Miscellaneous
Jamie Oliver, Wine and Beef
Posted by: | CommentsAn unexpected meeting with renowned chef Jamie Oliver last week got me reflecting about the similarities between sourcing quality wine and food.
I was dining with Wine Society supplier Daniel Castaño, behind the unpretentious Spanish monastrell we list, at Barbecoa restaurant in London (which happens also to list Daniel’s wine under its on-trade label – for obvious reasons, it’s several times more expensive there).
Jamie Oliver, Daniel Castaño and me
Barbecue beef is the speciality here and by happy chance Jamie Oliver was enjoying a night out with friends a couple of tables down from us. We soon got talking about wine and beef.
Jamie’s passion for quality was as evident as when he’s performing on TV. Apparently the choice of farmer, breed and feed are the key to a good piece of juicy, flavourful beef. And the parallel with wine starts here too. The decisions of the grape grower (like the farmer) will determine the quality of the harvested grapes. For breed read grape variety, for feed read soil management which aims to maximise vine nutrition and health. Like Jamie, The Wine Society starts by selecting the growers whose philosophy matches our quality expectations.
But it doesn’t stop there. Jamie Oliver goes one step further. He employs someone to select the very best from his chosen farmers by looking at the ‘marbling’ of each animal in the slaughterhouse. They might pick just two out of ten.
It’s what the Wine Society buyers do; granted, in the more amicable surroundings of a cellar or winery tasting room, but of the thousands of wines we taste each year, only a very small percentage makes it to the List.
Pierre Mansour
Buyer for Spain
The Society has reduced more than 300 wines in price
Posted by: | CommentsA colleague has recently been given a 1946 edition of A Wine Primer: A text-book for beginners on how to buy, keep & serve wine, written by André L. Simon.
Flicking through it, I was particularly struck by the last paragraph of the foreword:
Wine is a friend, wine is a joy; and, like sunshine, wine is the birthright of all. It grows so freely and is so cheap that there is wine for all, rich and poor alike, in wine-producing lands and in all others. Wine is cheaper, where it is made, than oranges and lemons which, in England, are not the privilege of the rich. Wine is. Why? Simply because oranges and lemons come in free of duty whilst wine is taxed so heavily that none but the rich may enjoy its message of good health and good will. May the day come, and the sooner it comes the better for all, when wine will no longer be penalized as it is at present on reaching these shores, and when it will be once again within the reach of all.
Obviously Simon wrote in an era when vineyard and winery technology, for instance, were not what they are today, but particularly on the subject of tax and duty it is rather difficult to disagree with these 66-year-old words – more’s the pity.
Wine itself is certainly not merely ‘the privilege of the rich’ anymore. Good wine (very different altogether, of course!) should indeed be ‘within the reach of all’, and we believe that membership of The Society gives you something of an advantage in getting hold of it.
We have always offered wines to members at the best prices that we possibly can. With this in mind, and despite the difficult financial climate, we are delighted to announce that, due to strong member support in 2011, we have lowered the prices of over 300 wines without raising the price of a single one.
We are able to do this because of our non-profit maximising mutual status, as Acting Chief Executive Richard Shorrocks writes in SocietyNews.
These modest and wide-ranging reductions, rather than gimmicky discounts on selected wines, are, we feel, the best and most practical way to reward and thank members for their support.
We hope you continue to enjoy the wines and services available from The Society.
Question Time
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David Dimbleby not presenting The Society's question time
Yesterday Pierre Mansour (@pierremansour) and I (@Ewbz) hosted a virtual question time on Twitter (@TheWineSociety) as an experiment as we dip our toe a little further into the water of social media. A small-but-perfectly-formed band of members took part under the hashtag #twsqt. Here are the Qs and the As:
@robjfreeman If in doubt, always decant?
@TheWineSociety ‘Yes!’ Most wines improve with aeration, especially younger reds. As @JancisRobinson says: ‘decant splashily!’ …
@TheWineSociety …although be wary of older, more fragile wines. If needed, decant immediately before drinking or pour carefully.
@jonone100 can you recommend a nice pinot noir for about £20? Thanks.
