The top wine buyers from Hennings Wine, Adnams, Oxford Wine Company and and St Austell Brewery agreed to taste through and give their feedback on wines from Boisset FCV in our latest Buyer’s Case project.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
The Opportunity
Grape pickers at Maison Boisset Beaujolais one of the many vineyards Boisset owns across France
For the latest Buyer’s Case project, The Buyer teamed up with leading French producer, Boisset La Famille des Grands Vins, to showcase a spread of wines from across its portfolio to leading buyers across the premium on-trade.
Since its start in Burgundy in 1961, the family-owned business has grown to now represent a collection of unique wineries, with partner growers and wineries in most of the major French wine producing areas, each deeply rooted in its region with more than seventeen centuries of combined history.
The Brief
The Boisset UK team is looking to build good distribution and long term relationships for its wide and diverse portfolio of wines across different channels of the trade.
The Buyer’s Case was an opportunity to present a selection of carefully curated Boisset wines that best reflected the diversity of its range – from classic to modern discovery wines – to buyers, recruited by The Buyer, who represent the on-trade and specialist channels that it most wants to work closely with. Buyers who were both willing and interested to taste and give their professional feedback on the wines and be open to working with new partners and producers.
The Panel
The four buyers who took part in the project were.
James Davis MW, commercial and retail director, Adnams
James Davis MW has worked across the on and off-trades
James Davis joined Adnams, the Suffolk brewer and wine retail and wholesale business in October 2017. He has a wealth of experience working in both major on and off-trade businesses, including Greene King, Costco and Tesco where he was wine category buying manager.
Matthew Hennings, managing director, Hennings Wine
Matthew Hennings
Hennings Wine is national wine distributor that offers over 1,500 wines and a full support service with training and wine list development to the on-trade and specialist wine sectors. It also runs four wine stores in Pulborough, Petworth, Goringby-Sea and Chichester. Matthew Hennings has been part of the family business since 1994 and became managing director in 2005.
Louisa Fitzpatrick, head of wine, St Austell Wines
Louisa Fitzpatrick is in charge of building St Austell’s wine profile and portfolio
As a separate division of the brewery, St Austell Wines has developed into a significant wine importer and distributor business in its own right. It supplies wines and full support service to pubs, bars and restaurants across the south west. Fitzpatrick joined the business in 2005 and was promoted to wine buyer in 2015 and head of wine in 2018.
John Chapman, operations director, The Oxford Wine Company
John Chapman runs the operations across The Oxford Wine Company
As well as running its own retail shops, cafe and bars, the Oxford Wine Company has diversified into become a major regional wholesaler covering the midlands, south west and into London. John Chapman has been pivotal to Oxford Wine’s success helping to oversee the operations side of the business as well as taking on responsibility for much of its buying.
How
Each of the buyers were given their own selection of wines to taste from the Boisset portfolio and then asked to give their feedback by answering these questions.
The Questions
- What did you think of the wine in terms of: quality; style; price; value for money; label /design; packaging.
- Is this the kind of wine you would consider buying (with no obligation to do so if they say yes)?
- If yes, why and if no, why not.
- What channel of the wine industry do you think this wine is most suitable for (on-trade/ off-trade/online)?
- Any suggestions on how the wine could be adapted to be more suitable to you or the UK market?
The Results
To find out what the buyers thought of the wines and also better understand their own approach to buying and selecting new wines and producers to work with, you can read the full downloadable PDF report.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
- If you would like to take part in a Buyer’s Case project and have your wines assessed for how well they are suited to the UK premium on-trade and wine specialist retail sector then contact Richard Siddle on richardsiddle@btopenworld.com.
