Botrytis

When I first started my wine career in the early 80's, we learnt about 'botrytis' which is basically a rot that can develop on grapes in certain micro climates. It dehydrates the grapes, sucking out the water but leaving the sugars behind which results in luscious and balanced dessert wine. The process is sometimes referred to as noble rot.

On our visit to the UK just before Christmas, I visited all the local Dorset wine merchants and found the few independant, traditional wine merchants to be doing well serving their local community with fine wine. However, to my alarm  I found the supermarkets (the big names) to have gone down the 'generic' route - where profit is more important than quality or variety. I was faced with row after row of  every  'Blossom Hill' (or equivalent) available in the world.   Don't get me wrong, Blossom Hill, Hardys and Lindemans have their place, but do we really want 15 different types of them with no other choice ? I certainly do not.

There are still some good national chains around such as Majestic wines and many towns are also lucky enough to have a traditional family owned wine merchant to supply their needs; however it seems to me that since the national off licence chains such as Threshers, Unwins, Wine rack etc  closed over 2500 shops in the last 3 years, the supermarket chains have realised their is no national competition and have gone totally down the profit only route. Now we see adverts for wine saying ''I don't care what it is but I like it''  I really hope that this is not a true reflection of what the British consumer thinks about wine.

The national chains have no one to blame but themselves for their demise as they tried to play the supermarkets at their own game. They alienated their true market of loyal wine loving customers by stacking high and selling profit led wines like Blossom Hill, rather than keeping the quirky, interesting stock that their clients wanted. Rather than competing by offering what the supermarkets couldn't, they tried to compete which just was not possible.

The present situation was all predicted over 20 years ago by the government think tank on future alcohol sales. When I worked for Grand Metropolitan (owners of Peter Dominic group) I was shown a report which predicted a £12 billion increase in the sale of alcoholic products in the next 15 to 20 years and supermarket chains gaining 98% of this increase  - not far off the mark at all !

There is hopefully light at the end of the tunnel. Waitrose and Marks and Spencers have won accolades for their wine range. It seems they have realised there is a gap in the market to fill, after all the likes of me still want to be able to buy a Coteaux du Layon (a botrytis affected wine) from a small producer in the Loire, because for me wine is a passion and an interest and I do 'care what it is' and where it came from.

The whole market seems to be in a state of flux and I can only hope that the supermarkets will see the error of their ways and that this 'rot' that has infiltrated the industry turns into something good in the end.

By Chris Blakeman (origially published Feb 2011)

By Chris Blakeman