Camber Wines Newsletter

David Moore, from Camber Wines in Portsmouth, adds to Great Britain’s long list of medals.

We Brits have been raking in Olympic medals all summer and I would like to add to those by dishing out a few of my own, in fact three gold medals to local wine producers.

My first goes to Nyetimber Classic Cuvee Sparkling wine. Based in West Chiltington, West Sussex, this estate was planted in 1988 by Stuart and Sandy Moss, from Chicago, and has won worldwide sparkling wine awards ahead of 13 Champagnes.

It is made from the same grapes as Champagne, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, and the estate, owned by Dutchman Eric Heerema, has grown from 35 acres to more than 400 acres, making it England’s largest vineyard.

In fact it’s so good, I recently had a customer buy some to take over to Paris for the England v France rugby game. He wanted to show his French friends that not only could we beat them at rugby but we can also beat them at Champagne making.

My second medal goes to Meonhill English Sparkling wine.This vineyard is based in Hambledon, Hampshire, and the wine is blended by a Frenchman, Didier Pierson Champenois.

Didier is from Epernay and has transported his Champagne-making skills to the chalky hills in the MeonValley with amazing results. This wine also stands up comfortably on the global stage.

My third and final medal I award to Stopham Estate, based in Pulborough,West Sussex. Today the wines world’s main artery of cash flow comes from the sales of Pinot Grigio (aka Pinot Gris), and Simon Woodhead, vineyard director and winemaker, has produced a Pinot Gris on this estate to compete anywhere in the world.

Sadly, because of the atrocious British weather, low temperatures and rain, the vineyard has lost 80 per cent of its crop in this only its third year.

While it’s still summertime in the US and Europe, the wine is in barrels in the southern hemisphere showing reduced yields, down 18 per cent in New Zealand and up to 50 per cent in Stellenbosch South Africa compared to its 2011 harvest.

We can expect to see price rises to reflect this by the time the wine hits our shelves.

I still rate South African wines as being the best value for money in the current economic climate. The South African Rand gives a good return on sterling, unlike the Aussie dollar and, to a somewhat lesser extent these days, the Euro.

Try Koopmanskloof Sauvignon/Semillon 2011, £8. It has a beautiful structure and a long succulent finish… and it’s fairtrade too.

I’ve been lucky enough to taste a tank sample of 2012 Viognier from this estate and it is stunning. It should be on our shelves by early autumn.

If the sun persists into a late summer, look out for Percheron Grenache Rose 2011, £5.50.A wonderful pale rose with a grapefruit punch.

David Moore has been a restaurateur for 30 years and is owner of abarbistro, White Hart Road, Old Portsmouth www.abarbistro.co.uk and Camber Wines www.camberwines.co.uk

Article published in the October 2012 edition of etc magazine.

After 30 years serving wine to customers in his restaurants, DAVID MOORE set up a wine wholesale business Camber Wines which has grown rapidly and now supplies many of Hampshire’s leading venues.

It’s always been a dream to run an independent wine merchants and be able to sell wines at reasonable prices and at the same time be able to promote wines without all the snobbery that’s often attached, says David Moore.

‘Modern day wine drinkers don’t want to know about malolactic fermentation and whether it has been matured in American or French oak. It’s much simpler than that. It’s really “Is it red, white or rose” and “Do I like it?’’

David is no stranger to starting businesses – he and his wife Karen set up and ran the hugely successful Southsea wine bar Rosie’s for nearly 25 years before selling it in 2007 and the year after refurbished and expanded restaurant abarbistro in Old Portsmouth.

‘We sell a lot of wine in the restaurant so it made sense to also run a wine merchant and wholesale business from the same site – and so that’s what we did,’ he says. Four years down the line business is brisk.

‘We started our wine business from scratch and now on the wholesale side we sell to restaurants and supply leading local venues including the Portsmouth Guildhall and Spinnaker Tower as well as the Royal Navy. We have built up a strong customer base, both wholesale and retail, where customers just pop in for a bottle of wine for supper or to stock up their wine rack.

‘We’re based above abarbistro in Old Portsmouth and it is important to me that people can just use us as a wine shop. For me it’s about helping people find the right wine for them, whether they want a single bottle or a dozen cases for a major function.’

David says in the past buyingwine could be an intimidating experience. ‘That’s certainly not the case with us,’ he says. ‘We’re very happy to help whether you are a wine buff or you just know what you like.’

Although many of Camber Wines’ customers are local – and benefit from free local delivery – the internet means there’s much more of a level playing field, and the company often beats major supermarket chains on prices.

