David Williams is wine critic for The Observer
Rising Stars
you’ve convinced yourself are intrinsic to the natural wine scene.
Tim Peyton Real Ale, London
Orange wine! All you need is a bit of skin contact. No worries
about amphorae. Sourced from the right place – there’s a producer in Romania who could do it for you – you could even get it organic. What could possibly go wrong?
H
ow close is the above to the processes that brought us first Aldi Orange Wine last year, and, as of this
summer, Asda’s “Orange Wine” with its label legend:
“Naturally made with no added yeasts, sugars or sulphites”? In
spirit, I don’t think it’s all that far off. There’s been a yearning to
capture some of the counter-cultural glamour of natural wine in the supermarkets for years. Now they’ve found a way to do it –
thanks, in both cases, to Cremale Recas, the largest producer in
Romania – that fits into their way of doing business. Compared to many natural wines, orange wine made in a large, clean modern
winery is relatively safe and easy – and cheap – to pull off, and in large volumes, too.
This is unlikely to please the natural wine true believers. As
Alice Feiring, hitherto the truest natural wine believer of all,
writes in an essay on the growing pains of natural wine for The
World of Fine Wine, the Aldi Orange wine is an example of a “lowrent knock-off” spurred by the “phenomenal success” of “real”
natural wine. “A machine-picked ‘orange’ natural wine is out from Romania,” Feiring goes on to say. “Recently tasted, it was caustic. I had to feel pity for those who snatched it up for their dinner.” For all the cynicism – or, if not cynicism, the nakedly
commercial intent – that may have lain behind Aldi and Asda’s decisions to try marketing an orange wine, I don’t share Feiring’s disdain. In the context of sub-£10 wine (of all
colours and retailing environments) in the UK, I thought
Aldi’s (I’ve yet to try the Asda version) was a pretty good
effort: like a slightly spicier, grippier take on a commercial white wine. It went perfectly well with my stir-fry, thanks Alice. No need for pity.
And as well as being a perfectly decent wine, I also
can’t share the Cassandra-like groaning from retailers
and natural devotees about the impact corporate orange wines will have on the natural wine scene. There have
been complaints that Aldi and Asda are undercutting the independent sector, where small producer-made orange
wines rarely come in at under £15, somehow. But isn’t that what they always do, with all styles of wine?
From where I’m drinking, getting the idea of orange
R
eal Ale, as the name suggests, is a champion of craft beer, but owner Zeph King admits that in order to survive, a wine offering was key. “We hired Tim because he had good wine knowledge and we knew it was something we could nurture,” he says. Six years on and an additional two shops later, Real Ale is drawing in customers as thirsty for wine as they are for beer. “People recognise us as a stockist of a really, really good range of wines; in Notting Hill we have become better known for our wine range than we are for our beer,” says Zeph. “That is really challenging against the backdrop of our name, so we’re lucky to have Tim. “Beer runs completely through our DNA and we wanted to do with wine what we do with beer, but we didn’t have that knowledge and passion. And then Tim came along.” Tim worked at Wine Rack and Threshers before a five-year stint at Great Western Wines. “Alan would open up just about everything and anything – aged Jurançon to Grand Cru Champagne – and that was pretty cool. “Since I was manager at Twickenham we have changed the range enormously and now wine is as important as beer. We just want to be as allencompassing as possible.” He adds: “Real Ale is a great place to work; very dynamic. We’ve grown from a small shop in Twickenham to having three stores in west London with ambitions for more, so it’s hard work but definitely rewarding.” Tim is responsible for the wine buying, as well as driving a natural wine revolution: “We’ve got something from a Czech producer Petr Korab, Saint Laurent. It’s about as natural as you can get,” he says. “It’s turned a few heads and we’ve sold loads of it.” Zeph adds: “Tim oversees all three stores and I know we’re in safe hands. He’s very good on the shop floor; he has a very relaxed way of demystifying wine. He also has a great training programme with our staff. Tim is such an important member of our team.”
Tim wins a bottle of Robert Sinskey Cabernet Franc. To nominate a rising star in your business, email claire@winemerchantmag.com
wine to a wider audience seems like a pretty good thing for makers – and sellers – of orange wine. The trick, as ever, is
to make sure your customers know why your orange wines
are so much better – and more expensive – than theirs.
THE WINE MERCHANT JULY 2019 15