5 reasons to buy from Cambridge Wine Merchants

Hal Wilson, founder of Cambridge Wine Merchants explains how his staff have been going the extra mile - and how his customers have been responding.

"A week ago we were drinks wholesalers and retailers with welcoming wine bars. Today we are none of those things, our business plan swept away on a viral riptide.

Amazingly, though, my exceptional team is refashioning what we are, with the conviction that we can and will reimagine our purpose. Maybe it is the long hours or the large glass of Rosso del Palazzone taking their toll but I am deeply moved by this shared endeavour, in which we all have a role (whether working or furloughed).

1. Existing and new customers are finding our website, reading our emails and posts, sending their orders, their money, their love. Ruth Turner thanked us for being her 'fourth Emergency Service'!

2. Our logistics team is working 16 hour days to deliver cases to strangers’ doorsteps, while maintaining strict social distance.

3. Our sales team has gone into creative overdrive to repurpose our inventory for a new market, a different world. Wines destined to be enjoyed in restaurants now need to grace the isolated dinner table so everyone’s cooking better to be up to scratch!

4. Our buyers extend that sense of solidarity to our growers, with whom we build the path from grape to glass. Winemakers are just as vulnerable to the economic consequences of this outbreak as everyone else and we desperately want to keep working with the likes of Simon and Monica Coulshaw at Domaine des Trinités in Faugeres after this is over. For some it will be one crisis too many to weather, after years of climate change-induced short harvests.

5. Self-employed educators and journalists are also in our thoughts and plans, as we support WSET tutors like Steve Hovington to go online or distribute local magazines like Anne Beamish’s The Indie.

The future may be uncertain but the present is intensely real. And I’m proud to be part of it.

Take a look at what we're doing at www.cambridgewine.com

PS the above image brings back memories of the last time I was as exhausted as I feel now, winning The Ardbeg Peat Football World Cup. It reminds me of our solidarity, of being almost literally in the s**t together!

5 Reasons is a free platform for small food and drink producers, importers and retailers to talk about what they do. See What is 5 Reasons all about? for a fuller explanation.

The pros and cons of buying from Naked Wines

Naked Wines has been controversial since it launched 4 1/2 years ago but there’s no denying its popularity. The company claims to have over 200,000 customers who buy from it regularly, 125,000 of which are ‘angels’.

These are regular subscribers who pay £20 a month into the business which enables them to fund winemaking projects. (A bit like crowdsourcing projects such as Kickstarter.) In return 'angels' get to buy wines (using the money they’ve invested) at preferential prices.

The catch is that those prices are not quite as favourable as Naked Wines claims though it’s hard to compare as most of the wines they stock are made specially for them by the winemakers they subsidise.

They say their angel prices are ‘wholesale’ and 25% to 50% less than retail but that’s quite misleading. In instances where other retailers stock the same wines you can buy them on the open market at a similar price without having to put down your money first. And you can certainly find wines of comparable quality a lot cheaper than the full price that Naked Wines charges for them, hence presumably their ability to give away so many ‘free’ vouchers for £40 and £60 to encourage people to start buying from them.

I also don’t like the heavily loaded rhetoric on the site. “Would you prefer your wine made by salesmen or talented winemakers?”. “Would you prefer to pay more or get more?” Click the obvious answer and bang - you’re suddenly an angel, committing yourself to £20 a month and strongly advised to buy the Naked Customers Favourites Case,costing £112.88 which ‘saves’ you £82.99. Hmmmm.

Even though you can apparently get your money back at any time, the chances are that if you’ve got £80 of contributions sitting in their account you’re going to spend it with them. It’s all just a bit too slick and high-pressured for me.

That said, they do genuinely help to get winemaking projects off the ground and create a market for the wines that they make. And rescue winemakers in distress. All credit to them for helping a friend of mine, Katie Jones (right), who lost her much admired 2012 white wine when vandals broke into her winery in the south of France and opened the tanks.

When they heard about the incident Naked Wines created a ‘rescue case’ of Languedoc wines which Katie selected from other producers she admired which sold at the rate of a case every 2 seconds when it came out in May. She obviously has nothing but praise for them.

Other winemakers, a number of whom were working for other wineries but wanted to do their own thing, will tell you that but for Naked Wines they wouldn’t have been able to set up their own business.

