I've been traveling for a few weeks, and Russia wasn't exactly fruitful with to wines to review. I tasted some impressive vodka and some fruit liqueurs from Finland made of northern delights like cloudberry and lingonberry. Since they're not on sale here in the UK, they're only of passing interest to my readers. So arriving home, I craved a decent wine.
I'm still awaiting a case or two that I'm owed from different sources, so I didn't want to buy too much. The perfect opportunity to stop by a (not local enough) local establishment to pick up an interesting bottle. Admittedly, I've not been in Marlow much lately, having spent all of December based in central London. And with the recent flooding, this seems unlikely to change. I now have one less reason to visit.
Alfred the Grape is no more.
This cute little store with over 1000 wines in stock had been open since November 2010 but closed suddenly in the run up to Christmas. I didn't know. I'll admit that I didn't shop there on a weekly business but I will miss it. Whenever I was looking for something interesting, or a wine gift, it was the first place I would look. So where does this leave us? On Marlow's Spittal Street, we are left with Sainsbury's, Waitrose and M&S. There are still a couple of chain wine stores around the town, but for how long...
Sadly, it's not just a local issue. We were once a nation of shopkeepers, but with positive businesses with great service like this one closing, I fear that choice is dead, and homogenisation is the way forward for our UK high streets. It's not new for wine shops to suffer (think Oddbins which closed a third of it's remaining stores in 2011), and the independent of-licence is far from the only loser to the supermarkets. Every time I walk down my local high street there are more and more shops with the shutters down. But with increasing tax hits in every budget, the gross sales of wine in the UK have declined over 5% from their 2008 level, according to the International Wine and Spirits Research statistics to a little over 143 million (12 bottle) cases in 2012 and this has been accompanied by an increasing likelihood for us to disguise our booze spending by popping a bottle or two into the trolley with our weekly shop.
I'm still awaiting a case or two that I'm owed from different sources, so I didn't want to buy too much. The perfect opportunity to stop by a (not local enough) local establishment to pick up an interesting bottle. Admittedly, I've not been in Marlow much lately, having spent all of December based in central London. And with the recent flooding, this seems unlikely to change. I now have one less reason to visit.
Alfred the Grape is no more.
This cute little store with over 1000 wines in stock had been open since November 2010 but closed suddenly in the run up to Christmas. I didn't know. I'll admit that I didn't shop there on a weekly business but I will miss it. Whenever I was looking for something interesting, or a wine gift, it was the first place I would look. So where does this leave us? On Marlow's Spittal Street, we are left with Sainsbury's, Waitrose and M&S. There are still a couple of chain wine stores around the town, but for how long...
Sadly, it's not just a local issue. We were once a nation of shopkeepers, but with positive businesses with great service like this one closing, I fear that choice is dead, and homogenisation is the way forward for our UK high streets. It's not new for wine shops to suffer (think Oddbins which closed a third of it's remaining stores in 2011), and the independent of-licence is far from the only loser to the supermarkets. Every time I walk down my local high street there are more and more shops with the shutters down. But with increasing tax hits in every budget, the gross sales of wine in the UK have declined over 5% from their 2008 level, according to the International Wine and Spirits Research statistics to a little over 143 million (12 bottle) cases in 2012 and this has been accompanied by an increasing likelihood for us to disguise our booze spending by popping a bottle or two into the trolley with our weekly shop.
Nine in 10 of the bottles of wine we drink in the UK are bought from the major supermarket chains, and 60% of those are on discount. We've therefore been trained to buy wine only when it's deemed "a bargain", and those retailers who offer consistent and fair pricing miss out. Naked Wines create a similar online model by their inflated regular pricing encouraging us to deposit our cash with them on a monthly basis to receive "Angel Pricing", which to my way of thinking is only what the wines would sell for elsewhere. Majestic too, regularly offer discounts such as buy 2 save 1/3 offer taking place right now, though remember you have to buy 6 bottles minimum. Can it be right that we are so easily manipulated? If it means we no longer understand the value of a bottle of wine, and what it takes to produce a decent wine, we risk sacrificing taste for branded "bargains". Of course, this blog has featured many a supermarket stunner, but if you're a regular reader, you probably enjoy something more than the odd bottle of Blossom Hill or Echo Falls.
By all means, use the supermarket special offers to experiment with new regions and grape varieties. But remember that if it's for sale in every Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda across the country, this is most likely a bulk produced wine, which may lack complexity. I encourage you to use independent wine stores where you can still find them. In fact, I hope to be offering some wine for sale myself in the very near future, and I hope you'll come and buy some. I'll be sticking to tasting events and online sales for now. The High Street just has too much tumbleweed blowing down it these days.
I'd love to hear your views. How and where do you buy your wine? If you buy online, what's missing from the experience for you? If you've never bought online, why not? What encourages you to try new things? And of course, is there are wine you'd like to learn about here, or one you think I should be reviewing for my readers?
Join the discussion!
By all means, use the supermarket special offers to experiment with new regions and grape varieties. But remember that if it's for sale in every Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda across the country, this is most likely a bulk produced wine, which may lack complexity. I encourage you to use independent wine stores where you can still find them. In fact, I hope to be offering some wine for sale myself in the very near future, and I hope you'll come and buy some. I'll be sticking to tasting events and online sales for now. The High Street just has too much tumbleweed blowing down it these days.
I'd love to hear your views. How and where do you buy your wine? If you buy online, what's missing from the experience for you? If you've never bought online, why not? What encourages you to try new things? And of course, is there are wine you'd like to learn about here, or one you think I should be reviewing for my readers?
Join the discussion!
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