Andrew Shaw, Head of Waitrose’s Wine Buying team, treated Club members to a feast on Wednesday 23rd November 2011.
As we settled in with a glass of Waitrose’s multi-award winning Brut NV Champagne (specially blended for them by Heidsieck) he gave us a bit of his personal history. After training at the then Oxford Poly in Hotel and Catering, he’d gone to Oddbins for three years, then to work as a winemaker in New Zealand. He set up Stone, Vine and Sun (another multi-award winning company) in 2002 before the call came from Waitrose. And why did he decide to “have a difficult conversation with his business partner”? It went back, he said, to a teenage experience working for an English vineyard whose Trinity Wine was bought by Waitrose. He remembered their support for that Seyval Blanc wine and was impressed by their approach and offer. Joining Waitrose – the “only one” of the UK supermarkets he’d consider – he has bought right across the world of wine for them.
Contrasting the Stone, Vine and Sun experience (where you were answerable to no-one and could paint the walls red in the morning if you felt like it) and Waitrose, where his team of 5 buy around £400m of wine per year, he talked about the balancing act that he has to perform. They must be able to ‘price match’ their bigger competitors but still maintain the feeling of individual wines with a real sense of place and typicity; they also have to account for every foot of shelf space but need to showcase the differences in the Waitrose range. Sometimes that means subsidising a category – such as English or fortified wine where the volume is lower. Often it means using ‘local sourcing’ to get specific wines from English vineyards into stores just 30 miles away or less.
English wine lovers get a great deal in many ways: England is the lowest margin country for winemakers and retailers around the world; the expertise and range of retailers (especially Waitrose with their policy of having a trained Wine Advisor in every store) is second to none; the ferocity of the competition between the supermarkets is such that huge volumes of good wine are sold on promotion. A quick hint – look out for Duval Leroy Champagne on very special offer just before Christmas…
But back to the wines and to the two sparkling wines that Andrew opened the tasting with. The Brut NV Champagne was paired with the Ridgeview Cuvee Merret Bloomsbury 2009. Both wines are currently on promotion at £15.99 and £17.59 respectively. The former – 65% Pinot Noir with 15% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier – was pale gold with small bubbles and biscuit, lemony fragrance. Full and flavoursome it got the vote from members over the Chardonnay dominated Cuvée Merret from Ridgeview, which had a slightly deeper colour, fuller bubbles but slightly lower levels of sugar. The Ridgeview vines are younger and the wine will improve with a touch more bottle age – a tip, Andrew said, that applies to most ‘deal’ Champagnes as well. Two to three years in the cellar will be all to the good in most cases.
Waitrose are passionate supporters of English wine, selling 66% by volume of all English wines, and, in recognition of this, Andrew is on Alan Sugar’s ‘The Apprentice’ panel next year to judge initiatives for English Sparkling Wine. The BBC’s draconian confidentiality agreements meant he could give no hint of the outcome…
A question on pricing of English sparkling wine brought some illuminating responses. He is convinced that it’s essential not to devalue the English product by letting its price relative to Champagne fall. The product is every bit as good and should be regarded as such. Retailers make relatively lower margins on Champagne, since so much of the margin goes to brand-led promotion – another reason to keep the price up. But, and here’s the good-ish news, there’s a lot of new plantings of the classic grapes that will come on stream in the next few years and that will tend to bring down the price of English sparkling wine.
The next pair of wines took us to New Zealand and Northern Italy. Waitrose have a cherished ‘In Partnership With…’ scheme, where they work very closely with selected long-term suppliers and in New Zealand it’s Villa Maria. The 2011 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that’s a product of this initiative had a rich nose of mandarins and apricots as well as the classic gooseberry and green pepper flavours. Full in the mouth, it is fresh and vivid with 13% alcohol. As trusted partners, Waitrose get access to the full range of Villa Maria plots to create their blend and at £6.74 (promo) this is a great wine at a great price. The St Michael-Eppan 2010 Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige comes from a top co-op in Alto Adige, where Pinot Grigio – so often mocked – finds its purest expression in the cool climate conditions. This blend has 10% aged in old Slovenian oak and 90% treated to be as fresh as possible. The result is a wine with pear and lemon fragrance, mineral notes and a rich fresh mouth feel that puts many ‘standard’ Pinot Grigios to shame. “Glacial” was Andrew’s one word summing up – which catches the freshness but not the richness. Significantly more expensive at £10.99 than the standard ‘own brand’ PGs that retail around £6.99, or the heavily price promoted tertiary brands (98% of Tesco’s entry level Pinot Grigio is sold on promotion…).
