Welcome

David McEnroe Managing Director

087 219 7231 david-mcenroe@classicdrinks.com

To all our customers,

I am delighted to present our wine portfolio for 2023. Mark and I have travelled many miles this year and have sourced some incredible new wines which I hope you and your customers will enjoy. We are rigorous in our selection process to ensure our commitment to consumers is met; to deliver outstanding quality wines for every occasion. Mark will explain in greater detail below. I would like to thank you for your business in 2022, we appreciate your support, and I hope our commitment to you and the industry has helped you during the past 12 months. It hasn’t been easy and the industry continues to face many challenges from inflation to staffing, but I am repeatedly impressed by the resilience shown by the sector.

At Classic Drinks, we have invested in growing our sales team and are always on hand to support our customers. Wine training is an essential part of our offering, educating service staff in all things wine. We will continue throughout 2023 to support you in every way we can. This year I attended many events and we were delighted to sponsor awards and trade functions.

Being part of the Sysco family has allowed us enhance our service proposition to you and we welcome our new customers introduced to us by our Sysco colleagues.

Let’s grow together.

Dave

MARK DONOHOE Head Of Wine

m: +353 (0) 86 820 2999 mark-donohoe@classicdrinks.com As Dave has noted above, we have worked hard over the last twelve months to bring you this newest edition of our wine portfolio.

At Classic Drinks our commitment is to work only with wines that offer excellent quality, be they at entry-level, mid-range, or high-end. We strive to offer you and your customers the best possible experience at all price points.

In adding to our range we have sought out small, producer-driven estates that make excellent wines at all levels of quality.

To our entry-level offering we have added simple yet delicious wines from Spain and Italy. The wines of La Baldaosa, El Volquette (p.96), Adacio, and Marchese Montefusco (p.72), all offer fantastic value for money. These easy-drinking organic wines (made of local grape varieties) offer you more options to serve by the glass and reward your customers for exploring something outside of the norm.

In Chablis we have added the wines of Domaine Gautheron (p.17) . A small estate run by husband and wife team Cyril and Agnes, they produce crisp, complex, and elegant Chablis wines from village-level to Grand Cru. Situated in the Central Vineyards of the Loire Valley, the wines of Domaine Paul Thomas (p.33) showcase the very best of Sancerre and it’s subregions; Chavignol, Silex, and La Côte des Monts Damnés. These wines made from Sauvignon Blanc are smoky, fresh, and mineral.

Throughout the communes of Burgundy, Maison Edouard Delaunay (p.21) are masters of cultivating Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They produce red wines that are light and layered with notes of fruit, pastry, minerality, and oak. Their white wines maintain their freshness while offering the complexity that all Burgundy lovers crave.

In Beaujolais, we are delighted to work with the wines of Alexandre Burgaud (p.27), a winemaker in the mould of celebrated producers; Foillard, Lappiere, and Breton. Alexandre makes a rich profile of Beaujolais in his low-intervention estate. These wines balance beautifully aromas of black fruit, minerality, and woody herbs. To make it easier for you to access the high-end wines of Bordeaux, we have developed our offering of celebrated estates throughout the region (i.e. Château Lynch-Bages, Château Leoville-Barton etc.). Alongside this we have added outstanding quality in HautMedoc (Château Ramage la Batisse, p.7), Fronsac (Château la Dauphine p.15), and Bordeaux Supérieur (Château Pascaud, p.13).

In keeping with the move toward more sustainable and low-intervention practices, we have also developed our range of organic and biodynamic wines.

In the Costières de Nîmes in the Southern Rhône we now work with Château Mourgues du Grès. Husband and wife team Francios and Anne Coillard make biodynamic wines that are savoury, complex, and fresh. These wines have lifted acidity, intense minerality and fantastic length – making them perfect for complex food and wine pairings. From Valdeorras in North Western Spain, the wines of Bodegas Valdesil are a world class example of how exciting and delicious wines made of Godello can be. Based in Vienna in Austria, Weingut Zahel produce unique expression of old vines Grüner Veltliner and Blaufrankish. These wines, fermented slowly using native yeasts are vibrant and complex and balance traditional and ancient winemaking techniques.

We hope you enjoy these exciting additions to our range. We remain on hand to support your own wine offering – through wine menu development, wine training, food pairing advice, and wine events.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mark