After 13 years at the commercial heart of the English wine industry, experience has taught me a lot. Like most of us in the trade, I am perhaps a little more weather-beaten than I once was, but I am as excited about English wine now as I was on day one.
In the last six months, a chance meeting set me off on a consultancy project that has completely redefined my perception of the boundaries of the category. It feels high-stakes and exciting. It feels bold. Yet, natural, as if it’s always been there, waiting for us to catch up. I think it’s the most fun I have had in my English wine work to date.
At a time where the well documented commercial pressure on hospitality venues, wine producers, wholesales and the consumer themselves continues to ratchet up, long-term trade peers and I are finding moments in the madness to double-down on creating true hospitality, articulate great stories and focus on great experiences for guests. After all, when all is said and done, that’s what we’re all in it for.
I had huge admiration for the brilliant article from Clara Rubin here in The Buyer in March. Her experiences and read of the market is, I feel, characteristically on-point, and I agree strongly with her that we’re at a time where every product on a shop shelf or wine list must justify itself as never before - and be genuinely relevant.
The world doesn’t need more by-the-numbers expensive wine, it needs wines with story, character and pull, with producers investing in marketing to support the supply chain. Knowing what I’ve been working on, I was grateful to hear yet again that storytelling in wine is still as important to peers as it is for me.
Tom Surgey is excited to be part of the Squerryes team introducing Patience an ultra-premium English sparkling wine to the market
As a tiny scene-setter; I have worked in sales and brand development roles with English wine producers consistently since 2013. First for more than six years as sales director at Ridgeview at a hugely exciting time for the pioneering family-owned business in transition from the first to the second generation - and a period of high growth.
Then, since 2020, as a trade sales strategy consultant to English wine producers, including Artelium and now Squerryes. I basically help producers understand and connect with the trade, sell more and tell their story through their trade relationships. It’s a role that feels more important today than ever before.
When I first started, the conversation with the trade could be summed up as “oh, wow, I didn’t know England made wine?!” It was an exciting, hand-sold demonstration of wine nouse to offer guests something English.
Commercial reality
Since then, production growth has soared well beyond category sales growth (albeit this is rising too) and unequivocally, quality has grown exponentially too. There are more and more great producers, making larger and larger quantities of great quality sparkling wine. In fact, more wine than the market currently consumes. It is a fantastic time to be an eager and exploratory sommelier or retail buyer; tougher to be a wine producer wanting to have a sustainable slice of the pie.
Now, conversations with the on-trade are much more: “Yes, our customers are very aware of English sparkling wine. We have three producers we work with. This one because it’s well recognised by our customers; and this one because it’s local. Oh, and this one because we needed a rosé, our key wholesaler offered it to us and it was easy to source”.
Typically, one of those is giving a by-the-glass support package that would make Champagne blush, picking up half the by-the-glass Champagne volume. The other two are trickling along by the bottle. Each in it’s own way is defending itself from being nibbled at by the Prosecco and Cremant beneath it, as many consumers’ budgets tighten. This is where story and the experience they provide is key.
Similarly, in the off-trade, a typical buyer’s response today is: “We love English, we have an audience who is engaged and interested in the wines. We have a good range. We’re interested in points of difference and those garnering consumer awareness, but we’re under no pressure to find more, until one stands out”.
Another moment where story and the consumer experience is key.
Time for Patience
Patience is a "carefully selected, long-aged reserved wine from Squerryes’ very best vintages"
So, where did I start with Squerryes and the launch of Patience? An exceptional wine from the stellar 2014 vintage, grown on the ancient chalk slopes of Kent’s North Downs - an exemplar of the wine style Squerryes excels at: at once richly textured, finely structured and tense with a liveliness that belies its 11 years in bottle.
Behind the label, the story: The founding figure in the Warde family dynasty, Patience was born in Yorkshire in 1629, just before the start of the English Civil War. He rose through the social ranks of The City of London as a Merchant Taylor, witnessing The Great Plague and The Great Fire of London.
He became Lord Mayor of London in 1680, completing The Monument while in office. Patience was a major importer of French wine, trading it for British wool and a significant cultural figure in The City at the same time Christopher Merret first wrote about intentional sparkling wine being made.
A staunch defender of the cosmopolitan, and heavily Protestant, City of London, when Catholicism re-took the throne in the 1680’s, Patience’s life was upended when he ultimately stood by his community and principles.
Only around 3,000 bottles of Patience is being released by Squerryes on July 1
The values that inspire Patience are the importance of marking life’s defining moments, standing up for the courage of one's convictions, celebrating one’s successes and caring for one’s community. Finding the joy in life. These are inspirational values we as a team wanted the wine to convey, but they are inspired directly by the man, Patience Warde.
The final piece of the Patience puzzle reveals itself in its presentation. I have loved working with the Squerryes team on ensuring the story is told in evocative prose; but the linen bound keepsake box, replete with brass agrafe-opener and Patience’s gold-plated agrafe staple closure convey the message from first glimpse.
Every element of the minimalist bottle design harks back to a tenet of the Patience story; real (read not Diam) cork evokes the original cork closures Patience would have seen introduced in the 1660’s to London. Similarly the staple closure is a stylised version of the rudimentary staple or tie they would have secured early sparkling wine stoppers with. Patience’s crest, the wolf and his initials adorn the neck label.
The box itself becomes part of the experience, becoming a keepsake, filled with the artefacts of the celebrated moment.
Ultra-premium opportunity
The Squerryes estate in the heart of the North Downs in Kent
Perhaps counter-intuitively, while nibbled from the ‘value options’ beneath them, this well-established English offering is also being nibbled at by an ultra-premium offering from well-established regions (read Champagne) with many consumers opting to really dial up their drinking experience and mark the occasion when they choose.
In this ultra-premium arena it is the responsibility of the producer to ensure the quality of the wine, the presentation and crucially the story behind the wine is pitch perfect and well-understood.
The producer must work closely with its trade partners. It takes proper collaboration and mutual understanding. It’s hard graft. Done right, it’s both commercially rewarding and creates the kind of memorable wine moments we all deserve as consumers.We employed a skilled and experienced specialist wine PR company, Island Media, to support the stockists by amplifying the Patience story to connect emotionally with its audience.
The opportunity for buyers to extend their English range beyond the established core and start to offer unique, highly experiential cuvées, pitched perfectly for the right customer at the right time gives a new dimension to the English wine category. I am confident it will have a halo effect that supports the category as a whole.
It’s time to tell great stories, create moments and share memories.
Squerryes Patience 2014 is released on July 1 with a RRP of £225.For more information contact tomsurgey@squerryes.co.uk. You can find out more about Squerryes here.
