wine » Peter Grogan

HOW TO BUY WINE: Part 7 - Wine Merchants: Local Heroes

Feb 082012

It’s an ill wind alright. The demise of the high-street chains in the ‘noughties saw a profoundly encouraging spate of start-ups of small, independent wine merchants devoting themselves to purveying carefully-selected, high-quality wines across (almost) the whole price range. More encouraging still is that a number of them are cautiously expanding. Most deliver nationwide but if you’re fortunate to have one nearby it adds something special if you can walk in and have a nice chat and, often, a nice glass of wine as well – some of them seem to be in permanent tasting mode, with a few bottles open all the time. No names, no pack drill – it’s a hard life for some of these chaps (eh, Marc?).

Some have the Enomatic storage and dispensing systems which allow them to offer customers (and casuals) the chance try before they buy and, better yet, to taste high-end wines in small doses without the wine deteriorating (or breaking the bank). Basically, you put some credit on a card they give which you use to pay for a small (but not necessarily tiny – they come in different measures) glass of a few (or all) of the dozen or so wines they have “on taste” as they say in the States. Others have a corkscrew and some glasses. And maybe a fridge.

(Selfridges pioneered Enomatic in the UK, only to find that silly Westminster Council refused – and persisted in refusing until quite recently – to countenance the sale of wine in “non-standard” measures like 5cl. It shows just the sort of flexibilty and forward-thinking that we’ve come to expect from our dynamic local government people, doesn’t it?)

When I was writing my book, I would have been lucky to find more than a handful of the 3500-odd recommended wine producers in it in my patch of north London. But three excellent places have opened up in Stokie in the past 18 months and I recently did a piece for the (equally excellent) local mag – N16 Magazine – to see how many I could find now. I stopped counting at 100. None of the new places are solely dedicated to booze, which may be one of the ways forward – Le Parc and MeatN16 also sell food and Homa is a restaurant with a side-line in off-sales.

Elsewhere in London, among my favourite local heroes are (in no particular order) Planet of the Grapes, Vinoteca, Highbury Vintners, The Bottle Apostle and The Sampler. Longer-established Jeroboams, Roberson and Philglass & Swiggot also deserve the same plaudits. Out in the sticks, The Secret Cellar (Tunbridge Wells, Wadhurst and Oxted), The Butler’s Wine Cellar, Quaff, Ten Green Bottles (all in Brighton), Cooden Cellars (have a guess), South Downs Cellars (Hurstpierpoint and Lindhurst), Fareham Cellars (is “eponymous” correct in this context), Noel Young (Cambridge), Symposium, (Lewes), Wine Therapy (Cowes) and Corks Out (Warrington) deserve particular praise – and there are many more. Let me know if you have one that I should know about. There’s no point in recommending individual wines because all these fine folk only sell good wine, which is rather refreshing. The Association of Direct Wine Merchants brings together some up-and-coming and decidedly individualistic folk too so, with just a minimum of effort you really never need open a dull bottle again.

HOW TO BUY WINE: The Supermarkets. Part 4 - "Deep Cover" Private Brands

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Jan 182012

Private brands are basically the same thing as own brands, only with made-up names so that people who think they’ll look mean for serving a bottle that shows the name of the supermarket where they buy their wine, don’t have to worry. They’re all those Castellos de This and Châteaux de That when, really, there’s no such place.

What happens is that the retailer does their research and then tells the supplier – often a co-operative or a mid-size producer – that they have room for, say, five-thousand cases of an up-front, medium-quality reserva Rioja if they can get it on the shelf for xyz pounds a bottle in X weeks time. The winemaker does their sums, taps into their bit of the world’s ocean of surplus wine, and … Bingo! “Baron de Alava” – or, for all I care, our old chum “Windy Bottom” – is born.

Most of the majors now send their own experts – not just their buyers – out into the world to work with producers to make and market private brands. A few even become mini-brands in their own right and get sold to other supermarkets. It’s all about “positioning” and they’re pitched above the “own labels” at around the same level as the big international brands and attract customers who want to feel they’re getting a wine made by “real” people in a “real” place rather than by a bunch of machines owned by a corporation. As it happens, they often are … it’s just not the people or the place they think it is.

If you’re sad that the grapes in your wine are not being lovingly harvested and vinified in his shed by a friendly, slack-jawed yokel in a beret, skip the rest of this paragraph. The big producers need to be very nimble to sell all their “juice”. An Aussie firm that is a humungous provider of supermarket own-labels also sells its own brands in direct competition with the separate labelling of the same wines as supermarket private brands while – get this – supplying millions of cases of wine made under contract for some of its biggest, household-name, competitor brands. They’re all there, side by side, on the shelf.

M&S, who don’t sell branded products, were the first UK retailers to do private brands when they wanted a separate tier above their own labels and decided that “Chevalier de Hows-Your-Father” had more cachet than “M&S Chablis.” Meanwhile, the Wine Society approached the problem of different quality levels equally successfully with its “Exhibition” range and this seems to have been the model for the “tiered” own-brand offerings elsewhere.

