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.

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.