For the second in the Club’s occasional feature on ‘Desert Island Wines’, Graham Harding interviewed Ted Sandbach, founder and MD of the Oxford Wine Company before a full house at the Brookes Restaurant.
Ted was the perfect guest: generous with his wines and with plenty of excellent stories about the path from teacher at Magdalen College School (MCS), to managing Grape Ideas in Oxford before setting up the Oxford Wine and Hamper Company, then 'losing the hamper' and concentrating on wine with great success. But, as well as the stories, there was a great deal of straight talk and practical wisdom about being an entrepreneur, the challenges (and opportunities) in today's wine trade, and, above all, the quality and nature of good wine.
We started with a glass of the Oxford Wine Company's Philippe Brugnon’s Premier Cru champagne vintage 2009. Grower champagne is not an easy sell - too many people are either in the market only for cheapest they can get away with or for the cachet of the known brand on the table but Ted has stuck with Brugnon's wine which has stood the test of the repeated blind tastings that the company puts all its wines through. If they're not in the top 3 when re-tasted then they're out and replaced with something that offers a better quality / price ratio. We were glad he stuck with this one: a blend of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir with a fine mousse and a complex biscuity character complementing its ripe fruit, this nicely balanced wine lingered long and attractively, and offered rather good value at £32.50 for a Premier Cru vintage champagne.
Ted didn't grow up in a wine family (as he said there weren't many of those back in the 1950s and 1960s) though there were the occasional bottles of Côtes du Rhône or Mateus Rosé. His introduction to wine really came when he was teaching sport and English at MCS and started to explore the Sainsbury's range of wines which revolutionised the selling of wine in the 1970s. Fascinated by the clear language of the labels and the honesty of both the presentation and the pricing (virtues he has never forgotten), he read around, took courses and became hooked. His first wine job came rather out of the blue though. He was in Grape Ideas (the now defunct Oxford wine warehouse that morphed into Stevens Garnier) one lunchtime, chatting to the manager and wondering how he might get a job like that. Well you could have mine said the chap behind the counter, there's an interview at 2.30. A quick phone call to switch classes, a dash home for a shower and suit and he made the interview - and got the job by 4.30.
Reading between the lines it was clear that Grape Ideas was not a comfortable environment for Ted's growing entrepreneurial flair and energy. After the company rejected his ideas for food and wine hampers he started supplying them anyway - starting with his network of sporting and school contacts. With only a beaten up Saab for deliveries (and later a part-time driver), his garage for stock and a supportive wife, he built up a food and wine business around Oxfordshire before focusing down onto the Standlake wine warehouse that many members remember. Selling off the 'hamper' bit of the Oxford Wine and Hamper Company he became - by a process of subtraction - the Oxford Wine Company.
The second wine Ted selected was a 2103 Sauvignon de Touraine, Vieilles Vignes from the Domaine du Haut Perron, Guy Allion in the Loire. This crisp dry wine was laden with persistent grassy and lime like fruit and one could imagine it making a refreshing tipple on a desert island.
The Albert Bichot Viré Clessé 2013 from the Maconnais was, Ted said, a perfect example of what he thought wine should be: fresh, pure, never over-oaked and made with respect for the grapes and the place. With its very intense apricot and grapefruit character this wine did indeed show subtle evidence of the 20% new Nevers and Alliers oak barrels used during vinification. Ted’s an enthusiast for the consistent good quality at a good price that Latin America offers and sees the potential in South Africa which is slowly being realised, but his heart now is in Europe. French, Spanish and Portuguese winemakers, galvanised by flying wine makers from Australia and increasing awareness of other countries and other wines, have really upped their game.