Their customers seem to like them too, witness the 400 plus people who turned out to the tasting I attended in Bristol on Monday night (above), part of a week-long road show. And the almost cult-like following the company has fostered. Post anything mildly critical of them, as I did in the Guardian a year or so ago, and 'angels' will pile in to defend them.

They also have some good wines though I wouldn’t generally pay more than the 'angel’s' price for them. Here are seven I’d recommend - and three to look out for in the coming months:

Domaine O Vineyards Trah-la- lah (14%) Full price £12.99, Angel’s price £8.99

Imagine Bordeaux on steroids. This is a gorgeous gutsy Merlot-Cabernet blend with a dash of Carignan from an American-run winery in the Cabardes region, north of Carcassonne

Villebois Prestige Sauvignon Blanc 2012 (12.5%) Full price @11.99, Angel’s price £8.99

A rich lush sauvignon made from old vines in the Touraine region of the Loire - so effectively a Sauvignon de Touraine, albeit a good one. More New World in style than French.

Villebois Pouilly Fumé 2012 Full price £17.99 Angel’s price £12.99

The 'angel's' price is roughly what supermarkets are charging for own label Pouilly Fumé right now so this is a very good deal for an intense wine with a crisp mineral character and lovely wisp of smoke. Better than the same producer’s Sancerre.

Lay of the Land Destination Sauvignon Blanc 2012 Full price £13.49, Angel’s price £9.49

Definitely a cut above your average Kiwi Sauv Blanc with some lush ripe tropical fruit offsetting the usual gooseberry-and-asparagus character. (Look out too for winemaker Mike Paterson’s Pinot Noir which is coming through in August - see below)

Raats Dolomite Cabernet Franc 2011 Full price £11.99, Angel’s price £8.99

If you like Cabernet Franc you’ll love this deliciously fragrant example from ebulliient South African wine maker Bruno Raats. £8.99 is a good price for it but bear in mind that another online retailer the Fine Wine Company sells it for not a lot more for £54.89 a case of six or £9.19 a bottle.

Mauricio Lorca Lirico Malbec 2011 14.5% Full price £11.99 Angel’s price £8.49

A touch on the soft side for me but if you’re an Argie Malbec fan you’ll love it. One for your summer barbecues.

Oscar’s Douro 2010 14% Full price: £9.99, Angel’s price £7.49

I visited Oscar’s port house, one of the smallest in the region, when I was in Oporto last December and here’s his rich dark Douro red, a blend of the indigenous grape varieties that are used to make port. A real winter wine - if you buy some save it for long slow braises and casseroles.

And three that are on their way:

If you're a Naked Wines angel already you should definitely look out for these:

Richard’s Chardonnay (should arrive early autumn)

Made by British-born Richard Kershaw, South Africa’s first Master of Wine and the former winemaker at Mulderbosch: a really gorgeous lush, creamy chardonnay with pitch-perfect acidity - on a par with top burgundy. Likely to be over £20.

Lie of the Land Pinot Noir

A simply stunning New Zealand pinot noir - gorgeously fruity without being jammy. Should be available in August. Price unknown

Sam Plunkett 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon (though probably under a different label)

A very grown-up dark, rich, dusky Cabernet from central Victoria's Strathbogie Ranges with much less obvious jammy fruit than many Aussie Cabs. Naked helped Sam, who used to make the Plunkett Fowles Ladies who Shoot their Lunch wines, buy the grapes and the barrels to make it so he’s a big fan of their business model.

Verdict: If you’re someone who wants to buy reliably drinkable wine, is not too fussy what they pay for it and wants to be spared the hassle of thinking too much about it Naked Wines could well suit you. If you sign up for the 'angel' scheme you’ll get them at a reasonable price and get a warm fuzzy feeling at helping a winemaker into the bargain. Just be aware you could get similar wines elsewhere at a comparable or even cheaper price.

WineTrust100.co.uk

A new online wine store whose USP is only selling 100 wines at any one time - apparently we get confused by more than that.

Who runs it?

It’s the brainchild of an ex-Tesco marketing man John Valentine and MW (Master of Wine) John Hoskins. Two other MWs help select the wines - an unusually well-qualified trio of wine buyers.

How are they different from existing online businesses?

