Wine Merchants Old And New

Wine Merchants Old and New

Sellers of alcoholic beverages have received mixed press over the years. There are several pejorative references in the Gospels to publicans, and the sinners and harlots who consort with them, but wine does rather better. In fact the Bible only makes two references, one in Matthew and the other in Luke, to wine bibbers, a word which implies drinking to excess, and of course there is the oft-quoted miracle of Jesus turning water into wine at the Canaan wedding and Paul’s advice to his disciple Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach.

Wines, particularly those from Bordeaux, became popular with the English upper classes from the 17th century and over the next two centuries a number of French properties were bought by investors whose chateaux still display their English provenance with names such as Barton, Boyd, Clarke, Palmer and Talbot. In the late 18th century Thomas Jefferson travelled to France where he purchased quantities of wine and wrote extensively about it. From these beginnings, it was only natural that the English would add ‘wine merchant’ to the list of premises to be found in the ‘Nation of Shopkeepers’.

Before the days when wine was sold in supermarkets, or was piled high in specialist shops, such as Majestic Wines and Crown Liquors, the business of buying and selling wine was conducted quite differently. Going to buy wine was not unlike going into a bank. On entering the premises, you would find a counter, usually of oak, and behind the counter a man of uncertain age and with the florid complexion of a professional wine-taster, who would politely ask how you could be helped. Like the cash in a bank, you would not find the products displayed, but unlike a bank, there would be an unmistakable aroma of wine, emanating from the cool cellars below. The sparse decorations were usually ancient advertisements for auctions of fine claret, port, Madeira and brandy to be conducted at the premises of Mr. Christie. There would be several copies of a wellthumbed list of the wines available for purchase, at prices in pounds, shillings and pence, which would today bring tears to your eyes, though if you were a regular customer, you would have already received a copy of the list in the mail. You would place your order and the following day your cases of wine would be delivered to your address.

The traditional wine merchant would purchase some of his stock from chateaux and growers on the basis that they were well known, and quality and value would vary only with the success of the vintage. Until 1972, when the European Common Market changed the rules, wine could be bought in barrels, known as hogsheads, and bottled more cheaply at home. Bargains could be found by arranging tasting visits to undiscovered producers, and as wine became more popular and widely produced and enjoyed, markets for export opened up around the world. Other sources for wines were auctions, négotiants and purchases from investors and collectors.

Although a lot of wine is sold in chain-stores and supermarkets, there is still a role for the independent wine merchant in modern times. Traditions die hard where wine is concerned and one of the earliest wine merchants, Berry Brothers & Rudd still operates as a traditional wine merchant from 3 St. James’s Street, London, where not much has changed since the shop opened in 1698!

Today’s wine merchants still pride themselves on being able to find interesting wines from smaller wineries or regions that are too small or remote for large retailers. Such retailers usually have agencies with well-known brands which will contract to supply an agreed volume, year in, year out. Wine merchants tend to avoid these arrangements, preferring to purchase only wines from good vintages and avoiding mass-produced plonk altogether.

Another advantage of a modern-day wine merchant is that they really care and are passionate about wine. They will ensure that wine is stored at the correct temperature and laid horizontally (typically wine at a retail outlet is stored 15 degrees warmer than it should be and often placed vertically on a shelf). Moreover, because merchant wines are sourced directly from growers and négotiants, and bought from dealers, auctions and from private collectors, they will stock unusual and interesting items.

Like Thomas Jefferson, merchants or their buyers will travel through wine districts, spending considerable time tasting and discovering glorious wines that are not of interest to mass retailers but which are little known and so can be purchased at reasonable prices. For example, superb quality Champagne is made by growers whose advertising budgets are a fraction of those of the famous Champagne houses and they sell at proportionately lower prices. Customers of the traditional wine merchant are invariably more interested in the contents than the name of the bottle and however sophisticated they may be, finding great wine at bargain prices is one of the greatest pleasures of the oenophile. From years of studying and tasting wines, wine merchants develop the skills and knowledge to be able to recommend wines based on client preferences, and will arrange wine tastings, suggest wines to go with menus and offer reasonably priced, affordable wines and Champagne for large occasions like weddings.

Vino Veritas is the Cayman equivalent of a traditional wine merchant. It was founded in 2002 by Ian Boxall, a long time Cayman resident and wine connoisseur. When he retired from the law, he applied for a licence to enable him to import wine, mostly for his own use, which he bought in France, using as a base his house in southern Burgundy. As people started asking Ian to sell and import wine for them, he recognized there was a gap in the market for a small, personalized operation. Three years later, restaurants expressed interest in adding more variety to their wine-lists, so a full distributor licence was obtained. Ian describes himself as being passionate about wine, and a recent discovery last year was Talmard’s Mâcon-Uchizy 2006, which Decanter Magazine recently rated among the top four of 168 white Burgundies tasted by their experts, and the best value of those four.

Today Vino Veritas still operates out of a converted underground cistern, where wines are kept at the optimum temperature of 57ºF and humidity at 75%. By being independent, Vino Veritas is able to supply clients with wines which are not available anywhere else in Cayman, and although they specialise in French wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, they also supply a good selection of wines from around the world, as well as vintage port. By combining old world wine merchant values with modern communications methods, Vino Veritas is able to provide interesting wines at warehouse prices delivered free of charge to any address in Grand Cayman.

Clive Coates MW (Master of Wine) is one of the world’s leading wine authorities. His definitive books on the wines of France include An Encyclopedia of Wines of France, the Wines of Bordeaux and The Great Wines of France. He is currently working on a second edition of his prize-winning opus on the wines of Burgundy, Cote d’Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy. Clive Coates is a consultant to Vino Veritas. This article was written exclusively for Good Taste Magazine 2009.