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Brian Towe and Steve Edwards at their shop |
A story in (nearly) every wine bottle
A look at one of London's most interesting wine merchants
INDEPENDENT wine merchants have had a rough time as supermarkets have encroached on their trade.
This is most noticeable in London, where high rents are a major problem for small businesses. Brian Towe and Stuart Edwards are interesting, not just because they have defied this trend but also because they happily share their wide knowledge with anyone who walks into their shop.
They run not one but two businesses, their shop at 303 Old Street and a small consortium of independent wine retailers buying and shipping wines on a non-profit basis. Members buy the wines at cost, deciding the mark-up for themselves and enabling members to compete with larger chains at similar, if not strictly level, prices.
“We’re trying to work where we can with small producers,” says Stuart, “so that they can produce good quality wines.” In practice, this means wines starting at £4.50 and £5.
According to Brian, the aim is “to create something different based on personal contact”. The ‘personal contact’ in this case came from their past experience of running an international transport network, specialising in wine, with regular travel through France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
This means suppliers aren’t simply voices on the telephone but people whose vineyards and homes they have visited and who often visit the shop in return.
“In retrospect,” Brian explained, “we don’t see the dominance of the supermarkets as necessarily detrimental. They have created a great deal of interest.”
Independents have seen their previous share of the market decline, but now have a share of a much larger market. But Stuart also suggests that the supermarkets “have turned wine into a commodity”, to be taken from the shelf like cornflakes or baked beans.
In wine producing countries, there have always been two types of customer. The first used to arrive (and not so very long ago) on a donkey with a jug in his hand. The other was more sophisticated.
Continental supermarkets were selling wine long before their British counterparts. In effect, they’re providing for the customer who has replaced donkey and jug with a clapped-out Renault or Fiat and supermarket trolley. In contrast, Sainsburys sold their first wines in 1967.
According to this interpretation the emergence of a modern consumer market rather than technology has dictated events.
In Old Street, Brian and Stuart speak of ‘bulk’ wines rather than ‘mass-produced’ or ‘industrial’, both of which they feel are condescending. Nonetheless, wines produced under modern market conditions will tend to be very similar.
Whilst Tesco or Sainsbury provide consistency, uniformity and the basis for a continuous flow of custom, they have no specific relationship with the individual. Brian and Stuart’s customers, on the other hand, can ask questions which wouldn’t be understood elsewhere and are invited, in return, to offer their own views and state their preferences.
Thanks to co-operative purchasing and two lifetimes’ knowledge, the City Beverage Co at 303 Old Street offers its customers benefits they can’t get from those who just shift bottles and cases.
Interestingly, the two men’s tastes in wine contrast strongly. For reds, Brian prefers “a bigger, rounded taste with softer fruit and less tannin”. He is less keen on oaked wine, but accepts it if it is done subtly.
These preferences lead him to Burgundy and the Pomerol region of Bordeaux, along with Margaux. Stuart describes his taste as “more austere with more tannin and more structure”.
He enjoys Bordeaux but describes the Margaux appellation as ‘a bit full’, surprisingly singling out the unfashionable area of Graves. “I love claret with the clean, fresh smell of rain on dry gravel,” he says.
We asked each to recommend a single bottle under £10 from present stock. Stuart chose a 2003 Le Clos du Caillou (meaning pebbles) from the Côtes du Rhone at £8.95. This is a surprising choice, coming from a winemaker he has followed for more than 20 years, now a rising star of Châteauneuf du Pape. Brian settled for a 2003 cabernet sauvignon from the Gouguenheim Winery in the Mendoza region of Argentina at £7.50 – a surprisingly fruit-led and rounded wine for this grape variety.
• For details of City Beverage Co tastings – usually on Friday evenings –
ring 020 7729 2111. |
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