As we watch the rich and famous flit between their super yachts in Monaco’s harbour for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix spare a thought for the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure they have right wines they want to drink. Welcome to the world of Onshore Cellars.
Onshore Cellars was established only three years ago to supply wine to the high-end yachting fraternity. Based in Antibes in the south of France, the company was set up by Ed and Jess Dunnett, who met when working onboard when she was a steward and he was a second officer. And it wasn’t only romance that blossomed in the Côte d’Azur, but the idea for setting up a wine business serving the oligarchs, high rollers and celebrities who feature prominently in the yachting industry. Helen Arnold caught up with sales manager Rosie Clarkson to find out more.
Antibes is one of the world’s biggest luxury yachting centres, and home to Onshore Cellars
What is the USP of Onshore Cellars?
Onshore Cellars was established as a wine provisioning company to yachts. Since then the business has diversified and we now also have a wine shop in the centre of Antibes and sell to private clients around the world via our website. As far as we know, we are the only supplier set up by ex-yachting crew
Where did the idea come from?
Ed and Jess worked onboard for over 15 years and saw an opportunity to position a company which truly understands what it’s like to be on the purchasing side onboard. On top of that they both loved wine so it seemed to be a natural choice when looking to move to a land -based life.
Founders Ed and Jess Dunnet, with sales manager Rosie Clarkson and Jack the dog
Did either of them have much wine experience?
Jess was a chief stewward and as such was involved with wine buying and service on a day-to-day basis. Ed was a second officer and helped Jess to buy a pretty impressive wine collection. From the UK and Australia respectively they decided to settle in the South of France where they set up Onshore Cellars in Antibes, one of the key ports for large boats in the Med.
Does the company supply worldwide?
Yes, we pride ourselves on being able to get wine to boats wherever they are in the world. Depending on the country this can sometimes be challenging, but we always find a way!
Where’s the harbour? Onshore Cellar’s shop front in Antibes, with Jack the office dog
Where do you source your wines? Do you have any exclusive relationships with winemakers?
We source our wine both directly from wineries and from local suppliers and wholesalers. We are consistently building on existing relationships as well as new ones and introducing Onshore Cellars and what we do to wineries given that it is a fairly niche market we are in. The UK wine trade is also an important source of wines for us given that we have clients looking for very specific vintages of top end wines that are often not available elsewhere with guaranteed provenance.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s yacht Eclipse is the second largest in the world, and is typical of the type of clients Onshore Cellars supplies
Do you have many famous clients?
We have a large customer base which fluctuates depending on whether it is the Caribbean or Mediterranean season. It goes without saying we have some famous clients, but that would be telling!
Do you exclusively supply yacht owners, or have you moved into other areas as well?
Historically we solely supplied wine to yachts. Whilst this is still the main focus of Onshore Cellars, we are growing the business on the private client side as well. Our end goal is to be able to sell wine to the yacht owner not only for their time onboard, but also fill their cellars as well so they have one trusted wine supplier.
What are the best selling wines to yacht owners?
All the big names do well – first growth Bordeaux, top end Burgundy, cult Napa wines, Super Tuscans and, of course, Champagne and rosé. We rarely get an order which doesn’t have large quantities of Provence rosé and Dom Perignon on it.
Antibies harbour, the deepest in the south of France
What’s the biggest order you’ve ever received?
The largest orders for us value wise tend to be the smallest in terms of quantities. It’s not unusual to receive a seriously high value order which is only a couple of cases. On top of this we get some of our largest orders when a new build needs to stock up their entire wine cellar and all of the bars onboard.
Are there any particular considerations that have to be taken into account when stocking a yacht?
Yachting is a service driven industry so understanding the needs of both the guests and crew alike is hugely important to provide the high level of service needed. Provisioning yachts means that you have to be able to be very reactive as a lot of what we do is very last minute, and generally needed yesterday. We run a business which doesn’t stop throughout the season, we need to be on hand seven days a week and in an ideal world 24 hours a day. Logistics are also really important in terms of being able to deliver to ports around the world.
What is the most unusual request you have received?
Spending over €2,000 on fancy dress for a Mexican themed party for a request that came in at 7pm on the Friday night of the party!
And the most difficult request to fulfil?
We got asked to provide a DRC Romanée Conti vertical last year including a lot of war vintages dating back to 1915. Not only was it nearly impossible to find the required bottles, but also we couldn’t be sure of provenance on the older vintages so we advised the client to choose differently.
Super yachts, fine wine, Monaco, Grand Prix…in the next life
What wine trends are you seeing emerging in the yachting world?
Super Tuscans are growing in popularity year on year as is the premium spirit category. There is also a big movement currently to reduce the amount of plastic going onboard yachts given that the majority all drink bottled water. We are donating all profits we make from clients buying glass bottles to The Ocean Agency to help raise awareness of the damage being done to the oceans.
How educated are your clients about wine? Or is it a case of buying by well known names?
We have clients who are huge fans of wine, with amazing collections around the world, some of which they fly with them on private jets. The polar opposite are clients who don’t actually drink but buy wines for parties onboard and so ensure they have the best names available. It really depends on the client on a case by case basis as to how educated they are. However, given the high proportion of big names we sell it is safe to say they are all familiar household names.
Is business growing, and if so where is that growth coming from?
The business has grown significantly over the last couple of years. Yachting is about building trust and relationships in order to gain new business and as we become more established we are lucky enough to be picking up fantastic new clients along the way. Opening the shop in Antibes has also meant we are growing the retail side of the business as well.
And the book, Iconic – what’s that all about?
ICONIC was created because we wanted to do something different, and wanted to give something back to our clients. Rather than simply pulling together a price list, we wanted something that we could give to the owners for their enjoyment as well as to the chief stewardess as a tool to help train the interior staff. We pulled together our top 100 producers and wines and then spent an enjoyable few months interviewing them and writing the content for the book. For us it’s been really amazing to get to work closely with these incredible producers and to showcase their wines to the yachting industry so this is also our way of saying thank you to them. We are really proud to have these wines and producers on our list and we hope our clients will work their way through all 100!
