MCLEAN Northabout

Honesty is the best policy so I’ll tell you my story, even though it may raise an incredulous eyebrow amongst certain readers. And it’s OK if you give a wee snort of derision: we’re all friends here. Anyway, I’m in Orkney, I won’t hear you.

Last Thursday a customer phoned asking for 12 bottles of rosé. Decent quality rosé, £15 or so. Something with a bit of fruitiness, and some colour.

“We can manage that,” I said. “So maybe three bottles each of four different wines?’”

No. All 12 had to be the same.

Mental klaxons honked. While telling the customer we’d deliver it the next day, I was simultaneously thinking: “There’s no way we have 12 bottles of the same £15 rosé!” (So why did I say we had? Because our goal is making customers happy, and we trust to providence or ingenuity to come up with ways of achieving that. Daft, but it seems to be our nature.)

While reading The Wine Merchant each month, especially the columnists and merchant profiles, I’m often reminded of an astonishing experience I had in an indie in Chelsea a few years ago. I was straggling home after a tasting, and popped in to get something to take to the friends I was staying with. Just ahead of me was a smartly dressed guy in his 20s. He pointed at a bottle behind the counter, the staff member wrapped it, and the guy paid and left.

“That was incredible!” I cried as the door closed behind him. “That guy just bought a £99 bottle of Champagne without even blinking!”

She shrugged. “We sell a dozen of those a day.”

In our shop in the northern isles, we average one bottle of Champagne a week, and there are whoops and high fives if it’s vintage rather than the cheapest NV.

Our experiences of running wine shops are very different, depending on where we’re based, the catchment area, the demographics. We generally have in common the things we can control – range, display, marketing, staff training – but we can’t control whether the average income in our area is £20k or £80k. We must cut our business coat according to the customer-cloth we’re given.

This is particularly true on an island or in a small town. You can’t attract hundreds of new, bigger-spending customers with deals or events, not when those potential customers are a ferry ride and miles of twisty road away.

The way we cut our coat is by having as wide a selection of wines as any shop of a similar size, around 800. But we generally only buy in six of each. Except for consistent best sellers like everyone’s favourite Riojas, Sauv Blancs and crémants, where we might buy a dozen. When three of the six, or eight of the 12, have sold, it’s time to order from our wholesalers again. For the popular wines that might be a fortnight later, but for a posh Pic St Loup or an orange Georgian, it might be a year.

It’s a business model that works for us. Until someone wants 12 bottles of a £15 rosé.

Providence intervened when I remembered I’d squirreled away a case of excellent Seehof Spätburgunder rosé, for a Rheinhessen dinner I was planning in the autumn. The autumn could wait: my customer couldn’t.

That evening, as I drove to my home a dozen miles out of town, I passed one other car. Two hares ran alongside me for a while, before veering off onto the moor. That sounds about right: twice as many animals as humans. If only hares drank Charles Heidsieck Brut Millésimé.

My father was a viticulturist, and I grew up in a house where wine culture was part of our tapestry. Wine was a familiar path to embark on, and I enrolled for a BSc in viticulture and oenology at the University of Stellenbosch. I immediately fell in love with wine and everything it encompasses. After the first practical tasting at university, history unfolded. I remember coming home the first weekend and saying to my family: “Now this is something that suits my personality!”

Within the larger KWV cellar you will find a special corner. It’s a tiny space made up of small tanks and hand-labelled barrels, home to The Mentors wines. This is where the magic is created.

Since its launch in 2006, The Mentors has established itself as one of the most sought-after premium brands in South Africa. It’s built on the philosophy of optimally expressing terroir and pioneering new frontiers. It includes new and innovative winemaking techniques, and a portfolio of wines that showcase the founding philosophy of KWV.

Initially, The Mentors cellar was created as a space where we could push boundaries and tap into our collective winemaking knowledge. It led to groundbreaking experiments, trying different coopers and winemaking techniques, and discovering the best way to showcase every cultivar passing through our cellar. We utilised new yeasts and perfected natural ferments. The accumulated insights from this unique cellar also attracted postgraduate oenology students, trialling new techniques that we could incorporate into KWV’s extensive range of table wines.

The Mentors Grenache Blanc 2021

This layered wine shows aromas of white, fleshy pear, orange blossom and pineapple with hints of minerality, oak and roasted almonds. The fresh and textured palate has hints of peach that is supported by a linear acidity that enhances the mineral and concentrated finish.

Personally I favour working with niche varieties, such as Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Mourvedre, Nebbiolo and Carménère. These give me the opportunity to expand boundaries and develop additional winemaking skills, understand the vineyards and discover what I want to achieve with each variety. Each is exceptional on its own; what one can achieve when blending them is even more exciting.

For years I had a love/hate relationship with Pinotage. I have come to love it. I made an effort to really understand it. My advice: treat Pinotage like Pinot Noir and Cinsault, with gentle pump-overs to extract finer tannins and to enhance the red fruit spectrum, rather than dark fruits. Pinotage is an excellent wine to enjoy any time and with a lot of dishes, even with dessert.

We have an exceptional brand manager doing marketing on The Mentors. She works closely with the winemaking and design team. I trust the marketing team to dress these beautiful wines in suitably beautiful attire. The new labelling for The Mentors reflects this legacy and was undertaken by the renowned Bravo design company.

Expect the unexpected with The Mentors. We will always keep it exciting; the brand stands for innovation and experimentation. This is the nature of the game. Some interesting varieties we are experimenting with are Mourvedre, Carignan, Grenache Noir, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, Carmenère and Nebbiolo. Every year we release a new limited edition, something exceptional, with a unique story to tell.

The Mentors Nebbiolo 2017

This full-bodied wine explodes with aromas of rose petals, red cherries and raspberries with hints of lavender. The palate is focused, with an undertone of cloves, dried fruit and leather. The grippy tannin structure and zippy acidity are well integrated and deliver an intense, lasting finish.

Izele is responsible for The Mentors, KWV’s premium portfolio which is intended to honour the people and the landscapes which have inspired South African winemakers to reach new heights.

Imported by North South Wines

The Mentors wines will be available to taste at the WOSA annual trade tasting on July 4 on the KWV stand.

The Mentors Petit Verdot 2020

This intense, ruby-red wine is concentrated and leads on the nose with perfume notes, red berries, cranberries and sweet spice followed by black olives and aniseed. The palate is rich and juicy with plums and dark cherries. Like the Nebbiolo, the tannins are firm but harmonised, and the finish is deep and lingering.