Creative Writing | Guide to Wine | Genealogy

Wine Merchants

A good wine merchant is as essential as a bottle opener. Not only are the best hugely knowledgeable; they also sell wines that you are unlikely to find in a supermarket.

Just learn the questions to ask them - and when to take their answers with a pinch of salt.

Let's start by tackling two caricatures of the wine merchant which often inhibit people's use of them.

THE TOFF

Suave, suited and slightly patronising, old school wine merchants are really interested in one thing: France. The names of the famous estates fall off their tongues effortlessly: Echezeaux, Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Yquem. They love the romance of wine: the chateaux, the terroir, the damp old cellars. In their drinking they rarely stray much beyond Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire - although they make the occasional foray into Mosel for crisp, refreshing whites and of course to Portugal for after-dinner vintage Port. Their natural reticence doesn't make them obvious salespeople and they assume a great deal of knowledge - a fact that makes non-wine-buffs regard them as completely terrifying.

THE NERD

Nerdy wine merchants could have turned their obsessive curiosity to anything - computers, ornithology, old tractors - but by some twist of fate it happened to be wine. Wine for nerds is not about pleasure; it's about malolactic fermentation, yeasty autolysis and vintage variation. They are interested in anything that carries the name 'wine' - dusty old bottles of Romanian Pinot Noir, Uruguayan Tannat, Canadian Eiswein - but their real love is New World winemaking, largely because they regard winemakers in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as more relaxed and less snobby. Behind a counter they are helpful, but their speech is so loaded with jargon and detail that they tend to leave their customers feeling utterly confused.

The problem faced by the free-thinking drinker is that there is quite a lot of truth in both stereotypes. However much of the wine trade believe that they have 'democratised' wine in the last decade or so, both the toffs and the nerds continue to dominate the scene; the toffs giving the impression that wine appreciation is an elite pursuit and the nerds blinding their customers with science. Nevertheless the joy of wine merchants is that they are knowledgeable enthusiasts who love their subject. Not something that you'll ever find in a supermarket.

THE SECRET OF SPOTTING A GOOD WINE MERCHANT

Look for the following signs:

they offer you a chance to try wines
they don't sell cigarettes and sweets by the till
they sell specialist wine magazines, fancy corkscrews and wine glasses

In order to use a wine merchant successfully you need a tactical, focused approach. Asking a wine merchant for 'a decent red/white to take to a dinner party' is as much of a leap of faith as asking a sales assistant in a department store to choose you an outfit without you trying it on.

What is essential is to be specific and to set parameters, particularly when looking for wines to be used in a Taste Test. A better bet would be 'Please could I have a good-value New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc' or 'Do you have a good-quality, typical Sancerre?' The secret is not to allow yourself to be led down some other route that a wine merchant wants to take you.

A SOURCE OF ADVICE

A wine merchant can be a good source of advice - but remember that the key to achieving vinous nirvana is not to let yourself become a receptacle for other people's opinions. Also remember that wine merchants are not just wine enthusiasts; they are also salespeople. So beware: they might have a reason to sell you one wine rather than another -such as the fact that it has a higher profit margin or it needs to be shifted. Nevertheless, handled carefully, merchants can be guides who will offer essential advice to the free-thinking drinker.

A SOURCE OF UNUSUAL WINES?

This is where wine merchants really come into their own. Although supermarkets are undoubtedly a great source of good-value branded wines, their buying departments have an approach to wine that is very different from that of a wine merchant. Their wine, like anything else on the supermarket shelves, is more a matter of profit margins than quality. On the whole, supermarkets favour fastselling wines that are supplied in large quantities rather than offbeat wines that don't make a quick, profitable return. Though wine merchants also need to make a profit from their wines, they are aware that their raison d'être is to offer greater choice to a more discerning audience.

MAINTAINING YOUR INDEPENDENCE

For the free-thinking drinker, one of the dangers of a wine merchant is that you might fall too much under their influence. Question everything they tell you. If you like wines they have recommended, tell them.


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