Margins are better on private brands than on “real” brands because there are fewer marketing costs involved and the good ‘uns are among the best-value wines on supermarket shelves. They tend to come and go quite quickly – presumably an algorithm somewhere is doing the math – but a few current favourite bargains are listed below. (It also counts as a crash-course in getting the hang of the dodgy names thing.) As ever, reading our knowledgeable and conscientious (and, not infrequently, irresistibly attractive) newspaper wine writers is the best way to keep up with it all.

Marks and Spencer: Perez Burton, Soleado, Valdepomares, Falleras, Secano, Clocktower, Cobborah, Corriente del Bio Réserve de la Saurine. Marquès de Alarcon

Sainsburys: Spanish Steps, Flor de Nelas, Marquès de Montoya, Elegant Frog, Rio de la Vida, L’Esprit de la Cité

Tesco: Gran Tesoro, Viña Mara, Palais des Anciens, Villa Taurini, La Leyenda, La Terre, Fern Bay

Waitrose: Cuvée Chasseur and Cuveé Pêcheur, Whale Caller, Moncaro, La Rectorie, Montgravet, Eva’s Vineyard, Fontaine du Roy

Asda: Gran Vega, Marques del Norte, Pleyades, Mas Miralda, Le Monferrine, Villa Ludy, Château Salmonière

Co-op: Villa Pani, Rocca Vecchia, Les Crouzes

An example of a private brand label

HOW TO BUY WINE: The Supermarkets - Part 3: Own Blands?

Wine No Responses »

Jan 122012

Supermarket own brands used to be the “grey goo” of wine. There has been significant improvement in recent years but they are still to be bought randomly only by the wreckless and the feckless (i.e. those who don’t give a feck). The job of finding what I estimate to be the 15-20% of genuinely good wines has been made somewhat easier by the introduction of premium ranges by most chains – upping the hit rate to maybe 25-33%.

Finding the, what?, maybe 3-5% of real stonkers – regardless of range, and often produced by leading winemakers – is not so easy. BUT, at the tastings that the supermarkets organise for the wine hacks they stick out like … well, like very sticky-outy things indeed and these same few dozen wines feature regularly in the columns of the national press writers. A quick scan of who’s writing about what and, yes, jotting down a few notes, is well worth the little effort required.

The general concensus seems to be that Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference (TTD) is the best of the supermarket own-brand ranges at the moment. In no order at all, these are some the best at the lower end of the price-range: Verdicchio, Brachetto d’Acqui, Douro, Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc, Gavi, Crozes Hermitage, Languedoc White, Curico Merlot, Moscatel, Chilean Rosé, Rosé Côtes-de-Provençe, Trentino Pinot Grigio, Grüner Veltliner, Beaujolais-Villages (made by Duboeuf) and Côtes-du-Rhône Villages (made by Chapoutier. See? I’m not joking about top producers).

Tesco’s large (too large) Finest* range (and what that f**king “*” is for, I’ve never understood) is a mixed bag, but with some very good stuff at the (generally) lower end, like Vinho Verde, Autumn Riesling, Alsace Riesling, Steillage Riesling, Picpoul de Pinet, Gavi, Palomino, Rueda, Fiano, Grüner Veltliner, Grenache-Marsanne, Tapiwey Sauvignon Blanc, Australian Dessert Semillon, Muscadet, Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc, Malbec Rosé, Côtes Catalanes, Dão, Douro, Touriga Nacional, 10 Year-Old Tawny Port, Nero d’Avola and Teroldego. Sounds like a lot, but there are over 100 in the range. Lower down, among the regular stuff, South African Chenin Blanc, Reserve Australian Shiraz, Sicilian Red, Simply Muscadet, Soave Classico, Verdicchio Classico and Reserve Australian Riesling/Gewurztraminer shine.

Morrisons gets plenty of stick from the wine hacks, but there are good things to be had, among them Cotes du Rhone La Calade (a standout cheapie), Moscatel de Valencia, Italian Pinot Grigio, “Italian” Chianti (as if ..!), Australian Chardonnay, Merlot delle Venezie, Corbieres and (on and off) stonking Barolo (from Araldica) for under a tenner.

For real cheapies, Asda have a handful of the (few) really good ones: Marsanne Pays d’Oc is worth going to Asda for, and their Beaujolais, South African Chenin Blanc and Australian Chardonnay are good. Pickings are slim among the own brands at the Co-op, but some of the better own-label stuff is from their large range of Fairtrade wines, especially the Argentinian Malbec and, of the unfair trade offerings, the Argentinian Cuyo Cabernet Franc and the Chablis’ are none too shabby

Marks and Spencer have a quite small range of good own-label stuff (try Fitou, Spanish Garnacha Shiraz, Ardèche Gamay, Minervois, Orvieto, Chilean White, Touraine Sauvignon and Sparkling Rosé Zinfandel – yes, really!).

Ironically (or annoyingly, depending on how you look at it) Waitrose – by a country mile the best of the supermarkets as far as wine, or for that matter, food is concerned – have one of the smallest ranges of own brands (but, usefully, they often name the – usually top-class – producers and they’re pretty good across the board). But, like M&S, they concentrate their best efforts on the artful (if somewhat crafty) business of “private brands” and we’ll look at those next time.

