The Wine Merchant issue 83

THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers

Issue 83, August 2019

Dog of the Month: Margaux Stone Vine & Sun, Twyford

Harvest festival Six independents make their contribution to the Mendoza vintage effort – page 20

Contain your excitement!

Manchester’s newest independent hatches: see page 6

Borough Wines sold for just £60k Muriel Chatel retains control after London independent enters administration with debts of £1.3m

B

orough Wines, which collapsed

into administration at the end of

May with debts of almost £1.3m,

has been bought in a pre-pack sale for just under £60,000.

Administrator Mazars said there had

been “no reasonable prospect of rescuing the group in its existing form as a going

concern” and that the deal, secured with Borough founder Muriel Chatel and a French backer, represented a better

outcome for creditors than liquidation.

The biggest chunk of debt (£779,000)

was actually to Expression du Terroir Ltd, a business within the Borough group which sourced and supplied stock.

Many of Borough’s other creditors

included small French wine producers, some UK brewers and distillers and a

number of logistics companies. Armit was owed £4,867, Ehrmanns £4,720, Boutinot £3,058 and Sipsmith £3,652.

Mazars reported that Borough Wines,

which started on a stall at Borough Market in 2002, had expanded to nine units but recently closed six sites “as a result of

declining turnover and increasing losses”.

The sale of the business to Spirits of

Borough, owned by Muriel Chatel and

Arthur de Chalus, includes £43,760 of stock and all equipment, along with goodwill, intellectual property and customer

records. The company has secured an initial three-month lease at the Stoke Newington branch.

Chatel said that rent demands had been

“like a hoop around our neck”.

Continues page five

EDITORIAL

Inside this month 6 comings & Goings There’s a new wine shop in Torquay (and Manchester)

12 tried & tested Why doesn’t everyone love a hairy Grenache?

T

he fact that canned wine – decent wine – seems futuristic speaks

volumes about the glacial pace

at which the trade operates. A processed

beef-delivering technology that was widely available as long ago as World War One is eyed with suspicion and even hostility by

16 david williams How to sell those wines you didn’t really want to stock

wine traditionalists.

But why, exactly? The

possible argument that “bottles are better” ignores the fact

32 smashing wines Organic growth for a young business on the Suffolk coast

38 focus on argentina Should retailers do more to promote Malbec alternatives?

50 leeds round table We hit the north to talk about life, the universe and wine retailing Make a Date, page 54; The Spirits World, page 66; Supplier Bulletin, page 69

Kate’s can-do attitude is ahead of her time. Wine needs new ideas

that nobody is seriously

suggesting that cans are

Even so, as Groucho Marx once almost

said, beer is beer and wine is wine, and if you take cranberries and stew them

like apple sauce, it tastes much more like

prunes than rhubarb does. Are there really any parallels between the two categories?

Goodman clearly believes so, and her quest to find some more

esoteric and exciting wines

to sell from cans – even if

she ends up working the machine herself – is one that many others will applaud, and

likely to supplant glass as

probably replicate.

the vessel of choice. All

that’s being mooted is the

idea that cans offer another

option. Another way of enjoying

the same product, but maybe in different

circumstances, at a different price, to suit the lifestyles of different consumers.

Kate Goodman at Reserve Wines, as we

report on page eight, is one of hundreds of wine merchants across the UK who have

watched in delight as cans have colonised their craft ale fixtures, brightening up

the beer landscape with colourful and

exuberant labels. The packaging would

count for nothing if the liquid inside wasn’t in a prime state of freshness, but that hasn’t been an issue.

Wine urgently needs to

find ways of appealing to

a younger generation who

usually don’t have the cash to

spend big on wine bottles, lack confidence

in their choices (and so play safe) and who are more beguiled, for now, by what they see in the beer and gin categories.

Wine’s reluctance to engage with cans on

more than just a superficial level, pumping bog-standard varietals into uninspiring

packs, is currently looking more and more

like a missed opportunity. Hopefully within five years we’ll look back at the paucity

of today’s options and wonder if the wine

trade was ever really that backward as we crack open another tinny of Zibibbo.

THE WINE MERCHANT MAGAZINE

winemerchantmag.com 01323 871836 Twitter: @WineMerchantMag Editor and Publisher: Graham Holter graham@winemerchantmag.com Assistant Editor: Claire Harries claire@winemerchantmag.com Sales and Business Development: Georgina Humphrey georgina@winemerchantmag.com Accounts: Naomi Young winemerchantinvoices@gmail.com The Wine Merchant is circulated to the owners of the UK’s 913 specialist independent wine shops.

Printed in Sussex by East Print. © Graham Holter Ltd 2019 Registered in England: No 6441762 VAT 943 8771 82

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 2

NEWS

Forty years fly by for Devon indie Most wine shops would be quite happy with double-digit sales growth, but when the business in question is entering its fifth decade it’s definitely an achievement worth celebrating.

Christopher Piper Wines was established

by Chris Piper and John Earle 40 years ago last month.

“Up to the end of June, in real terms,

our retail side was up about 10% on last year, which is kind of odd,” says Piper.

“Wholesale is still growing, at about 5%-

6%. Margins are a bit squeezed generally because of foreign exchange but we’re

seeing more people stay-cationing, which helps our retail side.”

The business has been in the same retail

premises in Ottery St Mary, about 10 miles east of Exeter, since day one and has a

wholesale footprint that stretches across

southern England from London to Land’s End.

“We’ve enjoyed it so far,” says Piper.

“When we first set up everyone gave us nine months – maybe only nine weeks.

Chris Piper (left) and John Earle – best friends as well as business partners

go into business with your best friend

“The other big difference is that we ship

because it will go wrong’, but it hasn’t. It’s

nearly all of our wines.

different” to what it was 40 years ago.

really had an overdraft at all.

pretty good.”

Piper says the market is “hugely

“We didn’t have any New World wines.

We were very strong in Germany; it played a huge role. Probably 50% of our range is New World now.

“We started with £1,000 which we’d

inherited from grannies and we’ve never “We were helped out by one or two

people in the early days who gave us

extended credit. It was a good time to start – you couldn’t do it now.”

Here we are. We’re the longest-running shop in town now.

“We wouldn’t have survived if we were

just retail but the shop has been a very good front for our operation.

“We have an awful lot of customers

come in from all over the country; it’s a

destination place for wine people coming down to Devon.”

Piper trained as an oenologist and began

making wine in Beaujolais in 1976. It’s a career he still pursues to this day.

“I decided I needed to get some other

source of cash so I opened the shop with John,” he says.

“We went to school and university

together. He’s my oldest friend and kind of like a brother to me. Everyone said ‘don’t

The business claims to be the longest-established shop in the town

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 4

Cocktail party to mark first decade North Wales wine merchant Julie Mills is celebrating 10 years of running her Vinomondo business in Conwy.

The occasion was marked with 10%

discounts and a cocktail party in the shop’s garden in July.

The town centre shop was originally

Julie Mills of Vinomondo

called Conwy Fine Wines and owned by Anita Mannion, who sold the business

to Mills when Mannion relocated to the

Midlands to open Leamington Wine Co.

Ex-plumber Mills rebranded the Conwy

store as Vinomondo in 2011 and revamped as a hybrid wine store by adding an

upstairs drink-in lounge in 2017 and the garden last year.

“Plumbing was getting physically tough,”

Mills recalls, “and I collected wine anyway

so when Anita said she was moving I asked for first refusal. I took it on right at the beginning of the financial crash and in

Borough buy-back From page one

She added: “It’s been tough but what

I would say is that at least we were

extremely proactive and we took control while we could. We didn’t wait for the

landlord to fold the company because we couldn’t keep up with the payments on empty shops for the next 20 years.

“We are doing everything by the book.

We had to send out letters to people we work with in order to keep the trading

name, to inform people that the previous

company had to go into administration, but that Borough Wines was still very much trading.

“We have a French investor backing

the whole 10 years the country has never come out of austerity, which has made things difficult.

“The secret to survival has been good

customer service and staff, having an eye on what your customer wants, listening

to them, and being able to turn on a pin if you’ve gone the wrong way.

“We are a big part of the community.

People come in for a cup of coffee – and we don’t even sell coffee! We’re a little

community hub, not just a wine shop.” us, which requires faith in the current

climate. They are an extremely serious investment company who invest in all

sorts of businesses and they decided that our project was extremely strong if we

managed to get out of retail and keep the

strategy towards wholesale. They love the idea of the franchises and of wine on tap.”

Chatel said that relationships with some

creditors had been maintained.

“We haven’t been able to write cheques

left, right and centre straight away but we are trying to find solutions to maintain

relationships with those who have been

supportive of us for many years and will hopefully be part of the next chapter.

“In some ways what we are doing and

putting together with the Borough Wines

franchise is more interesting than the few shops we closed.”

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 5

“Our Man with the Facts” • According to Auberon Waugh, “Wine writing should be camped up. The writer should never like a wine, he should be in love with it; never find a wine disappointing but identify it as a mortal enemy, an attempt to poison him. Bizarre and improbable side tastes should be proclaimed: mushrooms, rotting wood, black treacle, burned pencils, condensed milk, sewage, the smell of French railway stations or ladies’ underwear”.

.......

• The first concrete egg fermenter was created in 2001

by Michel Chapoutier. The technology, which has its roots in ancient amphorae, creates natural convection currents within the fermenting wine which replicates batonnage and is intended to contribute towards a more complex wine with a generous mouth feel.

.......

• France’s smallest appellation is La Romanée, a 2.1-acre monopole owned by Comte Liger-Belair. It was officially established in 1936.

.......

• The wine cellar aboard the Titanic is thought to have contained around 12,000 bottles. Many of these, corks still intact, have been located and although some have come up at auction, there is a general agreement not to disturb them.

Anna’s thinking inside the box Vin-Yard is the first wine merchant to open in Hatch, the retail space and courtyard created from four 80 square foot street food containers in Manchester city centre.

Owner Anna Tutton and her colleague

Helen Collett have been rushed off their

feet since the shop launched in June. “It’s

going brilliantly – I couldn’t ask for better, really,” says Tutton.

Vin-Yard is a shop and bar and with

capacity for around 24 but plenty of room

for overspill: “as it’s part of a container city there is an enormous amount of seating outdoors.”

Tutton explains that her by-the-glass list

will always feature a natural wine in both

red and white. “I’m trying to do something for everybody, picking independent wines that are good value for money,” she says.

“I’m working with Boutinot – they’ve really given me a helping hand. I’m using Rob at Buon Vino for natural wines, and I’m just

about to start using Liberty and Alliance.”

A quick browse around the Hatch

website reveals a whole clutch of truly independent shops: makers, brewers,

restaurants, a barber, and a shoe restorer.

So is the demographic very young?

Tutton says: “I would honestly say Vin-

Yard is for everybody. I probably attract

the older crowd, being wine, but I would say it’s a good cross-section and that the

younger people are probably picking the

more exciting wines, like the Rieslings and the Pecorinos. They seem to be spending quite happily.”

Tutton has worked with some of

Manchester’s finest such as Reserve Wines, Hangingditch and Cork of the North –

“Marc [Hough]’s been great, I’ve had to borrow some stock from him already!”

– and she has also owned a mobile wine

bar. But she admits she just “had enough of dragging a van around fields in all weathers”.

Hatch has given life to a host of

Majestic man in Torquay launch

independents that perhaps would not have

Former Majestic manager Paul Firman

and says life is made easier by business

Tolchards, but will be run independently.

had a chance elsewhere. Tutton thinks

has set up shop in Torquay. The Wine

the rents are comparatively reasonable

Box is an offshoot of wholesaler

payment.

to link up with Boutinot and FMV,” says

big natural umbrella and it doesn’t matter

want. I’m a big Francophile and a massive

rates and utilities being combined in one

“It’s a clever little location – half of it is

under the Mancunian Way, so we’ve got a if it’s raining,” she says.

“I’m investing 10 grand, which isn’t a

lot when you’re talking about a business,

but it is if you haven’t got any money! For

me it’s the love of wine and wanting to get it out there, and this was a now-or-never opportunity.”

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 6

“We’re using Condor and I’m hoping

Firman. “I think the range is going to

develop as we listen to what the customers fan of Iberian wine, but you can’t just push what you like on the customers.”

Tolchards had no retail experience but

run a successful pop-up store just before Christmas. Firman explains: “We’ve done

a lot of work to make it a welcoming shop.

There’s a section purely for wine, and

Adeline Mangevine Hasty despatches from the frontline of wine retailing Vin-Yard is built from four shipping containers

O

h god, oh god, please make it

stop. Please make the endless natural wine row go away.

Can we just accept that some people like styles of wine that many of us don’t?

Can we stop calling all natural wines

“cidery” and “farmyardy”? Can we stop calling all conventionally-made wines “manufactured” and “manipulated”?

Can we all just get on with the business of making sure people keep buying and enjoying wine, however it is made?

Sometimes, it is hard when you are

at the coalface – working your butt off to provide the drinking public with interesting wine – to read industry

commentators slugging it out on Twitter.

If one of us indies has the time to a) read these long threads and b) dare to chip in with a comment on trends we are

seeing, we are, at best, ignored and at

worst, dismissed as being too niche to

count – or grilled as to what we mean by “natural” (don’t even go there …)

But, dear commentators, anecdotally

there’s a section dedicated to spirits and

I can tell you this. In the last 18

events in the shop and has plans to launch

to demand. I’m not talking by huge

fine wine as well. It’s a lovely space.”

Firman is organising a number of tasting

the Torbay Gin School. “Customers will be able to come in and make their gin from scratch and design their own label,” he says.

“We’re hoping to be up and running with

that by the end of the month.” That’s if the stills are released by HMRC in time.

“I love retail and I love wine, and I

months, we have increased our range

of low-sulphur, cloudy wild wines due

amounts, and millennials aren’t banging

down the door for them. Our shop isn’t in some achingly cool part of a city, either.

But we are getting enough requests

to make it worth our while. And with

supermarkets now in on the act, it must officially be a category, right?

I’d like to point out that I’m no die-

thought this was an amazing opportunity

hard naturalista. While I am happy to

really special,” adds Firman. “There’s a

to find many of the natural wines I am

to do something with a small family-

owned business and create something

lot of opportunity in Torquay. The local

Waitrose has closed, so there’s a massive opportunity for an independent. It’s exciting times.”

drink well-made ones (just like I do

conventionally-made wines), I’m starting shown by suppliers very samey. Juicy,

crunchy smashable reds and nutty, broad

whites, most commanding lofty prices (so

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 7

who knows how the supermarkets are

doing it for £7?). Just like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Argentinian

Malbec, there are only so many of these similar-styled wines I can stock in one shop, natural or not.

I’m also finding the hijacking of natural

wines by the wellness industry alarming – even though I know this is driving

some of my sales. Fewer additives and

lower ABVs may make them “healthier”

My natural aversion to tedious Twitter punch-ups about low-sulphur wines than jammy, commercial, New World reds, but please, do not call them

“healthy”. They still contain alcohol.

As for restaurants and bars with all-

natural wine lists – and no one on hand to describe in detail the level of funk,

apart from a starry-eyed evangelist who thinks this is what good wine should taste like – give me a break. Even for

indies, spending £30+ on a leap into the

unknown is not a great experience. But a list with some natural wines makes the choice more interesting.

So, can the industry just accept that

wine can be a broad church and these

big, long, point-scoring Twitter punchups divert from bigger issues in the industry. Like, y’know,

Brexit, duty, falling wine consumption and the

increasing frequency of

anti-booze campaigns ...

Rising Stars Matthew Lythall Duncan Murray Wines Market Harborough

S

ometimes customers can make the best colleagues.

This has certainly been the experience of Duncan Murray who has successfully converted loyal patrons to reliable staff in the past, and Matthew Lythall is no exception.

“Matt’s been with us about 18 months,” explains Duncan, “and he’d been a customer for about 10 years. When he asked for a job one day, by chance a member of staff was leaving and it was perfect because here we had a regular customer who we all like, and he was already familiar with our products.”

Rewind 25 years and Matt was working for a Leicestershire wine merchant. He says: “One of my dad’s friends had a shop called The Bottle Store and I worked there in the evenings and weekends. I pursued my love of wine on a purely personal level when I left to work in London in the fashion industry.”

Matt and his family moved back to the area 12 years ago and it wasn’t long before he discovered Duncan’s shop.

From the outset, Duncan recognised a customer who was serious about wine and forever wanting to try new things.

“I can’t think of a Saturday tasting that Matt didn’t come to.

He was always really interested in trying stuff,” he says.

And that natural curiosity has not diminished now that wine is the day job. Matt admits: “It still blows my mind how much food can change a wine or wine can change a food. I still find that sort of thing remarkable.”

Matt does not have any formal WSET training yet. But Duncan says: “For me that’s not the be-all and end-all, it’s about having a passion for the product and being able to pass that on to the customers. He’s generated loads of new business; he’s been a real asset to the shop. He’s very customer-focused because he was one. He’s working in the shop and doing some deliveries and he’s our main man in the wine bar.”

“Duncan is really easy to work with,” says Matt. “He lets you take responsibility. I’ve been buying the beer now for seven months and the decisions on wine are made by a group of three of us. I love the fact that everything on our shelves is tried by us first. It makes it so much easier to engage the customers if you have experienced it yourself and made your own notes.”

Matthew wins a bottle of Gallica Albariño.

To nominate a rising star in your business, email claire@winemerchantmag.com

Cans, canvas and crushed kegs As Reserve Wines prepares to opens its fifth branch, the Manchester-based business is taking green issues more seriously than ever

M

anchester-based Reserve Wines is on a mission to reduce its environmental impact through canning wine, recycling kegs and banishing plastic bags.

Owner Kate Goodman is looking into producing a range of

canned wines to get customers experimenting in the same way as

they do with craft beer, and potentially cutting down consumption of heavy bottles in the process.

Reserve has also found a company to handle the recycling of the

KeyKegs it uses to sell draught wine in its shops and bars.

Plastic carrier bags have been axed for good and replaced with

reusable canvas bags, with any profit from their £1.50 retail price

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 8

DEDICATED TO THE VALUATION AND AUCTIONING OF FINE AND RARE WINES

Reserve Wines’ Altrincham food hall site, soon to be joined by Macclesfield MATURE AND INTERESTING WINES WITH NO MINIMUM ORDER

going to a charity that works on plastic clean-up.

“It wasn’t difficult to find a supplier for the new bags, but we

did have to commit to buying 2,000,” Goodman says. “Most people

are pretty savvy and are making the conscious effort to bring bags anyway these days. Ours is an accessible price and the cost was

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reasonable, so there’s a nice chunk in there for the charity.

“We’re becoming more conscious about the waste we produce as

12%

a business and trying to limit the amount.”

Empty kegs are now being crushed, palletised and shipped to

the Netherlands where they are reformed back into kegs for reuse.

GLOBAL AUDIENCE

find a solution to what to do with the kegs when they were empty.

BI-MONTHLY AUCTIONS

Goodman says: “We were promoting draught as being an

environmentally friendly way to buy wine at first, but we couldn’t “We were sending out tweets to see if people wanted to use

them in their gardens but usually they were going in the bin. We

thought it wasn’t right, so we spent a lot of time finding a company locally who could handle recycling.”

Reserve has also hit on a novel way to market its draught refill

wine concept: putting branded bottles on doorsteps close to its Didsbury shop.

“People normally pay a fee that covers the cost of the bottle

Continues page 10

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THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 9

From page 9

but we wanted to drag people in to say

this is what we’re doing,” Goodman says.

“We put in a note, as if it were a bottle left for the milkman, with money off the first purchase.

“We did two lots of 50. It definitely

brought people into the shop and created a conversation. You’ve immediately got a connection with the customer.

“Even if they don’t come in immediately

they’ve got a bottle that they can use for

Give the gift of beer Nobody needs reminding that craft beer is one of the runaway success stories of specialist drinks retailing in recent years.

What’s sometimes less apparent is the gifting appeal of the category, with

something which is branded Reserve Wines, so when they want to buy

something, say, for a birthday, they may come to us.”

Goodman is a fan of canned wine but

would like to see more eclectic selections

on the market and has been scouting ways of launching Reserve’s own quirky range.

tidy margins up for grabs all through the year. Place a selection of cans or bottles in a 100% recyclable kraft box, add a tag or a ribbon and voila – you have a perfectly presentable beer gift.

