Estate is substantially carbon negative and the family are truly the bastion for genuine sustainability, leading the way for vineyard management with the least negative environmental impact.

Coscojares Vinedo Singular Rio J Adenominacion De Origen Calificada

Made with grapes from very old Garnacha vines, planted prior to 1955, (the date on which the regulatory council began to create a database with all the data on the existing vineyard).

This vineyard with an area of 1.9ha is in the area of Coscojares, located at 520 metres of altitude in the Sierra de Yerga. The soils are not very fertile, and slightly clayey, with a predominance of brownish limestone.

Coscojares, aged 12 months in French oak casks, has a beautiful cherry red colour with medium-high depth .

It has layers of balsamic aromas, blackberry, cherry and fine tobacco along a lengthy, slender palate, finishing with nuances of cream and vanilla.

An elegant and complex wine that’s very food-friendly. There is perfect balance here and all the right tones to spice up a weekend barbecue. It also goes very well with fatty fish and cheese.

Established in 1815, Fonseca is regarded as one of the most stylistically consistent of the classic Vintage Port houses. Port has been made there by five generations of the Guimaraens family since its foundation. Blended for consistency of character and quintessentially Fonseca in style, it has an intense, rich, fruity nose crammed with blackberry, cassis, cherry and plum aromas interwoven with notes of spice. The palate is full-bodied and round, with a smooth velvety texture balanced by firm mouth-filling tannins. The juicy fruit flavours linger into the rich, luscious finish.

NORTH SOUTH WINES

Drayton Hall, Church Road West Drayton UB7 7PS 020 3871 9210

hello@northsouthwines.co.uk www.northsouthwines.co.uk

WBC WINNERS

WBC’s spot the difference competition made a welcome return in our September edition.

Judging by the entries, wine merchants up and down the country were able to enjoy a bit of a tea break and puzzle out the 10 differences – some were obvious and some were downright sneaky.

Five winners were chosen at random to win a selection of prizes provided by WBC, the trade’s trusted supplier of wine boxes, packaging materials, shop display equipment and so much more.

As an added bonus, WBC will be contacting all entrants direct with an exclusive offer of £10 off a minimum order of £75.

Richard Barrett-Constantinou, The Square, Warwick, wins 100 personalised jute wine or beer bags, value £550

Dave Eglington, The Wolseley Wine Loft, Stafford, wins Pulpsafe transit packaging, value £250

Harriet Price and Fabien Lemarchand, Quaff Fine Wine Merchant, Hove, win 72 rolls of personalised tape, value £200

Harish Khanderia, Oakham Wines, Leicestershire, wins a Vacuvin retail kit, value £230

Tanya Hedges, Juniper Wine Café, Fife, wins a Sommelier Champagne sabre, value £120

Q&A

Paul Boutinot Waterkloof Wines, South Africa

not to pursue the family restaurant business.

Do you have any sporting loyalties?

Any English team, mainly cricket, rugby, union or league.

Who’s your favourite music artist?

Leonard Cohen. Described by my mother as music to commit suicide to.

Any superstitions? None.

Who’s your favourite wine writer? Andrew Jefford. He so obviously loves wine and doesn’t treat it as a competition.

Give us a Netflix or TV recommendation. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Impossible not to enjoy.

Which historical figure would you most like to meet and what would you ask them?

Hitler’s mother. Did you consider an abortion?

What’s your most treasured possession? I am not attached to physical things.

What’s your proudest moment? Marrying Kate, and the birth of my sons.

Paul Boutinot, born in 1952, is originally from Manchester. Frustrated by the quality of wines available to buy for his parents’ restaurant, he started the Boutinot business in 1980, growing it to become one of the most important suppliers in the specialist wine trade before ending his formal association with the company in 2013. He founded Waterkloof in 2004: an organic, biodynamic and WWF Biodiversity Champion farm overlooking False Bay. The wines are distributed by Boutinot.

What’s the first wine you remember drinking?

Aged six in my French grandmother’s house in a tiny village in the Loire. A generic red, most probably cut with Algerian wine, topped up with water from

the tap. I guess it would end up at 2% alcohol.

What job would you be doing if you weren’t in the wine trade?

Bricklayer. I was a bricklayer’s mate in Chelsea and would have gone on to be qualified if I had not swerved into wine. Bricklaying was incredibly well paid in the 70s, unlike the wine trade.

How do you relax?

I just switch off. I don’t need a diversion. Natural indolence takes over.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain. It confirmed that I made the right decision

What’s your biggest regret? Too personal to recount.

Any hidden talents? No, what you see is what you get.

What’s your favourite place in the UK? Home.

We’re granting you three wishes. What are they going to be?

Not very original but health, happiness and a modicum of wealth for my family. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to wish them on the whole world. We need some grumpiness, cynicism and contrast.

“Bricklaying was incredibly well paid in the 70s, unlike the wine trade”