@TheWineSociety This Marsannay, a new (to us) producer & great vfm. Or for a top Kiwi try @SeresinEstate’s Rachel
@thirstforwine What wine for a Xmas 4-bird roast? (Turkey, Goose, Duck, Pheasant)
@TheWineSociety C’neuf-du-Pape is our recco but with so many flavours esp. trimmings choose something you know your guests will enjoy.
@thirstforwine Interesting – was thinking NZ PN. Thoughts?
@TheWineSociety NZ pinot was what @pierremansour drank with last year’s Christmas dinner! Anything with a bit of sweet ripe fruit.
@skifamille Am I right in thinking 15/12 is last order date for Christmas?
@TheWineSociety To guarantee pre-Christmas delivery, order pre-midnight Thu 15/12.
@TopTungston Wondering when the Tollot-Beaut Chorey-lès-Beaune 2005 is best to drink. Opening offer says best by 2012. Please advise.
@TheWineSociety Drinking well now. 05 vintage long-lasting but Chorey a modest appellation. For even softer and gamier hold for 2-3 years.
@TopTungston Also please could you tell me is the 06 Katnook estate Cab Sauv drinking ok right now? Thank you.
@TheWineSociety Absolutely delicious right now. Very elegant. Do decant 1 hour before.
@Theshrubb Is my 2001 Langoa Barton ready for this Christmas or should I leave it for a few more?
@TheWineSociety Drank this at a recent Montreuil dinner (Sep). Just hitting stride now. Pop the cork & enjoy, or wait up to another 8 years.
@PollyEJHolidays You focus a lot on great Portuguese wines, but are there any you’d recommend from the Algarve for Christmas?
@TheWineSociety While we have loads of Portuguese in our current offer none are from Algarve. Sorry.
So that’s it from Stevenage for this week. Next time we’ll be in Stevenage, and the time after that in … er … Stevenage! Good night.
Pleasures Unforeseen
Posted by: | CommentsThe greatest pleasures are often unexpected.
We had agreed to baby-sit our granddaughter (a predictable delight) while our daughter and son-in-law were at a friend’s wedding.
Our daughter and son-in-law booked us a room in a hotel, but the website was confusing and the place they thought they had booked knew nothing about it. The one with a similar name, and where we were booked in, looked at first sight distinctly unpromising, and in need of a good refurbishment.
But soon after we arrived and were about to regroup, a man arrived who changed our first impressions completely. He was carrying a tray of glistening Mediterranean fish, sweet-smelling lemon and tomatoes. It turned out that he was a born Sicilian, a trainee chef, had just taken over the hotel, and sensibly gone down to Portsmouth to meet the boat from Sicily (we were in Hampshire) and buy fresh produce for supper. My eyes lit up.
We discussed what fish we would eat for supper. We talked about the important subject of ripeness in lemons and tomatoes and later on we ate like kings. Our granddaughter slept with a seraphic smile on her face.
If the ingredients are fresh, ripe and good, and beautifully prepared, what more do you need?
So it is with wine too.
Sebastian Payne MW
Chief Buyer
No weak links
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Congratulations to The Society’s Head of Tastings & Events Ewan Murray for a sterling performance in Wednesday’s episode of the BBC’s The Weakest Link (still available via the Beeb’s iPlayer for those that missed it).
Correct spelling, detailed knowledge of ladies’ hair styling, lightning mental arithmetic and sagacious ‘banking’ saw Ewan scoop the winnings. He describes host Anne Robinson (aka the ‘Queen of Mean’) as ‘lovely, and not at all like her on-screen persona’; we’re not sure what Anne made of Ewan however after he likened her on the show to ‘a New World riesling – fragrant but with a streak of acidity’ or a mature red Burgundy that ‘is still fruity but beginning to show its age’!
Ewan says he will be donating a proportion of his winnings to World Vision’s work in Lideta, Ethiopia, and spending the remainder on a treat for the family.
Changes to Delivery Services, Including a New ‘Name-the-Day’ Option
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In the wake of last December’s snow, our bi-annual review of delivery carriers took a sharper focus than usual as we set ourselves the additional challenge of beefing up our contingency arrangements. We have talked to all ten national parcel networks and several regionals. As a result, we will be adding a fourth carrier (enhancing our ability to switch volume between networks when things go wrong) and changing the way we exchange information with our three existing providers.
