West Country based winemaker, Daniel Ham, has recently launched his new Off Beat Wines label onto the market – to critical acclaim. His 2018 is already sold out, and his 2019 all but spoken for already. With a new winery to open later this year in readiness for the 2020 vintage, it’s been a whirlwind few months for Dan that has turned doubters into believers. Himself included.
No matter how well your sales are doing in your domestic market, you will never maximise the full potential of your brand unless you find a way to successfully export it into new markets around the world. But that’s a lot easier said than done, says Chris Briers head of export at Southwestern Distillery that has been able to build a strong export strategy for its brands, including Tarquin’s Gin. Here he sets out his do’s and dont’s of how to build an export business for your brand.
Always one to have an opinion about a Bordeaux vintage, Joss Fowler thinks that Bordeaux 2010 is the Lewis Hamilton vintage – all the bling, all the gear but a tad aggressive and overworked. But the best wines of 2010, fifteen or twenty or so of them, are breathtaking – wines that will knock the socks off anyone lucky enough to taste them, especially when they are mature. It is these wines that the reputation of 2010 will live off for years, he believes. Here he blind-tastes the very best of them, at speed and with the clock ticking.
Three years since Rioja introduced its Single Vineyard category, Ramon Bilbao unveils its long-anticipated Lalomba project – a series of Vinedos Singulares wines that set out to capture the individual character of each very special vineyard. The entirely new Finca Valhonta andLadero reds are the producer’s most expensive ever wines and the Finca Lalinde 2019 Rosado is a re-launched premium rosado, which all share an unprecedented degree of background research and development. Quite apart from the individual merits of each wine, collectively Lalomba shows how producers in Rioja are starting to believe that terroir character can be a better predictor of quality than the length of time that a wine spends maturing in a barrel.
The explosion in English wine production over the last decade explosion is well documented, but do we really understand what it is actually happening amongst the vines and in the wineries of producers across the country? Robert Mason both celebrates the enormous strides taken within the English wine industry, but also makes the case for why it is everyone’s responsibility in the trade to get to know the sector better and identify the areas, the styles, and the wines that are right for their business and then do all they can to sell them.
Paul Mabray and Polly Hammond have been banging the drum for digital and e-commerce in the wine industry for years. For much of that time they have been left frustrated by the unwillingness of so many wine companies to take online seriously. Not any more. The Covid-19 lockdown has forced consumers and drinks businesses online like never before, opening the way for Mabray and Hammond, through their respective digital businesses, Emetry and 5Forests, to be able to offer their services and work with wine producers, to act fast to try and make the most of the Covid boom in online sales. In the latest The Buyer video interview, Richard Siddle talks to them about what they actually mean by making the most of digital and how they hope to work together and combine their data analysis and brand marketing skills to offer more wine and drinks companies the advice, support and action they need.
One of the most memorable – and inspiring – aspects of the Covid-19 crisis is how individuals and businesses have responded and, in many cases, gone way beyond the norm to not just look after themselves at this time, but rather think of others and go to extraordinary lengths to help them. It’s why The Buyer has started its new ‘Raise A Glass To’ series to shine the spotlight on the people we think deserve particular praise. Today we salute the amazing efforts of Graft Wine’s Nik Darlington. Here’s why…
It’s a sign that things are starting to get back a little more towards normal when the various drinks competitions start to open their doors for new entries for their 2021 events. The Buyer is once again very pleased to be the business media partner for The People’s Choice Wine Awards which is about to go into its fourth year. Still the only major competition that includes consumers in the judging process. This year’s awards are also being extended to include a number of spirits categories for the first time. Here are all the details.
American viticulture has the ability to deliver fantastic mineral-driven, complex, refined, long-ageing, and refreshing white wines that remind one of great Old World regions such as Burgundy, Mosel and the Loire. But in the past two decades a new breed of winemaker is ensuring that American AVAs are developing their own, unique characteristics. Nowhere is this more true than Finger Lakes in New York State, whose cool climate Rieslings have been going through a Renaissance in the past eight years – switching from a semi-dry style to dry and starting to reap the benefits.
The Covid-19 crisis has seen a number of major grocery and FMCG brands launch their own direct to consumer websites in a bid to stay close to their usual customer base who were stuck at home, not willing to venture out, who had switched in their millions to buying their favourite products online. Truth be told most had been planning and proposing setting up their DTC sites for some time. Like Treasury Wine Estates, which next week pulls back the curtain on its own first venture into DTC in the UK, aimed at promoting its premium and luxury wine brands. Richard Siddle talks to Ben Blake, Treasury’s European head of marketing, about why now and how it is going to work.
