Words: Jonathan Ray
Tim French is full of beans. He is especially keen to talk about Fortnum’s own-label wines, and with reason, for it is a fine range – I was hugely impressed when I first tasted a selection from it. ‘When I arrived here we sold fewer than 20 own-label wines, most of which were basic entry level, and none at all from the New World,’ Tim tells me. ‘We now have 40 own-labels from across the globe, which, I’m proud to say, have managed to draw in new customers without ostracising our existing ones.’
As the company’s wine-buyer he sees it as his mission to de-mystify wine and he believes that because the Fortnum’s brand is very much a trusted one, customers feel comfortable with the varieties that he chooses to put under the Fortnum’s label. ‘I want people to explore wine and to enjoy it,’ he declares. ‘I could be a passive buyer, taking anything and everything that the agents and importers care to bombard me with, but instead I like to go and ferret out something special, something perhaps that other stockists might not have spotted.’
Adventures in wine
Tim can afford to be adventurous since there are many outlets for his wines – the three restaurants, the wine bar, the hampers and gift boxes, not to mention the wine department itself, which has been given a newly expanded space on the Lower Ground Floor. ‘I’m always on the lookout for quirky and forgotten regions,’ says Tim. ‘On the face of it, one of my weirder purchases was a rare Silvaner Spätlese from Franken.'
‘I don’t believe that there is another merchant in Britain that has such a wine as an own-label,’ Tim continues, ‘but our customers are a refreshingly inquisitive bunch and it goes down very well.’ When sourcing a wine to place under the Fortnum & Mason name, Tim tells me that he looks first for a wine that speaks of its terroir. After that he looks for elegance and purity as well as subtlety.
Fine selection
Picking a wine at random from Fortnum’s list – their excellent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, from Alana Estate in Martinborough – I ask Tim what, apart from the fact that it is darn good, attracted him to it. ‘This was, in fact, our first New World own-label wine,’ he says. ‘It was clear that we needed something from New Zealand, which had rapidly become an important producer, with diverse regions boasting developed and distinctive terroir. I could have gone to Marlborough, which is the country’s most celebrated area for Sauvignon Blanc, but the wines there can be pricey and are already well-distributed. In any case I felt that Martinborough, slightly further north, produced wines with a touch more restraint and elegance.’
Alana Estate, a small winery founded in 1993, has built itself a formidable, award-winning reputation and is perhaps better-known for its silky soft Pinot Noirs (which, I discover, act as the Fortnum’s house Pinot) than it is for its Sauvignon Blancs. But this is indeed a delightful wine, beautifully balanced and stylish, the estate’s practice of careful fruit selection and extended contact with the lees lending texture and minerality.
In with the new … and the old
But surely, I say, the trick is not just to sniff out the new regions, but to keep up with the old ones too.
‘Absolutely,’ says Tim. ‘We can’t take our eye off the ball for an instant, for things are changing in the Old World too. Albariño in Spain is coming to the fore hot on the heels of Grüner Veltliner in Austria; Riesling is having a resurgence in Germany; Hungarian Tokaji is back after years in the wilderness – not to mention Madeira. It has taken a while, but we have excellent own-label examples of all of these.’
Tim is passionate about his wines and I am not surprised to hear that when he wants to get away from it all he retreats to the small house he owns in the Jurançon appellation, conveniently situated, as he points out, halfway between Bordeaux and Rioja. His enthusiasm for sniffing out new wines means it probably won’t be long before his list acquires its 50th own-label. But with a wine department two and a half times bigger than the one he inherited, he does have a lot of shelves to fill.
TASTING NOTES
Muscadet sur lie 2009, £8.90: ‘I’m a big fan of Muscadet,’ says Tim. ‘I love its straightforward simplicity and everyone should have a good example on their list.’ Full, crisp and rounded, with a pleasingly long finish, this is ideal for serving well-chilled at impromptu picnics.
Valpolicella 2009, £11.50: A much-maligned region, Valpolicella has been the victim of its own success with too many poor, bandwagon-jumping examples degrading the name. With soft, juicy, ripe, bitter-cherry fruit, this is an unexpected joy and is ideal with cold chicken or pasta salads.
Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011, £14.50: Delightful Kiwi Sauvignon, full of ripe fruit and fresh acidity. Neither as lean as a Loire Sauvignon, nor as OTT as one from Marlborough. ‘I would say that it has a foot in both the Old World and the New,’ says Tim.
Fleurie 2009, £12.90: ‘Gamay is a grape where you need a top producer,’ reckons Tim. He has certainly found one with Domaine Piron, who has here produced a delightful, ripe, juicy example, with none of those dreaded candyfloss flavours. Enjoy lightly chilled with a riverside picnic.
Chablis Butteaux VV 2009, £23.50: A benchmark Chablis, dry and supple with subtle honeyed nose and pleasing depth. ‘We’ve worked with Louis Michel for a long time and his philosophy of using no oak at all very much suits the summer drinking style I’m after,’ says Tim.
The Vineyards
These vineyards are just a few of the winemakers behind Fortnum & Mason’s own-label wines, and are typical of the character and quality that the list represents.
Alana Estate, New Zealand
This tiny producer in Martinborough, one of the most Old World-like regions in New Zealand, fairly burst onto the scene with its first vintage in 1997. It has been festooned with awards almost every year since, thanks to its exceptional Chardonnays, Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noirs. With the exuberant and ebullient rugby-mad Lindsay Cunningham at the helm, spreading the word was never going to be a problem.
Weingut Max Ferd. Richter, Germany
This famous estate in Mulheim, in the central Mosel, has been in the hands of the same family for over 300 years. Currently under the direction of Dirk Richter, Weingut Max Ferd. Richter has an annual production of around 10,500 cases, producing first rate, long-lived yet fresh, oak barrel-fermented Rieslings from such familiar vineyards as Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Himmelreich and Brauneberger Juffer.
André Dezat et Fils, France
This highly regarded estate in the Loire, with 38 hectares of vineyards scattered across several villages in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, is now in the hands of André’s sons Louis and Simon – the fourth generation in charge. With an almost obsessional attention to detail, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, with low yields a priority, the brothers make cracking Sauvignon Blancs as well as scrumptious red and rosé Sancerres from Pinot Noir.
Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, France
This 25-hectare estate now run by Jean-Loup Michel has been owned by his family for five generations. Harvesting from vines with an average age of 40 years, fermenting and ageing in stainless steel rather than oak, and ensuring plenty of contact with the lees, Michel produces some of the purest, most complex and most elegant Chablis around.please speak