Natural, Biodynamic, Organic, and Minimal Interventionists all rubbed shoulders together quite happily at the most recent tasting from Alliance Wine – called appropriately enough a ‘Crafty Little Tasting’
Alliance Wine’s “Crafty Little Tasting” was just that. A room full of craft wines, from little producers, and that were bloody tasty.
I wandered round in a sea of fresh looks at old wines, fresh wines with old looks, and some that were so new to me I’m not even sure I’ll spell them correctly even though they’re here staring back at me in the tasting book.
When large importers do their annual tastings, it can sometimes get a bit overwhelming. Not everyone’s after the same stuff, so there’s a lot of wandering round every stall to find those bottles that might make a difference to your wine list.
That’s why this is a big and very clever call from Alliance Wine.
Not everyone is after little niche producers, but those that are tend to be after that and that alone. So to be able to focus on just that in this (incredibly well lit) basement in Marylebone was well thought out.
These producers come with a wide range of winemaking ethos. Natural, Biodynamic, Organic, and Minimal Interventionists all rub shoulders together quite happily. It all just adds to the melting pot in the room.
It’s about “little guys doing cool things” says Marketing Manager, Phoebe LeMessurier. “It’s no longer enough to be ‘family owned’, you’ve got to be doing interesting things with it.” Well put!
From the first table, you got a fairly good handle on what they’re trying to put across.
The first two wines were a set of dry and off-dry, top end Prosecco DOCGs from Giavi. These days (unfortunately or not) that’s specialist stuff. The two were retailing at nearly £20. Now, whether you or I would think that’s fair enough for a top quality Prosecco (and it is FYI), try explaining that to someone who’s been conditioned to pay £7 a bottle for the last five years. You knew these wines in front of you were for the wine-o crowd, and I can freely admit, as a card carrying wine geek, that peaked my interest right there.
In a room of thoroughly drinkable wines there were, of course, highlights.
Old vine Beaujolais from Régnié was the deepest Gamay I’d ever tasted. The section of Jura and Savoie wines, often overlooked and misunderstood, was capped off with a gorgeous Château Chalon and the standard (and well received) comté platter.
Hungarians were doing cool things with Furmint, Slovenians were doing cool things with everything, and the Polish (wine from Poland, the cleaners hadn’t arrived early (boom tish! – ed)) was, I think I’m right in this, probably the most anticipated wine of the whole day. Plenty for the buyers from the hipster wine bars and speakeasies to be getting on with.
To support the smaller guys and girls trying to make these wines in a world of squeezed margin, is a very noble venture. A noble venture that few have cracked in the past. Of course price is an issue. The lack of any kind of economies of scale, and trying to do things in new ways means that they’ll cost a few quid more. But LeMessurier rightly points out the upside.
“Some wines we bring in are your money makers, with better margins, and others, like these, are the ones with the stories that will keep your clients coming back for more”. The few quid extra shouldn’t pose too much of a problem to the wine geek crowds.
The biggest issue for a company like Alliance has always been the play-off between trying to support the smaller producer through thick and thin, whilst also looking after your clients on the other end.
If a small producer has a wonderful vintage and the world and his wife are raving about the wine, then you look like a genius if you’re importing it. A bad vintage, however, and you’ve got the moral dilemma of a small producer, who may have made themselves dependent upon your business, producing wines that you just know will not pass muster with your clients back home.
It’s not easy for the end buyers either. The average on-trade wine buyer is not that dissimilar to the average wine punter on the street in what they’re looking for. OK, it’s a much more involved decision, but long and short of it is that they want consistency of quality and price.
As a head sommelier, if it’s your nuts on the line if the patrons don’t like what you’re serving them, who can blame you for going for those easy wins? It’s a brave, well-set, buyer that knows their customers, that has the chance to start fishing around for the funky things.
It’s hard for me to criticise much about the tasting. There was a fair old skew towards European wines, with 80% of the tasting focused on the Old World. Even within the New World there was a focus on New Zealand and Australia, and not one US wine. But with this kind of thing, that’s understandable. It’s easier to work with small producers that are close to home. It takes less planning/projecting, and feels that bit easier to communicate.
Also, Alliance have the luxury of two MW directors in Fergal Tynan and Giles Cooke that make top quality wine in Australia themselves. Maybe I’ll let them off talking their own book a bit. I know I would!
Good luck to Alliance Wine in supporting smaller scale winemakers doing things differently. The best way we can support them is by drinking these lovely, well-crafted wines. What can I say? I’m in!
For further info and full details on the wines at the Crafty Little Tasting, please email Phoebe LeMessurier at phoebe.lemessurier@alliancewine.com