WBC offers a range of sizes with prices starting at 92p per pack excluding VAT.

‘I know the life cycle of canned wine is a year, but I think we could try short runs of things, and be fluid in our approach’ “I think there’s a market for doing more

interesting wines, so you can develop a culture that’s bit more like beer, where

people might try six different ones as they

Bags of appeal Plastic bags may do the same job but they’re not as smart or as eco-friendly as WBC’s blind tasting covers, designed to fit over standard-sized bottles and supplied in a handy storage bag. The pack contains 10 numbered woven cloth covers, each with a Velcro strap. Available for £18.97 per pack.

do in beer shops.

“I’d love to think we can get that

mentality going in wine. It lowers the risk because they’re buying a cheaper format

and if they don’t like one it’s not the end of the world because they’ve got something else to try.

“I spoke to Boutinot who were brilliant

and gave me lots of insight on their journey with cans, and aspects like sulphur levels

and the lining of the can, but they wanted

huge quantities and it would have tied up lots of money.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 10

“I’m trying to work out if I could

can wine from a keg, so I could put it somewhere in the shop as a proof of

concept: to see if people are interested and engage with it.

“I know the life cycle of canned wine

is a year and it’s easier to be more

experimental in making beer, but I think we could try short runs of things and

try something as a one-off, and then try

something else, be a bit more fluid in how we approach it.

“I’ve found someone who has a canning

line so we are going to see them soon and see if it’s something we could work with

them on. There are a lot of cans out there

but they’re usually just generic wines that

aren’t that interesting. They’ve really kick-

started something good, but I’d want to do something a bit niche and quirky.”

BRANCH NUMBER FIVE Reserve is aiming to open its fifth branch in the autumn, in the Cheshire town of Macclesfield.

Like the Reserve Wines in Altrincham, the new site will be in a food hall featuring a number of small food and drink producers and retailers, based in an old art deco cinema.

“You can still move to Macclesfield and get really good value for money in property, but it is surrounded by an area with quite a lot of money,” says Goodman.

“It’s new territory. It will be nice to get some tastings and food and wine pairing events going. I don’t think there’s much of that sort of thing going on there.”

SONS OF THE SOIL Zuccardi’s Uco Valley project represents a paradigm shift for Argentina. Third-generation winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi is making wines that speak of their terroir more than of their varieties

J

osé Alberto Zuccardi considers the question that’s just been put to him about the success of Cabernet Franc in Mendoza. He smiles. “We think it’s necessary to talk more about the places and less about the varieties,” he says.

“It’s unfair to have 10 wines from Uco and call them all ‘Malbec’, because how does the consumer understand what that means? We have many different subtleties from each microsite.”

The Zuccardis are a restless, pioneering family.

Alberto “Tito” Zuccardi planted the family’s first vineyards in the 1960s, primarily as a means of demonstrating an irrigation system that he’d developed. His son, José Alberto, forged an international reputation as a winemaker.

Now Tito’s grandson Sebastián heads up the wine production and is breaking new ground in the Uco Valley, where the Zuccardi winery rose out of the barren

Andean landscape in 2016.

“Sebastián’s idea was to produce wines that are the expression of the region and the winery is made just with materials from the region,” José Alberto explains.

“We use concrete vats because it’s a

neutral material, and we also age some of the wines in concrete so we have the possibility for some micro-oxygenation.

“Sebastián has put a new way of thinking into the company. When he started working in the Uco Valley, he wanted to understand

the different types of rocks and soils. You can find many different types, all alluvial soils created by the erosion of the Andes.

“We have now eight locations in the Uco Valley and we’re going deeper and deeper with our studies of the soils. We also have some producers that we work with and we also analyse their soils.

“When we started learning about how many different types of soils there are we knew we had to build the new winery with a lot of small vats, and different sizes of vats, to do the vinifications separately.

Sometimes you have soils next to each other where the ripening process varies … you pick the grapes today and find that the vines next to that place need 15 days more.”

The entire Zuccardi Valle de Uco range will be available in the UK via new agent Hatch Mansfield. There’s a characteristic freshness and minerality that runs through the line-up, but each wine is a unique expression of its sub-region or site.

Zuccardi Blanc de Blancs Cuvée

or over-oaking,” explains José Alberto. “The idea is that the wine is elegant and fresh and talks about the place. For me it’s a new era of Malbec.”

The wine has a complexity and restraint that isn’t always associated with the variety, with gentle oak cushioning and elegant plum and spice characters.

mineral depth.

Will blends be the way forward for Zuccardi as it focuses more on sites than varieties? José Alberto replies that blending is at the core of the Uco winemaking even when only one variety is being used. “Dividing the soils as we do, normally we blend different parcels even if it’s the same variety,” he says.

Especial NV RRP £25-£30 Sebastián was keen to introduce a sparkling wine into the range and this traditionalmethod Chardonnay almost feels like an aged Champagne with its generous body. Three years on lees contributes to a textural wine that balances the natural acidity of fruit grown at 1,300m altitude in Tupungato.

Tito Zuccardi Paraje Altamira 2017 RRP £30

Zuccardi Apelación Vista Flores Malbec 2017 RRP £17.50 “When we started the new winery, Sebastián said, I don’t want over-ripeness, over-extraction

Italian variety Anecellota makes a cameo appearance in the 2017 blend, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, but the 2018 will be made with Malbec and Cabernet Franc.

The 2017 is earthy and meaty, with a chalky

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 11

Feature sponsored by Zuccardi Wines. For more information visit www. zuccardiwines.com or contact Hatch Mansfield: email info@hatch.co.uk or call 01344 871800.

TRIED & TESTED

Ranch 32 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay 2017

Gérard Bertrand Hampton Water Rosé 2018

This windy Monterey AVA has proved to be good

If you heard that Jon Bon Jovi was going to put his

of butter and vanilla and a pillowy softness, but also a

south west London utility company. But we are where

terroir for Burgundy varieties, and you detect a definite American accent here, as you’d expect. There’s a dollop

limey freshness that comes with a herbal tinge towards

the finish. Six months in French oak was clearly just right.

RRP: £17-£18

ABV: 13.5%

North South Wines (020 3871 9210)

name to a wine, perhaps your first guess wouldn’t be a

pale rosé, especially one with a name that sounds like a

we are. This likeable-enough colloboration with Gérard Bertrand is gently fruity, with creamy marzipan notes.

RRP: £19.99

ABV: 13%

Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722 538)

northsouthwines.co.uk

hnwines.co.uk

Along Came Jones Lledoner Pelut Hairy Grenache 2018

Quinta Vista 2016

Leicestershire-born Katie Jones has been a winemaker

combine here in an almost effortless showcase of

in the Languedoc for a decade, finding fun in small and often remote vineyards. Lledoner Pelut isn’t popular with the locals because it produces a lighter style of

Grenache. This example certainly isn’t heavy, but with

its jammy sweetness and minty grip, it’s got a kick on it.

RRP: £16.99

ABV: 14%

Gonzalez Byass (01707 274790)

Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Castelão and Syrah

the blender’s art. The fruit comes from Lisboa and

retains its succulence and play-doh sweetness, but in a refined, understated sort of way, with a faint

plume of smoke just discernible on the nose. A steal at anything under a tenner.

RRP: £7.99

ABV: 13%

North South Wines (020 3871 9210)

gonzalezbyassuk.com

northsouthwines.co.uk

Cavit Rulendis Pinot Grigio 2017

Mont Rubi Gaintus Radical 2017

Its fans may love PG for its blandness and cheapness,

The Sumoll grape variety is a delicate thing, and was

Dolomites, north of Lake Garda. Silky and delicately

varieties for cava. Its future once looked bleak. But

but neither description applies to this excellent wine from high-altitude, low-yielding vines in the Brenta spiced, it interweaves tangy citrus and stone-fruit

flavours. It won’t be hard getting imbibers to love this wine. The bigger job may be persuading them to try it.

RRP: £17.99

ABV: 13%

Boutinot (0161 908 1300)

proving too much aggravation for many growers in

Catalonia, who were in many cases switching to white treat it right – in this case, at elevations of 500-plus

metres, with gentle pressing – and you are rewarded with an unpretentious but spicy, cherry-noted wine.

RRP: £16.95

ABV: 12.5%

Laytons (020 7288 8880)

boutinot.com

jeroboamstrade.co.uk

Domaine La Lôyane Cuvée Elie 2017

Journey Wines Heathcote Fiano 2018

Few of us have the cash, patience or cupboard space

Fiano is certainly making itself at home in Australia,

mellow out and flex its tight sinews. Oh well: there’s

while the remainder took the easy route in stainless

to age our wines, which is why this lovely Lirac will

probably be mostly gone long before it really starts to plenty to enjoy even at this stage, with black fruits, vanilla and spice providing the entertainment.

RRP: £18.99

ABV: 14.5%

Vindependents (020 3488 4548) vindependents.co.uk

as this Victoria example ably demonstrates. A quarter of the juice was fermented in oak with natural yeasts,

steel. Blended together, we have a textural delight, full of apple and pear notes and floral prettiness.

RRP: £28

ABV: 13.5%

Awin Barratt Siegel (01780 755810) abswineagencies.co.uk

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 12

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

WARM WORDS Rosemary Cakebread likes the California summer so far. The gentle, rather than scorching, heat is perfect for the elegant wines she loves to make at Gallica

R

osemary Cakebread is enjoying a relatively mild California July. “This is exactly the

sort of weather that suits our style of

winemaking,” she says. “I love these kinds of summers.”

She’s speaking from her Gallica estate in

Napa Valley, which has been home since

2007 following a winemaking career with

Inglenook, Spottswoode and Mumm Napa Valley.

In this part of the world, it’s rarely a

chore getting Cabernet to ripen. “Our

problem is trying to slow the train down a

little bit,” says Rosemary, whose reputation

The winery operates along biodynamic principles

is for a more elegant interpretation of the

variety than Parker-pleasing blockbusters.

“This year it looks like it’s turning out to be spectacular thus far, so fingers crossed.”

The moderate warmth will also suit the

Rorick Heritage Vineyard Albariño that

Rosemary’s pleased with the Albariño project. Now she’s planning Gallica’s first rosé

Rosemary sources from a friend in the

Petite Sirah. “It’s a big grand experiment.

and winter drink, and Grenache is spring

make,” she says.

we kind of want to see what’s going on,”

grape, Cabernet Franc? “I’ve always loved

Sierra foothills. “I’m very excited about

that wine; it’s the only white wine that we “There’s not a lot of it grown in

California, it’s a fairly rare grape, and it comes from an elevation of about 700

metres, and I think because of this altitude it can keep the acidity.

“It’s the very first grape that we pick and

typically it’s in August – this year, maybe a little bit later. I’m looking for a very

fun, interesting summer wine, with great acidity, and not a lot of alcohol.

“We started making it in 2015 so I

don’t have a long history, but we’re really enjoying it and it’s a nice addition to our portfolio.”

Rosemary is also working on a rosé to

join the Gallica range, based on the estate

This afternoon we are tasting about 20

different rosés from all around the world;

she says. “I love Txakolina wines and rosés with a little effervescence.

“We’re going to see what the vineyard

will dictate. I don’t have a recipe in mind,

but I have an idea of what I like. I think it’s

supposed to be a lighter, beautiful colour. It has to be pretty.”

Meanwhile, Gallica has another ready-

made solution for summer drinking: Rossi Ranch Grenache, made with fruit from

the Sonoma Valley. “Yes, the Grenache is a good summer drink, that’s our intention,” Rosemary says. “In fact yesterday we met with people for a tasting and we did chill

the Grenache a little bit. As much as I love

Cabernet I think of it as more of an autumn

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 13

and summer.”

What about Gallica’s other signature red

the variety,” Rosemary says. “Aromatically,

it’s outstanding; it’s more floral, with some cut hay, but there’s definitely a rose-petal floral note to it. It’s something you could have with a more serious meal in the summer, when it’s dark.”

Find out more Visit www.polroger.co.uk or www.gallicawine.com or call 01432 262800 Twitter: @Pol_Roger

BITS & BOBS

Magpie

Liberty now under Sogrape ownership Portuguese company Sogrape has taken a majority stake in UK importer Liberty Wines, alongside Piper and Charles Heidsieck which have taken a minority stake.

Sogrape took an initial shareholding in

Tom Innes Fingal-Rock, Monmouth Favourite wine on my list Two, really – for serious drinking, vino da meditazione, as the Italians call it: Nuits St Georges 1er Cru “Les Bousselots” Domaine Philippe Gavignet, a beautiful, solid wine, with great ageing potential – a bottle of 1996 recently drunk was still 100% fresh, lively and delicious. For unserious drinking in hot summer weather “Cuvee Fanny” IGP Pays d’Oc Domaine Puech-Berthier – in the style of a Provence rosé, particularly good to drink with salade nicoise.

Favourite wine and food match Partridge and red Burgundy.

Favourite wine trip Every year I go round France visiting the domaines I ship from – a wonderfully varied trip, with meals in the producers’ houses, blow-outs occasionally at Michelin-starred restaurants, varied sights and countryside – currently taking in Champagne, Burgundy (always the core of the visit), Beaujolais, Rhône, Cévennes, Cahors, Loire.

Favourite wine trade person Ben Robson, bouncy and fun, supplying interesting Italian wines, always cheerful.

Favourite wine shop Lea & Sandeman – in my opinion (I will now duck below the parapet), a wine merchant should buy a good proportion of their wines direct from the producer, not just buy in from the trade in this country (in which case, you’re just an off-licence), and Lea & Sandeman’s shelves are full of interesting, wellchosen bottles that they have literally gone out of their way to find.

the company in March 2017 but it is a new investment by the owners of Piper and Charles Heidsieck.

Liberty Wines became the UK and Irish

agent for Charles Heidsieck seven years

ago, joined recently by Piper-Heidsieck and Rare Champagne as well.

Raquel Seabra of Sogrape and Damien

Lafaurie of Champagne Heidsieck will join the Liberty Wines board.

Liberty’s co-founder David Gleave MW

will continue as managing director and Neville Abraham stays on as chairman.

The Drinks Business, July 1

Bordeaux prepares ground for Touriga A proposal to allow the new grape varieties into Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur appellation vineyards have passed a key winemaker vote.

The seven varieties include Marselan

and Portuguese favourite Touriga Nacional, plus the lesser known Castets and

Arinarnoa, which is a cross between Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon.

For white wines, the new grapes are

Alvarinho, Petit Manseng and Liliorila,

which was born in the 1950s following a crossing of Baroque and Chardonnay.

France’s national appellation authority,

David Gleave MW stays on as MD

Marlborough soil faces slow decline The quality of Marlborough’s soil is “acceptable” but there is an element of slow decline, says a soil scientist.

Long-term trends in soil quality are

showing increasing risks of nutrients being lost to water, soil compaction and a loss of organic matter.

Problems arise from farming techniques

like the overuse of fertilisers, the

cultivation of soil and compaction from

tractors running up and down the vines.

Marlborough soil scientist Matt Oliver

said quality was acceptable but not “awesome or improving”.

Stuff, July 25

• A court in Canada has ruled that Israeli

INAO, must still give final approval to the

wine from settlements must be marked,

change.

to boycott settlement products.

plan, which is a potentially groundbreaking

saying that labelling such products as “made

Decanter, July 2

Haaretz, July 30

move to combat the effects of climate

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 14

in Israel” is misleading to people who wish

It’s not a gin. It just tastes that way

?

THE BURNING QUESTION

Has consumer wine knowledge generally improved in the past decade?

�

I find it very disappointing really that consumers’ general wine knowledge has not improved much over the years. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to educate people and I think the people I’ve talked to in classes and at tasting events have absorbed quite a lot of it. But I still see so many people who don’t know one end of a bottle from the other, to be honest. There needs to be a much bigger effort from the trade as a whole. I know there has been a lot of effort from generic bodies and all sorts.

A distillery in London has made a gininspired lower-alcohol spirit, bottled at 4.2% abv, which it claims has the same flavour and mouthfeel as a full-strength gin.

Temperance by Portobello Road, devised

by distillery founder Jake F Burger, will be available to order for the on and off-trade with an RRP of £23.

The company is targeting “gin-fans

who are looking

to moderate their

intake of alcohol,” but Burger said it would “never call

Temperance a gin”

due to its much lower

Simon March Evington’s, Leicester

�

There is increasing knowledge and people are also willing to try different things, to experience new styles, having heard a little bit about them. If it’s English Wine Week or something like that, is there a huge flood of people? No. But you’ll have more people than we had three or five years ago coming in and saying, what English wine do you have? If you hold an event you’ll have a lot more support and uplift and people willing to spend money.

”

strength.

John Kernaghan Liquorice, Essex

It has been distilled

using the same

�

nine botanicals that

I can only honestly answer the question through the prism of my own shop and my own experience. And it’s a resounding yes. As a wine enthusiast, I share the knowledge and the love daily. It’s what I do. I share customers’ wine journeys, I answer their questions, I introduce them to new wines and experiences, I have a column in my local paper, I host regular dinners and tastings. We all do these things as independent wine merchants, which is why we are the best sales force in Britain!

Portobello uses for its standard

dry gin and navystrength version, and additional

ingredients such

”

as mineral water,

botanical hydrosols (water collected

when flowers are

steamed during the production of essential oils), and “one or two secret ingredients”.

The Drinks Business, July 1

• Resveratrol, the compound which is found in red wine, displays anti-stress effects by blocking the expression of an enzyme related to the control of stress in the brain,

Anthony Borges The Wine Centre, Great Horkesley

�

They’re still driven by supermarkets, unfortunately. For some people, even the question ‘can I help?’ is an affront. We’ve got 1,500 different bottles of wine on display so if you're not guided it is quite difficult. I’d like to say that people are becoming more receptive and more willing to have their eyes opened but generally I’d say that we’ve still got an issue with trends. There was a stage last year where if I got asked for another bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc I’d have banged my head against the wall!

Ed Capper Dartmouth Wine Company

”

according to a University at Buffalo-led study, and may be an effective alternative to drugs for treating depression and anxiety disorders.

”

Champagne Gosset The oldest wine house in Champagne: Äy 1584

Neuropharmacology, July 15

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 15

JUST WILLIAMS

Marvellous mediocrities Lucky is the wine merchant who actually enjoys all the wines on sale in their shop. Few of us can escape the realpolitik of life in a free market economy, which involves irritating demands from customers and suppliers alike. So here is a coping mechanism, of sorts

I

t would be great if every wine on sale

in your shop were a stone-cold classic, or at least something you’d actually

take joy and pleasure in drinking yourself.

Sadly, however, that isn’t always possible:

there is such a thing as a customer, and for some reason they don’t always stick to the plans you have for them.

Hence there are certain bottles in every

retailer’s range that are there only because they have to be. After all, there are only

so many times you can answer “there’s an Aldi up the road” when asked, “Where’s

your Prosecco?” Fending off that persistent supplier who will only give you that great

Barolo if you take that frankly dull Dolcetto gets tiring after a while. And you can’t

always put passion – and hunger, and the kids’ insatiable need for shoes – before profit.

But how to disguise your real feelings

when you’re dealing with something

underwhelming, boring or just plain bad?

Here’s a handy Wine Merchant guide to

selling the wines you wish you didn’t have to.

Château Margueraux Bordeaux Supérieur 2012 (£23.99) How it came to be in the shop: It’s an iron

law of wine retail that all shops must have between three and 10 perfectly OK, but basically very ordinary, Bordeaux from

thoroughly mediocre, classically-labelled

châteaux. They’re there to please that part

of the independent customer base that still uses the phrase “luncheon claret” without blushing. You could pluck a dozen from

any supplier list pretty much at random

(any vintage, any appellation), but ideally

El Gaucho de Los Andes Malbec

mistake away from being a famous château, and the pricing will be, in old-school

How it came to be in the shop: You held out

expensive enough to reassure this type of

for years, during which time you made a Loire Côt – “connoisseur’s choices”, you

they’ll have a name which is just a spelling

Mendoza 2016 (£9.99)

en primeur talk, firm but fair (ie just

point of listing a couple of Cahors and a

punter they’re not being cheap).