Ted himself was a winemaker for a number of years. A friend swapping a three bed semi in Abingdon for a hundred acres or so near Beziers in the Languedoc (the 'perfect' place to make wine, said Ted, with its rough, scrabbly terrain and sunshine) for fruit farming discovered he had also bought a bunch of wizened old vines whose produce was shipped straight out into the vats of the local co-op. Finding an Aussie winemaker, Dave Morrison, who reckoned the 60 year old Carignan was the real deal (‘fucking hell you’ve got some bloody good shit here’), he started producing on his own account. We were treated to some of the last few bottles of the 2008 and 2009 Domaine La Souteranne. The 2009 was still vivid with garrigue-like spicy, herby, slightly jammy fruit character and a fresh savoury finish whereas the 2008 was getting a bit 'tired'. Business pressures, his friend's focus on fruit farming and the relatively low production volumes led to a decision to revert to the local co-op - but not before Ted's wine had made Oz Clarke's Top Five Wines of the Year' list for several straight years.
The next wine was a New Zealand Pinot Noir. If the Viré-Clessé was his desert island drinking choice (if he could take but one wine) then Pinot Noir was his number one grape. He told the story of a Grape Ideas lunch with Auberon Waugh which included La Tâche 1953. At the time, Grape Ideas was running the Spectator Wine Club and though the lunch itself was a bit 'rough', the wines were spectacular. Ted took away the remains of the La Tâche ('full of gunk') and showed it to a group he was teaching that same evening. Not for tasting, he said, just for show. But someone said let's filter it and try it. So the wine was filtered through a clean handkerchief and duly tasted. One member of the audience had been there - and the memory was still vivid. The 2010 Chard Farm Mata au Pinot Noir from Central Otago was rather different with its soft tannins and its raspberry-like fruit balanced by the firm acidity and savoury freshness that Ted seeks in his favourite wines.
Wine no 6 was the 2010 Quinta de la Rosa, La Rosa Reserve produced by Sophia Bergqvist at her property (a christening present to her grandmother) in the Douro. The 'most beautiful place' in the world thought Ted, and his stories of picking fresh oranges for breakfast were undeniably idyllic. The wine was pretty special too made from the port varieties Touriga Nacional and Tinto Roriz (Tempranillo) it was full bodied and smooth with rich spicy black fruit. A powerful but well balanced wine showing some of the character of port without the weight. Not inexpensive at £31.50 but a serious and substantial wine.
Key to Ted's philosophy - as he told it - is to take the snobbery out of wine, to allow people to judge on taste (rather than the label) and to focus on quality and value. The last red wine - the Pulenta Gran Corte from Mendoza - was an unashamed Bordeaux lookalike (with the addition of Tannat to the blend) at a price (£26.95) that fine Bordeaux lovers can only dream of. The Pulenta label is far from a Bordeaux lookalike but the wine had depth, richness and vivid black cherry fruit with a touch of spice, backed by a strong structure and balance.
The very last wine was a Noble Late Harvest Riesling from Paul Cluver in Elgin, South Africa (another emerging area). A 'waste of time' with puddings but a wine to savour according to Ted. With concentrated orange and nectarine, marmalade and honey flavours and with fresh zesty acidity balancing its sweetness, this was a favourite of many of those present at the tasting. .
Independents have faced a tough time recently with the seemingly inexorable rise of the supermarkets with their power to destroy smaller producers in pursuit of 'good ' prices. Ted, as he told us, is aiming at a fightback. The Vindependents agency he is launching with other independents - including Cambridge Wine Merchants - will replace the middlemen who populate the wine trade, giving both producers and customers a better financial deal.
The role of the independents in Ted’s view is to find new areas and new wines, to persuade customers to try wines they never knew existed - without neglecting the basics of quality and value. To that end, perhaps, Ted's Desert Island book would be Hugh Johnson's World Wine Atlas; his luxury a daily copy of the Daily Telegraph to keep up with the sports pages as he lazed on the beach.
But ...not just yet. There's a new café to launch in Jericho and the challenge of making Vindependents a real force for good in the independent wine sector. Judging by the reception, the Club is entirely behind him.
Graham Harding made a fine replacement for Kirsty Young and with his well-chosen questions elicited a plethora of good stories and a great deal of frank inside information from the potential shipwreck victim. The club owes a very big thank you to both Graham and Ted for making this such an enjoyable evening. Members who attended the tasting can prolong their enjoyment by taking advantage of Ted’s generous offer of 20% discount on wines purchased at the Botley shop on production of their tasting sheet.
SE/GH: 24/3/15