Wine list workshops, fundamentals and many great wines at Alliance Wine’s 40th
The Alliance Wine list, I have to admit, is relatively new to me. I only recently started tasting through a selection of the wines thanks to the wonderful Leona De Pasquale and her kindly asking me to help out with her corporate tastings at Camelia and Vine. For ‘helping out’ read “tell some awful jokes to kick off the wine tasting evenings,” but they’ve been great fun, and Leona often uses the wines of Alliance for her clients. There’s not a wine picked that hasn’t been universally enjoyed, and polished off, on these memorable Thursday night shindigs in the City. I was looking forward to trying out the full range at this March’s full portfolio tasting at London’s OXO Tower.
The Fundamentals List
The first tasting station as I walked in was showcasing the well-thought-out Fundamentals Range. These were a group of around 30 wines that would sit around £20-£40 on a restaurant list, designed to be the go-to range for bars and restaurants for their high turnover lines. These are wines that are meant to smell great, taste great, have a balanced finish and simply work with a whole host of dishes or occasions to keep your clients well-watered. The majority certainly ticked those boxes, although I did have some particular favourites…
From the white wines, the Calusari, Pinot Grigio, Viile Timisului, Romania, 2022 (DPD £7.91) offered freshness, florality and a touch of stony minerality, whilst keeping the acidity in balance into a lovely citrus pith finish – excellent value. Hopping over a couple of borders, the Funkstille, Grüner Veltliner, Niederösterreich, Austria, 2022 (DPD £9.89) is always a fan favourite with those fresh green, stone and citrus fruits and a mouth-coating, fruit-driven finish, an excellent all-rounder. Finally, the El Camarón, Albariño, Galicia, Spain, 2022 (DPD £13.44) starts nudging up in terms of price, but is well worth it with a fantastic summertime nose of stone and tropical fruits, and a subtle minerality leaving a grippy finish. I also thought the label would stand out well on the shelf.
As for the reds, I can be really picky with these, especially on the more value end, as I have some fairly prominent gums in my mouth, and if tannins are off then I don’t cope well. But there were still some lovely wines that passed that particular test. The Te Quiero, Organic Field Blend Red, La Mancha, Spain, 2021 (DPD £8.30) is a delight to smell, with expressive red and blue fruits, lots of florality and a juicy, almost chewy, mouthfeel with a touch of black pepper into the finish. Despite the 14% abv, it’s medium bodied and very gluggable!
Next up, Bodegas Manzanos, Finca Manzanos, Crianza, Rioja, Spain 2020 (DPD £11.31) gave deep red, smoky fruit and liquorice spice with a nice grip, but balanced tannins. And you’ve got a ‘Rioja’ on your list at a very reasonable price! Finally for the reds, it was a choice between a couple for the third spot, but I went for the Lo & Behold, Shiraz-Mourvèdre-Carignan, Western Cape, South Africa, 2023 (DPD £9.93) with spicy black and red fruits, black pepper and mocha, and juicy coating finish with a delicious spiced fruit note.
The Fundamentals Range also contained a couple of wildcard entries that I thought were really tasty and excellent value. I’m calling them wildcards because your clients will need to be up for listening to your recommendations to make sure these shift. But they’re certainly tasty and there’s some good margin to be had. The Beppe Morchetta, Vino Spumante, Veneto, Italy NV (DPD £7.96) gave that green and citrus nose you’d expect, but there was an extra pith bitterness on the finish to give it a really fresh lift. It doesn’t have the magic word ‘Prosecco’ on the label. Is that a good or bad thing? That’s for you to decide, but great value and another great label.
Lastly for the wildcards, Vicoletto, Catarrato, IGP Sicilia, Italy, 2022 (DPD £11.88) is a skin contact white…ok, we’ll call it an orange wine if we must! I only tried it because I was making my way down the line, I really wasn’t expecting much, but on top of the spice, baked apples and slight smokiness, it had amazing balance in the finish which is rare for value end orange wines. Well worth a look.
Wine list workshops
Wine List workshops
The Fundamentals Range was displayed in conjunction with advertising Alliance’s Wine List Workshops. These are free, half day courses run by the Development Team at Alliance for clients who may not have had a lot of experience in building wine lists before.
I spoke to Alex Baudouin, business development manager, about the idea behind the venture.
“This really started after COVID,” remembered Baudouin, “the dynamic of the market made us realise that education was needed in wider hospitality. Wine felt like it was being pushed to the side a bit in the running of restaurants as there was a lack of experience and confidence to build exciting lists.”
The big difference that Alliance is trying to get across to clients is that this is much less about pure wine education and more about the commercial reality of wine lists.
“It’s a half day at our office and open to a variety of different types of clients,” continued Baudouin. “We start with the importance of thinking about what kind of business they have and what are they trying to achieve. Are you a theatre who has a 10 minute interval to sell a lot of wines, or a high end restaurant with a young teams who need the confidence, or are you a gastro pub run by people trying to keep a whole host of plates spinning. If our clients are building more sustainable economics in their wine list, it works out well for everyone in the end.”