The emphasis is on value for money which doesn’t mean cheap wines but wines that punch above their weight. They have a slightly confusing scoring system called QPR (quality/price ratio) which currently ranges from 90 (the lowest mark at which they’ll list a wine) to 97 - the highest mark at present. They don’t believe in 100 point hyperbole. Hard to see quite why a 94 point wine is inferior to a 96 one, though, if it’s made in a style you like.

More to the point there are no phoney half price offers or discounts except for unsplit cases. Brownie points for that - a brave decision in the face of Britain’s cut-price wine culture. Delivery is free in mainland UK if you buy 12 bottles.

They also choose wines they think make good drinking rather than fitting a particular category or price point. Which means - shock horror! - there is no pinot grigio at the moment. And only one New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

How does the site work?

Well, on the whole. It’s attractive and clearly designed. You can search by colour, style, price range (there are 25 under £10 and 55 options under £15) and occasion. Occasions include quirky categories like School Night Supper (wines like Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and Côtes du Rhône) and ‘Surprise your friends’ (an Austrian Zweigelt).

There are some useful nuggets of information about each wine and intelligent food matches. One wine - the Primitivo below - is described as suitable for ‘cheese, strong game and the richest, thickest stew in the recipe book.”

And there are 4 mixed cases for those who can’t decide quite what they want.

The only serious glitch is that they don’t have a search function so you can’t look for a specific wine other than by trawling through the listings by colour or style which makes the site less consumer-friendly than it might be.

Who’s it best for?

Working couples with very little time/inclination to think about wine but a willingness to experiment and the budget to spend a more than the average supermarket shopper. Most are pitched in the £10-15 price bracket.

Good idea?

If you’re only stocking 100 wines there can’t be any that don’t pull their weight - this is presumably where the 'trust' part of WineTrust comes in. I was impressed by the fact that there wasn’t a dog among the wines they showed us last night. One or two not quite so much to my taste but that’s only to be expected.

They say that they’ll operate on a 'one in, one out' basis which means that anything that’s no longer showing at its best will be ditched in favour of a more appealing wine of the same type. The only frustration I can envisage about that is that if you like a wine you may suddenly find it’s no longer available.

A taste of WineTrust100

These are the wines I liked best from their launch dinner. Prices are for single bottles. If you buy a six bottle case you'll pay £1 less per bottle.

2011 Eins-Zwei-Dry riesling, Trocken, Leitz, Rheingau £13

Excellent pun, excellent introduction to German wine without some of the meanness that can characterise cheaper German rieslings. Slightly perverse to categorise it as crisp and dry instead of fruity and aromatic along with the other rieslings, maybe. It's not that dry. I'd drink it with Chinese or other Asian food.

2011 Chardonnay, Chamonix, Franschhoek, South Africa

My favourite wine of the tasting. A full, rich, almost Meursault-like chardonnay. At £13 it’s brilliant value for money and a great match with the lobster ravioli it was paired with. From South Africa’s winery of the year.

2010 Montlouis, Clos Habert, Francois Chidaine, Loire Valley £20

A great example of the wonderful things that can happen to Chenin Blanc when it’s produced biodynamically (my view not theirs). Rich, sensuous and peachy - for chicken with a creamy sauce or simply sipping on its own.

2009 Primitivo di Manduria, Terre di Sava, Puglia £22

22 quid for a primitivo! Yes, but that seemingly hasn’t deterred people from ordering it - it’s been the most popular red so far, apparently, with customers coming back for more. Not entirely my cup of tea - I find it a little porty - but if you’re a fan of big rich brambley reds you’ll love it. Think slightly spicy slow-cooked shoulder of lamb.

2012 Pink Moscato Innocent Bystander, Victoria, Australia £7

One of a particularly strong selection of sweet wines. They’re not the only people to stock this delightfully frivolous moscato but maybe the only ones to suggest pairing it with a dessert - it was a cracker with a pannacotta and strawberry and peach fruit salad. Or "with a sunny garden and a friend".

WineTrust100 is at winetrust100.co.uk

 

Hedonism, Mayfair: a winelovers' playground

London's most luxurious wine shop by far Hedonism looks as if it's the kind of place you'd need to take out a mortgage to buy a case. Fortunately appearances deceive . . .

