Unfiltered with Ben Glover of Wither Hills
Wednesday 24 November
Ben Glover, winemaker at Wither Hills, has his turn on Unfiltered - on a very windy day. If he wasn’t making wine he’d be milking a cow and would go gay for Hugh Jackman….nice choice.
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Ben Glover, winemaker at Wither Hills, has his turn on Unfiltered - on a very windy day. If he wasn’t making wine he’d be milking a cow and would go gay for Hugh Jackman….nice choice.
I have a fuzzy head. It’s no surprise – an evening with Louis Roederer and Cristal flowing will inevitably end in feeling jaded the next day. Happily, I woke up to the pleasant reality that I was now the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer of the Year, which alleviated the headache – as did a couple of ibuprofen.
It was my last night in the UK before I head back to New Zealand, and the top floor of the Gherkin (or the Artichoke as my sister called it) is an amazing place to sup Champagne with 360 degree views of London town.
It was made even better when I won the Emerging Award. You work your ass off as a young freelancer to gain credibility – and make a living – and it’s great to gain acknowledgement from the industry. The £1500 prize is also helpful. I have already spent it twice over in my head.
Fellow northerners had a good night. Simon Woods walked away with the International Online Columnist of the Year and Tom Bruce-Gardyne from bonnie Scotland won the Regional title.
Other winners were…the FT’s John Stimpfig for International Wine Feature Writer of the Year, jancisrobinson.com taking International Wine Website of the Year and The World of Fine Wine taking International Wine Publication of the year.
Back to NZ now with a day in Hong Kong to check out what’s happening in the Asian wine world.
We’re all busy blogging away about wine, tweeting and recommending our wines of the week, but are consumers taking any notice?
The answer appears to be no, according to new research published by Wine Intelligence
Its research has revealed that consumers find most of their information from the supermarket shelf. It is a sad day when Tesco shelf barker has more influence on what we drink than the likes of Oz Clarke. But, probably true.
While social networking is most popular among younger wine drinkers (those between 18 and 35), Wine Intelligence has found that their interaction on Facebook, and twitter et. al. is unlikely to be about anything to do with wine. In fact, just 1 in 10 UK regular wine drinkers use social networking sites for their wine guidance two times a week or more, and only 3 in 10 UK regular wine drinkers state that they have ever used social networking sites for this purpose.
This is a disappointing figure considering the popularity of social networking, and the vast number of wine blogs.
Social media is being touted as the new way to communicate with UK wine consumers but the evidence suggests there is still some way to go. Does the UK need a Gary Vaynerchuk to set the world alight? Perhaps.
The New Zealand government has finally approved funding for a New Zealand high-end initiative in the US, almost two months after I first broke the plans on decanter.com- that’s politics for you.
There was a lot of back slapping on twitter yesterday, with all the Kiwis congratulating each other on the initiative, particularly the 21 wineries involved. Indeed, government-funding of NZ$1.2 million is a welcome boost to the industry and not to be sniffed at. However, this thing isn’t even up and running and everyone’s already heralding it as the best thing since sliced bread.
The government’s target is to add NZ$50 million of additional sales in the US by 2015. Last year, New Zealand wine exports amounted to $214m, so it’s about a 20% increase in five years. That seems achievable.
However, I don’t think it’s time to get carried away. A fellow wine journalist in the US acknowledged that it was a good campaign, but every other country had a similar project – and France alone has a plethora of initiatives. Why is New Zealand’s going to be any different from the rest?
Steve Smith MW, chair of the initiative explained there was a rigorous process for getting into this ‘ultra-premium’ wine selection, of which half are Pinot Noir – not Sauvignon Blanc. “We are going to lead with Pinot Noir,” he said. “It’s a wine style that’s fashionable in the US and can compete with the best from Oregon and California.” In fact, there will only be a “few high-end Sauvignon Blancs” with the remainder coming from the aromatics, Bordeaux blends and Syrah.
The 21 wineries include Nautilus, Craggy Range, Seresin and Mt Difficulty. However, there are a number of wineries that didn’t wish to be part of the initiative, citing prohibitive costs – the wineries involved must raise $400,000 between them. Smith responded, “I would argue that for every dollar put in you get three dollars from the Government. It works out less than $5000 a wine a year so I would not say that was a valid argument.”
I hope this initiative works and it’s effective but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Congratulations to the lovely David Williams. Not to be confused with David Walliams of Little Britain (I’m a la-dy), this young gentleman is the new wine writer at The Observer.
The former editor of the now-defunct Wine & Spirit, deputy editor of World of Fine Wine magazine, and general all-round nice guy, has been handed the column following Tim Atkin MW’s move to The Times.
You’ll remember the Save the Wine Column campaign we set up to get Tim’s full column reinstated in The Observer, after having it slashed to a shopping list. Sadly, David’s column is only a list of tasting notes, which seems a shame as he’s such an eloquent writer. Nevertheless, you wouldn’t turn down a national column, would you? (I wouldn’t!)
Perhaps, the Observer editor will finally realise that David – like Tim – is worthy of a full, entertaining and informative wine column. Until then, David, well done on your first national column. Click here to read David’s first column. Some nice wines in there: I particularly like the M&S Manzanilla and the Wine Soc’s Moscato d’Asti. Quinta de Azevedo’s Vinho Verde is also a cheeky wine.
Finally, happy 59th birthday to my dad, John, and happy Norwegian national day!