As part of this we have been able to improve our 5-10 day delivery promise for wine delivered by carriers to four working days (with plans to reduce to three soon).
Members can also choose a ‘name-the-day’ service from carriers, which costs £3 for weekdays or £10 for weekends. A new evening/weekend service for deliveries inside the M25 is also available.
These services, as well as our next day delivery service, are now charged per order, rather than per case. You can visit the Delivery Options section of our website for more information.
Whilst the above concerns mainly deliveries via carriers (YODEL, Fedex etc) following our commercial reviews with them, most of our members continue to select to have their deliveries from the local Wine Society van, and we are planning improvements to this service too.
Peter Styne
Head of Operations
Keeping Greece Afloat!
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Bragging about one’s holidays might seem a little tasteless, though they were exceedingly good. So this is not going to be a tale of sun, sand and… but rather of wine and of one particular grape variety: moschofilero.
Finding good white wine in Greece was never easy. Most was often dull or oxidised; beer was usually the only viable answer to quench a thirst. That perception is now out of date. Whatever the shortcomings of the Greek economy, there is a sense of real pride in Greece which is evident in the quality of the wines. Even humble jug wines (sometimes made from saavatiano or vilano grapes) are lovely but, for me, pride and place goes to the moschofilero.
This is often a pink coloured grape and is planted mainly on Peloponnese and produces a light and fragrant wine that has some similarity to muscat but not as pungent and more delicate. Curiously for a variety that is native of Greece, it does not tolerate excessive heat which is why it is often planted at altitude such as among the high mountains of the Peloponnese.
Back to the holiday: The scene is on board a ferry outward bound from Piraeus where the service in the restaurant is perfect and where the chief steward is dressed in navy whites. The food was excellent, tzatziki, squid, grilled meats and a decent salad, and all washed down with a refreshing moschofilero 2010 from Skouras. Heaven!
Click here to view The Society’s ‘Discover Greece’ offer.
Marcel Orford-Williams
A rewarding week for The Society
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It was a great honour to receive on behalf of our members and The Society the National Retailer of the Year award at the Decanter World Wine Awards presentation dinner at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on Wednesday (pictured right with judge Anthony Rose). Being rushed off straight away afterwards to do a video-interview was a bit unexpected though! You can see it here.
Following so closely on the heels of our successes at Tuesday evening’s International Wine Challenge (IWC) Awards (see Ewan’s earlier blog entry), it has proved to be a wonderfully rewarding week for The Society. The IWC had also voted The Society the Wine Merchant and Wine Club of the year, as well as the Specialist Merchant for both Alsace and Chile.
In their citations, the judges recognised nearly every part of the business from the range and quality of our wines to the excellent levels of service provided to members and the recent innovations that we have introduced. At the heart of our success, I believe, lies our mutuality which allows us to focus on member satisfaction and quality rather than on the financial returns required for external shareholders. These awards are a testament to the hard work of our buyers and staff and I offer my congratulations to all concerned.
I was particularly pleased to see that we won, for the fourth consecutive year, the Specialist Merchant Award for Alsace. Congratulations to buyer Marcel Orford-Williams for once again ensuring members have the pick of Alsace’s wines to choose from.
This is also the fourth time that the IWC judges have voted our Chilean range the country’s finest. But rather than resting on his laurels, buyer Toby Morrhall is constantly refining and improving the range and unearthing new wines for us all to enjoy, just as he has done each year since first championing these wines.
In Decanter’s report of the awards they questioned whether: “The ‘committee of gentlemen’ who met in the Albert hall in 1874 to set up a co-operative … would recognise their offspring in this victor.” I like to think that while they may find our ever-evolving website, our new iPhone app and state-of-the-art warehouse a tad confusing, they would find our ethos of the uppermost integrity and commitment to outstanding quality and fair pricing entirely recognisable.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sarah Evans
Chairman
Top of the Medal Table
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The International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, often referred to as the ‘wine Oscars’, took place last night at the Hilton Park Lane. The esteemed panel of judges includes Tim Atkin MW, Oz Clarke, Sam Harrop MW, Charles Metcalfe and Derek Smedley MW.
