De Bortoli The Accomplice Shiraz, Riverina, Australia 2018 (from £5.99, brayvalleywines.co.uk; eynshamcellars.com; rfvintners.co.uk) A little moderate wine consumption is going to be part of the way many of us keep a bit of normality going in the next few isolated, isolating weeks and months. Where we buy the wine that helps keep us sane may also help sustain the networks of local merchants and suppliers until, maybe, things return to something like normal. Although I’ve come across the occasional story of rural wine merchants benefiting from second-homers staying away from London and stocking up with expensive wine (literally stockpiling burgundy, in one case), most have been struggling to fill the enormous hole lost by disappearing orders from bars and restaurants. If you’re going to be buying wine, then, don’t forget your local indie, who will be happy (desperate) to deliver, and contrary to popular belief, will have plenty on offer below a tenner, such as De Bortoli’s widely available, subtly oaked classic Aussie Shiraz at a bargain price.
Robertson Winery William Robertson Chenin Blanc, Robertson, South Africa 2019 (from £7.95, dorsetwine.co.uk; bottleapostle.com; noblegreenwines.co.uk; raffles-wine.com) If you live in London, you’ll be spoilt for choice for indies, many of which have blossomed into mini-chains in the past few years, among them Bottle Apostle, which now has five stores around east and north London, where you can find, among many hundreds of other funky bottles, Robertson Winery’s brilliantly bright, fresh orchard fruity-tangy and very affordable chenin dry white. On the other side of town, Lea & Sandeman has five shops in West London, with a range that is particularly strong in modern Italians such as a fleshy but tangy and unusually fresh and vibrant Puglian red duo from Cantine de Falco: Salento Primitivo 2018 (£9.50) and Salento Negroamaro 2018 (£9.95). And the lists at wine bar-cum-shops Vagabond (eight venues from Battersea to Monument) and Vinoteca (five) are well worth perusing for gems such as sweetly spicy sticky Greek treat Samos Vin Doux 2018 (£8, 37.5cl, shop.vinoteca.co.uk).
Ai Galera Poetico, Tejo, Portugal 2018 (from £6.99, cheerswinemerchants.co.uk; cambridgewine.com; jadedpalates.com) Outside London, Cambridgeshire has an unusually high concentration of award winning indie wine shops: the choice and service at Cambridge Wine Merchants, Noel Young Wines and Amps Fine Wines (all of which deliver UK-wide) are among the best in the UK, with wines such as Cambridge Wine’s Ai Galera Poetico, a rewarding, surprisingly serious, brambly red for the money. Also stocking Ai Galera is Cheers Wine Merchants in Swansea, one of a handful of excellent Welsh merchants including Cowbridge’s Noble Grape, Mumbles Fine Wines and Monmouth’s Irma Fingal Rock. Scottish readers, can count on such fine indies as St Andrew’s Wine Company, Glasgow’s Valhalla’s Goat and Edinburgh’s Woodwinters, while long-time English favourites include D Byrne in Clitheroe, Butler’s Wine Cellar in Brighton, Yapp in Dorset, and Tanners in Shropshire. For the inside track on finding your own local indie, drop a line to trade magazine, The Wine Merchant: contact@winemerchantmag.com.
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