Rising Stars

Retail can be a challenging career, but environment is everything. Chloe Malone had a background in fashion retail and was working in Bluewater when she applied for a position at Champion Wines in 2017.

Moving from a bland and corporate mall to a wine shop and bar in a pretty suburb of south east London has ensured Chloe’s love of retail has flourished, along with her wine education.

“I think I’ve been very lucky here,” says Chloe. “I’ve come from dealing with customers who don’t know you and don’t want to know you, to working with people who want to come in and chat. They want advice and our customers are just really, really sweet.

“I think even before I started WSET I was naturally learning about wines, just talking about them every day, either discussing them with Penny or working in the shop.

“I genuinely enjoy all the aspects of my job. I really love the wine bar side of it, but I just love everything about the trade – I think it’s absolutely wonderful. It wasn’t too hard for me to fall into and I think that’s why I took it all on board so quickly. I fell in love with it pretty much instantly. I’ve never been so passionate about anything.”

Although owner Penny Champion admits she was initially looking for someone with wine knowledge, she says: “Looking back now, for me it was brilliant because it was lovely to be able to train Chloe up. She did her WSET Level 2 with Liberty and then I put her through Level 3.

“Chloe started working in our wine bar with no wine knowledge at all, but now she is up there. She’s got to where she is today through working hard.

“She is now assistant manager and has a lot of say in the buying. She does our wine club every month and writes up all the tasting notes for that and pretty much does all the buying for it as well. So her role has really changed and I want to keep developing that, and back off a little more.

“You know, with trips, I’ve been there and done all that, got the T-shirt. It’s really important, especially with her responsibilities, that Chloe gets a chance to see the vineyards and have those experiences.”

So where would Chloe like to visit?

“I’ve visited producers in Kent and Sussex … but that’s a bit close to home,” she laughs. “I want to go everywhere, but if I had to pick, then I think I’d choose to go to Italy. My favourite wine is Amarone. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s my go-to, because it’s not always affordable, but Amarone knocks everything else out the park for me. Having said that, now the summer is here, I do love a nice Provence rosé.”

Chloe wins a bottle of Errazuriz Don Maximiano 2019

If you’d like to nominate a Rising Star, email claire@winemerchantmag.com

Candover Brook Rosé NV

The top scoring English rosé at the 2022 Decanter World Wine Awards, which is no mean feat for the debut release from this Hampshire winery, owned by the Sainsbury family. It’s a blend of 54% Chardonnay, 33% Pinot Noir and 13% Pinot Meunier, and it feels like those proportions have been paintakingly calibrated. Gorgeous summery red fruit with toasty depths.

RRP: £39.99 ABV: 12%

Liberty Wines (020 7720 5350) libertywines.co.uk

Quinta da Pedra Alta Reserva 2019

Ed Woodward’s Douro project delivers consistently impressive wines at reasonable price points. This blend of 54% Touriga Nacional, 35% Touriga Franca and 11% Sousão is no exception. It’s still young, of course, with a certain stiffness. But those rich blackcurrant and iron notes are beginning to bloom.

RRP: £21 ABV: 14%

Bancroft Wines (020 7232 5450) bancroftwines.com

Castello di Montep JeT 2020

Pale rosés come and go without generating much excitement, but now and again there’s one that grabs you by the lapels and demands a proper conversation. The Toscana IGT wine is made with a rare Sangiovese clone, grown at altitude in Maremma. It’s fresh and floral and definitely a crowd pleaser, but its firm structure and salty minerality are nice bonuses.

RRP: £20 ABV: 14%

Vinicon (07920 195183) vinicon.co.uk

Royal Tokaji Mézes Mály Dry Furmint 2020

Royal Tokaji owns 11 of the 19 hectares of the Mézes Mály vineyard, one of the region’s two Great First Growths. The site is prized for its deep loess soil on volcanic bedrock, typically yielding wines with elegance and finesse. This wine is a minor masterpiece, full of stone-fruit richness, spice and refreshing acidity.

RRP: £32 ABV: 13%

Bibendum (0845 263 6924 ) bibendum-wine.co.uk

Giorgi Solomnishvili WE Saperavi 2018

Giorgi Solomnishvili is one of Georgia’s most admired winemakers, achieving great things with Saperavi, aka “the Malbec of the Caucasus”. Matured in qvevri and then oak barrels, this example has some refined forest fruit and sweet spice, but also some loveable rustic edges. Solomnishvili’s advice? “Drink – life is short.”

RRP: £30 ABV: 13.5%

Cachet Wine (01482 638877) cachetwine.co.uk

Domaine Gérard Millet

Menetou-Salon 2021

New world producers have occasionally done to Sauvignon Blanc what Disney did to Winnie the Pooh, and it’s worth returning to the Loire periodically to remind yourself how pure, simple and effortlessly delightful the variety can be. White flowers, ripe fruit, a citrus twang and a subtle leesy richness are all here.

RRP: £20.49

ABV: 13%

Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722538) hnwines.co.uk

Domaine Jeremy Villemaine Chenonceaux Rouge 2021

Villemaine is in the Cher Valley in the heart of the Loire region, with 15ha of vines in the Touraine and Chenonceaux appellations. This new arrival is 80% Côt and 20% Cabernet Franc, and it’s impossible to imagine it not being a big hit, with its supple, glossy fruit and a just the gentlest crunch on the finish.

RRP: £20 ABV: 13%

Delibo Wine Agencies (01993 886644 ) delibo.co.uk

Glenelly Estate Lady May 2017

Merlot normally forms part of the blend in the Stellenbosch estate’s flagship wine, but not in 2017: the winemakers thought it detracted from the “purity and precision” they were achieving with Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot playing minor roles. The wine is on a journey, but already exuding lush dark fruit and tobacco flavours.

RRP: £37.50 ABV: 14.5%

Seckford Agencies (01206 231188) seckfordagencies.co.uk