‘We keep our overheads low and that means we are able to offer good prices,’ he says. ‘We select our wine carefully and stock around 200 at any time and we make sure that there’s something for everyone.

‘We have everyday drinking wine that sells from as low £5 a bottle up to our spectacular range of Chateau d’Yquem vintages which retail at up at £1,000 a bottle! So there is something for everyone in our portfolio.

‘Another big advantage of coming to us over a supermarket is that you can actually try the wine before you buy it rather than just hoping you like it by simply looking at the label on the bottle.’

Camber Wines, which takes its name from Old Portsmouth’s historic Camber Dock, which the business overlooks, also does wine tasting evenings, which are very popular for birthdays and special occasions.

‘These are very informal and are all about enjoying wine in a relaxed atmosphere without feeling intimidated,’ says David. ‘The tastings give people the opportunity to try wines they’ve never had before, sometimes including some of our top end stuff,’ says David.

‘It’s great to introduce people to different wines that we have had the opportunity to source from our many agency portfolio tastings. We know the provenance of all of our wines and most of the winemakers themselves.

‘In addition, abarbistro now offers customers the full wine menu from Camber Wines so the restaurant has got a wine list consisting of more than 200 wines, which is fairly unique for a restaurant outside London.’

As the business grows, David is keen to make sure it doesn’t lose the personal touch. ‘Every wine we sell is personally chosen by myself or my colleague Jose – and that’s important because it means customers know it’s been picked by someone who is passionate about people enjoying good wine not just selling it to them.’

Article published in the Summer 2012 edition of The Business magazine.

My wife Karen and I attended a portfolio tasting recently at the Waldorf hotel in London where there were some 450 wines on show from around the world and we carefully selected just 40 or so to look at.

Of these 40, less than ten were of interest to us and only a couple of those will finally make it into our listings. It’s a tough and competitive world out there.

We found ourselves in conversation with some Argentinian wine makers who have the added worry of the current Falkland Islands rumblings and the negative effect that could have on their business.

Further into the room we chatted with a Kiwi winemaker who said they were busy planting the Malbec grape back in New Zealand ready to fill any gaps that may appear on the shelves in the absence of wines from Argentina. It seems that one man’s loss is another man’s gain.

Although there are over 10,000 different grape varieties around the globe, most of us are familiar with just a handful.

We are probably more acquainted with the names than the tastes – and even that knowledge can be challenged with different vintages.

This month I find myself gravitating to all things ‘V’.

Vermentino is a late ripening Italian grape widely planted in Sardinia;Verdejo is from the Rueda region of Spain, and Verdicchio is an Italian derived from the Marche region.

Verdelho is grown throughout Portugal and famous in Madeira while Grüner ‘Green’ Veltliner is prolific in another ‘V’,Vienna.

Viognier is at home in Condrieu in the Rhone valley in France but producing sound quaffing wines in the south (Languedoc) and also in Chile and Australia, where Yalumba have produced an exquisite full on dessert wine in their ‘late harvest’ edition from Wrattonbully.

The modern day marketing of these varietals often shows them off in lime green packaging in their capsules and/or their labels.

This projects a true reflection of what you might expect inside the bottle. Light, zesty, fresh citrusy dry wine perfect for summer sipping.

The great bonus is that most of these wines are inexpensive making them suitable for everyday drinking.

• Pallio di San Floriano Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi (£7.75) – a perfect marriage to pasta dishes.
• Vesevo Fiano di Avellino 2011 (£11.20) – goes down well with chicken, bacon and avocado salad.
• Grüner Veltliner Fred Loimer Lois (£8.28) – sit out in the garden with half a pint of shell on prawns and some mayonnaise while you devour the bottle.

 

Despite all these wonderful wines from around the world, with English wine week upon us (June 2-10) we don’t have to look too far to sample some of the best wines on offer.

Nyetimber, in West Chiltington, has its award winning sparkling wines and along the road in Pulborough we have Simon Woodhead at Stopham Estate.

He makes rose, Pinot Blanc and a Pinot Gris which in my opinion is the first English wine to stand up on a global stage.

And if global warming makes temperatures here in the UK higher, as some experts say will happen, British wine productions is only going to be on the increase…

David Moore has been a restaurateur for 30 years and is owner of abarbistro, White Hart Road, Old Portsmouth www.abarbistro.co.uk and Camber Wines www.camberwines.co.uk

Article published in the June 2012 edition of etc magazine.