The sales pitch: “One thing I have learned

from all my years in the trade is how to find value in Bordeaux. The secret is to find a

good producer from a lesser-known region in a less-than-great vintage. May I guide

you to the rather brilliant Château MARG [cough] AUX? 2012 …”

‘You might hate it when you first try it, actually you might hate it when you’ve finished it, but without strong feelings we may as well be dead, no?’

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 16

called them on the hand-written neck

collars – that you knew deep down were

never going to shift (you were right). But in the end, you bowed to the inevitable: all those trade press stories about its

“irresistible rise” and all those customer enquiries that began with “I’m having a barbecue …” could only be ignored for

so long, it turned out. You had to have an

Argentinian Malbec, and it had to be under a tenner. El Gaucho de Los Andes was the one that your Spanish supplier had. And

the rest was history of the most dispiriting, “consistently outselling every other red by six to one” kind.

David Williams is wine critic for The Observer

The sales pitch: “It’s over there, the one

with the cowboy bloke on the label.”

Fourteen Beatniks and a Dead Man’s Shoe Amphora Hárslevelű, Daylesford Macedon Ranges NV How it came to be in the shop: It was one of the worst days of your life as a wine

merchant, the day that young couple from London spent 20 minutes browsing and

giggling at your range before asking if there was “like, even a single un-manipulated

bottle in the whole place?” in front of two of your best regulars. A bout of soul-

searching and a call to an old colleague

from your Majestic days now working for a

specialist natural and biodynamic importer resulted in … well, how would you describe

it exactly? It certainly isn’t wine. But the

charm and the tiniest, barely perceptible

This old merchant can still cut it on the

– ‘tireless’ it says here – then why are you

name was funky, and the label might work

as a tattoo. See how you like that, hipsters! cutting edge.

The sales pitch: “It’s like experimental

music: you might hate it when you first try it, actually you might hate it when you’ve

finished it, but without strong feelings we may as well be dead, no?”

Gosford Park Bacchus

Northamptonshire 2018 How it came to be in the shop: The man in tweed from Gosford Park had you bang to rights, and he applied the pressure skilfully, playing on your guilt with

the most effective mix of jolly surface

suggestion of psychopathic iciness. “If

you’re such a supporter of local business not stocking the wines of your only local producer?” “Because they’re total crap,

like gooseberries in tractor battery acid at single-vineyard Sancerre prices,” you wanted to say. But you didn’t, and you

haven’t, and so there the wines sit, with their photocopied labels just off centre, and with enough unsold stock from the

past six years to cater a summer’s worth of village fêtes with a full-on vertical tasting.

The sales pitch: “I like to think of it as

Pouilly-Fumé-sur-Nene. Well it’s always worth paying just that little bit more to

support local business, don’t you think?”

REDISCOVER, RETHINK AND REDEFINE AUSTRALIA 17 SEPTEMBER 2019 TRADE TASTING 11.00 – 17.30 OXO2 OXO TOWER WHARF LONDON

→ A line-up of 200 wines over £20 a bottle → Experience our most iconic and treasured wines → Meet renowned winemakers and multi-generational family producers For more details, list of producers and registration, visit bit.ly/AustraliaRedefined2019

uk@wineaustralia.com

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 17

ight ideas r b 4: Organise a book club

. T H E D R AY M A N .

Cat Brandwood, Toscanaccio, Winchester

The fruits of their labours

I

recently had a pint of Tiny Rebel’s Pump Up the Jam. It’s a “jam doughnut pale ale” which delivers

on the first half of that description, if not completely fulfilling the second.

It wasn’t my thing, to be honest, but that’s all right. On becoming a trustee of the National Gallery, Alan Bennett suggested putting up a sign saying “you don’t have to like everything” and it’s a motto that serves well while navigating through the sometimes choppy waters of modern craft beer. Someone, somewhere, will love it.

Where Pump Up the Jam falls down, IMHO, is that adding both jam and doughnut sweetness to ale maltiness and a bit of floral hoppiness makes it all rather one-dimensional; it lacks balance, the yin and yang of sweet and sour that characterises the most famous fruit beers of Belgium.

Kriek cherry and framboise raspberry beers have stood the test of time precisely because the lambic base, forged through natural yeast fermentation, creates harmonious complexity, not because it makes things easy. Plenty of modern brewers have had a crack at emulating them, with considerable success.

Norwegian brewer Amundsen’s Cosmic Unicorn Blackberry & Peach Pastry Sour has sweet stone fruit hanging on a sturdy sour backbone, though it surely could have been called Pastry Tart for maximum pun value.

Pressure Drop’s Ida raspberry wheat beer has a lovely herbaceous basil edge while IPA specialist Cloudwater’s raspberry collaboration with Californian sour expert Terreux has a Champagne-like head and joyous fruit, while retaining an essential beeriness.

In a nutshell …

A monthly book club that is free to attend. Participants can enjoy an evening of literary chat accompanied by drinks bought on the night.

Is this a tried and tested event?

“Yes, I started it with one of my customers about three years ago now. I’m a member of the group too, as it’s nice to take part in these things. There are a lot of book clubs in the area, you have to be on a waiting list and if you don’t turn up for two events in a row you get kicked out – I didn’t want that. I want it to be inclusive, for people to come when they can.”

Wow – those other book groups sound intimidating. How do you stop yours ending up like that?

“There’s real camaraderie. People will buy a bottle and everyone will share”

“There’s a real camaraderie. People will buy a bottle and put some glasses on the table and everyone will share. That’s the really nice thing about it: it’s not just people buying by the glass and sitting nursing their one glass of wine. They are there to have fun, and if they’ve enjoyed a particular wine they’ll actually take a bottle home with them or stock up for the week ahead. We don’t ask them to book in advance, but we might have to start doing that because we are getting to the stage where we occasionally get 20 people, and our maximum seating is 25 upstairs. If only four people turn up one month, that’s fine. We want people to feel they can drop in and out of it as they see fit.”

How do you choose the book?

“We’ve done it a number of ways over the years. Sometimes we’ve decided on themes for each month and people turn up with their suggestions for a book and we’ll all take a vote on it. There happened to be 12 of us at the December meeting last year, so we each chose a month for this year and we’re actually reading my choice this month, [An American Marriage by Tayari Jones], so I hope it’s good.”

Is it profitable?

“I don’t make a huge amount; probably getting on for £200. But it has created other things for us, such as the cake club, and those who have been coming to our events have now become customers of the shop in other ways. We’re very keen on people meeting each other and having some fun!”

Thankfully, North End of New Zealand eschews the Instagram-friendly pinkness of most of its competitors with its Saison du Nectar, all the medicinal spiciness of great wheat beer with the most delicate hints of steeped mango and peach. Not only does it taste like a beer, it looks like one as well.

Cat wins a WBC gift box containing a bottle of Hattingley Valley sparkling wine, a box of chocolate truffles from Willies Cocoa and a half bottle of gin liqueur from Foxdenton.

Tell us about a bright idea that’s worked for your business and you too could win a gift box. Email claire@ winemerchantmag.com or call 01323 871836.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 18

All friends together Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies prides itself on its long-standing relationships with its roster of 75 producers. But nothing gives Elliot Awin more satisfaction than introducing those winemakers to the independents that ABS works with, and watching similar friendships bloom

E

lliot Awin was born into the wine trade. “All my family holidays when I was little were really to wine regions and meeting the winemakers,” he says.

“My first trip to Australia was when I was two, so I’ve known

Simon Hackett for 30 years now.”

Much as Awin treasures his personal

at our portfolio tasting we’ve got about 40 winemakers coming over,” Awin says.

“There’s huge fragmentation in the wine industry and I think

there are probably more wineries now represented in the

independent sector than there ever has been.

There are a lot of stories to be told. We want

relationships with the winemakers that

to increase the value of our wines with more

Awin Barratt Siegel works with, he’s not

than just the wine and the packaging. The

the jealous type. He wants independent

heritage and the people behind the wines are

merchants to have that same kind of

so important.

connection with all the producers on the

“Last year we had 284 days of winemakers

ABS roster, most of them family-owned.

in trade. I think it’s an essential thing to do.

“That’s equally important,” he says. “If

It’s about having the people making the wines

we’re doing our job properly, retailers

tasting with the people drinking the wines.

will have a direct relationship with the

“People love being part of something with

winemakers that we work with. We want

an added sense of community and you don’t

to be a conduit; we don’t want to get in the

get that just by picking a wine off a shelf in a

way. We just want to introduce and matchmake.”

The ABS portfolio tasting at One Great George Street in

London on September 11 provides a good opportunity for

such friendships to get started, or existing relationships to be renewed.

“We’re always championing having winemakers in trade and

Jordan Wine Estate, South Africa

supermarket.”

ABS works with around 500 independent customers in the UK

and has a thriving business in Asia, which has a knock-on benefit for the company’s specialist customers in Britain.

“Now we have the buying power of one of the larger UK

national distributors because of the kind of volume we’re doing in somewhere like Thailand,” Awin explains.

One Great George Street

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 20

Bacchus Suite-talking guy

Sponsored feature “With our Australian supplier that we’ve worked with for

25 years, we did 100 containers into Thailand last year, which

helps our buying power for the independent retailer at an entry level.”

A

win Barratt Siegel has agency agreements with

around 75 wineries and every single wine in its portfolio will be shown at the London tasting.

They include producers such as Champagne René Jolly,

Nittardi, Grgich Hills Estate, Tamar Ridge, Tindall Vineyard, Casas del Bosque, Howard’s Folly, Jordan Wine Estate,

Edgebaston, Dönnhoff and Leitz, to name just a small selection of the names who will be attending.

The range is big, and certainly too broad to make it realistic

for the sales team to bring more than a smattering of samples on store visits.

“Going into an independent retailer with wines from 75

producers … the question is, where do you start?” says Awin.

The priority is always to understand the merchant’s existing

range and the way their particular business is set up, rather than blast them with a generic sales pitch. But the options

are wide. “We see every single winery as being able to help

an independent retailer enhance their range, in one way or another,” says Awin.

ANNUAL ABS PORTFOLIO TRADE TASTING The Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies tasting takes place on Wednesday, September 11 at One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA. For information, visit www.abswineagencies.co.uk Register by emailing Lesley Gray: lg@abswineagencies.co.uk

More lessons for newcomers to the wine trade. Don’t give your business a name that contains any of the letters of that of a larger merchant. And don’t locate your premises anywhere near any retailer of completely unrelated goods.

Variations on the following scene take place at Latitude in Leeds about twice a week, according to owner Chris Hill.

Customer: “I want a bottle of Mussel Pot Sauvignon Blanc please.”

Hill: “I’m sorry, we don’t sell that wine.”

Customer: “Yes you do. It’s on your website.”

Hill: “We’ve never stocked that wine sir.

I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The customer then indignantly proffers their mobile phone to prove the wine exists. At that point it becomes clear to all concerned that the wine is on sale at Laithwaite’s, not Latitude, and nowhere else.

Meanwhile in Huddersfield, Hoults recently welcomed a customer who impatiently demanded to take delivery of his order.

Rob Hoult’s response: “We haven’t got it.”

Customer: “Well you said it would be in today.”

Hoult: “No, we didn’t. And it isn’t here.”

Customer: “Yes you did. It’s meant to be here today.”

Hoult: “You’re talking about a bathroom suite, sir. This is a wine shop.”

With the Bathstore two doors down the road now in administration, similar mixups are probably unlikely.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 21

Marc’s in the dark

Cork of the North owner Marc Hough is a professional DJ by trade. And if he’s good enough to open for New Order, he’s certainly the man to provide the soundtrack for a solar eclipse.

That’s exactly what happened recently on a Boutinot trip to Tabalí in the Limarí valley, when a group of merchants from the north of England were treated to lunch in the Roca Madre vineyard before the sky darkened and Hough hit the decks.

“I’ve DJd in some pretty strange places before but that’s the first time I’ve done it on top of a mountain,” he says. “We were 2,600 metres above sea level so it was a bit of an effort getting up there, and you couldn’t dance for very long because you would get out of breath. But the wine was good, and it was a stupendous event.

“Just as it got to totality, I played the theme from A Clockwork Orange and then just as the light started to chink through again, I played Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles,” Hough adds. “What else would you play?”

Well, maybe Bonnie Tyler?

Strides ahead

Customer feedback of the month, from Leah Byrne on Twitter, based on a recent experience at one of Glasgow’s finest drinks emporia: “Just got a discount in @ValhallasGoat cause the woman behind the counter liked my trousers.” Sounds like classic Phoebe Weller to us.

© rh2010 / stockadobe.com

Eat Spain, Drink Spain Independent merchants across the UK will be celebrating the best in Spanish wine and food this autumn. Here’s how to get involved – and perhaps win £1,000 of wine

Nobody in Europe combines wine and food quite like the Spanish. This year’s Eat Spain Drink Spain is a good way for independent wine merchants to add some colourful Spanish cuisine to their offer.

Organiser Wines from Spain is on the hunt for 35 specialist independents to promote Spanish food and wine in their premises in November. They will be offered the following support: • A supply of Spanish foods (cheese, salted almonds, olives, sliced charcuterie)

• Smart black Eat Spain Drink Spain aprons and bags plus branded corkscrews, pens and maps of the Spanish wine regions

• The chance to win 2 x £,1,000 worth of Spanish wine. Wines from Spain will also feature each participant on the www.eatspaindrinkspain.com website • Support of their promotion on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook (via @SpanishWinesUK).

To find out more, email alison@dillonmorrall.com

SUPPLIER FOCUS: NORTH SOUTH WINES

Kim Wilson and Joy Edmondson

I

t’s five years since Kim Wilson and

Staying ahead of the curve North South Wines has seen impressive growth in its first five years. To achieve this, its founders have anticipated the consumer interest in issues like sustainable viticulture and vegan wines – and have always understood that their independent customers want distinctive wines that represent

Joy Edmondson founded the agency company North South Wines with

a little help from Australian producer De Bortoli and Italy’s The Wine People.

The two family-run producers own

48% of the company, which has become

one of the UK’s fastest-growing suppliers, representing more than 25 wineries from 11 countries and with annual case sales that have passed the 1 million mark.

“From just four of us at the beginning, we

have grown to a team of 18,” says managing director Wilson.

“The market back then was consolidating

quickly, so we needed to be lean and

efficient and future-proof,” she adds,

real value for consumers

which the investment from the minority shareholders helped to ensure.

Feature sponsored by North South Wines Visit northsouthwines.co.uk 020 3871 9210 Email: hello@northsouthwines.co.uk

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 24

The business has adopted the slogan

“we’re on it” as a guiding principle, a

phrase which suggests a no-nonsense approach to getting the job done.

“It means we are ahead of the trends

and can spot future ones,” says buying and marketing director Edmondson,

who shares the majority shareholding

with Wilson. “For example, we have been

customers with exclusive wines which

increase, and we’ve been proven right.

independents need to be selling at a margin

pushing organic wine since we launched, as we knew that demand would soon

“We are energetic and we add value.

Gone are the days when an importer can sit in the middle and take a margin for placing an order and sending an invoice.

“We are out there actively looking for

exciting and innovative products which can help our customers to grow their business by offering consumers what they want.

“Our Italian range is a good example of

this and ticks lots of trend boxes: sparkling, big robust reds, lighter aromatic whites,

organic wines, indigenous varietals, pale dry rosés – the list goes on.”

Wilson says that the independent trade

is crucial to North South’s business.

“We are actively investing in this sector,”

she adds, “both in the range we can offer

and in our team. We believe independents are the perfect place for consumers to

buy a unique bottle of wine in a specialist environment, from people who know exactly what they are talking about.

“The budget supermarkets, which are

increasingly moving into smaller towns

with smaller convenience-style stores, have upped their game in recent times, with interesting and well-priced ranges.

“Standing out in a crowded marketplace

is a challenge. We must offer our customers areas of specialism that connect with the

consumer and with the prevailing trends.

“We can provide our independent

offer incredible value and a real point of difference. We also recognise that

that makes their business viable, so we

have to offer them real value, such as the

new Amigo de la Tierra organic range from Spain, the Quinta Vista range from Portugal and The Accomplice from Australia.

“There can be a lack of appreciation

as to why indies charge more than

supermarkets, so we make sure we provide customers with authentic wines that have strong stories to tell.”

I

ncreasingly, those stories focus on

production methods that chime with growing consumer trends towards

drinking better.

Edmondson says: “With people of all

ages taking better care of themselves, and Generation Z and millennials far more

interested in healthy selfies than getting

drunk, consumers aren’t drinking as much, but they are buying a better bottle of wine when they do, which can only be a good thing for the independent sector.

“Sustainability has become a global

mega-trend, so anything organic,

sustainable and biodynamic is exploding.

“Consumers are more environmentally

and internet-savvy, so they research

products to find out more about where and how they are made.

“Veganism is growing rapidly, driven by

the younger generation and the desire to lower our environmental impact, so we

have committed to 70% of our complete portfolio being vegan-friendly by 2021.”

But all this commitment to help making

the world a better place hasn’t turned the youthful North South Wines into stick-inthe muds just five years down the line.

“We strive to make our customers’ lives

Te Awanga in Hawke’s Bay, home of Wildsong

as easy as possible and provide a strong

service,” says Edmondson. “And we hope we are fun to work with, too.”

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 25

Highlights from the North South range The North South portfolio is spearheaded

by The Wine People and De Bortoli.

The Italian producer’s portfolio includes Stefano Girelli’s Cortese range of organic wines from Sicily, while highlights from De Bortoli include cooler-climate wines from Yarra Valley, and Noble One, a benchmark for Australian botrytis dessert winemaking.

Wines from organic and biodynamic winery Paxton in McLaren include the preservative-free Pollinator Shiraz.

Portugal features in the form of Quinta de Calcada, owner of Vinho Verde’s oldest vineyard, and the Quinta Vista range from Casa Santos Lima in Lisboa.

The line-up also includes the Wildsong organic wines from Te Awanga Estate in Hawke’s Bay, Spanish range The Three Amigos, KWV’s Mentors wines from South Africa and Villa Sandi premium Prosecco.

A family-owned, sustainable Californian winery is due to join the lineup September.

BUYERS TRIP TO BORDEAUX

Beyond the stereotypes Things are quietly changing in Bordeaux as growers embrace new wine styles and a more sustainable approach to their craft. Seven independents had a close-up look at a region firmly focused on its future

E

verybody in the independent

wine trade knows Bordeaux. Or

thinks they do. It’s a landscape of

opulent châteaux, Parker points, and wines that change hands for more, per bottle, than some merchants spend on a van.

Like most caricatures, this one is based

on a grain of truth. But the mistake

would be for anyone to let it cloud their

perspective of France’s biggest AOC area.

There are nearly 5,800 growers farming

these 114,000 hectares of vineyard. That

area is itself subdivided into 65 AOCs. You sense a lifetime could be spent studying Bordeaux’s soils and microclimates.

Even then, there would be more to learn.

Bordeaux Wine Month The second Bordeaux Wine Month takes place in September.

Independent retailers simply need to arrange an eye-catching promotion comprising a minimum of three tastings of Bordeaux wines priced between £6 and £20 for at least two weeks.

They will receive a comprehensive kit of publicity and POS materials including posters, postcards, leaflets and corkscrews, as well as a payment of £200, to run a high visibility promotion.

An additional £100 will be awarded for the best promotions on social media using #bordeauxwinemonth and tagging @bordeauxwinesuk. The winner will be unveiled in October.

Register your interest online at www.cubecom.co.uk/bwm or email teambordeaux@cubecom.co.uk for a registration form.

Bordeaux is France’s biggest AOC area, with 6,300 growers

Inevitably, most generalisations about the

of Laetitia Ouspointour – herself a

merchants begin? The CIVB invited a small

and ambassadorial role.

region are futile.

So where do independent wine

group on a three-day tour, taking in the

Médoc, Entre-Deux-Mers, St-Emilion, Blaye, Sauternes, Graves and Pessac-Léognan.

The focus was on aspects of Bordeaux that go beyond the stereotypes. Approachable, affordable wines. Less oak influence. A

growing expertise in crémant and rosé

styles. Young winemakers. The intelligent

use of technology. And finally – and this is a light which the Bordelais have arguably been hiding under a bushel – sustainable

viticulture and a determined shift, in many areas, towards organics.

