Deposit Return Scheme

happen if we run out of stock? If they have to find an alternative from a small pool of already registered wines, their point of difference is diminished. It seems that Scottish consumers will be penalised by having less choice.”

In St Andrews, Wood is blunt. “If DRS goes ahead in its current format, I face losing half of my stock, as these wines don’t have barcodes,” he says.

The frustration felt by Wood and other independents is exacerbated by a lack of awareness among suppliers. “The larger outfits seem to be on it, but I emailed all of my smaller suppliers to explain the scheme as best I could in December last year. I told them they needed to get ready. The number of people who knew absolutely nothing about it was shocking. I emailed again in the new year.” He adds: “Now, if a supplier calls me to tell me about a great new wine, my first response isn’t ‘great, what is it?’, it’s ‘does it have a barcode?’”

Suppliers are in the dark

The lack of knowledge about Scotland’s DRS is striking. With the registration deadline looming large, a significant number of indies had no comment to make because they simply knew nothing – or very little – about the new regime.

There are gripes aplenty surrounding the poor communication from CSL about the scheme. Beyond the barcode challenges, merchants are fretting about an array of still unresolved issues.

As de Burgh says: “We are a few weeks away from the deadline for registering and there are still so many grey areas that CSL doesn’t have answers for.

“Responses [include] the ridiculous ‘do you have suggestions or solutions?’

We will be fully compliant by the date of registration, except for un-barcoded stock. We are taking legal advice about signing a contract with CSL, which is another major sticking point. You have to worry when the government is asking you to sign legal documents in order to do business, especially when Clause 8.5 leaves you financially liable for costs, even if the scheme does not go ahead.”

Desperately seeking a delay

Other pressing matters include a decision on whether the 20p deposit will or will not be subject to VAT. There is a myriad of other worries that indies say haven’t been addressed: fraud, insurance and health and safety issues surrounding waste management, and the reliability of the collection machines. There is widespread concern that booze trips to the north of

England, where things will be cheaper (and the range possibly wider), will lead to lost sales.

Speaking to indies and wholesalers about DRS, you can almost hear the hair being pulled. They are unanimous in their support of recycling, and are weary and wary of suggestions that they aren’t.

Wood says: “We want to be in a room with the legislators so we can make ourselves heard. The failure to consult properly in the first place is what’s caused all of these problems.

“We desperately need a delay so we can all work together to find a workable solution, especially if the government is determined to retain glass as part of the scheme.”

Indies on the perils and impracticalities of DRS

“England isn’t introducing a DRS scheme yet. What’s to stop an enterprising type in the north of England collecting hundreds or even thousands of bottles, and bringing them to Scotland – to a shop like mine – and claiming 20p on every bottle? £20 for every 100 bottles. A decent return when your raw material costs you nothing!”

Euan McNicoll McNicoll & Cairnie, Dundee

“DRS is even more difficult here in Orkney, and no doubt in other remote and island communities too. As best as I can understand what is proposed, I can see it working for supermarkets, and big-box retailers, where economies of scale will make it worth someone’s time to collect and process the returned receptacles. How it might work on, say, the island of Sanday, where it would take a lorry all day to get there and back on a ferry, to collect a few dozen bottles from the island shop, is beyond me.

“I may regret it, but I am more or less ignoring the scheme, in the expectation that it will be delayed or sufficiently modified before launch to make it work in Orkney and similar places.”

Duncan McLean Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall, Orkney

Stop it.

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NOT YOU AGAIN!

customers we could do without

… It’s a bit annoying, actually, because two of the six bottles I bought from you last time smashed all over our lovely front steps, glass everywhere and you can still see the purple stain despite all this rain … that box might as well have been made of paper, it was absolutely useless … well, no, it was one that I’d brought in myself but maybe the assistant could have warned me … then on one of the unbroken bottles I cut my finger open on the metal foil … you would not believe the quantity of blood and it’s quite ruined a favourite linen dress … incidentally I wonder if anyone had been shaking up the Champagne bottles, maybe to get rid of the sediment? I only ask because the cork came flying out with so much violence that our dear old Scottie bolted into the garden and almost drowned in the fishpond … these blasted screwcaps are a nuisance, aren’t they – I had the misfortune of treading on one the other day in stockinged feet, jagged side up – agony! – and I haven’t been able to do my morning 2k ever since … by the way, are these synthetic floor tiles?