Where is it?
In the Rolls-Royce-showroom-land of Davies street, just off Berkeley Square in London's Mayfair

Who runs it?
It's Russian owned, or, more specifically, owned by ex-mobile phone magnate Yevgeny Chichvarkin and run by CEO Tatiana Fokina. However the head buyer is a Brit - Alastair Viner, formerly of Harrods - and it’s staffed by ex sommeliers, MW students and the affable kind of chaps who wouldn’t look out of place on the floor of Majestic.

What does it look like?
Glitzy. There are chandeliers made of wine glasses. There are - or were at the time I visited last week - real orchids dangling in the windows. There’s a crèche downstairs with iPads. And mohair blankets for those who get chilly in the air-conditioned cellars while they’re tasting

What does it stock?
What doesn’t it stock, more like. Everything a well-heeled wine - and spirit - collector could desire - about 5000 wines and 1800 spirits from shochu to absinthe. Verticals of Mouton-Rothschild, Screaming Eagle and Chateau d'Yquem (90 vintages of it). Large format bottles like imperials (6 litres) and salmanazars (9 litres) lie like small submarines in the basement. The floor above there are gigantic custom-made decanters to hold their contents. Old vintages - 1880 madeira, 1774 Vin Jaune and 1811 Yquem among them. It also has an amazing geographic spread with wines from Armenia, China, Georgia, Greece and Morocco among others. And 800 Californian wines.

Can you taste there?
A changing selection of bottles is available in 75ml pours from Enomatic machines - including Chateau d’Yquem and 1996 Mouton Rothschild on the day I was there. For £28.

Events
Coming shortly. On a grand scale judging by everything else.

Music
Yup. There’s a record and CD player so you can pick what you want to listen to. An old Stones album was on while I was tasting. Rock'n'roll!

Food
No. Or not at the moment. Shame - I was hoping for caviar . . .

After-sales service
You bet! They describe it as a concierge-type service. If you want a bottle they will deliver it within the hour in central London

Most notable feature
A Sine Qua Non room where all the bottles are cradled in pairs of hands, paws or claws.

To sum up
It this sounds like the kind of place you wouldn’t want to go to in a million years - think again. It’s jaw-dropping. Imagine Oddbins in its heyday transported to Las Vegas . . .

True most of the wines will be out of your reach unless you have a freshly minted banker’s bonus but there are 600 bottles under £30 - though given its location most will cost more than you’ll pay elsewhere. "We’re cheaper than Waitrose on champagne though" says Fokina gleefully. (They charge £37.50 for a bottle of Louis Roederer compared to £38.99 at Waitrose at the time of writing). And the well-priced Enomatic machines are a great way to explore wines you've probably never had the chance to try before.

A taste of Hedonism

Here are four wines I tried from the Enomatic. They will probably have changed by the time you get there but it gives you a flavour of what's on offer:

Anjou La Lune 2010, Marc Angeli (£1.20 a pour, £26.20 a bottle)

Delicate, fragrant and honeyed but not in the demi-sec category, dry Loire Chenin at its delightful best. (Yapp Brothers only charges £19.50 for it though)

Rall White 2010 (£1.60 a pour, £36.10 a bottle)

This delicious rich white from Donovan Rall is an unusual blend of Chenin Blanc (33%), Chardonnay (33%), Viognier (17%) and Verdelho (17%) but has a lovely crisp acidity that would make it a great match for seafood (£25.50 from the Butler’s Wine Cellar, £30 in Harvey Nichols)

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Saint-Joseph 2009 (£2.15 a pour, £47.10 a bottle)

Bright, fresh peppery. Fruity but not at all overripe with a refreshing touch of bitterness - just what you need for a meaty Gloucester Old Spot pork chop. Again the price looks toppy compared to the £33 that Yapp charges but you're there, it's there . . .

Avignonesi Annate 2007, Vino Nobile de Montepulciano (£3 a pour, £66.90 in store)

It was great to have the chance to try this sexy, supple, headily-perfumed blend of Sangiovese ‘Prugnolo Gentile' (85%) and Cabernet Sauvignon which is seemingly unavailable elsewhere. Sorely tempting.

Hedonism Wines is at 3-7 Davies St, London W1K 3LD. They will apparently have an online shop soon.