The visiting group of wine merchants

kicked off with an instructive few hours at

the Bordeaux Wine School, in the company

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 26

winemaker and one of a team of producers who work for the CIVB in an educational She reminds us of Bordeaux’s close

historical ties with England, the

development of the négociant system

through which 70% of Bordeaux’s wines

are still traded, and the 1855 classification, instigated by Napoleon III.

Bordeaux is where the AOC system

started, in 1935. “What does AOC mean?”

she asks. We mutter back some suggestions about yields, harvesting dates and

permitted varieties. Laetitia smiles. “It’s

really just about place,” she says. Bordeaux is a pretty big place. Which is why it’s

probably best understood not simply as one vast region, but a confederation of many.

Château Kirwan

Château Cormeil-Figeac

Margaux

St-Emilion Grand Cru

Philippe Delfault meets us under the shade

Brother and sister Victor and Coraline

a classic Bordeaux château, owned since

stamp on it, converting to organic farming

Moreaud took over the estate from their

of a 250-year-old plane tree that’s almost

father and immediately put their own

as old as the 37-hectare estate itself. It’s

last year. “He doesn’t think we’re mad,” says

1925 by the négociant Schröder & Schÿler.

Coraline, “but he took some convincing.”

But tradition is only part of the story. For

The duo estimate that going organic has

example, the new vat room is fitted with 37

added 40% to their costs, but they believe

concrete tanks, one for each hectare of the

the investment was justified and indeed

estate.

necessary.

The property has also converted to

“Organic sprays are less efficient, so we

organic practices, though it has not opted

have to spray more,” Coraline admits. “We

for official certification. Mildew claimed

needed a lot of money and we had to buy a

30% of the crop last year: “at the end of June we decided to make one chemical

treatment because we could have lost all the production,” Delfault explains.

Petit Verdot makes up 10% of the

planting, perhaps the highest of any

Lois de Roquefeuil: funds for hedges

Château de Castelnau

property in Margaux. “It’s a variety that

Entre-deux-Mers

nice fruit nose. Some people in Bordeaux

lawyer, a local politician, and the ninth

gets more interesting year after year,” says Delfault. “It gives a nice structure and a

Owner Lois de Roquefeuil is a retired

Merlot, and the phenolics and tannin are

midway between the Dordogne and the

are now getting too much alcohol with

not ripe if you have to pick early. So I think

Petit Verdot is a variety with a good future.”

generation of his family to own this estate, Garonne. He’s also a natural entertainer, with an engaging passion for his craft.

He knows his history, and his geography – his brief introduction to the landscape

new tractor – we want to be able to spray our vineyard as fast as possible.”

After lunch in her garden, Coraline hosts

a blending masterclass. We are presented with samples of Merlot straight from the tank, and from new and one-year-old barrels. Our task is to create our own blends, which are later bottled.

Even this relatively straightforward

exercise proves too challenging for

most of us and underlines the skill of an

experienced winemaker. Coraline pulls no punches as she assesses our creations.

of Bordeaux covers more ground, more

memorably, than most of the group have

experienced during their vinous education.

But his attention is focused on a

sustainable future, not the past. Between 1990 and 1992 he planted 5km of

hedges to encourage biodiversity and no insecticides have been used here for 15

years. Roquefeuil is a staunch advocate of

machine picking, which he explains brings in the crop more efficiently and in better

condition than could ever be achieved by a team of pickers. But, he admits, with One concrete tank for every hectare

a faraway look in his eye, he sometimes

misses the bawdy parties that used to be part of the harvest ritual.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 27

Going organic has raised costs by 40%

BUYERS TRIP TO BORDEAUX

Château Mercier

Château du Seuil

Côtes de Bourg/Blaye-Côtes de

Graves

Bordeaux Former doctor Nicola Allison is Welsh,

The six Côtes appellations provided one of

speaks with a Kiwi lilt (her husband is from

the biggest talking points of the trip and

New Zealand) but could hardly be prouder

this welcoming, family-run estate proved to

to be part of the Bordeaux winemaking

be an excellent ambassador for this tier of

community.

Bordeaux production.

She sits on the Graves committee,

Typically the Côtes wines are made in

helping to promote exports. “Graves is an

family estates of around 10 hectares, with

appellation that I feel very strongly about,”

wines offering good value for money and

she says. “It really is a bit of a forgotten

intended to be enjoyed in their youth.

appellation in Bordeaux. People here make

Isabelle Chéty is proud of the sustainable

good-quality wines that are great value,

viticulture that her estate practices. The

both white and red. It’s a very exciting

wines made at Château Mercier are less

appellation to be in because you have a lot

tannic than they were a generation ago,

of things to play with.”

and Isabelle is enthusiastic about the

The red wines at Château du Seuil were

results she’s now achieving from her 34

traditionally dominated by Cabernet

clay amphorae. She’s one of around 300

producers in Bordeaux to use this ageing method, and she is also experimenting with a concrete egg. “It speeds up the

ageing process and makes the wines a little bit more suave,” she says.

Sauvignon, but there’s now a 50-50 split Léo Lamothe: adapting an old tradition

Château Haut-Bergeron Sauternes Léo Lamothe, the dashing 20-something

with Merlot “because people want wines for early drinking”. Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carménère are also planted in Graves. The whites are made with

Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle.

winemaker, looks like he belongs in

Swartland or a hip outpost of Australia or California. Instead he’s the ninth

generation of his family to be making Sauternes.

It’s an inherently traditional wine style,

but even here fashions are changing. “We

try to add more and more Sauvignon Blanc to the blend because it gives freshness to the wine, and a lot of aroma and acidity,” Léo explains.

“Also we try not to wait too long before

harvest. Sauternes now is more about

freshness and aromas and achieving a balance between acidity and sugar.”

The producer also has vineyards in three

Isabelle Chéty: “I’m for amphorae”

sites in Barsac, where the limestone soil

helps add even more minerality and aroma to the botrytised grapes.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 28

Nicola Allison: more Merlot

Merchants’ feedback Neale Tyler The Secret Cellar, Tunbridge Wells

The cycle of life

Château de Bardins Pessac-Léognan Stella Puel seems acutely aware of her

responsibility as custodian of this beautiful 25-hectare estate. There’s a waterwheel

dating from 1354, to underline the history of the environment that’s currently hers to look after. And there’s a splendid

walnut tree in the middle of one vineyard,

planted by Stella’s grandfather. It’s another treasured link to the past, but one that

doubles as a sanctuary for bats and birds, which in turn help control insects and

moths. In fact almost half of the estate is given over to woodland.

It’s no surprise to learn that Château de

Bardins has been working organically for 10 years. “Organic culture in Bordeaux

is hard,” Stella admits. “More than it is in

the south and east of France, because they have less humidity. But when you work

organically and you achieve good results, you feel very proud.”

The wine styles that I was most impressed with were the fresher-style Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris Bordeaux Blanc blends that were showing very well.

Many properties in Sauternes and Barsac are producing a fresher style using the traditional botrytis-affected grapes and blending with Sauvignon and Sémillon that are not botrycised.

There seemed to be a real trend in the production of red wines to create a more commercial wine that is ready to drink straight away, rather than after cellaring.

There is a real effort being made, especially by the young winemakers, to evolve towards a more sustainable way of producing wine by practising organic and biodymamic methods, despite the lower yields and economic pressures on them.

I was surprised by the sheer amount of small producers that seem to thrive amongst the larger châteaux.

Many of the vineyards are using machine harvesting, where the improvements have been enormous in the last few years with de-stemming and not harming the grapes amongst the biggest changes. I was surprised to learn that a hectare plot used to take all day for 20 people to finish picking, whereas one man and a machine can do the same job in one to one and a half hours.

I came away very confident that Bordeaux as a region is embracing the organic/vegan market and the responsible sustainability trends that are becoming more important to winemakers around the world. Eighty-five per cent of Bordeaux vineyards either already organic or working their way to being organic in the next five years.

Christina Albon Tanners, Shrewsbury We sell a fair amount of basic Bordeaux AC and plenty of the higher-end Grand Cru Classé wines – left and right. The area that I’m most excited about, and the one I think has the most potential for us, is the Côtes. For me it is these wines that stand out and offer a good quality-to-value ratio.

It was useful to see the whole region and get to spend some time and taste in each sub-region. The focus of the organisers was clearly on showing us how seriously they are taking sustainability and there was a high proportion of organic producers on show.

It didn’t dispel any myths for me as it is known that the area produces much more beyond the top few per cent of classified wines. But it did point out to me that we, the

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 29

independent merchants, should be promoting the lesser-known wines and appellations more and educating our customers.

Sauternes is not just for foie gras and blue cheese! Drinking sweet wines with savoury dishes is definitely a take-home for me, and something I will be experimenting with.

I feel it’s at £10 and over that Bordeaux shines, which for most in the UK is still not an everyday wine price tag. If they do want to compete in the everyday market, the wines need to be varietally labelled.

Tim Robbins Nickolls & Perks, Stourbridge Our business is steeped in Bordeaux and has been for a long time. But it’s always good to get an up-to-date vision of where things are going.

Bordeaux, like a lot of Old World wine regions, is full of contradictions and dichotomies. There’s the age-old traditions dating back to 1855 and then the fact that there are so many extra classifications. It gets quite bewildering, even for a professional.

It’s one of the biggest challenges but equally you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

My feeling is they’re trying to reach out to a new clientele who perhaps want to make their purchasing decisions in slightly different ways, without getting out reference books, and they want the wine to be ready to drink now. Producers are making wines that are friendlier earlier, which is a good thing.

One of the most impressive things is the sustainability project that they have. It’s those types of messages that they could really shout about because on the sustainability front there’s also the lack of air miles.

Bordeaux is really only just over the Channel.

Touriga Nacional and Marselan, which you expect to come from very hot and arid areas, are going to be segwaying into Bordeaux soon no doubt.

I was impressed by the use of technology.

Nicola Allison at Château du Seuil uses quite sophisticated analysis prior to harvest so they can really pinpoint the timing.

You get the impression that some of these young winemakers have a real passion and almost a sense of duty, which is impressive, because it’s a hard task. They just want to make a living. They don’t want a yacht in Monaco.

I’m cautiously optimistic [about Bordeaux’s appeal to novice wine drinkers] We do lots of tasting events and in September we will be doing an event to promote a range of accessible Bordeaux wines. We’ve got stuff at a tenner a bottle which is really interesting and accessible.

Rueda’s right for indies The #TasteRueda promotion for independents runs from September 16 to 29. Here’s a glimpse of what the region has to offer, and why its wines are becoming a hit with specialist merchants and their customers

I

n a market awash with brash New World Sauvignon Blanc, a corner of northern Spain might seem an unlikely place to look for credible alternatives.

It’s a part of the world perhaps best known for big, smoky reds, but Rueda and its signature grape Verdejo are very much about aromatic, zingy white wines.

They’ve been making wine in Rueda since the 10th century and it became the Castilla de Leon region’s first DO in 1980.

Around 99% of today’s wine production is white and Verdejo accounts for around nine-tenths of the annual grape crop.

For UK wine merchants, Rueda offers consistent quality and accessible price points. Its sandy soils, big swings in temperature between the middle of the day and the dead of night, and the contrast between extreme summer heat and cool winters, give the grapes a relatively high sugar content and the wines a pleasing acidity. The growing conditions are also conducive to organic winemaking, tapping into growing consumer concerns about the integrity with which the wines they drink are made.

James Nicholson, of JN Wines in Crossgar, says “there’s a good story to be told” about the region’s wine.

“We have been importing from two properties in Rueda for the past five years,” he adds. “Finca Montepedroso is 100% Verdejo, staying close to traditional roots and offering a real sense of place.

“It has the great benefit of being able to accompany many good food dishes, even

those with heightened aromatic, herb and spicy flavours.

“Dominio La Granadilla 2017, from Navas Del Rey, is a blend of mainly Verdejo with a twist of Sauvignon Blanc, a real crowd pleaser. It’s more on the easydrinking style but seriously well made.

We’ve imported around 3,200 bottles of both wines over the past 12 months.”

One of the historic strengths of Rueda is its consistency, but recent times have also seen greater diversity in style as producers have pushed the boundaries to extend expectations of what the DO’s Verdejo can achieve.

Big name producers from other regions are also bringing their expertise into Rueda to stretch the signature grape’s capabilities and develop potential in other varieties including Sauvignon Blanc.

Great Grog in Edinburgh lists Verdejos from Diez Siglos and Entreflores, and the retailer’s Clare Kennaway says the wines display very different characters.

“The Diez Siglos is very fresh,” she says.

“It is unbelievably zippy, very intense

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 30

flavour-wise and always quite surprises people when they try it. It’s like a beefedup Verdejo.

“The Entreflores is quite a new one for us. We have it listed at a Michelin-star restaurant we supply. It’s fresher, lighter and a bit more easy-going and a very good by-the-glass option for this time of the year.”

It’s relatively straightforward for wine merchants to take their first steps into Rueda wines, with many leading importers and agency firms listing wines from the region including Hallgarten, Berkmann, Enotria&Coe, Georges Barbier, DSC Imports, Matthew Clark, Halewood, Morgenrot, C&D Wines, Hayward Bros, Boutinot and Gonzalez Byass UK. To learn more about TasteRueda, visit www.tasterueda.uk

Feature sponsored by Rueda Wines

BOOK REVIEW

The Grappa Handbook Nick Hopewell-Smith Nardini Distillery

T

he Italians have been producing spirit from pomace for centuries. Grappa, like whisky, began as a rustic pick-

me-up for the poor, affording a freezing shepherd a bit

of warmth and comfort. Today it is easily recognised as an Italian

cultural staple; a digestivo, a favoured cocktail component and an ingredient usefully employed in the kitchen.

Hopewell-Smith has written the

handbook in association with Nardini, Italy’s most famous and established

grappa distiller, and while there is a certain amount of marketing going on, it remains a clear and useful

guide to the origins and journey of this sometimes overlooked spirit.

There are 45 cocktail recipes, all

with intriguing names. Immediately I want to throw on a cocktail dress and order a Sweet Jebus (served in a vintage tea cup – the vicar will never guess). And maybe

it’s advisable to request a Mezzo

Swiggle at the start of an evening

when annunciation skills are still tip-top.

Grappa happily partners with coffee, either to sip alongside or

mix into an espresso. In terms of cooking, desserts prevail. There

is a culinary speciality from Piedmont, involving grappa fermented with a strong cheese, which sounds incredibly appealing: “a

wonderfully pungent creamy mixture called ‘brus’ that’s spread on thick toast. Equally loved or loathed by those that taste it

– something the English might appreciate as a stylish rival to Marmite”.

Grappa may be a cultural icon in its homeland but beyond

Italy, spirits lovers may have cause to be wary. Hopewell-Smith

warns that “much of the grappa available in export markets has been of questionable quality,” with the lower-alcohol varieties

finding their way to the consumer simply for tax reasons. The best examples, he maintains, should be “rarely less than 40% abv”.

Claire Harries

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 31

THE CHAMPAGNE DEVAUX MERCHANT PROFILE: SMASHING WINES

Minnie-Mae Stott and Orson Warr, July 2018

Organic growth Clément Sigaud and Rebecca Murland run a specialist merchant in a small town, with all the challenges that entails. Their niche is made smaller by their devotion to organic and sustainably-farmed wines. The business needs its wholesale division to stay afloat, but the couple also believe retail sales can increase with some persistent outreach work

C

lément Sigaut spent 15 years

living in Bordeaux, and on visits to the UK was dismayed at the

representation that the region seemed to have among British wine retailers.

Suspecting that the problem was curable,

he established Smashing Wines with

partner Rebecca Murland. The emphasis

from the start has been on smaller organic and biodynamic producers, promoting

a side of Bordeaux that, even now, many

consumers don’t necessarily know exists.

Adnams Cellar & Kitchen is just a short

opportunity came along to take on the

figure thankfully boosted by an influx of

The business was focused squarely

on importing and wholesaling until the premises of a defunct independent in

Woodbridge in Suffolk, between Ipswich and Aldeburgh. Although it’s not in the

centre of town, the shop occupies a fairly

prominent position near the pretty Deben river and opposite a thriving art-house cinema. Less fortuitously, a branch of

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 32

walk away, competing for share of spend

in a community of just 11,000 people – a visitors in the summer.

The couple, who have recently welcomed

aboard a retired financier friend as a

minority partner, are experiencing the same sort of challenges that face most

specialist wine merchants, particularly in

small towns. Family life is being squeezed

© Nimur / stockadobe.com

Boats on the river Deben, a short walk from Smashing Wines

to some extent as Clément motors across

Tell us about your backgrounds.

admin duties back at base: a welcoming

and I was not ready to commit to a shop

It wasn’t the plan to have a shop again

the UK to support his wholesale accounts,

Clément: I had shops in France, in Mirabelle

but after the shop just popped up and after

and unpretentious shop which has been

again – the weekends! They were seasonal

for seven years. We imported Japanese

while Rebecca focuses on retail and

designed to put customers quickly at ease.

It’s home for now, but as the business

grows, the couple are keeping their options open, and would consider a retail/wine

bar hybrid if the right opportunity became available.

in the winter and Arcachon near Bordeaux, shops. I was just out of three years of working day and night in the shops – because it was seasonal, it was really

intense. And I thought I would quite like

going around during the week and having

appointments for tastings and having a life.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 33

a retail break of six months, I like it.

Rebecca: I had a company with my sister kitchen knives and went round trade

shows. I then did the marketing for Jamie Oliver’s restaurants for three years and after that I went to France.

Continues page 34

THE CHAMPAGNE DEVAUX MERCHANT PROFILE

From page 33

Has your wine knowledge all come through working with Clément?

Rebecca: Yes. Through tasting and trying. I

am in the shop now more than I was. We’ve now got the girls in nursery, so I’m in three days a week and that releases Clément to go out on the road.

How does the business split between wholesale and retail?

Clément: I would say 60% to 70% is trade

and the rest is the shop. Christmas is really good in the shop and we do have good

summers because Woodbridge is a holiday destination with lots of holiday cottages.

But the first quarter from January to Easter, and then September to November, it is really quiet. It is a small town.

Rebecca: Holidays don’t work for us really

because our regular customers go away on their travels. The tourists will come in and

buy one bottle whereas our regulars would buy a case.

Is everything here organic?

Clément: Ninety per cent is certified

organic, biodynamic or natural and some of them don’t have certification. For the trade, everything is organic; for the shop we have to have a slightly wider range. So we have a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and an

Argentinian Malbec. We don’t want to lose people buy not stocking those things.

When you have people asking for a New Zealand Sauvignon or something as familiar as that, do you try and sell them

Rebecca worked for Jamie Oliver prior to Smashing Wines, while Clément sold wines in France

‘I’m not really into the funky stuff. You don’t want more than one glass. We try to focus on the clean wines’

an alternative?

Clément: We always try and convert. We

It’s quite handy, we don’t waste any wine.

is usually used more by restaurants. The

Clément: Eighty per cent of them. A few

have the Coravin and the Verre de Vin so I

will always offer a tasting. The Verre de Vin sparkling lasts really well, probably two to three weeks, and the reds are two weeks.

Do you import all your French wines?

of them I will buy from another merchant who is a friend of mine.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 34

We focus on importing ourselves. We

have one maker who comes every year to the Real Wine Fair and I support him on

the stand, and then it’s a good opportunity for me to meet other people who are looking for importers.

SMASHING WINES

How do you feel about the state of play with natural wine at the moment?

Clément: It’s what we always try to focus on. I like to drink clean wines, I would say. From a small producer, natural or

biodynamic; I’m not really into the funky

stuff. It’s nice to have one glass but with the funky wines you don’t want more than one glass. We try to focus on the clean wines.

especially with the ones with no sulphur.

This is my favourite wine, Château

Massereau. In the summer you can drink

it slightly chilled; it’s very juicy, very fruity.

Some days I can drink a whole bottle by

myself, and some days it doesn’t taste the same.

Are you excited about Bordeaux at the

Restaurants want natural and biodynamic

moment?

What about orange wine?

crémant, white, and rosé; they are trying to

but they don’t want something too crazy.

