5 reasons
An 'open mic' platform for small food and drink producers, importers and retailers to talk about what they do giving five reasons why you should buy from them.
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.
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