I swear I just got an electric shock as I moved that chair out of the way … it is rather a trip hazard …

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Anagram Time

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.

Can you unscramble these New Zealand wine regions? If so, you win a London City Bond anklet

Peter Fawcett, Field & Fawcett, York

1. Brighton Armour

2. Colon Regatta

3. Y’Brother Can’t Run

Anthony Borges, The Wine Centre, Great Horkesley, Essex

4. Ask Abe Why

5. Rub Hologram

Zoran Ristanovic, City Wine Collection, London

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

Northabout

My customers’ attitude matches the latitude when it comes to alcohol levels

to give themselves a treat often go for Amarone or Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Nothing wrong with that, but they’re hardly breakfast wines. And on top of this tendency there’s Orkney’s enormous thirst for port. The newspaper pundits filled columns pre-Christmas with recommendations for turkey, goose and nut roast. It was claret this, Burgundy that. They should have added a paragraph at the bottom saying, “For anyone north of the Pentland Firth, just find a good LBV”.

It would make an interesting subject for a thesis at Plumpton or Montpellier: Correlation Between Preferred ABV and Latitude of Drinker. Here in Orkney we’re 59˚ north, and our customers prefer a similarly elevated level of alcohol.

Yesterday I was wrapping a bottle of Pinea 17 Ribera del Duero and noticed its label stated an ABV of 15%. It was a repeat purchase. The customer hadn’t originally sought out this wine specifically, but they had asked me to recommend something “big and bold and fruity, you know, like a good old-fashioned Shiraz”. It seemed they liked my recommendation and came back for more.

For many years ripe and oaky Shiraz from Barossa Valley and other warm Australian areas was my top selling red style. Then customers’ enthusiasm shifted – individually, but all at once, like a murmuration of thirsty starlings – towards ripe and oaky Malbec. Now I sense a twitching of the tailfeathers around Malbec, and a movement towards other reds. The allegiance to ripeness and oak, however, remains strong.

Some of the movement is towards Spain. Initially I thought customers were simply reaching out from the perennially popular Rioja into other Spanish regions, and there may be something in that. But they seem to be going particularly for things like Ribera del Duero, and Garnacha from Campo de Borja – Borsao’s Tres Picos, for instance, which comes in at an unmissable 15.5% in the current vintage. Interesting 13 percenters like Bobal from Utiel Requena or Mencía from Monterrei linger on the shelf.

Away from Spain, people who want

We all know that climate change is tending to push up alcohol levels. But there are still plenty of 12.5% and 13.5% bottles out there, and in here, on our shelves. I’m sure this magazine’s readers often reach for Mosel Riesling or Chiroubles, as I do. But that doesn’t suite the average Orcadian, that much is clear to me.

What’s less clear is why. It’s not a desire for drunken oblivion: these are careful people making considered choices. The Pinea 17 costs over £50, and there are a lot more economical ways to accumulate units. So what is it? Maybe the weather. We’re at the cold end of the country here, and at this time of year it’s also the dark end of the country: the north of Scotland is dipdyed in mirk from 3pm to 9am. Assertive, warming wines are a suitable counterblast to the climate.

My best guess, however, is food related. These islands are one of the finest beefproducing areas of the UK. Since the 1850s our prosperity has been based on the export of beef cattle. Although other industries such as oil, renewable energy and tourism are now equally important, beef is still a badge of identity, and most people eat it in great quantities.

For those in search of a lighter option, there’s seaweed-eating, rare-breed mutton from the islands of North Ronaldsay and Auskerry. What are you going to drink with that? Nothing from the Rheingau! Roll out the Ribera …