London International Wine Fair, Day 1 - with Naked Wines

I once again had the privilege (in my capacity as an "Archangel") this week of being invited by Naked Wines to join them at the LIWF and help find some exciting new winemakers for the site.

After an early start to travel from Bristol to the ExCel exhibition centre in London's Docklands, I joined a motley crew of Archangels, along with the Naked buying team assembled at the Fox Inn, adjacent to ExCel, for coffee and pastries. We were then briefed on our mission. A group of around 20 loyal customers were divided into teams with a brief to seek out the best wines and winemakers currently seeking UK representation from France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.

Having opted to join the Aus/NZ group, we set off to find "our" winemakers, to taste all of their offerings and decide which we felt were most suitable for the Naked stable. That is to say they had to be unrepresented, prepared to offer exclusivity for some of their wines, and they had to be smaller, boutique wineries. Needless to say the wines also had to be great, and to represent good value.

In return Naked Wines were looking to get their wines listed and available for sale from the site (pre-orders) the very next day! An awesome proposition, which has never been done before in the UK, and one which certainly generated a lot of interest with the winemakers and the wine media.

We tasted some fantastic wines during the morning, and many of them could have made it, my only regret was that we had to choose one winemaker to represent both Australia and New Zealand as a group, and there were a couple of extremely good NZ wineries that I have asked Naked Wines to follow up on (Matahiwi Estates' Alexia and Mt Hector wines from Wairarapa, near Martinborough, and Osawa Wines' Flying Mouton label from Hawke's Bay). All of these wines were good, but the stand-outs were Flying Mouton Sauvignon Blanc and Reserve, and the Mt Hector Pinot Noir, which was exceptionally good value.

We assembled again for a light lunch back at the Fox, and then the groups had to reach a consensus on what were the preferred wines from their region. Then we had to go and taste all 11 of the favoured wines before selecting an overall winner that would be listed on the site for sale the next day.

Once the final round of tastings had been done, we met at the "Access Zone", where most of the social networking seminars and events were taking place at LIWF to feed back our findings and also to decide which wine was to be our champion of champions.



As the film posted below shows, we had the opportunity to introduce the three final winemakers (although Peter Logan was otherwise engaged so couldn't make it), we all retasted their wines and had a show of hands for the one to be listed. Rowan Gormley (Naked Wines Founder and MD) was clearly impressed with all three wineries and all five wines, so Naked Wines will be listing the lot!


Naked Wine Consumer Selection from ryan and gabriella opaz on Vimeo.

So...the final five were:

Logan Wines - Orange/Mudgee, NSW, Australia - Weemala Gewürtztraminer, a fruit-driven, pale golden wine with a beautiful passionfruit aroma, well-balanced tropical fruit flavours and florality, and a lingering citrus finish - a real highlight even for those who don't usually favour white wines.

Logan Wines - Orange/Mudgee, NSW, Australia - Logan Shiraz, deep bright red in colour, with an intense, peppery, plum/berry aroma and warm, berry fruit flavour with hints of beefiness, with a lengthy peppery finish.

Lagar de Bezana - Cachapoal Valley, Chile - Aluvion Gran Reserva, deep red, blackberries, plums, smokey, chocolate and toffee notes, with an exceptionally velvety mouthfeel and light tannins - delicious!

Bodega Campos de Dulcinea - Toledo, Spain - Campos de Dulcinea Tempranillo Syrah blend, beautiful cherry red colour, incredible sweetness and smoothness on the palate and packed with fruit, a really bright young wine perfect for easy summer drinking.

Bodega Campos de Dulcinea - Toledo, Spain - Campos de Dulcinea Crianza. A big, bold and intense wine, with 12 months in French and American oak. Full-flavoured and fruity, with a deep garnet colour and avery long finish - awesome!

After all that hard work, we were kindly invited back to the Fox for a few beers. All in all it was a wonderful day, and a pleasure to be working with people who are so passionate and enthusiastic about what they are doing to revolutionise the UK wine market.

LIWF 2010 with Naked Wines

Naked Wine Consumer Selection from ryan and gabriella opaz on Vimeo.

LIWF 2010

I'm excited that I'm now planning my 2nd visit to the London International Wine Fair in London's ExCel Centre. Last time I was only able to make it for an afternoon. This year I am going up for 2 full days (18th and 19th May) and I am really thrilled!

On Tuesday 18th I will be there helping out Naked Wines with sourcing new suppliers of fine boutique wines that can be sold through their highly successful online sales model, which is revolutionising the online wine trade.