Clément: I think things are changing in

Clément: I think there is a high demand,

promote Bordeaux not only as a red region.

especially in London, for natural and

organic wines and apparently Sainsbury’s has said there has been a 600% rise in

Bordeaux. The CIVB are trying to push the We’ve been pushing crémant since we

based near our crémant producers and

they are trying to do what they like and not to stick to a [traditional] style.

With Château Massereau, we have been

working with two brothers since the

beginning. They weren’t from Bordeaux

originally, they moved from Paris, so they

have a fresh approach and want to do what they want to do and not especially stick to the frame. They have a clairet at £15.

Then they have an entry-level Château

Massereau Bordeaux Supérieur at just £12, and they have proper traditional Cuvée K

which is great value. We sell it at £18.50 a bottle.

demand for vegan products. But orange

wine … once a month I will have someone

getting off the London train and asking for orange wine. I only have one.

Rebecca: When we opened, we advertised that we were specialising in natural,

organic and biodynamic wines but there are lots of people who come in here and don’t realise that until we tell them, and they say “wow, even better”.

How far does your faith in biodynamics go?

Clément: Basically I try to explain to

customers that with organic wine, the

vines are grown organically – but then you will find organic wine in a supermarket.

Because in the process of vinification, they can use a wider range of stuff.

But biodynamic wines are from smaller

The shop is on a prominent corner opposite a cinema, near the river Deben

producers and it’s a whole philosophy

started, as a challenge to Prosecco. We do

Are there any other French regions you

minimum intervention. It’s more a global

We don’t sell so much now that we have

moment. The wines are easy to drink so for

about growing organically and the same philosophy in the cellar, so basically

vision of how you run your property.

If you scheduled a tasting and saw it was a root day, would you cancel it?

Clément: No, I wouldn’t cancel the tasting.

But I have to say that I notice a difference,

have some Prosecco; we tried to take a

are working with?

converted everybody. Obviously the price

wine bars and restaurants, they are good

stand, but we had to have some in the end.

Clément: The Loire is really trendy at the

tag for Prosecco is a bit cheaper.

value. We sell a bit of Burgundy but that is

Is there a younger winemaking community in Bordeaux now?

Clément: Yes, I met two sisters who are

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 35

more approaching Christmas because it is a bit more expensive.

Continues page 36

THE CHAMPAGNE DEVAUX MERCHANT PROFILE

From page 35

Then Provence rosé, as soon as the sun

is out. We have a Bordeaux rosé, which has been really popular. People want a really pale and clear rosé at the moment.

Honest opinion from a Frenchman: what do you think of English wines?

Clément: I have tried a major part of the

sparkling and it is really good – really well

made. I tried a really good Pinot Noir from Hush Heath. We did a blind tasting in the

‘The high street in Woodbridge is changing. There are still independents, but the chains are coming in. The landlords are being very greedy’ Rebecca: There was an article in the local

visit Woodbridge, because they have local

for English wine. But then it just dropped

Rebecca: They were already there when we

paper last year about English wines, and

for that month everyone came in and asked off again.

shop. You do a blind tasting and everyone

What’s it like being up against an

de Beaune for £20.

Clément: They have a bit of kitchenware …

do really good wines because 2018 was the

wine.

guesses it’s from Burgundy but then when

Adnams shop so close by in a small

Rebecca: They are expensive.

they push the beers and gin.

you say it’s £22 … we have a Hautes-Côtes

town?

Clément: We are going to know if they can

Rebecca: They used to have a lot more

perfect summer.

Clément: It is a destination for people who

products. But I would say we are a different niche.

took the shop on. They close earlier than us. We’re open until 8pm.

Unfortunately the high street in

Woodbridge is changing. There are still

independents, but the chains are coming in. The landlords are being very greedy.

There’s a big Next, Aldi and Tesco just up

the road, like a big American out-of-town

shopping area. Our position is good in that we are just off the high street, because

customers can park their car outside and buy by the case. If we were on the high

street we’d have huge business rates and probably wouldn’t sell any cases.

They’ve done a massive development

on the river. They’ve converted an old

boatyard into several units. But they want

too much money. They’ve been completed

now for over two years and they are empty.

There is one unit with a double-storey

restaurant with a cocktail bar proposed

on top with a big outside balcony. Empty.

They are so greedy. They said they don’t

want to let chains in and that it has to be independents, but no independent can afford that!

Clément: In London you could get it for the

same price and you would be full for lunch and dinner every day, but there aren’t

enough people around here. In the winter,

you won’t see hardly anyone near the river.

Does it make you look at retail and

think that’s not where you’ll be long term?

Eighty per cent of the French wines are imported direct

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 36

SMASHING WINES

We want to keep this going and we want

to be here, but we need the trade side of things as well.

I’m positive about the summer. We have

wedding orders and private functions.

If the opportunity arose, would you up sticks and become a hybrid?

Clément: It is the plan at some point,

but rents are crazy. I am always looking.

There’s a shop round the corner that

has just closed after 30 years. The rent is £37,000 and the business rates are

£10,500. How many glasses of wine would we have to pour to pay the rent, the rates and the wages? We would be there from 9am to 11pm.

What’s the age profile round here?

Rebecca: I suppose in here the clientele The couple report big success with tasting events, which drive retail footfall too

Clément: At the moment we are really

focused on developing the restaurants.

Since the whole Brexit thing, the shop has suffered.

Rebecca: Christmas was scary for us.

Clément: And you can tell, delivering round the other shops, retail is struggling.

I don’t think we’ve lost customers, they

are coming in, but they are spending less.

Do you just have to ride it out? What can you do?

Rebecca: There is nowhere in Woodbridge to drink good wine. There are no bars.

We’d love to serve wine, but we haven’t got the space. If we had the space – great!

Clément: We pair with the Merchants Table

up the road to do events and the tickets sell out. It’s a lovely venue.

Rebecca: From those events, we do get

people in the shop, so it’s a good way of getting out there.

are generally older. But there are younger people moving back to the area from London with families.

Some people are scared to come in to

small shops. A chap came in the other day and said “I’ve always been too scared to

come in here because I thought you’d be too expensive. But Adnams is closed, so

have you got anything?” I asked him what his budget was and he said £10. We sell a lot of wine at that price.

People come in and they are nervous

and walk straight down that end, which is where the expensive wines are. So we’ve

put some of the £10 wines right at the front so they’ll see them.

Clément: The private tastings work quite well too because they invite five or six

friends and we get new customers that

way. I get them to guess the price of the wines and they really enjoy them and realise it’s not that expensive.

Rebecca: There are people with money round here.

Clément: We are positive and trying

everything we can. You can’t just sit in your shop and wait.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 37

ARTISANS OF CHAMPAGNE

Michel Parisot Cellar Master Even after 30 years, I still feel both excited and tense just before harvest. We keep questioning ourselves about weather and grapes until the very last minute, but all we can do really is hope for the best! Having said that, it’s a great feeling because my mind stays sharp and focused all along the harvest.

Most of the vineyard in Champagne is looking very healthy but we must remain careful as (bad) surprises can happen just before harvest. Without any major change in course, harvest 2019 should start around September 10.

We start vineyard visits mid-July to assess the potential of each plot with our growers. The last visits will happen in early September to check on the health and ripeness of grapes just before harvest. Usually, we’ll decide at this time whether the plot will be used or not for Collection D, our flagship cuvées.

Also, we’ll confirm the picking date based on the balance between sugar and acidity, the weather forecast and our growers’ constraints. It feels like being a tightrope walker sometimes!

Our new barrel room will host about a hundred oak barrels and several foudres in a more friendly-environment both for our team and our guests. Design choices were made to improve our precision in the use of oak for winemaking.

Pre-harvest is a key period for us as we’ll check all the equipment and review all the processes in place that will allow us to achieve the best wine possible. During vintage, each of us knows our responsibilities – and winemaking operations usually go very smoothly.

CHAMPAGNE DEVAUX A premium range of Champagnes from the Côte des Bar, including the Cuvée D: a Pinot Noir-dominant multivintage blend of 15 different vintages, aged for a minimum of five years on lees.

Distributed by Liberty Wines www.libertywines.co.uk

ARGENTINA FOCUS Mendoza megastars

Susana Balbo (left), who is living proof that Argentina can excel with white varieties, and Paul Hobbs of Viña Cobos have both established firm followings in the independent trade. Their wines are imported by Las Bodegas and Alliance Wine respectively.

Time to stick, or to twist?

Argentina made its name with Malbec, but maybe it’s time for other varieties to come to the fore. David Williams talks to five independents about how their Argentinian ranges are shaping up – and what appetite exists for Criolla, Cab Franc and old-vine Sémillon

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 38

T

he Argentinian wine industry is in an interesting position right now, one that will certainly ring some

bells in New Zealand.

Both countries have glided up the UK

wine sales charts having assumed market dominance with a single French varietal from a single region beginning with M.

For Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, read

Mendoza Malbec. And like the gooseberrybushed white, the undisputed red grape

varietal success story of the past decade

Crunch time for Cab Franc

© teddyh / stockadobe.com

Malbec may dominate Argentina’s red wine scene but there is growing excitement about the Cabernet Franc coming out of Mendoza, which can match the perfume and finesse of European rivals but with a distinctly South American ripeness. Serbal’s version can be found in many indies including Hennings (see page 44).

Some of David Williams’s friends on October 1

is now ubiquitous, with very few wine

Or should they try to do more to talk

expressed in all kinds of ways: from the

Sauvignon to Bonarda, Pinot Noir, Syrah

to the stylistic diversity of Malbec, to the

ranges, from pub to multiple grocer to

up the often-brilliant work with other

examples.

Torrontés and Chardonnay – and in other

independent wine merchant, seen without at least one – and often many more –

The question for Argentina’s winemakers

now, therefore, has a touch of the stick-

or-twist about it. Should the country aim to build on a near-exclusive association between variety and place that most

winemaking countries (and regions) can only dream of?

varieties – from Cabernets Franc and

regions – Patagonia, Salta, and even coastal Buenos Aires?

The easy answer, of course, is both, and

on my own recent visits to Argentina it’s been fascinating watching the industry

wrestle with this very approach. There’s a real creativity in Argentina, which is

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 39

exploration of terroir amid the sub-regions of Mendoza which has added enormously

astonishing – if relatively small in quantity – wines made from old-vine Sémillon and the rediscovery of much-maligned Criolla as a base for light, brisk reds.

As befits a land where so much of the

viticulture takes place at dizzying altitude, it’s a balancing act. But one that shows every sign of landing on its feet.

ARGENTINA FOCUS

Harvest at Viña Cobos

‘A lot of people say, why would I pay £30 for a Malbec?’

Daniel Grigg Museum Wines Blandford Forum, Dorset

Noemia, which is our most expensive, and

its style, at first a lot of people say, “Why

Are your customers happy with buying

you’ve tried it”. We’re lucky to have an

the most popular.

Malbec at premium prices or is there some resistance?

How is Argentina doing in your store at the moment?

Argentina is going pretty well for us. It’s

not a big focus: we have five Argentinian wines, all of which are Malbec.

There’s an entry-level Felino from Viña

Cobos, Paul Hobbs, and then we have his single vineyard, Bramare, which is a lot

grander and much nicer. We have a couple from Luigi Bosca [Single Vineyard DOC

and Terroir Los Miradores] and Bodega

A lot of people who are looking for entrylevel Malbecs go to the supermarket.

It’s got in with this idea of being a red

equivalent of an entry-level New Zealand Sauvignon.

But there’s a big difference between

£6.99 Malbec and £25 Malbec. And we do better with more premium offerings.

When I say the Felino is a very nice

£15 Malbec, but this one is a proper wine with more in common with a Cabernet in

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 40

would I pay £30 for a Malbec?” And I say, “Have a go and come back to me after

affluent customer base, and they compare it to something they’d ordinarily buy at

£40, and they can see premium Malbecs can be good value.

I haven’t noticed a massive difference

in the demand for Malbec, but the people

who come through our doors aren’t asking for it. Some do, but most are looking for

something a bit more interesting to begin with, so I don’t typically suggest it to

them. We still sell as much, if not more,

wholesale. We do a lot there because it’s a staple on pub lists.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 41

ARGENTINA FOCUS

Nichola Roe

focused. That actual price range is the best

selling in the shop anyway, so it always just moves.

Wine Therapy Isle of Wight

I’ve tried more expensive Malbecs. I

How is Argentina doing for you?

To be honest with you, Argentina is pretty

specific: just a small range of Malbecs, and a single Pinot Noir. We have something in

the region of five Malbecs, another Malbec blend, and a Patagonian Pinot Noir.

That’s pretty much all our customers

expect from us with Argentina. We’ve had Torrontés before, but it was a slow seller.

Tell us about your range of Malbecs.

Well, we sell a couple from Doña Paula

[Hallgarten & Novum Wines]: their estate wines and the Velvet Malbec blend.

We used to sell the Paula Malbec, too,

appreciate them, but over a certain price

point our customers prefer to spend in the Old World. An Argentinian wine at £24.99

would be hard to sell to the customer base

the Avanti and the Alpataco Malbec and

the E’s Vino. Richmond also does our Pinot

be more interesting or more important if I

tell you what my customers like. I suppose

Noir – the Saurus Patagonian Pinot Noir.

there’s not a lot of variety about Argentina,

meats, but they work well in the winter, too – they’re reasonably easy drinking,

nice soft tannins

and good fruit and structure, so we

one from Spain, but they don’t sell as well as the Argentinians – although if I point them out, customers will buy them.

don’t need anything below that.

There are quite a few wines! But it might

looking for juicy red wines for barbecued

kind of price. We have one from France and

The Noble Grape Cowbridge, South Wales

it. And then we have a few from Richmond:

It’s something I recommend for people

European Malbecs we have are a similar

which is a very good value £12.99-er, and

What do you like about Argentina?

always maintain, and it has its followers.

The interesting thing is that the

Richard Ballantyne MW

Andes, also from Hallgarten – that outsold

It’s a strong brand, and something I’d

because it’s a risk.

‘They’re very stylish wines, they’re not the big bruisers, with elegance’

but we had a similar Malbec – Sierra Los

Why does Malbec work so well?

I have. So we haven’t wanted to buy into it

but what they do, they do very well. Malbec

Santuario, which is very good entry-level

Malbec, which is a tenner from Alliance. I What about other grape varieties?

Argentina and Malbec are synonymous

with each other. It’s a very good thing for them in one way, but it can be a bit of an albatross around their neck. Remember

when Spain just used to be Rioja, back in the old days?

Argentina hasn’t quite reached that next-

is really their standard bearer. They’ve

level thing yet, of punting other varieties.

such as Chile, Hawke’s Bay and Cahors of

me I don’t feel I need a huge bit of varietal

certainly put it on the map: it’s because of Argentina we can sell it from other areas,

course – that’s something we can actually

do now. [Argentinian Malbec] wines are full of fruit and a bit of structure. Very pleasing – very satisfying – characteristics.

Which Malbecs do you stock?

The Tempranillos are very good, but they don’t seem to have the traction. But for difference.

But I’m not just Malbec. We’ve got a

bit of Cabernet Franc and Torrontés.

I’ll eventually get around to getting an Argentine Pinot Noir.

The Cab Franc I have – Bodega del Río

will continue selling

I’ve got some very stylish wines from

Elorza Verum – is from Patagonia, Río

What about prices?

are Altocedro, which is Karim Mussi Saffie

fun: not complex, but very aromatic and it

them.

We don’t have price resistance, but it’s not a vast range: from £9.99 to

£12.99, so it’s pretty

Achaval Ferrer, which are kind of Pomerolmeets-Mendoza, I suppose. My main ones who’s making some high-altitude wines

(1,100m) with his Malbec and Tempranillo.

They’re very stylish wines, they’re not the big bruisers, with a touch of elegance.

Then I have Finca Sophenia Altosur,

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 42

Negro. It works down there, at the lower

latitude. [Finca Quara] Torrontés is a bit of has a lot of flavour.

I’ve often thought about expanding

Argentina, but at the moment I have more

wines than I have space for. Argentina fans seem to be happy with what I’ve got.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 43

ARGENTINA FOCUS

‘Customers recognise the wines are worth the money’ Matt Hennings Hennings West Sussex

retail, and online, but we’ve been working

Bodegas which doesn’t fly out the door but

two-dimensional. And there are some great

Malbecs you used to get which didn’t

a little bit harder to try and find other varieties, otherwise it can look rather

wines now, including the noble varieties.

Paul Hobbs’ Viña Cobos Felino

Chardonnay is just fantastic quality. For us the key thing has been the cooler,

higher-altitude wines, both red and whites: Malbec, Chardonnay and Torrontés.

Even the Bordeaux blends, like the

clearly make up the lion’s share of our Argentina sales in both wholesale and

into on-trade places, have structure and freshness to them, which is good.

Is the consumer perception of Argentina changing?

unlike Chile, is they never started with

The best way to describe Serbal wines,

be wall-to-wall Malbec. It does quite

expensive ones, the pouring ones you’d put

wines. Serbal, which also comes from Las

Bodegas, is great as well – fantastic wines.

to your Argentina range it could just

really have a lot of definition. Even the less

It is but you’ve got to get them beyond

are used to the European versions of those

It is. But if you don’t pay enough attention

There’s nothing like the hot, medicinal

Atamisque wines, are very precise and

fantastic wines to throw at people who

Is Argentina going well for you?

is quite fun and something a bit different

even if you look at the Chardonnay and the Malbec, is they’re just really understated – they’re really fresh and not over-ripe. The

Cabernet Franc has some really nice crunch to it.

Susana Balbo is great too. Her Torrontés

and Malbec are very good. We’ve also got a white Pinot Noir [Aniello Blanco] from Las

Malbec. I think that’s possible. The thing

that Argentina has always done very well, generic varietals at £4.99. They always had a good premium reputation right

from when they first came on the market and people will pay for a good bottle of

Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay or

Bordeaux blend. It’s not difficult to move

people from a £10 or £11 bottle of Malbec to a £13 or £14 bottle of Cabernet Franc

from Argentina because they recognise the wines are worth that money.

The Susana Balbo winery

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 44

> THE WINEMAKER FILES José Galante, Bodegas Salentein Regarded as one of the most influential figures in the Argentine wine industry for his work with Malbec and for his minimum-intervention philosophy, José became Salentein’s chief winemaker in 2010, on a mission to express the Uco Valley terroir

Uco Valley has a cool Continental

winemaker participates less in the

climate. It is warm in the summer – but

process, better wines are obtained.

drier all year round. Salentein’s estates

process to be fulfilled.

for developing premium grapes, which

diminishes.” I’m happy to see that the

not as warm as a Continental climate.

The winemaker only has to guide the

It’s cooler in the winter, and sunnier and

different stages of the winemaking

Valley. The valley offers ideal conditions

the process, the final quality of the wine

tannin structure and great natural acidity,

over the last eight to 10 years.

are in the upper reaches of the Uco

results in wines of intense colour, good with fruit-filled flavours and aromas.

“If we participate and intervene in

relevance of this principle has increased I know where we started 40 years ago

Our goal is to make the best wines

and the work that we did in those early

in Argentina. We work to preserve

years. I look at where we are now – not

gentle winemaking process. We do our

global winemaking – and I think of all the

the full spectrum of fruit aromas and

flavours of Uco Valley through a smooth, own research to better understand our terroir and to try to obtain the highest expression of it.

finished, but closer to our ambition to

make Argentina the leading country in

people who have made this possible and

are still working towards this goal today.

Salentein has been a cornerstone in

One of the founding principles

the transformation of a desert into

transmitted by my mentor at the

an iconic winegrowing region of the

University in Mendoza, Father

world. The vision for Salentein focuses

Francisco Oreglia, was: “If the

on looking ahead – by capitalising on the

value of the last 20 vintages as the basis for the next 100 years.

Argentina is developing extreme terroirs that produce distinctive wines with great personality. Malbec in these places will undoubtedly continue to

be our flagship variety. It is now time

for us to put more focus on expanding

our distribution through channels such as the premium on-trade, and quality

independents, to gain recognition from

wine connoisseurs and luxury consumers.

I think the export market should recognise all the work we are doing to achieve wines that are increasingly identified with the different terroirs of Argentina.

I wouldn’t change anything about the Argentine wine industry. I think we

have been blessed with extraordinary

natural conditions for the cultivation of

the vine – and the results, for an activity that requires hundreds of years, have come quite quickly.

