THE WINE CONNOISSEUR
BY TIM SIBTHORP, OAK BISTRO
I have recently celebrated my 60th Birthday, so when I was
approached by Wirral Life to write a short article about
wine I at least felt I had enough wine drinking experience!
Leon Adams, the American publicist and co-founder of the
Wine Institute is often quoted as saying “Anyone who tries to
make you believe that he knows all about wines is obviously a
fake” but allowing for his scepticism I am at least qualified to
say a few words about wine because I love good wine and in
the end that is all that matters.
Modern wine production is very different from the origins of
wine. The earliest wine jars date from 8,000 years ago and the
earliest winery is 6,100 years old. In those days the centre for
wine production was in Georgia and Armenia but today over
60% of the world’s wine comes from just three countries, Italy,
France and Spain. There is also a wealth of opinion, rumour
and discussion relating to all things wine. What is the best
wine? Do you drink red wine with meat and white wine with
fish? My opinion is simple, drink good wine and enjoy!
This leaves the question of what is good wine. Wine, just
like any other natural product, comes in a range of quality,
quantity and price so how do you make sense of it all?
My first piece of advice would be to look for independent
wine merchants such as Whitmore and White (Frodsham,
Heswall and West Kirby) where their expert staff can help
and advise you. As a basic principle independent smaller
producers create better and more interesting wines than huge
multinationals that fill the shelves of many supermarkets.
So what represents a good wine buy? Retail wine prices start at
about £5 and extend to over £3000 but do you get that much
more for an expensive wine? In truth wine prices are fixed by
what people are willing to pay for a particular wine and if you
are spending more than £200 for a bottle you are undoubtedly
moving into wine prices set by trends and international prices.
All wine has the same duty charges and VAT. The labour
and handling changes are about the same (60p) and the sales
margins are about 30%. This means that for a £5 bottle (75cl)
of still wine the actual value of the wine is about 17p. The
value of the wine in a £10 bottle is about £2.94 or 17 times
the value of the wine in the cheaper bottle. The simple truth
is that, within reason, you get a much better wine for a few
pounds more. A classic example of this would be the very
popular white wines of Northern Italy. You could opt for a £8
bottle of Pinot Grigio from a supermarket of your choice, but
I would highly recommend you try a bottle of Ca Dei Frati
from Lugana at about £16. The senses fairly dance to the Frati
as it quality shines through to all your senses. A total joy in a
glass with our without food and well worth the extra pounds.
The other place we often buy wine is in a restaurant and in
this setting the Wine List is often devised to maximise profit
rather than guide you to the best value for money. If you see a
wine list with a well-known international brand name at the
beginning of the list it will inevitably be a disappointment.
How then do we choose a wine? Price is obviously important
as the cost of wines in a restaurant are often much higher than
in retail shops. Remember that most restaurants work on a
gross profit margin. To be fair on restaurateurs, the margin
takes into account everything from service to tax and at the
lower end of the price scale is more than justified. However a
growing number of restaurateurs are taking a more realistic
view of the cost of fine wines at the higher end of the price
scale by putting a flat sum margin on their more expensive
offerings. This encourages the guest to try wines that might
otherwise be simply unrealistically priced.
At Oak we do exactly that, our entry level wines are all
subject to a modest profit percentage margin but once you
reach above £25 a bottle we have a flat increase in margin.
I was in a posh Chester City Hotel last week and noted
that they stocked one of my favourite win es the 2014 Wild
Sauvignon by Greywacke in Marlborough, New Zealand but
it was a staggering £75 a bottle when we have it on the Oak
fine wine list for just £35. Made by winemaker Kevin Judd,
who originally gave us the now overrated Cloudy Bay, this
naturally fermented Sauvignon Blanc is leagues ahead of the
rest of similar New Zealand wines. Judd also makes a standard
Sauvignon, a stunning Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling
wines of outstanding quality so Cloudy Bay’s loss is our gain.
So in short, pay a few pounds more, source small independent
producers, ask for advice and most important of all, enjoy!
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