The fifth wine was the McWilliams Mount Pleasant Isabelle Chardonnay from the wonderfully named Tumbarumba which has high vineyards on a shale-y soil. The winemaker had spotted the vineyard when his car broke down and this 100% Chardonnay is blended from several plots there to showcase the cooler climate style of Australian Chardonnay. Medium gold in colour, it has grapefruit and lime aromas with toasty oak and a touch of creaminess coming from the 10-15% of the blend that’s barrel fermented. It’s dry but with a rich mouthfeel and well integrated 14% alcohol. It even converted some rejectors of oaked Chardonnay.
Wine 6 was the culmination of Andrew’s selection of whites. This 2006 Sauternes was produced ‘In Partnership with… Suduirat’ the first growth Sauternes estate that borders d’Yquem. This Semillon-dominated wine is oak-aged and has a classic orange and lime marmalade nose, a luscious mouth feel (131 g/l) but good balancing acidity. A straw poll suggested that members’ preferences split about 50/50 between Semillon dominated wines and Sauvignon dominated sweet wines of the Loire but there was little doubt in the room that this a very fine wine at – once again – a very good price. Waitrose are known for their sweet wines and so make efforts to ensure that the range is as good as possible even if some margin has to be sacrificed for range and volume.
Over then to red wine. Cuvee Chasseur at £4.35 is not perhaps the standard tipple of Club members, but this Waitrose own label blend of Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache, from Languedoc-Roussillon had juicy black and red fruit, decent body and sells 1200 cases a week. Good party wine as Andrew suggested.
It was paired with the Fontaine du Roy 2009 from the Costieres de Nimes at £6.79. Exclusive to Waitrose this has ripe brambly fruit with liquorice and chocolate hints and decent minerality with drying tannins in a full body. Syrah dominates the blend with Grenache, Carignan, Marselan and Mourvèdre in the mix. What Andrew didn’t say was that it’s also had rave press reviews.
The third ‘In Partnership With…’ wine was the Quinta de la Rosa Reserva of 2009 from the Douro Valley. Douro red wines are not yet well known (though a surprising number of members present knew both the wine and the Quinta) and this needs price promotion to help it along – which makes for excellent value for money. A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) (with some local field blends in the mix as well), this was deep coloured with rich blackcurrant, blueberry and plum fruit. Generous acidity and full mouth feel with softish tannins made for a very appealing wine.
Then came Plantaganet Samson’s Shiraz / Cabernet from the Great Southern – another Waitrose exclusive. Deep red, with rich eucalyptus and black fruit nose this lively, high octane wine comes from a highly awarded estate being renovated under a new young winemaker who is already winning trophies on his own account.
Last wine of the night was the Cantina del Pino Barbaresco of 2007. 65 year old Nebbiolo vines on a 3.5 ha plot are finessed by wine maker Renato Vacca who has been garnering Tre Bicchieri awards for the last 8 years. Elegant and pure, this wine has the classic high tone tarry black fruit nose (with a typical touch of VA) and grainy tannins. Not for everyone at £26.99 (but look out for an upcoming 25% off offer).
Questions ranged from definition of the grey market (usually surplus stock bought from a third party retailer or wholesaler and shipped back into another country), to the value of celebrity endorsements and to the importance of cream labels. ‘Critter labels’ such as Yellowtail are on the way out – but made millions of dollars for Casella who bought the rights for just $5000Aus. Waitrose account for 90% of all the Austrian wine sold in the UK off-trade. The average Brit manages 2 bottles of German Riesling per year…
A fascinating, good-humoured, informative tasting with 11 delicious examples of Waitrose’s reach and good taste – all used as a jumping-off point for a story, an insight, a market truth.
And there’s a very generous offer coming out very soon.
Thanks Andrew.
GH: 25/11/11