On Wednesday 19th I hope to meet up with Tim Pearson of 7Springs Vineyard (Hermanus, South Africa) to see what his new wines are all about, as well as to attend some tastings and meet a few people from 2009.

Naked Wines hijacks airline pricing model for wine industry!

Regular readers will know that I'm a huge fan of Naked Wines, the UK online farmer's market for wine. After soliciting a good deal of feedback from loyal customers (Angels and Archangels) who frequent the site, Naked Wines have just today relaunched their site, along with a very exciting new initiative (more on that later).

A small band of regular customers were invited to a special preview of the new site a week or so ago, and the feedback was very positive. Having checked out the new site this morning, I was delighted to see that many of the bugs and minor irritations that customers had identified with the old site over the past 15 months or so since Naked launched, have now been ironed out.

Naked Wines' new look site

Some of the new features are as follows:

• Angels (i.e. sponsoring individual winemakers) and Cashback are now one, called Angels

• There is a new "naked me" section with personalised recommendations
   
• A "to do " list has been introduced, which details essential stuff to do, such as taking advantages of offers that are expiring shortly.
   
• Tastings are back...at £10 a ticket, which goes into the organiser's account, so you, as a customer can set up a tasting to showcase NW's wines, for which those attending will pay. The idea is that you then use the money to purchase the wine. Cool idea!

The best new feature (in this writer's opinion anyway) is that NW have launched a new service inviting UK wine drinkers to buy wines in the UK for less than they cost at the cellar door.

"Between 40-70% of the price customers pay for wine (exc. taxes) is dead money... the cost of selling, financing, picking it up, putting it down again, packaging, storage, risk, wastage," explains Naked Wines Founder, Rowan Gormley.

"From next week, our customers will be able to eliminate this 40-70%, by booking their wines in advance, just like an airline seat. In addition to the cost savings, this model will also mean an explosion in consumer choice - and a risk-free new route to market for producers.

If you look at Australia, for example, only 1/3 of producers currently export their wines to the UK. The barriers to entry are formidable - with hundreds of upfront costs, and no guarantee of making any money.

It's a gamble that most winemakers cannot afford to take - but by inviting winemakers to sell their wines BEFORE they incur any cost, Naked Wines is removing this barrier."

The new service, which includes wines from the Barossa Valley, Marlborough and South Africa, coincides with the website re-launch, featuring new ratings and recommendation functionality.

To find out more about the new service, called Advance bookings, visit http://www.nakedwines.com/advancebooking

US readers - sharing some great discounts from various online wine retailers through Dealslip.com

Hi folks

I've come across a new coupon site called Dealslip, who are offering a range of discounts across various online wine retailers in the US. If you're looking for a new place to buy your wines online, or perhaps just a special deal for Easter or Mother's Day, you are bound to find something to interest you.

Dealslip are offering wine discounts from Zagat Wine, Wall Street Journal Wine, Wine Access and Wired for Wine, to name just a few of the online wine sellers who are participating, so please check them out. They have free coupon codes that can save you 15% and get you free shipping on a whole bunch of different wine shops. You may see an ad banner or two for Dealslip on this blog, as I am running ads for them (in addition to this short advertorial) through my advertising partner PALATE PRESS: The Online Wine Magazine

So, to all my Stateside readers, enjoy browsing and I hope you manage to pick up a great bargain in time for the Easter bunny. Happy Easter!

Calling all winemakers!

If you are a small winemaker without a current distribution deal in the UK then the good people at Naked Wines may be able to help you get up and running!

Naked Wines are pledging £5 million to help new winemakers break into the UK (with them naturally!). You can read more about it here on their Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/naked-wines/l5-million-investment-fund-for-winemakers-spread-the-word/312567569246

Good luck!

Brother, can you spare a bottle for Haiti?

Damon Winter/The New York Times

The good folks at Brother, can you spare a bottle and Palate Press have joined forces with a number of generous winemakers and other wine trade contacts to create numerous auctions, the proceeds of which will go to the American Red Cross to help support the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Please follow the link to Palate Press (or the advertisement at top right) to donate wine or participate in the auctions, or follow the link directly to the American Red Cross if you would prefer to make a direct donation.

In the UK you may prefer to go directly tothe Disasters Emergency Committee.

We all know how awful the situation is in Haiti - a nation already struggling with extreme poverty now faced with a natural disaster the like of which it has never faced. Please give whatever you can.