Posted by Simon on August 15, 2009
Ten ways of spotting the good from the bad and the ugly.
1) Does the range change regularly? Time was when merchants would change their range maybe once or twice a year. The best outfits often now buy in parcels that are so small that they’re in and out of stock within a month, sometimes a week. And if you ask them why they don’t produce a wine list they’ll say, what’s the point? It would be out of date as soon as it had been printed.
2) Do the wines come from lots of different producers? If the wines from, say, Burgundy, the Rhone and southern France all carry the name of the same producer, then someone is being lazy in their buying habits.
3) Are the wines the same ones you’ve seen in the supermarkets? Nothing wrong with supermarket wines, or indeed with the odd famous brand or two. But if the same old wines monopolise the shelves, then again someone isn’t being as thorough as they could be. However…
4) Do you get the feeling you’re being had? In other words, is that unfamiliar label just an excuse for the merchant to bump up the price of a so-so wine? Tasting is the only way to find out.
5) Are they afraid to specialise? Why should someone who has a passion for Greek wine feel compelled to stock Rioja? Would you rather buy from someone who was single-minded, or a jack-of-all-trades?
6) Does anything in the range look like it should be pensioned off? The better shops should have reasonably speedy turnover of stock. Anything not moving as quickly as it ought may very well end up in the January ‘bin-end’ sale.
7) When you ask the staff a question, does wine ooze out of their pores? Or is their definition of disseminating information simply picking up the bottle and reading out what it says on the back?
8) Do they always try and steer you towards more expensive wines? A decent merchant will be as proud of his selection at £5-10 wines as of anything at higher price. Of course they want you to spend as much money as possible, but the good guys will be much more interested in building a long-term relationship with you than in getting you to cough up in a big way just once.
9) If there’s a shop, does it feel like the sort of place where a bottle would be happy for several weeks? Or does the temperature in store yo-yo up and down while the wine slowly cooks under the harsh fluorescent lights?
10) Do they hold regular tastings for customers? Are they confident enough in their selections to be able to let you try before you buy? If not, why not?
Posted by Simon on July 9, 2009
For anyone in London looking to find out what was hot and what was not in southern France in the 1990s, the place to head was down Old Brompton Road to La Vigneronne. Liz & Mike Berry’s poky little shop excelled in other French regions, and stocked some of the top names of California and Australia long before many others, but it was vast range of top wines of Provence, Langeudoc Roussillon and South West France that marked them out as different.
It’s been some years now since the two sold the shop (it’s now Handford – still worth a visit but not quite as eclectic as La Vig) and moved to Provence. They found a vineyard and olive grove, and now produce their own oil and wine, but they also carried on offering much of the range found in the shop by mail order. However the lure of retail has enticed them to set up shop again in the town of St Martin de Crau. There are several familiar faces on the shelves from the La Vigneronne days, but there are also some of those discoveries that you can only find by being close to the action. If you’re in southern France this summer, Vin Fins de la Crau lies roughly half-way between Marseilles and Montpellier. And if you’re not, the range is still available through mail order – click here for the first newsletter from the new operation.
Posted by Simon on June 25, 2009
No, it’s not the Association of Sad Drunk Winos, it’s the Association of Small Direct Wine Merchants. And if you want to quiz the members as to why the M for Merchants bit isn’t in the acronym, you’ll find some of them showing off their wines at Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire this coming Saturday between 11am and 4pm. Entry is £2 for Adults, with National Trust members getting in free. The full address is Canons Ashby, House Canons Ashby, Daventry, Northamptonshire NN11 3SD and you’ll find more details under the Events tab on the ASDW web site.
Posted by Simon on June 23, 2009
Ballantynes isn’t the UK’s best known wine merchant, partly because it’s based in South Wales rather than within the M25. This hasn’t stopped first Peter Ballantyne and now his son Richard from establishing one of the UK’s top sources of wine. Just like Noel Young in East Anglia, the two – to use the vernacular – take no shit from no-one, both in their strong opinions of the general state of the wine t(i)rade and in their choice of wines. Stay away if your preference is for kiss-me-kwik Pinot Grigio, but get in touch if you’re after some stimulating drinking, particularly from Italy and Southern France. Their new web site at http://www.ballantynes-direct.co.uk is now up and running – enjoy, and grab some of that Kumeu River Chardonnay for high class drinking this summer and in many summers to come. Mature bottles – I’m talking 10+ years old – wipe the floor with all but the best white Burgundy.
Posted by Simon on March 22, 2009
TTH – it’s a term I often use in my tasting notes for wines that are Trying Too Hard to impress. Most of the time, they’re just too loud, with the excess volume coming through in either boisterous oak, overripe fruit or OTT extraction (and in some instances all three). Argentine reds often falls into the TTH category. Once upon a time, they were relaxed and gentle, but for the last five years, there have just been too many shouty-shouty wines.
But thankfully not everything from beef heaven conforms to such pigeon-holing. Last night, I was making beef stew, and reached for a bottle of basic red from the sample rack. I came up with Asda 2008 Argentinian Malbec, courtesy of Trivento (the Argie arm of Concha y Toro). And it’s a bundle of joy, packed with violet-scented berry fruit, with a touch of smoky oak, and a lively refreshing finish. Some of it went into the stew, but just as much went into the chef. Price? £4.24. Bargain, fill yer boots
