Bodegas Volver Tarima Monastrell, Alicante, Spain 2022 (£9.99, or £8.99 as part of a mixed six, majestic.co.uk) If the pandemic was a boom time for home wine deliveries and the merchants that provided them, things haven’t been easy for wine sellers in the inflation-addled, cost-of-living-crisis-ed new normal that has followed over the past couple of years. Some have clearly adapted better than others, however, with the UK’s biggest wine specialist retailer, Majestic, reporting its biggest-ever Christmas in 2023 with a spike in sales and new customers, including, intriguingly, a big bump in interest in its fine (aka expensive) wines. There are indeed some interesting £20+ bottles on the Majestic shelves, not least the sumptuous Invicible Número Dois Tinto, Douro, Portugal 2020 (£24.99, or £19.99 in a mixed six) red. But, for me, it’s most useful as a source of bottles that compete with the supermarkets for price but offer something a little extra, such as the vivid black-fruit juiciness of Bodegas Volver’s tinto.
Henners Gardener St White, England 2022 (£18.49, virginwines.co.uk) Majestic’s fortunes seemed to have improved dramatically since it ended a never entirely comfortable four-year marriage with online specialist Naked Wines in 2019. Unlike its former partner, Naked has been having a tough time of it of late, with a drop in sales prompting a round of redundancies and other cost-cutting measures. In a bid to stimulate sales, Naked has been offering a third off for customers who have signed up to its “angels” scheme, where you pay in £25 a month upfront, which can be spent on Naked wines at any time. Were I an Angel, which I’m not (in any sense), I’d be quick to stock up on a bottle of the white peach, fennel and tangy lemon of Galician dry white Godello Para Muestra Un Botón 2020 (£13.99 to Angels, otherwise £27.99, nakedwines.com). Also enduring a bit of a post-Covid dip, Virgin Wines saw its revenues slip by 10% last year, although it seems to have turned things around since, with wines such as Henners’ brisk, incisive, fragrant English white blend.
The Wine Society’s Generation Series Primitivo di Manduria, Puglia, Italy 2022 (£10.50, thewinesociety.com) As I put this column together, it struck me that there’s something rather incestuous about the UK’s online wine specialists: when Majestic was married to Naked it was run by CEO Rowan Gormley, who is now the chairman of Naked, a company which he founded after setting up Virgin Wines for Richard Branson, which was then bought up by Direct Wines (owner of Laithwaites and Averys) before Gormely went off to start Naked and Virgin became independent after a management buyout in 2015. Standing, sedately, at one remove to all this drama, the other major player in this space, The Wine Society, has had the same ownership structure since its beginnings in 1874: it’s owned by its members, all of whom have bought a lifetime share for a one-off fee (currently £40). To celebrate its 150th anniversary, the Society has recently unveiled the first in a series of specially commissioned wines, with the warming, rich but refreshingly plum-tangy Primitivo red one of the highlights.
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