Buyer Marcel Orford-Williams, supply chain manager Thom Cleary and I were there on behalf of The Society, and I suppose we should have suspected something was afoot when we saw that we were seated at the same table as the aforementioned Oz, Charles and Derek . Earlier in the evening we had been presented with the awards for Specialist Merchant of the Year for Alsace and for Chile (both for the fourth time).
During the main presentations we were delighted to become Wine Club of the Year for the second time. What came totally out of the blue, however, was the award for Merchant of The Year – the very top merchant award of the evening. We are thrilled. This is the second time that The Society has won this award (the last time being in 2005).
Here is what the judges said about The Society:
Wine Club of the Year – “Founded in 1874, the Wine Society has stood the test of time in terms of quality and service. Their wine list features great wines on every page and the team are actively involved in events and activities. Their decision to drop their margins and reinvest previous year’s profits back in to the club is commendable. The Society’s specialist buying team is a great credit to them.”
Merchant of the Year – “In a fluctuating market, The Wine Society has consolidated its position. They do everything well, from entry point own label to offering some of the best wines in the world. Their storage facilities in Stevenage are state-of-the-art, and have recently been expanded. Their offerings range from wines sold En Primeur to great mature vintages, cellared in that wonderful warehouse. They sell over 600,000 cases a year to 110,000 clients. Their wine-list is diverse and well-researched. The Wine Society is gloriously traditional but right up to date – a proper, authentic wine merchant.”
The full list of award winners can be found by clicking here. Well done to all of our colleagues in the wine trade who won an award.
As Marcel and I went up to collect the award, the music playing was the Black Eyed Peas: “I gotta feelin’ that tonight’s gonna be a good night …” Well, it certainly was!
Ewan Murray
Head of Tastings, Events & PR
English Wine is Local Hero Across the (Cheese) Board
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Finding a wine able to complement a range of different cheeses can be a challenge. Some outspoken gastronomic experts even deem it an impossibility given the sheer scope of flavours and textures on offer.
Most cheese falls into one of five or six family groups: goat and sheep’s milk cheese, hard or cheddared cheese, bloomy cheeses (camembert and brie), washed rind cheeses (epoisses, munster etc) and blue-veined cheese.
Generally speaking, certain styles of wine will work better with each of these groups, but a good cheese board will probably include examples from all of them. So how do you find a wine that can cope with a strong, salty cheddar, a pungent goat’s cheese and a ripe camembert? This was the challenge we set ourselves when choosing wines for our special Christmas cheese and wine cases.
The line-up of cheeses included representatives from both sides of the Channel. In the French corner, we had:
Brillat Savarin – a triple-cream, soft cheese, made with unpasteurised cow’s milk with a deep, earthy and salty flavour.
La Graine de Vosges – a washed-rind cow’s milk cheese; pungent but with an unctuous, creamy and earthy flavour.
Vacherin Mont d’Or – a seasonal cow’s milk cheese made on the Swiss border shaped in cloth-lined moulds then encircled with a strip of spruce bark and washed with brine for at least three weeks. The spruce imparts a resinous flavour to the pale interior of the cheese which becomes almost liquid as it matures.
Bleu de Chevre Cendre – an unusual ashed and soft blue goat’s milk cheese made from the milk of Alpine dairy goats.
… and in the British corner were:
Cornish Smuggler – a hard cow’s cheese with lovely acidity and creamy texture and a soft red veining through the cheese.
Sharpham Brie – soft, unpasteurised, full-flavoured almost fruity creamy brie.
Ragstone – creamy, pronounced flavoured goat’s cheese from Herefordshire.
Golden Cenarth – award-winning washed-rind organic cow’s milk cheese from west Wales Its smooth interior texture in contrast with its interesting, sweet rind.
We tried a raft of different bottles with the cheeses (the idea was to choose French wines to go with the French cheeses) but as the tasting went on, one wine seemed to bring out the best in all of the cheeses, French or British again and again…
Midsummer Hill took on all comers...
Yet another feather in the cap of a wine that’s been a patriotic Society favourite for some time now, so I thought I’d share the news. Should you wish to try it and indeed other English wines besides, The Society is currently running an offer enabling members to do just that!
Joanna Goodman
SocietyNews Editor