With the South African government banning all domestic sales of alcohol for a second time, what was already a tough lockdown has become even harder. There have been numerous charity drives and initiatives worldwide to encourage people to buy South African wine – to give wine producers a financial lifeline. The latest move sees CAPREO backing the Eat Out Restaurant Relief Fund that is, in turn, helping restaurants get back on their feet.
As the drinks supply chain looks at how it can start to bring its people back together again Richard Siddle talks to Craig Durham, head of Buckingham Schenk, about how it has managed to keep the majority of its team working through Covid-19, and how, as the UK arm of the Schenk Group, the major international producer, it has worked with the company’s teams across Europe to give its customers the best service it can and is very much on the front foot coming out of lockdown.
The dearth of quality still wines made in England, compared to sparkling wine, is down to which varieties were planted early on and which clones, argues Lyme Bay Winery’s managing director James Lambert. There are signs that is changing with winemakers looking much closer at clone selection, however, with the cost of making all English wines so expensive, the industry needs to work together to ensure that the end product is priced sustainably and able to offer genuine value in the marketplace.
When the invite came through to help take part in the judging and blending of the new La Única project from Felix Solis I took a double take. The time and date was for an actual venue alongside other people, rather than sit in on a Zoom tasting. But when I nervously arrived at Camino in Kings Cross to take part there, as well as my fellow real life tasters, was a large screen with not just one Zoom tasting taking place, but five others simultaneously happening in China, Germany and Spain. Welcome to the new normal of virtual, and actual wine tastings. Here Richard Cochrane, head of Félix Solís in the UK, explains how La Única concept works and why it wanted to make it a global online event.
Too many people pigeonhole Argentinian wines as being just about Malbec and Torontes, says Matias Riccitelli, who tells Justin Keay that his winemaking philosophy is driven by the need to show off a different face of his country’s viticulture. Through the 25 wines he makes in Mendoza and the few in Patagonia, including a superb old vine Semillon, Riccitelli is being recognised as a great alchemist, working with a wide range of varietals, vessels and techniques to make some of Argentina’s most exciting new wines.
Winemakers, producers, importers, retailers and restaurateurs have all had to step out from behind the curtain during Covid-19 to take their turn to go online, turn on Zoom or go live on Instagram in order to be able to keep telling their stories during lockdown. But none have been quite so prolific as Katie Jones who has created her own version of a breakfast TV show with her daily walks through the small plots of land that make up Domaine Jones in the heart of the Languedoc – taking a loyal and growing community of trade customers and consumers with her. Here she talks to Richard Siddle, in the latest video interview on The Buyer, about why and how she has turned so much to social media during the crisis, and how it is now going to be very much part of how she does business post lockdown too. In so doing she has also shown the way forward for other producers and drinks businesses to use social media, and Instagram Live in particular. Which makes her a very worthy second recipient of The Buyer’s ‘Raise a Glass To’ award to highlight people who have gone way beyond the norm during Covid-19…here’s her story.
Regardless of what part of the world and sector of the drinks, retail or hospitality industries you work in, we’ve all had to find ways to adapt and self motivate ourselves to get through the Covid-19 lockdown. For Pier Sfriso and Reka Haros, the winemaking couple who run a small family winery in Treviso, northern Italy, it meant they were faced with 1,000s of bottles of unsold wine. So what did they do? They started a competition calling on designers to come up with label they could use to help promote and sell 6,000 bottles of Prosecco. It has resulted in hundreds of entries. Now they are calling on anyone in the trade to cast their vote for the designs they have shortlisted. Here Reka Haros shares their story and how the reaction to the competition has helped raise their spirits at such a difficult time.
As we all start to take serious steps of coming out of lockdown, The Buyer has switched its Covid-19 Hub updates service to a new weekly format to help the trade keep up to date with the very latest activity, trends and insights across the drinks, retail and hospitality sectors as momentum builds towards opening up more areas of business we will look to share more knowledge and tools to help you do that. This is Part Eight of The Buyer’s Covid-19 blog kicking off all the activity in what is going to be a vital month for the UK drinks and hospitality sectors.
Innovation in Spanish winemaking is not just reserved for the new wave of artisan winemakers. Ramón Bilbao proves once again with its new Rueda Sauvignon Blanc that a big player can just as easily throw away the rulebook. Hailing from its shiny new winery La Finca Las Medias, winemaker Sara Bañuelos, has been given licence to thrill with an SB/ Verdejo blend but even more interestingly a 100% single varietal Sauvignon Blanc. David Kermode picks up the story.
The opportunity to buy quality, but also value for money wines from the US has never been greater. Not only do producers have plenty of wine to sell, and an over supplied US market to trade in, they are actively looking to export. Combine that with the ambition of a major US distributor – T Edward Wines & Spirits – that also makes wines from all over the world and is actively looking to export and work in the UK, with wines at the price points buyers are looking for, then you have a very winning combination. Here’s international export sales manager, David Hautzig to explain more.