Salentein Numina Spirit Vineyard Chardonnay

Salentein Barrel Selection Malbec

Salentein Single Vineyard Malbec San Pablo

RRP: £23.95

RRP: £14.95

RRP: £32.95

Made with Chardonnay grapes coming from the oldest plots of La Pampa estate, this golden-yellow wine has outstanding aromas of delicate flowers and white fruits.

In the mouth, it's fresh with citrus flavours, white fruits and mineral notes. It has an elegant and lingering finish.

From two of Salentein's own vineyards, this Malbec is fresh and complex on the nose. It brings aromas of blackberries mingled with delicate floral notes suggesting roses and violets. It's very intense, juicy and fresh in the mouth, with a good structure and a long finish.

A wine noted for its intensity and the complexity of its aromas of blackberries, from fruit sourced from vineyards in the Tunuyán region of Uco. Breadth and concentration on the palate, with silky tannins, natural acidity and good length: a wine as unique as the terroir that it comes from.

Salentein wines are imported into the UK by MPWines. For further commercial info, contact Robert Bruijnzeels: r.bruijnzeels@mp-wines.com www.mp-wines.com

THE WINE MERCHANT MERCHANT AUGUST may 2019 2019 THE THE WINE WINE MERCHANT MERCHANT november june 2018 45 15

ARGENTINA FOCUS

Graham Simpson Whitmore & White Wirral Merseyside How is Argentina doing for you?

It’s a range that ticks over quite steadily.

Obviously Malbec’s the one that people ask

for, but I’ve got a little thing with Malbec, in that it can be a bit generic. Just describe a

red wine, you’d describe Malbec, whereas

things like Coonwarra Cab, Fleurie, etc have their own style. Basically, if it smells like

red wine it’s a Malbec, and only a handful step above that and have distinction. You

see it on a lot of restaurant lists, it’s a safe bet, and as a gift it’s a price that a lot of

people want to spend. It’s like Rioja, a good

go-to wine that people like.

So do you focus on other varieties?

Which ones?

There are lots of interesting wines. What I’ve tried to do is say [to customers] that we have a good Cabernet Sauvignon or

Bonarda with more style and substance to

them. For a point of difference, I’ll say “Give this a go, otherwise you’ll always be having cornflakes for breakfast and fish and chips on a Friday!”

[For whites] Chardonnay from Argentina

is always a tough sell. That’s not to say

there aren’t good things out there, but you

can look beyond Chardonnay to Torrontés.

Torrontés is a great wine – a great food

wine, almost a wine of two halves: it smells like it’s going to be sweet, but it comes

through dry. We use Tapiz, and we have

it on the shelf at £15.95 – we like to have wines around the £15 mark.

Will you expand your range?

Bonarda as a style of wine is different,

If anything jumps out, we’ll always look

1492, from Jackson Nugent. It’s spicy and

the back-burner from New Generation, a

it has a spicy edge, dark bitter cherry;

it’s succulent, soft. We do Don Cristóbal

blackberryish. [For Cabernet Sauvignon]

Viña Cobos Felino, that really is good. Viña Cobos are excellent. Would that we had customers for their really top wine!

at getting something on board. We could take on something that we have had on

slightly different French style, a bit earthier, gutsy. And we could even look to blends: Don Cristóbal does a nice little blend to give a point of difference.

© PHOTOPOLITAIN / stockadobe.com

‘Bonarda is a different style of wine; it has a spicy edge’

A drab suburb of Buenos Aires

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 46

Our mission is to produce wines of the highest quality, respecting the environment and preserving the cultural values that make the identity of the land expressed in our products.

UK Agents www.hispamerchants.com www.tapiz.com.arÂ

Mendoza, Argentina

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 47

95 points

WSET WINE WORKOUT

New World reds: a hot topic Sunshine is in good supply in places like California, Australia and Chile, but winemakers need to moderate the effects of the heat if they want to produce premium wines. There are other techniques in the cellar that can also have a huge impact, as WSET Educator David Martin explains

T

© Amophoto.net / stockadobe.com

he world of wine is constantly

changing. That’s why we regularly

refresh WSET’s teaching materials.

It’s also why we focus on principles first

and details second. For instance, the New World of wine is generally understood to

it is further south, the stronger influence

England and Wales count as New World?

of coastal breezes means that Pinot Noir

The details, the names, the varieties and

rather than Cabernet Sauvignon is the

the fashions will change but what will

favoured red variety.

remain the same are the principles that

Premium wines can be made on the

effect quality.

valley floor further inland, but the style McLaren Vale: lower yields, higher prices

complexity. Assessing quality is arguably

premium regions of the New World have

through the blind tasting included in Unit

What are the three As?

something that we look to establish

some kind of cooling influence.

2 of our Level 3 Award in Wines. There are

Cooling influences can be split into three

branding. Our assessment is purely based

vineyards sitting around 500 metres above

other factors that make wines premium including the producer’s story and the

on what is in the glass, allowing us to make our own judgements on quality.

To generalise, the New World has no

shortage of sunshine. Vines need sunlight to produce grapes but, if it gets too hot, there is not enough time to develop

flavours before the sugar levels rise and the grapes need to be harvested. Almost all the

Grenache, which needs more heat, will be

temperatures in Santa Barbara. Although

we could be including China. Also do

the most important skill of tasting, and

on the cooler south-facing slopes, but

off the Pacific cause significantly cooler

Australia and Chile but, in 10 years’ time,

the BLIC scale: balance, length, intensity,

wine. In McLaren Vale, we may see Shiraz

• Air movement: cooling winds coming

now, that means places like California,

The way we assess quality is by using

manifests itself as more complexity in the

planted north facing.

mean wine regions outside Europe. For

What makes a wine premium?

allowing a longer hang time which

categories – altitude, aspect and air flow:

• Altitude: Howell mountain in Napa has sea level. The temperature cools by 0.6

degrees on average for every 100 metres,

potentially delaying the harvest by a couple of weeks – allowing extra time for flavour development.

• Aspect: this plays a crucial role too.

North-facing slopes (in the northern

hemisphere) will slow ripening down,

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 48

will be richer and bolder, with lower

acidity. The effect of site on quality is not just about cooling influences; poor soils

are another factor. We know that poor soils force the vine to work hard and therefore channel its energy into its reproductive cycle (fruit growth) and not into the

vegetative cycle, which is stronger in a

high-nutrient environment. Great sites

tend to be low yielding and this can lead

to the erroneous belief that low yields are responsible for high quality.

Low yields are also influenced by vine

age. There is no legal age for an “old vine”

which does make it a difficult term to use.

Old vines tend to produce fruit with more intensity and complexity. However, the trade-off is lower yields, which in turn increases the price. Famous examples

of this are Zinfandel from Sonoma and

ENOMATIC

Stories

Hannah Gillies Hennings Wine Merchants Chichester Grenache from McLaren Vale.

Harvesting methods can also play a role

in quality. Although we may think hand

harvesting is best, this is not always the case. Often, small sites on steep slopes produce great grapes which are not

suitable for machine harvesting – such as the terraced vineyards of Apalta in Chile.

With mechanisation, however, harvesting

“We are constantly changing the line-up.

It keeps it interesting, not only for us but for the returning customers too”

can happen at night, which is an advantage in warm areas as it keeps freshness in the wine and limits the chance of spoilage.

Some premium wines are made through

whole-bunch fermentation which requires

hand harvesting. The use of whole bunches in wines such as Martinborough Pinot Noir adds a peppery freshness.

Oak is widely used for ageing premium

red wines. However, there is a call for fresher styles in premium reds. For

example, there is a trend in Argentina for

How often do you refresh the offering?

We are constantly changing the line-up. So, as it’s hot this week for example, we might fill up a whole machine with rosés. When it’s English Wine Week we put in just English wines in the white side of the machines. It keeps it interesting, not only for us but for the returning customers too.

How do you promote your Enomatics?

We do something called Enomatic Friday. Every first Friday of the month we stay open until 8.30pm rather than the usual 7pm and we give away £5 credit with every £30 card top-up. We might put some more premium wines on for those evenings or focus on a particular theme. Every now and then we’ll do food as well – a pop-up with other local independent businesses, which adds a bit of something different to the night. We also post on Instagram if there is something on of particular interest and every six to eight weeks we email out a list of what is on the Enomatics.

What’s the most esoteric wine you have on at the moment?

Probably the Tabula Rasa by Wild & Wilder. It’s a really interesting red blend and it definitely draws the eye because of its size. It comes in a 500ml bottle so looks like a little beer bottle. People are attracted to it and want to try it.

premium Malbec aged in concrete with no oak at all. Yet, for all the talk of less oak, it is still fantastically popular – smoothing tannins and adding the classic vanilla,

spice and chocolate flavours to reds. The principle, however, is that a wine should have the structure and flavour intensity

What advice would you give another indie about Enomatics?

Go for it! The point is to put a range of different wines in there, but of course some friendlier, more recognisable bottles as well to keep people’s interest and make sure there is something for everyone.

to handle the oak. They are not premium because they are aged in oak.

New regions and varieties will move

into the spotlight over the next few years.

Understanding the principles behind

premium will help us navigate through these new wines.

Tell us about your Enomatics.

We have three banks of eight machines and we put them in before we opened in 2011. It was such a new concept and customers were fascinated by these ‘wine vending machines’ as we described them at the time. Initially we spread them out over both floors but found that, unless we are running a specific event, people tended to stick to the ground floor area so we’ve placed them all together downstairs now.

There is capacity for 40 people to enjoy drinking by the glass and we also have a beautiful little courtyard, which seats about 15.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 49

THE WINE MERCHANT ROUND TABLE: LEEDS

Northern pow-wow house The Wine Merchant gathered together seven independents from across Yorkshire and Derbyshire for a discussion of what’s good and bad about specialist wine retailing in their neck of the woods. Three pages of coverage starts here and continues in the September edition

spending £60 on a bottle of wine, but if

What’s the state of play in the

they find one they love for a tenner they’ll

northern wine scene?

come back and buy case after case after

Hill: I think there’s different markets in

case.

different cities, and while there is some

Padgett: Our clientele in our village are

crossover there are different demographics

very loyal. There’s a butcher’s and there’s

in different cities as well. Leeds is buoyant

a baker’s as well. They shop local but they

and we are blessed with 100,000-plus

have to go to multiples for some of their

students who come back every single

grocery shop. There’s a real community

year. An awful lot of our customers have

feel. We’ve been trading now for 14 years.

graduated and stayed in Leeds. I think we

It’s a working-class town and people are

have a younger demographic.

looking for value for money and are not

Hoult: We’re in an old mill town

[Huddersfield] and so we have the

“problem” of an older demographic. They

die, and it’s as simple as that. Older money

prepared to spend huge amounts of money Doña Paula winemaker Marcos Fernandez

tends to buy volume and they’re happy to

Yorkshireman about what’s the best wine

Hill: You can debate for hours with a

the shop. They’ll argue with you about

keep the prices down.

in the shop but what they’re actually looking for is the best value wine in

SUPPORTED BY SANTA RITA ESTATES

on a bottle of wine unless it’s for a special

occasion or a present. We’ve noticed since we opened that people have come down a little bit, and certainly reduced their

average spend, but still buy as many bottles of wine. The under-£10 bracket for us is where our volume is.

Starmore: Sheffield is still evolving, I feel.

It’s been the poor cousin to Leeds and

Manchester. We’re two miles from the city centre and people are looking for value

Our Leeds Round Table event is the third in a series of regional disussions featuring independent wine merchants, organised in partnership with Santa Rita Estates.

for money. Our average spend has gone up over the past couple of years. We’re

attracting customers in a different way,

perhaps … we lead a lot on tasting events,

The company’s principal wines in the independent trade are Carmen from Chile and Doña Paula from Argentina, both distributed by Hallgarten & Novum Wines.

in and out of store. Also we’re looking for

that midweek bottle to keep people coming in. Just recently we’ve gone back to that

£6.95 level on a couple of wines to try and keep locals coming in, and the student

Visit www.santaritaestateseurope.com.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 50

population, which is absolutely key.

© gb27photo / stockadobe.com

Are consumers more interested than a bargain than in actual value?

Hoult: You go to Tesco or Asda right now

and it’s 25% off everything, and that’s the

fourth time both of them have done it this

year, and we’re in July. Are people buying a wine because it’s five quid, or because it’s £5 off or £3 off? More and more products are being built for a deal.

We don’t do what supermarkets do.

When we first started out in Huddersfield

we were opposite a Tesco and the wines we stocked were the wines the supermarkets stocked – and they were perfectly good Leeds Dock provides a new focal point for the city

Auty: I don’t think you can buy a wine,

Is it still possible to find decent

from any of our suppliers anyway, that

wine to retail at below £10?

would make a reasonable margin with

Hoult: Yes, but it’s hard work! Below 10

quid, but above seven. The sweet spot is

really eight to 10 quid. We find it’s better to have something at £8, then people buy six and get it down to £7.

so you’ve got to find a way of getting

summat from the customer if you’re gonna give them summat back.

Hill: As inflation has kicked in I worried

that when you get your wine to £9.99, and duty goes up, you put it up to £10.50 or

£10.99 and that sale’s killed. But I think

You can keep cutting your prices all you

like, but it’s out of your own back pocket,

anything less than £6.99 on it.

people are slowly coming round to the idea that £10 to £15 might be the place they

want to look for good-quality wine, and

Starmore Boss Sheffield

Latitude Wines Leeds

of a wine that’s in the multiples – and I include Oddbins and Majestic in this –

where you would think, I’d put my name to

that. It’s not a snobby wine merchant thing: I’d happily do it, I think it’s a really useful thing to be able to compare your price against a national multiple.

Morris: I try not to have anything that’s supermarket-led because part of the

experience is for people to come in and

ask what certain things are. As far as deals are concerned, I tend just to say: that’s my Continues page 52

under £10 there are too many duds to risk.

Chris Hill Barry Starmore

wines. It’s harder and harder now to think

John Morris

Phil Padgett Paul Auty Ake & Humphris Harrogate

Denby Dale Wines Huddersfield

Rob Hoult Hoults Huddersfield

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 51

Bradman’s Duffield

Sean Welsh Flourish & Prosper Howden

THE WINE MERCHANT ROUND TABLE: LEEDS

From page 51

price. My expertise is what you’re buying.

I’m in a little country village where people

come to enjoy the experience. I have a shop but also a tasting room where people can go for a drink.

Welsh: We’re the shop that people go to for that special bottle. We’ve got some

wine at £6.99 but we just don’t push it that hard. There’s no point.

Auty: We had one single message on our window for six months, which said “100 wines for under £10” because we felt it

was really important to show people that we have not only some wines under £10,

but quite a lot of wines under £10, and that we are not just somewhere you can come

to for special occasions. And it has worked.

Gifts are the fastest-growing area of the

business – Father’s Day and Christmas

were massively up on last year. But how

could we convince people they can shop on a Tuesday night with us?

We deliberately set out two years ago to

get it to 100. There are no branded wines below £10 but there are known-value

‘We had a message on our window for six months – ‘100 wines for under £10’ – to show that we’re not just somewhere to come to for special occasions’ items that we can talk to people about.

restaurants who didn’t think twice about

window area and this is a strategy that’s

£30-plus for a decent bottle of wine on a

Moving forward we’ve introduced our

top 20 best-selling wines into the same

meant to encourage people to look at other parts of the range. Two of those wines will be £19.99 a bottle so we know there are

spending £100 on a lunch 15 years ago

now come in and they’re happy to spend Saturday night.

What’s happened to your

people consistently buying quality as well

margins recently?

Hill: I find there are psychological levels of

doing business now, with minimum wage,

as things that are low in price.

pricing. For me £9.99 is a key one. If we can find quality at £9.99 it’s going to generate loyalty from our regular retail customers,

but it also gives us the opportunity to make a bit of margin by putting it on by the glass in a bar or restaurant. When you do find those gems, the staff get behind them as well.

Nobody will spend more than £15 on

a Wednesday night wine, but I’m also

finding that customers I used to serve in

Welsh: They’ve gone up. The cost of

pensions and all the other costs, is so much

more expensive. You can’t work on margins of 30%, 32%.

Hoult: We’ve certainly pushed it a lot

higher than some would. Our margin is

40%, but we don’t get 40%, because we’re discounting back.

Padgett: When you get to the more

expensive wines, sometimes you’ve got to think about a cash margin. Because at the

end of the day, if you’re not selling it, you’re not making money.

A wine that costs me £15, I’d be looking

to make £4 cash on it. So £19 plus VAT.

Hoult: At the lower end, margins are lower, because I’m not pushing the wine, I’m not

promoting it, I don’t need to do a deal on it.

There’ll be a case price on it.

On the bar side of things, it’s a cash

margin. It’s whatever it is on the shelf,

which is where the 40% comes in handy, and eight quid on top of that. Nothing Inside Bradmans in Duffield, where prices are non-negotiable

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 52

under £10 is going to end up in the bar, so the lower margin there doesn’t have an impact on the bar.

date wednesday, 4th september 2019 time 11am–5pm venue 67 pall mall, sw1y 5es

NEW WORLD PORTFOLIO TASTING

special features ‘Indi Top 10’ and Single Clone Pinot Noir Horizontal, Sidewood, Adelaide Hills. over 100 wines to taste

masterclasses co-hosted by martin everett mw Two Semillon Masterclasses with South African winemaker, Rikus Neethling

rsvp@davy.co.uk • 020 8858 6011 • www.davywine.co.uk/wholesale

We would like to invite you to our AUTUMN 2019 LONDON TASTING WEDNESDAY

67 PALL MALL

18TH SEPTEMBER 2019 FROM 10AM TO 4PM

ST JAMES ROOM LONDON SW1Y 5ES

We will be showcasing a seasonal selection of our favourite wines.

RSVP TO VANESSA@THORMANHUNT.CO.UK

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 53

WWW.THORMANHUNT.CO.UK

MAKE A DATE

New Wave South Africa South African wine has no shortage of champions, many of whom argue that the country’s output is possibly the most exciting on the planet right now.

Merchants might be entitled to scratch

their heads at such claims and ask where exactly such wines might be found in the

UK. The answer could well be at the Vinyl

Factory on September 3, when New Wave South Africa gets under way for its third year.

The event is put together by five

leading importers of South African wine:

Chris and Suzaan Alheit

Swig, Dreyfus Ashby, Indigo Wine, New

in a capital spoilt for professional wine

inception, with Jancis Robinson declaring

superstars including Adi Badenhorst, Chris

Vinyl Factory

Mullineux, Sam O’Keefe, Eben Sadie and

51 Poland Street

Chris Alheit, to pick just a handful.

London W1F 7BE

Walker & Wodehouse Autumn Tasting & Braai

Wednesday, September 4

serious ones will give pleasure for many

Generation and Fields, Morris & Verdin.

The tasting has had rave reviews since its

it, in 2017, what “may well have been the

most exciting tasting I have ever attended

The importer is offering a flavour of South Africa in more ways than one with its September event, which features barbecued food as well as a line-up of Cape wines.

tastings”.

This year’s show will be graced by

The Drop Unit 22-24, Bagley Walk Arches Coal Drops Yard London N1C 4DH

To register, visit www.newwavesa.co.uk.

Tuesday, September 3

years to come.”

Contact nancy.green@howardripley.com.

Thursday, September 5 Army & Navy Club

Howard Ripley 2018 German GG Tasting

36 Pall Mall London SW1Y 5JN

SITT The register for the annual indie-

The event also promises some “Weird &

According to the importer, the 2018s

focused tastings, email lee.sharkey@

Wonderful favourites” as well as a Meet the

“are tasting better and better. They have

agilemedia.co.uk.

The tasting element runs from 10.30am

and integrated, revealing the great

Monday, September 9

until 1.30pm, with the braai running from walkerwodehousewines.com, specifying

for reds. They are concentrated and pure,

Producer feature.

settled down and are becoming smooth charm of youth as well as potential for

The Honourable Artillery Company

1.30pm until 4pm.

long ageing”.

London EC1Y 2BQ

which part of the day they are interested in

with delightful red-berry fruit. They offer

Guests should RSVP to events@

attending.

The previous year “is a brilliant vintage

excellent early drinking, and the more

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 54

Wednesday, September 11 11 Portland Street Manchester M1 3HU

Davy’s Wine Merchants New World Tasting

Estates (North Canterbury).

