Stepp Pinot Blanc Limestone, Pfalz, Germany 2013 (£16.99, Naked Wines) I’ve been a bit curmudgeonly about online retailer Naked Wines in the past. The company offers a version of crowd-funding, asking customers, known (rather ickily) as “Angels”, to pay £20 a month to help fund winemaking projects. In return they get cheaper prices – and a halo for helping small farmers who might otherwise struggle for business. Given there are more than 700 other indie retailers in the UK effectively supporting small producers simply by selling their wines, I’m not sure I’d want to put that much of my annual wine budget in one place before even buying a bottle. But I can’t deny that the wines themselves are interesting – not least this gorgeous German white Burgundy-alike from ex-M&S wine buyer Gerd Stepp.
Domaine Jones La Gare Old Vine Carignan 2013 (£24.99, Naked Wines) One of the more heartening tales from Naked concerns Katie Jones, who left the UK for Languedoc-Roussillon and started a winery in 2007. Her wines were immediately well received, and her gamble in swapping a well-paid job for a romantic ideal was paying off, when disaster struck: vandals broke in and destroyed the entire 2012 vintage of her white wine. Naked stepped in and within 48 hours its customers had pre-ordered 30,000 bottles of her next vintage. Jones stayed afloat, and members still have access to her fabulously intense Carignan, among other gems, for £16.99.
Vincent Paris Crozes Hermitage, Rhône, France 2013 (£18.99, Naked Wines) Discounts for Naked members are so big (25-50%) it’s hard not to be a little suspicious about the quoted “real” price. Naked says its prices are based on “what similar-quality wine would sell for through other retailers”. Having just tasted through their range, I reckon that’s not always the case. But value is generally no worse than rivals, such as Virgin and Laithwaites, and occasionally very competitive. Certainly, £18.99 seems fair for Vincent Paris’s classically styled vivid, brambly Northern Rhône Syrah, while the “Angel” price of £13.99 is devilishly attractive.