Wider range sees excellent additions
Moving on now to the full range of wines, Alliance has had some very interesting additions, especially in its French range. Customer marketing manager, Jean Wareing MW, was kind enough to give me a heads up that the wines of the excellent Eric Texier from the Ardèche-Rhône were joining the line-up. I’ve used Texier’s wines at many tastings in France and Switzerland, so it’s great to see them in the UK. His ‘Bistro Range’ is special, including the white wine Adèle and red wine Chat Fou (both DPD £16.55), with both made in his signature, vibrant and plush, minimal intervention style. But the star was Eric Texier, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vielles Vignes, Blanc 2019 (DPD £47.71) with an incredible concentration of fresh cut spring flowers, green and stone fruits, saline, waxiness, stone minerality, with herbal lifts at the end of a super long finish. There aren’t many times you’ll hear me saying a wine that’s near-as-damn-it £50 dpd is well worth it, but this one is!
Elsewhere in France Alliance has added new Champagne producers, namely Paul Lebrun and Solemme. Both had an excellent range, but I felt that out of all them the Plénitude de Solemme 2019 (DPD £45.19) was the pick of the bunch, with excellent red apple and yellow plum fruit, honey, marzipan and nougat into a long, well balanced and fresh finish. Organic certified using biodynamic principles to boot, which increasingly hits the mark these days.
Also warranting a mention was the Olivier Cazenave et Château, Franc de Bel, Solera Cabernet Franc, Bordeaux AOC NV (DPD £22.34) made from around ten vintages of Cabernet Franc. Excellent, juicy red fruits and a touch of the tell-tale graphite, a really fun and classy Bordeaux. Slight drawback is that it comes in a weird-shaped bottle that won’t fit in a wine-rack, which is a bit of a bugbear of mine, but otherwise do give it a try.
Moving down to Iberia and into Spain, I’m a big fan of the wines of Bodegas Luis Cañas from Rioja Alavesa. The Bodegas Luis Cañas, Reserva 2016, Rioja (DPD £18.95) is absolutely singing right now, with vibrant smoky, red cherries and raspberries, clove, touch of raisin, chewy in the mouth but an elegance and lightness you come to expect from Alavesa fruit.
A touch to the South-West and into Castilla y León comes Bodegas Emilio Moro, Emilio Moro, DO Ribera Del Duero 2020 (DPD £22.70) which is the heavier of the two Riberas they had on show. From “only” 600m of altitude around Pesquera del Duero, which is not a lot in Ribera, it’s got plenty of spicy blue and black fruits, wonderful grip and length, but still with elegance and drinking well right now.
Finally from Spain, comes a pair from the really exciting vineyards around Alicante and Valencia. If you’ve not come across the utter joy of the wines of Bodegas Altolandon before then please do! Winemaker Rosalia Molina produces a range of unique organic and minimal intervention wines in her own special way, but for me the Bodegas Altolandon, Mil Historias Bobal, Manchuela DO 2020 (DPD £11.95), from high altitude sites is really special, and not just because of the price. Very juicy, fresh, red fruit, could arguably even chill it, which you wouldn’t normally associate with Bobal.
Further to the coast, only 3km to the sea in fact, is Pepe Mendoza who has some great wines from lesser known varieties (Giró de Abargues anyone?), but the standout was the Pepe Mendoza, Pureza Moscatel, Alicante DO 2022 (DPD £19.38) made with four days skin contact and amphora-aged giving beautiful rose petals, fresh grapes, tangerines, nougat spice with a sublime coating, saline, waxy structure with perfect acidic balance.
In terms of the Italian range, I hadn’t realised Alliance imported Tenuta Olim Bauda from Piemonte. They’ve got an excellent range of Piemontese classics, but it’s the Tenuta Olim Bauda, Nizza Riserva DOCG 2019 (DPD £30.37) that really shines through with fabulous depth of red fruit, nutmeg, smoke and great acidic balance as you’d expect from a top class Barbera, but matched with a bold tannic grip from 30 months in oak, albeit large 25hL barrels.
Also of note were the great wines of San Polino from Montalcino, whose range of Brunellos are top class, but whose Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022 (DPD £28.38) is really expressive and elegant and beautifully put together. A great entry point to its brilliant range. The final Italian wine to catch my attention, again from Tuscany, was the Tenuta Sette Ponti, Rosso di Orma IGT 2022 (DPD £18.37). I doubt a better entry point exists into why everyone is raving about the wines of Bolgheri, with this Merlot-dominant blend of elegance, depth of red fruit, spice and herb.
From elsewhere in the room notable mentions start with MA’D Moser, MM55, Furmint Dry, Tokaj (DPD £36.78), a joint venture that includes the irrepressible Lenz Moser. The idea with the MA’D range is to reimagine Furmint and what it can achieve on the red volcanic soils around the village of Mad. Expressive orange blossom, quince, green, stone, tropical fruits, very long and balanced finish with smoke and toasted oak notes and a creamy texture. This is high end Furmint for those who have the clients that will appreciate it.
Otherwise, from South Africa, Alliance has Raats Family wines which need no introduction, but I thought the best on the table was Iona’s Kloof Chardonnay, Elgin 2020 (DPD £33.72). This single vineyard expression was a concentrated, cooler climate Chardonnay with subtle, building oak notes from barrel fermentation and ageing, but never overshadowing the fresh stone and citrus notes. And finally, from Argentina, is the Manos Negras, Torrontes, Salta 2022 (DPD £11.76). Yes, a Torrontes! From 1700m up, these 50-year-old pergola-trained vines produce the fabulous blossom, ginger, tropical and citrus notes you’d expect, but…grown on deep slate soils, there’s a balance and a minerality to this Torrontes I’ve seldom tasted before, if ever. Delicious.
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Mike Turner is a freelance writer, presenter, educator, judge and regular contributor for The Buyer.