Other highlights include South Africa’s

take on Vat 1 Semillon from “winemaker

without borders” Rikus Neethling; single

Pinot clones from Adelaide Hills’ Sidewood Estate; and a free-pour Indie Top 10.

This is the first time that Greenwich-

Davy’s is one of the longest-established

based Davy’s has dedicated a tasting

wine merchants in the UK, still family-

event entirely to the New World –

owned after five generations, but sees a

reflecting the growing importance of the

bright future beyond its traditional Old

category in its portfolio.

World heartlands. Its New World offer

The tasting will focus on independent,

has been growing, and while the company

family-owned producers “who respect

insists it is “not rushing to add countries

the traditions and principles of Old-World

winemaking, whilst taking advantage of the flexibility afforded to New World growing regions,” the company says.

Davy’s New World range is typified

by “well-priced wines, classic typicity of

and regions to fill obvious gaps”, it is keen Mike Winters and Dave Sutton from Te Kano

New Zealand is a particular strength,

grapes and regions that reflect Davy’s

represented by a trio of young growers

point,” it adds.

Beauty (Marlborough) and Mount Brown

desire to mainly represent small family growers at the mid to premium price

working at the forefront in their respective regions: Te Kano (Central Otago), Little

to work with producers who make wines with a sense of place and are “passionate and innovative”.

To register, email Katya Sapozhnikova at

rsvp@davy.co.uk or call 020 7716 3362.

Wednesday, September 4 67 Pall Mall London SW1Y 5ES

Wines of Great Britain Annual Tasting The event formerly known as the English wine tasting moved to an autumn slot this year to take advantage of the pre-Christmas buying period.

It’s a canny move by the organisers,

but one that will have only prolonged the

agony for those desperate to dive into the

fruits of a spectacular 2018 for English and Welsh vineyards.

Still wines from last autumn’s harvest

should provide an unprecedented focal point at this year’s tasting, though the

lion’s share of the action will inevitably

come from the UK’s increasingly bullish band of sparkling winemakers.

The event will feature more than 50

Gusbourne vineyard workers

producers, grouped into regions, as well as the ever-popular free-pour table divided into styles and grape varieties.

There will also be a series of half-hour

seminars ranging from a state-of-the-

nation industry briefing and update to a discussion panel on travel, tourism and vineyard visits.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 55

The WINEGB Awards 2019 Trophy

winners will also be on show.

To register, visit winegb.co.uk/trade or

email tradetasting@winegb.co.uk.

Wednesday, September 4 RHS Lindley Hall London SW1P 2QW

MAKE A DATE

South Africa’s Excellent Adventure The South African Wine Festival takes many forms across the first week of September, with an event at South Africa House providing a focal point for the independent trade.

Run in partnership with The Wine

Merchant, South Africa’s Excellent

Adventure will be showcasing two wines from 10 producers followed by a round-

table discussion for invited guests about

the state of play in South African wine and how the wines are bought and sold in the specialist UK trade.

The event will feature producers from

some of South Africa’s oldest estates

through to some producers with only one

or two vintages under their belt – a South African timeline from old to new.

Each producer will show the oldest

vintage available from the estate (in its current format/name) as well as the

current vintage. The timeline will highlight

Holden Manz in Franschhoek

Following the tasting the group of

the history of winemaking in South Africa

winemakers and independent merchants

the country’s wines have the potential to

and the story of how the industry has

developed, and aim to demonstrate how age well.

Liberty Wines Autumn Portfolio Tastings Liberty’s Autumn Portfolio Tastings will this year showcase over 600 wines in London and 200-plus wines in Edinburgh.

Wines will be arranged by style and

variety to allow for comparative tasting,

and there will be a blind-tasting table for

will take a London Routemaster bus to

email info@winesofsa.com.

Thursday, September 5

High Timber restaurant for a lunch and

South Africa House

informal tasting.

Trafalgar Square

those wanting to sharpen their tasting

and Lynne Coyle and Alicia Eyaralar,

Sattlerhof in Südsteiermark, Austria;

co.uk or call 0207 819 0318.

To register and for more information,

skills.

New additions to the line-up include

Pedro Parra, Itata, Chile; Ahearne Vino from Hvar, Croatia; Château Arnauld,

London WC2N 5DP

Navarra, Spain.

To register, email events@libertywines.

Tuesday, September 10

Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux; Domaine du

Kia Oval

Ventoux, southern Rhône; Brolo Dei Giusti,

Monday, September 16

Txakolina, Spain; Gallina de Piel, Cataluña;

Edinburgh EH2 2EQ

Coulet, Cornas, northern Rhône; Domaine

London SE11 5SS

Valpolicella, Veneto; Quinta Da Romeira,

The Balmoral

Gauby in Roussillon; Via Caritatis of

from Bucelas, Lisboa; Agerre, Getariako

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 56

Princes Street

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 57

MAKE A DATE

Graft Wine Co Portfolio Tasting

South Africa; Dan Sigurd from Australia;

Okanagan Crush Pad in British Columbia,

The merger between Red Squirrel and

Burgenland in Austria; Adrien Pelissié of

Winerie Parisienne, the first urban winery

and Seyit Karagozoglu of Pasaeli in Turkey.

The Knotted Vine has given two muchadmired importers new clout in the independent trade.

The new company’s inaugural tasting

event gives merchants an opportunity to take stock of the combined range. Graft

works with more than 80 producers and has a portfolio of 400-plus wines, pretty much all of which will be on display at

the London event, with slimmed-down versions available in Edinburgh and Manchester.

Winemakers who have recently joined

the Graft stable will be in London.

These include Matthew van Heerden,

Wynand Grobler and Jacques de Klerk from

Philipp Corvers of Corvers-Kauter in

the Rheingau; Theresa Gsellmann from

in Paris; and Carlos Biurrun from Bodegas

Andrew Wightman from the Swartland,

Jacob Leadley of Black Chalk in Hampshire Register at hello@graftwine.co.uk.

Nekeas in Navarra.

Tuesday, September 10

Caminhos Cruzados in the Dão will be

Clerkenwell Close

Stephan Heinrich from Maison Ventenac

in Cabardès and Ligia Santos from

The Crypt on the Green St James Church

making their first appearances at a Graft

London EC1R 0EA

tastings including Akira Takahashi of

Riddles Court

tasting.

They’ll be joined by stalwarts of past

Monday, September 16

Vinteloper in Australia, Christian Dal

322 Lawnmarket

Vintners in Franschhoek, Arnold Holzer

Wednesday, September 18

of Laventura in Rioja, Christine Coletta of

Manchester M3 4LZ

Zotto, David Levasseur, Kevin Swart

Edinburgh EH1 2PG

and Martin Diwald from Grossriedenthal in

The Castlefield Rooms

and Jacques Wentzel of Black Elephant

Austria, Albert Ahrens, Bryan MacRobert

18-20 Castle Street

The Dirty Dozen Tasting The membership of The Dirty Dozen may fluctuate, but the appeal of this much-anticipated annual tasting never does, attracting a broad congregation of buyers and journalists.

The 12 suppliers on parade at this year’s

event are Astrum Wine Cellars, Clark

Foyster Wines, Flint Wines, Fortyfive10,

H2Vin, Howard Ripley, Indigo Wine, Maltby & Greek, Raymond Reynolds, Roberson Wine, Swig and The Wine Treasury.

What do these businesses have in

common? According to the marketing: “We are committed to wine of integrity and

authenticity. We believe in wines that speak of their terroir.

“Wines for people that care, made by people that care”

‘We select winemakers that cherish their

made by people that care.”

Tuesday, September 10

“We import wines for people that care,

dirtydozentasting.com

London SE1 9DD

vineyards and the environment. We choose small over large and real before synthetic.

For more information about this

year’s line-up and to register, visit www.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 58

Glaziers Hall 9 Montague Close

Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies Portfolio Tasting

Victoria, Australia; Damian Shaw of Philip Shaw, Orange, Australia; and Julien Schaal of Vins Julien Schaal, Alsace.

There will be a special focus table

featuring the newly-released German Grosses Gewächs wines from ABS’s

producers, both Riesling 2018 and Pinot Noir 2017.

This biennial event will feature around

ABS promotional offers for Christmas

700 wines, poured by more than 45

will be revealed with a dedicated tasting

winemakers who are flying in for the

table highlighting all the wines that are

occasion.

scheduled to feature.

Names to look out for include Lorenz

Expect a first-time appearance from

Haas-Allram, Austria; Jacques Bruwer of

Romeo’s Gin, a leading Canadian brand

Bon Courage, South Africa; Neil Bruwer

from Montreal, which joined the portfolio

of Cape Chamonix, South Africa; Meinard

earlier this year.

Bloem of Casas del Bosque, Chile; Johannes

Bon Courage will be a star attraction

Peter Franus of Peter Franus Wines, USA;

Jean Stodden, Germany; Dominique Fouin

Africa; Alexander Stodden of Weingut

Hasselbach of Gunderloch, Germany; Niels Verburg of The Saboteur, South Africa;

Walter Clappis of The Hedonist, Australia;

of Château Fontesteau, Bordeaux; Joao

To register, or for more information,

email Lesley Gray: lg@abswineagencies. co.uk.

Wednesday, September 11

Barbosa of JM Barbosa, Portugal; Troy

One Great George Street

Jones and Behn Payten of Payten & Jones,

London SW1P 3AA

Amathus Wines and Spirits Portfolio Tasting

New Generation Annual Portfolio Tasting

Enotria&Coe Autumn/Winter Tasting

The supplier’s first wine and spirit

The walk-around tasting will include

The theme of this autumn’s tasting is

event will feature at least 40 producers.

100-plus wines and will also provide an

Celebrating Craftmanship.

Hagen Viljoen of Zevenwacht, South

They include Penley Estate from

opportunity to examine the company’s

Australia, Champagne Duval-Leroy, the

spirits line-up.

Hven, Mezcal producer Siete Misterios and

attendance.

Calem Port, Cognac Voyer, Rhum Clément, vermouth producer Dolin, gin distillery The Whiskey Thief.

Register by emailing melanie@

Producers including Henri Giraud,

Auntsfield and Churchill will be in

New Generation is also promising a

E&C promises “a stellar line-up of

producers including Fontanafredda, Leyda, d’Arenberg, Ste Michele Wine Estates, Hattingley Valley and Ferrari”.

Contact v.lewis@enotriacoe.com.

“mystery blind tasting” as part of the

Monday September 16

london@newgenwines.com.

London W1K 5LF

London event.

The Music Rooms

Monday, September 16

Wednesday, September 18

Piccadilly

67 Pall Mall

PLY

London W1J 0BA

London SW1Y 5ES

26 Lever Street, Manchester M1 1DW

amathusdrinks.com.

Wednesday, September 11 The Royal Society of Chemistry Burlington House

Register or find out more by emailing

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 59

26 South Molton Lane

MAKE A DATE

Australia Redefined

Henschke, Tyrrell’s, d’Arenberg, Yalumba and Campbells.

Other winemakers and winery owners

making the trip to London include Brad

This is a tasting devoted to Australia’s

Hickey of Brash Higgins; Brendan Carter

premium wines, with everything in the

of Unico Zelo; Colleen Miller of MÉRITE;

room commanding a retail price of £20

Christian Dal Zotto of Dal Zotto Wines;

and upwards.

Giles Cooke MW of Thistledown Wines;

More than 200 wines from 30-plus

Larry Cherubino of Larry Cherubino

producers will be available to taste on the

Wines/Robert Oatley; Lauren Hansen of

South Bank, respresenting the country’s

Penley Estate; Lou Miranda of Lou Miranda

distinctive terroirs and world-class

Estate; Madeleine Marson of Vinea Marson;

vineyards.

Rebecca Santolin of Santolin Wines; and

Organiser Wine Australia says: “Australia

Steve James of Voyager Estate.

began making wine over two centuries ago. This has given us a country rich in

old vines, multi-generational winemaking families and an ingrained knowledge and respect of the craft.

“Add to that a yearning to explore and

innovate, a fearless attitude and a diverse

patchwork of 65 wine regions across many climates, and you have the makings of an

The event starts at 11am and continues

Brad Hickey of Brash Higgins in McLaren Vale

until 5.30pm

Register: bit.ly/AustraliaRedefined2019.

Tuesday, September 17 extraordinary wine country like no other.”

OXO2

17 event: Wakefield, Tahbilk, Jim Barry,

London SE1 9PH

Eight of Australia’s First Families of

Wine will be attending the September

Level Two OXO Tower Wharf Barge House Street

Ehrmanns Portfolio Tasting Ehrmanns returns to the opulent surroundings of the Royal Society of Chemistry for this year’s Portfolio Tasting.

Guests will be able to explore the

company’s full range of more than 300

wines from 13 countries and meet some of the people behind them.

A room will be dedicated to Ehrmanns’

The Royal Society of Chemistry is once again Ehrmanns’ tasting venue

fortified range. Here there will be over 50

Ehrmanns portfolio, and in addition to

and much more.

Ports.

will introduce its new Spanish producers

Tuesday, September 17

wines to try, from fine Almacenista and single-vintage Sherries to rare Colheita The event will also put the spotlight

on Ehrmanns’ organic and Fair Trade

portfolio, with what the importer bills as an “ethical tasting trail”.

Iberia plays an important role in the

showing new wines and vintages from its long-standing partners, Ehrmanns

Bodegas Palacio from Rioja, along with

To register, visit ehrmannswines.co.uk/

tastings.

Astobiza Estate Txakolí.

The Royal Society of Chemistry

in South Africa, Winzer Krems in Austria

London W1J 0BA

There will also be new wines to try from

Barão de Vilar in Portugal, Stellar Organics

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 60

Burlington House Piccadilly

Thorman Hunt Autumn Tastings Thorman Hunt is promising “a seasonal selection of favourites from France, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, New Zealand and California, as well as craft spirits”.

The company will also be presenting

newer additions to its portfolio. These

include Grosbois from Chinon, Chardigny from Beaujolais, La Renardiere from the Jura and Woodchester Valley from the Cotswolds.

Thorman Hunt was established in 1978

and describes itself as “an independent,

specialist wine shipper sourcing premium artisanal wine for trade professionals in London and the UK”.

It adds: “We work with exceptional

family growers built on long-standing

relationships often spanning generations.

We pride ourselves on our distinct

Now even the Cotswolds is on the Thorman Hunt map

personal service and expertise, presenting wines that express a sense of place and balance.”

To register, email vanessa@

Tuesday, September 24 The Refuge Oxford Street Manchester M60 7HA

thormanhunt.co.uk.

Tuesday, October 1

Wednesday, September 18

The Paintworks

67 Pall Mall

Bath Road

London SW1Y 5ES

Bristol BS4 3EH

© Skyimages / stockadobe.com

New Zealand Organic Wine Tasting This invitation-only masterclass is intended to encourage “that allimportant and pertinent conversation about organics and its place in the wine world”, according to organiser New Zealand Winegrowers.

The masterclass and discussion (running

from 10.30am until 12.30pm) will be an opportunity to taste through a series of

organic New Zealand wines in the company of the people who made them.

The conversation will be focused on the

future and importance of organic wine in the global market. The masterclass

will be followed by a walk-around tasting featuring some of New Zealand’s top

No woolly opinions at NZ House on September 18

organic and biodynamic wines.

To register or for more information,

email cstroud@nzwine.com.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 61

Wednesday, September 18 New Zealand House 80 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TE

MAKE A DATE

Yapp Bros Portfolio Tasting The Wiltshire merchant is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

To register, email bianca@yapp.co.uk.

at some wines featuring in the Christmas

wines, almost all of which are organic,

Joseba Lasa will be serving canapés.

terroir and sensation”. Categories include

promotion.

Mimo London’s talented Basque chef

To register, email lgray@bancroftwines.

com.

Wednesday, September 18

Tuesday, September 17

Mimo London

67 Pall Mall

1 Cathedral Street

London SW1Y 5ES

London SE1 9DE

biodynamic or natural.

Wines will be divided by “style, category,

Minerals: Sea, Sand & Saline; Garrigue, Maquis & Fynbos; O2 & Flor; The

Amber Revolution; The Decanter and a

selection of KeyKegs. There will also be a

presentation of “Useful Wines”: a range of organic wines under £12 excluding VAT.

Bancroft Wines Les Caves de Autumn Snapshot Pyrene Autumn Tasting Portfolio Tasting Bancroft has put together a selection of

Les Caves’ ambition for this event is to

more than 70 wines, designed to meet

“get away from the generic tasting by

autumn and Christmas trading needs.

region or winery and to allow customers

There will also be a comparative line-up

of Pinot Noir from 10 countries.

The tasting will feature some new

agencies, new vintages and recent arrivals and the company says the majority of

wines will be making their autumn trade tasting debut.

To register, email pr.events@lescaves.

co.uk.

Monday, September 23

to taste by style, showing similarities

Hellenic Centre

producers, large formats and a few

and differences in each category”.

16-18 Paddington Street

Buckingham Schenk: A Taste of the Med

(Rioja); Bodegas Murviedro (Valencia);

These include wines from new

special parcels, as well as a sneak peak

The importer’s autumn trade event in Shoreditch is intended to showcase the company’s best Mediterranean wines alongside a tasting menu with dishes

The tasting will include more than 180

Caso lo Alto (Requena); and Cellers Unio (Catalonia).

From Portugal, Douro’s Pormenor

Vinhos will be on show, and flying the flag for France is Cave de Cairanne, from the southern Rhône.

Both producers are newcomers to the

London W1U 5AS

Buckingham-Schenk portolio.

To register, email emma@buckingham-

schenk.co.uk.

Thursday, September 19 Dinerama Great Eastern Street London EC2A 3EJ

from each country.

The event starts at 12pm, and runs to

5pm, and will have limited space – so early booking is advised.

Italian producers represented include

Bacio della Luna (Prosecco/Spumante); Castello di Querceto (Chianti); Tenute

Tomasella (a Friuli winery which joined

the Buckingham-Schenk roster earlier this

year); and various Schenk Italian wineries.

Spain is represented by Bodega Otazu

(Navarra); Bodegas Familia Chavarri

The team at Cave de Cairanne, France’s representative on September 19

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 62

Chilean winemakers have tariff protection with a free-trade deal

Love Wine, Love Chile Chile is keen to reinforce its credentials as a source of more than just cheap, safe, entry-level wines, and this year’s annual tasting represents a real effort to prove the point.

With potential Brexit chaos looming, the

Chileans are relaxed in the knowledge that their free-trade agreement means wines

will not be subject to tariffs in the future.

Anita Jackson of Wines of Chile says:

“Wine styles have become more diverse,

from wonderfully fresh and light Pais that is great drunk lightly chilled, through to

cool-climate Syrah that rival wines from

the Barossa and the Rhône and are perfect for any dinner party.

“Whilst Sauvignon Blanc is the

biggest-selling white variety from Chile,

which expresses itself in many different

sophisticated, elegant wines, but at the

wines, where vegan, biodynamic, natural

Chardonnay has found its home in the

north of Chile and produces beautifully fraction of the price of Burgundy.”

Jackson accepts that some regard Chile

as a country where the larger producers hold sway. “However this is not the

case,” she insists, “and this year we will

showcase some of Chile’s smaller boutique producers, some of which are seeking representation in the UK and whose

winemaking skills often create quirky and exciting wines.

“All this proves that there is something

for everyone to enjoy from Chile.”

More than 250 wines from across the

country will be on show, some appearing on themed tables.

One is devoted to Sauvignon Blanc,

Chile’s most widely-planted white variety,

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 63

styles across the regions.

There will also be a table of ethical

and orange products will be on display.

One table will be devoted to award

winners and another to “ancestral wines”.

Chile has been making wine since the

Conquistadors arrived in 1541 – this is an

opportunity to taste the country’s heritage with the help of varieties including Pais, Cinsault and Muscat that are making a renaissance, along with field blends.

To register, email anita@winesofchile.

org.uk or visit www.lovewinelovechile. co.uk/trade.

Tuesday, September 24 The Boiler House Brick Lane London E1 6RU

MAKE A DATE

Genesis Wines Autumn Portfolio Tasting

Ten Years of Crus Bourgeois Since the 2008 vintage, a selection of wines – 250 on average – from the

Genesis will be showcasing over 90

Médoc have been granted Cru Bourgeois

wines, including new additions and latest vintages from its key producers.