How to Buy Wine: The Supermarkets - Part 2 The Big Swingin' Brands

Wine No Responses »

Dec 292011

A little bit of history. The Champagne marques were the earliest wine brands, and they’re still the biggest. Luxury goods group LVMH have taken things to a new level, buying up Moët et Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Veuve-Clicquot and Ruinart. How big are they? They’re very big – big enough to make chairman Bernard Arnault the richest man in the European village.

Some of the earliest still wine brands were hot stuff – now and then my dad used to buy Mouton Cadet when it really was the “second wine” of Bordeaux’s first-growth Château Mouton-Rothschild. It ain’t any more. If there was a twentieth growth, Mouton wouldn’t make the cut. The rest of the time – in the `seventies - we were weaned on the likes of Mateus Rosé, Blue Nun and Stowells of Chelsea. Those dinosaur brands are still with us and plenty of people are surprised to know that, even though trends in wine consumption have changed out of all recognition, they’re bigger than ever – Mateus sells around 20m bottles annually. Needless to say, the wines are somewhat better these days – everybody has to compete, after all.

Wine doesn’t fit corporate plans for global branding in the way that beer and spirits (where the real money is) do. It’s small fry next to the Bacardis and the Smirnoffs (go into virtually any bar in world and you’ll find them…). The frustration of Fosters, who bought up great swathes of Australia’s wine business in the ‘nineties, was palpable. The facts are that wine is variable; the better stuff is, by its very nature, limited; it’s not possible to respond swiftly to demand; and the whole weather thing? Well, it’s a nightmare …

But these chaps are smart as hell and they don’t give up. Currently the top ten brands in the UK account for a little under 30% of the total market, which at around £5bn, means that each single per cent that they scrabble for translates into sales of a million pounds a week. Pernod Ricard have taken the route of simplification and consolidation and their Jacob’s Creek comes closer to being a global wine brand than most (while being, a) not bad; and b) with multiple levels of irony, the biggest “French” wine brand). Pernod Ricard also appear to be experimenting with the possibilities of making a region – Rioja – interchangeable (or at least confusable with) a brand with their phenomenally successful Campo Viejo. Another new approach is the nomadic or supra-national brand – some Blossom Hill wines, the number-one seller in the UK, are from the USA, some are from Italy and some from Chile … and does anyone mind?

So what’s out there now? Well, of the other top UK sellers like Hardy’s, Gallo, Jacob’s Creek, Lindemans, Echo Falls, First Cape, Kumala, Stowells – yes, really!- and Wolf Blass, the southern hemisphere ones are better than the Californian-based ones and – if push comes to shove – I would drink any of them (but only if cider was the only alternative).

At the next level (down in terms of scale, but up in terms of quality) there are both reliably ubiquitous stand-bys (and anybody who thinks Yellow Tail or Banrock Station are crap isn’t just arguing with me – they’ll have to take on Hugh Johnson as well) and some proper stuff. Again, the best are from South of the equator: St. Hallett, Penfolds and McGuigan from Australia: Oyster Bay, Villa Maria and Brancott (formerly Montana) from NZ: Concha Y Toro (including Casillero del Diablo), Errazuriz, Cono Sur and Yali from Chile: Argento, Alamos, Viñalba, Norton and Zuccardi from Argentina; Kanonkop, Fairhills (fairtrade), Nederburg and Zalze from South Africa are some of the names to go for.

Up North, it’s probably best to forget the USA, for now, and the picture in Europe is patchy. France has always struggled with brands – the French themselves, in fact, abhor Le Piat d’Or. But things are changing and merchant-owned brands like French Connection and La Différence are gradually raising the bar. Some ambitious, quality-conscious, large-scale producers – be they private (like Paul Mas, Gérard Bertrand, Laurent Miquel and Skalli) or co-operative (like Mont Tauch, Plaimont and Blason de Bourgogne) – are coming close to breaking the mould and are worth looking out for.

Spain’s not great – I’m not much taken with the big-selling Riojas – although Torres (especially Viña Sol) deserve a special mention while the best brands are to be found in fortified wines (the same applies in Portugal) and, increasingly, in fizz. From Italy, Canaletto is worth a mention and Germany’s Dr Loosen and Johannes Leitz have great plans based on excellent QPR (quality/price ratio). The old world isn’t really brand land but a lot of great bargains are to be had from the supermarkets’ own brands and “private brands” and we’ll be looking at those in the next two parts.

How to Buy Wine: The Supermarkets - Part 2 The Big Swingin' Brands

Wine No Responses »

Sep 232011

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HOW TO BUY WINE: Part 7 - Wine Merchants: Local Heroes

HOW TO BUY WINE: The Supermarkets. Part 4 - "Deep Cover" Private Brands

HOW TO BUY WINE: The Supermarkets - Part 3: Own Blands?

How to Buy Wine: The Supermarkets - Part 2 The Big Swingin' Brands

How to Buy Wine: The Supermarkets - Part 2 The Big Swingin' Brands

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