La Savoie et ses vignobles

We stock mainly French wines (well over 90%), some of you might find it suicidal as everyone in the trade seems to strongly believe in the New World stuff, pile it high and sell it cheap. I believe choose carefully, be unique, believe in terroir (easily done for a French man) and people, pile it neatly and sell it at a reasonable price. Forget about high volumes and welcome pleasure and quality.

That was last year. Still here with more French wines, still here with no 3 for £10.00, but would love to know, considering the duty, VAT, associated costs, what it is actually in the bottle? Is it wine, as even to fill up that bottle with grapes, it still would be over £3.33 per bottle? But, more importantly, who’s the happier in the transaction?

Me, as a Wine Merchant, well, I don’t think I could call myself a Wine Merchant anymore. Booze Merchant (to stay polite in the process) would barely qualify me. I simply cannot see where the pleasure is for me, you, the customer or the “Winemaker” (if he does exist at that price) for those products?

I know where I get my pleasure, and my few customers know too. Nothing more rewarding for me to sell a bottle of wine I know will be enjoyed later and to hear “thanks very much, that was excellent, can I have 12 more”.

The customer is happy, I am happy, and the vigneron is happy.

Well, after over 3 years without the sight of any wines from Down Under, we finally taken the plunge and we are listing 3 new wines from the Coonawarra. And, still, we manage to keep away from the mass-produced wines, which will certainly upset a lot of people.

After pioneering the Stelvin closure Australian winemakers will be abandoning the conventional glass bottle for a plastic tube with ring-pull facility. ―This will be an ergonomic advance of unprecedented proportions. Imagine how many tubes you could stack behind the bar next to the cans of Red Bull. Reaction amongst the British press was predictably enthusiastic. ―Another nail in the coffin for the French wine industry chortled one journalist.