The company will also be unveiling “new

stellar domaines from Burgundy and the Languedoc”.

Winemakers from key agencies will be

attending, presenting fine wine and library stock as well as recent vintages.

A blind tasting competition has a prize of

status.

Matthieu Delaporte of Domaine Delaporte

Robert Rolls & Co Portfolio Tasting Established names and new finds will be on show at the Robert Rolls event at

a trip to a top winery.

the spiritual home of the wine trade.

Tuesday, September 24

Fleurot, Hubert Lignier, Francois Buisson-

Contact sales@genesiswines.com.

Royal Thames Yacht Club Knightsbridge London W1X 7LF

Friarwood Fine Wines Annual Portfolio Tasting

The event will be featuring wines from

Domaine Delaporte, Coquard-Loison-

Battault, Langoureau, Domaine Belle and many more.

For more information and to register,

email jack@robertrolls.com.

Thursday, September 26 The Boardroom

Next year, when the 2018 Crus Bourgeois

du Médoc Official Selection is unveiled, the

system will evolve to a three-tier structure, with Cru Bourgeois, Crus Bourgeois

Supérieur and Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel levels.

Cru Bourgeois status will be granted

for five years. This new classification will be based on a tasting assessment of five vintages since 2008.

A selection of around 30 wines from

the new 2017 Crus Bourgeois du Médoc

Official Selection will be shown in London,

along with around 30 Cru Bourgeois wines from vintages since 2008.

For more information and to register,

email jo@bellevillemarketing.com.

Thursday, September 26

Vintner’s Hall

Institute of Directors

68 Upper Thames Street

116 Pall Mall

London EC4V 3BG

London SW1Y 5ED

Friarwood will be presenting more than 100 wines from boutique producers that it represents exclusively in the UK. Burgundy and Bordeaux will feature

strongly, but there will also be offerings

from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada,

France, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and the USA.

New additions include Croix Belle from

Languedoc and Domaine des Masques from Aix-en-Provence.

To register, email vessy@friarwood.com.

Tuesday, September 24 Café Royal 10 Air Street London W1B 4DY

Château Le Crock, a Cru Bourgeois property in St Estèphe

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 64

REAL RASPBERRIES. IT’S A PINKSTER THING

fruityhedgepig.com

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 65

THE SPIRITS WORLD

Weaker but stronger What gin liqueurs lack in alcohol content they make up for in variety and versatility. Nigel Huddleston looks at a small but growing category that appeals to cocktail lovers and playful imbibers

G

in has become one of the

drinks market’s most confusing

environments as well as its most

beguiling. Flavoured full-strength gins have often become conflated with gin liqueurs

that offer as little as half the abv and push other fruits to the fore ahead of juniper.

Though the word “gin” appears in the

product description, gin liqueurs actually perform a very different role to fullstrength 40% abv gin.

They’re a handy way to avoid

overcooking gin cocktails and provide lighter and sweeter twists at more accessible price points.

Hayman’s is thought to have been the

first to market with a gin liqueur in 2004.

Its product remains what it was then: a

sweetened juniper spirit at 40% abv, free from mangos, berries, elderflower or any of the many variations out there today.

Among the more prominent updates

on the gin liqueur concept are Northern Ireland’s Jawbox, Pinkster’s premiumpriced Hedgepig range and Japanese-

inspired Kokoro.

Scotland is particularly mad for gin

liqueurs, with Eden Mill, Pickering’s and Edinburgh all adding brand extensions.

Leah Shaw Hawkins, Pickering’s head of

marketing, says its 20% Pink Grapefruit & Lemongrass liqueur takes its flavour

cue from the garnishes used in signature serves for its gin.

“There’s definitely a growing market for

a lower abv serve, and there’s also demand for something to mix with Prosecco,” she says. “You need something with a lower abv if you’re going to mix it with wine.

“We use the real gin base of our primary

product because we wanted to retain that gin character for our gin liqueur.

“It gets our range out to a slightly

broader audience. Traditional gin drinkers are also moving into liqueurs if they want something more summery. It’s a bit more of a playful category.”

Pete Thompson’s family farm in Essex

supplies produce to top-end London

restaurants, and uses rejected, imperfect

plums and apricots to make its Reliquum liqueurs. The name is Latin for “all that remains”.

First experiments made on the kitchen

table included added sugar, but the

commercial versions being made for them

by English Spirit Co are sugar-free, which gives them a different character to many other gin liqueurs.

“They are all super-sweet and we just

make something different,” says Thompson.

“We took advice from Stephen Georgiou,

head bartender at the Langham, which we

supply, and he pointed out that bartenders will often add their own sweetness to

cocktails as they need, but if it’s already there they can’t take it out.”

He adds: “People are using the plum in

Negronis, or similar to Pimm’s, long with lemonade. The apricot with Prosecco is a take on the Bellini. My over-arching

favourite serve is plum with Double Dutch Cranberry & Ginger tonic.”

James Nicol has launched Blueberry,

Yuzu & Ginger and Cherry Blossom

GIN

MALT WHISKY

RUM

national park life

blooming marvellous

hitting a new high

Wemyss Malts set itself the brief of illustrating the diversity of Highland malt with two additions to its Family Collection. Blooming Gorse has whiskies from ex-bourbon barrels and Flaming Feast introduces spirits from re-charred American oak.

Fewer than 7,000 bottles of each: RRP £46 and £48 respectively.

Cornish spiced rum brand Dead Man’s Fingers has added a Hemp version to its stable. It contains natural hemp and cannabidiol which, you’ll be unsurprised to hear, makes for “one of the most intriguing and exciting taste profiles” in the rum category, according to the producer.

Scottish folklore dictated rowan trees were so sacred that no part could be cut off. Times have changed, however, and locally-sourced rowan berries, along with blackcurrants, are among the botanicals to find their way into Ben Lomond, a gin “inspired by the Loch Lomond National Park” and made by the Loch Lomond Group.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 66

No. 8

The classic Mojito – muddled mint leaves and limes topped with rum, soda and loads of ice – is one of Jawbox: yet more good news for rhubarb farmers

the UK’s favourite cocktails, partly because it’s got more variations than

liqueurs as an extension of his Kokoro

little bit of ambition.”

to explore a little bit further than London

slightly stronger than other gin liqueurs, at

gin, a British brand inspired by Japanese

botanicals. “It’s about giving people options dry gin,” says Nicol.

“We steep the fruit in a base of gin, using

the same method as sloe gin.

“We go to a lot of events where we

serve gin and tonics but we try to offer

something different according to what’s in season or what mood we’re in at the time.

“It’s really simple to produce a delicious

drink that’s a bit different if you’ve got the flavours to work with.

“People can be afraid to try to do that

themselves but the liqueurs are a bridge to allow them to experiment a little bit

further and realise what they can do with a

Will Holt, co-founder of Pinkster, says

its Hedgepig range stands out by being

a death bowler in the Cricket World Cup. This twist brings fresh basil and seasonal fruit to the party for an energising encore to the summer’s al fresco drinking.

30% abv.

“Not only are we sourcing unusual

fruit but we’re not going overboard on

sugar levels,” he says. “For some of our

ingredients, such as bullace, a member of

the plum family, we’re literally rummaging around on our hands and knees.

“All the fruit is sourced locally, whether

grown in local orchards or wild in the

50ml white rum Fresh raspberries Fresh basil leaves Fresh lime juice Two teaspoons of sugar Soda water Crushed ice

hedgerows. We’re busy establishing

Hedgepig as the definitive pudding gin, as

they’re all especially delicious with cheese and dessert as an alternative to a sweet

Put the sugar, basil and raspberries into a Collins glass and muddle to

wine or port.”

break up the solids. Stir in the rum to

VODKA

SCOTCH WHISKY

value for MONAE

wood you believe it

more basil and a whole raspberry.

The latest release from Belvedere vodka is a limited-edition bottle designed in collaboration with the Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe. The metallic collage label ties in with Monáe’s campaigning work on advancing opportunities for women in the arts and music and goes under the name A Beautiful Future.

Scotch producer Glenallachie is making up its absence until now from the wood-finish market with a flourish of limited-edition launches. Eight-year-old Rye Quarter Cask Wood Finish uses mini-barrels from Chicago’s Koval distillery. Along with a 10-year-old Port Wood Finish, it hits the £54.99 price point. A 12-year-old PX Sherry Wood Finish retails at £4 more.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 67

dissolve the sugar. Top with ice and soda water to taste, and garnish with Tinker with the sugar and lime depending on the ripeness and sharpness of the fruit.

English rows Ridgeview Wine Estate in Ditchling, East Sussex, has been voted one of the world’s best vineyards by an academy of nearly 500 wine aficionados, sommeliers and luxury travel correspondents from across the globe. The estate, founded in 1995, was the only British representative in The World’s Best Vineyards Top 50, announced at a ceremony in London last month.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 68

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

LOUIS LATOUR AGENCIES 12-14 Denman Street London W1D 7HJ

0207 409 7276 enquiries@louislatour.co.uk www.louislatour.co.uk

Have you tried one of Louis Latour’s newest and most exciting wines? Les Pierres Dorées Pinot Noir 2017 originates from the clay limestone hills north west of Lyon on vineyards owned and established by Louis Latour. But don’t just take our word for it.

Now in its third release it’s beginning to catch the attention a selection of UK writers.

David Williams, The Observer, 30th June “The Coteaux Bourguignons name is also useful for those of us with the taste, but not the bank balance for Burgundy Pinot Noir. Certainly, the Pinot Noir vines planted by Louis Latour in Beaujolais have yielded a red wine with the kind of prettiness and subtle herby-earthiness that would cost much more with a Burgundy village on the label.”

Susy Atkins, Delicious, 1st July “A cool, fresh Pinot Noir is perfect on a hot summer’s night. This fragrant, plummy one is a delight with duck or a rare steak.”

Will Lyons, The Sunday Times, 28th July “A lovely garnet-hued Pinot Noir, with soft spices and a flavourful finish of cherries and strawberries.”

Joanna Simon, joannasimon.com. Wine of the Week, 6th June “It has the sweet, delicately spicy, red-cherry fruit, forest-floor, earthfresh mineral notes and fine texture of a Burgundian Pinot Noir.”

Tom Cannavan, Wine-Pages.com, Wine of the Week, 29th July “Terrific lift and buoyancy, violet florals and cherry leap from the glass, with a nice undercurrent of soft, truffly Pinot character.”

hatch mansfield New Bank House 1 Brockenhurst Road Ascot Berkshire SL5 9DL 01344 871800 info@hatch.co.uk www.hatchmansfield.com @hatchmansfield

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 69

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

walker & Wodehouse 109a Regents Park Road London NW1 8UR 0207 449 1665 orders@walkerwodehousewines.com www.walkerwodehousewines.com

@WalkerWodehouse

Autumn Tasting and Braai Join Walker & Wodehouse this September for a tasting of their Christmas Specials, some Weird & Wonderful favourites plus Meet the Producer in their South Africa special. After the tasting their South African producers will be treating guests to a braai and tasting.

When: Tasting 10.30am to 1.30pm and Braai 1.30pm to 4pm Where: The Drop, Unit 22-24, Bagley Walk Arches, Coal Drops Yard, London N1C 4DH RSVP: To events@walkerwodehousewines.com; please specify whether you will be attending the Tasting and Braai/Tasting Only or Braai Only.

buckingham schenk Unit 5, The E Centre Easthampstead Road Bracknell RG12 1NF 01753 521336 info@buckingham-schenk.co.uk www.buckingham-schenk.co.uk

@BuckSchenk @buckinghamschenk

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 70

budureasca

Budureasca is a name that has its roots in antiquity and tells a beautiful story of Romanian wine.

UK importer: Transylvania Wine The Shacks House Halifax HX2 0SX

07952 981036

In our vineyards, you will find indigenous Romanian varieties enjoying worldwide recognition such as Feteasca Neagra and Tamaioasa Romaneasca alongside international varieties.

We are proud to have in our team well-known British winemaker Stephen Donnelly. He has won more than 180 international awards for Budureasca and the latest Decanter results confirmed, once again, the quality of Budureasca wines.

We are confident that you will enhance your offer by adding our wines to your portfolio.

ovidiu@transylvaniawine.co.uk www.transylvaniawine.co.uk www.budureasca.com

A selection of Budureasca wines are available in the UK. If you would like to organise tastings for your customers or to receive samples please contact the importer.

GOLD Budureasca Noble White 2017 95 points Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Muskat Ottonel.

Luxurious and absolutely laden with fruit. A sublime mineral finish. RRP £16.99

SILVER Budureasca Noble Five 2016 90 points Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Merlot, Feteasca Neagra. Rich, ripe and fresh, with liquorice-tinged, concentrated dark fruits. RRP £17.49

BRONZE Vine in Flames Pinot Noir 2018 88 points 100% Pinot Noir.

Tobacco, cinnamon and black pepper characters amid fine red fruits and elegant tannins.

RRP £11.99

BRONZE Premium Tamaioasa Romaneasca 87 points 100% Tamaioasa Romaneasca.

Strong Muscat character, with citrus blossom on the attractive finish. RRP £12.99

BRONZE Vine in Flames Feteasca Regala 2018 87 points 100% Feteasca Regala. Pure and driven by fruit which shows admirable concentration and a lively character.

RRP £11.99

BRONZE Budureasca Origini Shiraz 2015 86 points A generous and spicy dry red wine, with proper Syrah notes including tobacco, spice and dried dark fruits.

RRP £19.99

IWC Awards – four champion wines and more … By David Gleave MW

liberty wines 020 7720 5350

At this year’s International Wine Challenge we were very proud to be named Italian

order@libertywines.co.uk www.libertywines.co.uk

year. It is worth noting that no other merchant has won the On-trade

for the 11th time, and Educator of the Year for the fourth consecutive Supplier more than once, so we were delighted to retain this trophy in a highly competitive field.

We were even more delighted with the success of our producers. Rare

@liberty_wines

Champagne 2006 won the Champion Sparkling Wine, the Champion

Sweet Wine trophy went to Capezzana’s Vin Santo Riserva 2011 and Justino’s Madeira Terrantez 1978 took the Champion Fortified Wine.

Cyril Brun of Charles Heidsieck was named Sparkling Winemaker of the Year. The 2017 Papa Figos Red from Casa Ferreirinha had already won the Portuguese Red Trophy but was also crowned Great Value Champion Red Wine.

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RNATION TE

IN

Merchant of the Year for the 18th time, On-trade Supplier of the Year

LEN G E 2

MERCHANT OF THE YEAR

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Tolpuddle Vineyard 2017 Chardonnay won the Australian White

Trophy, Nyetimber Classic Cuvee the English Sparkling Trophy and

Valdespino’s Oloroso Don Gonzalo VOS 20 YO took the Sherry Trophy.

These awards are for wines of provenance and authenticity and illustrate the breadth of

winemaking talent across our entire portfolio, in our specialist areas and beyond.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 71

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL WINE AGENCIES 28 Recreation Ground Road Stamford Lincolnshire PE9 1EW 01780 755810 orders@abswineagencies.co.uk www.abswineagencies.co.uk

AWIN BARRATT SIEGEL WELCOME YOU TO EXPLORE THEIR WORLD OF WINE AT THE 2019

PORTFOLIO TASTING 10:30 - 18:00

11 - 09 - 2019

ONE GREAT GEORGE STREET - WESTMINSTER LONDON - SW1P 3AA

@ABSWines

RSVP to Lesley Gray at lg@abswineagencies.co.uk or call 01306631155 to register

richmond wine agencies The Links, Popham Close Hanworth Middlesex TW13 6JE 020 8744 5550 info@richmondwineagencies.com

@richmondwineag1

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 72

Famille Helfrich Wines 1, rue Division Leclerc, 67290 Petersbach, France

Nestled between Carcassonne and the Pyrenees, the

countryside of Limoux hosts some of the oldest vineyards in France. With more than 2,000 years of history, the Sainte-

Hilaire vineyard is a true gem in the region’s crown. Indeed, the vine-growing culture is mentioned here in the writings of the Roman historian Tite-Live in the 1st century.

Domaine Les Ors, situated on the sunny hillsides of the

cdavies@lgcf.fr 07789 008540 @FamilleHelfrich

Pyrenees foothills, is named in honour of ‘Les Ours’– the Catalan word for the bears that once used to roam this

landscape. The often extreme Mediterranean climate is

naturally tempered by elevation and cooling ocean breezes.

Here the grapes can ripen slowly in a more Burgundian style, maintaining freshness and adding a real finesse.

Our fruit is hand-picked to avoid crushing the grapes, which

HIGHLY COMMENDED

must arrive in the winery in whole bunches for pressing. Limoux

white wines are unique in being the only Languedoc appellation where fermentation and ageing must occur in large oak casks, for anything up to 10 months.

They’re all smiles to your face … A blend of 75% Chardonnay with 25% Mauzac, it offers a nose of vanilla, candied

tropical fruit and toasted hazelnut notes. A well-balanced, fresh palate with a great background minerality and delicious texture follows. Not your typical Languedoc Chardonnay ….

hallgarten wines Dallow Road Luton LU1 1UR 01582 722 538 sales@hnwines.co.uk www.hnwines.co.uk

@hnwines

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 73

SUPPLIER BULLETIN

fine wine partners Thomas Hardy House 2 Heath Road Weybridge KT13 8TB 07552 291045 info@finewinepartners.co.uk www.finewinepartners.co.uk

Fine Wine Partners The home of some of Australia’s most iconic, beloved and highest awarded producers.

Contact us to continue to spread the message of Australia’s diversity, character and share in these amazing wines.

new generation 14 Kennington Road London SE1 7BL

o i l o f t r o p

020 7928 7300 london@newgenwines.com

www.newgenwines.com @newgenwineslimited

@newgenwines

Save the date MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2019 67 PALL MALL 10AM - 4PM

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 74

tasting

mentzendorff The Woolyard 52 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD

Launch of the Akitu A1 and A2 2017 Vintage In the heart of Central Otago, Akitu’s 12-hectare vineyard sits alone at 380 metres above sea level on a stunning north-facing slope. The 2017 vintage was very different to anything before, but this unique site has delivered some remarkable wines which will be available in the UK from September this year.

020 7840 3600 info@mentzendorff.co.uk

‘A2’ 2017 (white label) is a generous wine full of succulent plum fruit aromatics and complemented by subtle airy herbs with a sprig of thyme and integrated brown spice overlay. The supple tannins and juicy acidity give impressive length. Made with a percentage of whole bunch and aged in 12% new French oak.

Akitu ‘A2’ 2017, RSP £30

www.mentzendorff.co.uk

‘A1’ 2017 (black label) made with Abel clones, is aged in 20% new French oak, and is an elegantly crafted wine with precise fruit focus, brooding aromatics, velvety tannins and a long savoury finish with a theatrical sparkle of fruit.

Akitu ‘A1’ 2017 RSP £40

enotria & COE 23 Cumberland Avenue London NW10 7RX www.enotriacoe.com

Chivite Las Fincas Rosado 2018 List price £12.94 Dedicated to legendary 3* Spanish chef Juan Mari Arzak. A truly gastronomic rosé. Clean, crisp and incisive.

Cazes Canon du Marechal Organic Rosé 2018 List price £9.49 Biodynamic rosé with bright red fruits and refreshing acidity, straight from the brilliant

020 8961 5161

Summer rosé offer: buy 12 bottles, get one free

Roussillon sunshine.

@EnotriaCoe

Bertani Bertarose 2018 List price £9.07 A historic Bertani wine produced since the 1930s delivered in a modern, fresh and well-balanced style.

Esprit de Gassier Rosé 2018 List price £12.18 Gold Medal in the Global Rosé Masters 2018.

Great complexity of floral aromas, white peach and exotic fruits.

The offer applies from July 15 to August 26. Terms and conditions apply.

THE WINE MERCHANT AUGUST 2019 75

BORDEAUX WINE MONTH

Join us as we celebrate the diversity and quality of everyday Bordeaux Wines this summer Participating retailers receive ÂŁ200 and the chance to win a trip to Bordeaux For more information go to: www.cubecom.co.uk/bwm or email: teambordeaux@cubecom.co.uk Terms & Conditions apply