If you’re still paying, you simply do not have to. In fact, in a way, at this stage I’d rather you didn’t, at least for a bit, until I dip my toe back in the murky MW waters. More on that later.

So, first up. Go and listen to Second Press podcast, then leave a comment. I’m not going to pester my newsletter subscribers with notifications for every episode. I might send a note around every couple of months.

The first 5 episodes are here:

Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

A wine-ish podcast for the curious and the kindred. It’s about the people, the culture, the business, and everything in between.

By Dan Kirby

Or listen on Apple Podcasts like 65% of all other listeners.

Apple Podcasts

Or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’ve had over 1500 downloads already and the feedback so far has be really nice.

And for a newsletter:

The podcast has been taking up way more time than I expected, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Back when I used to be in a band1, we wrote and recorded all our own stuff. I got pretty confident in a digital audio workspace with microphones and audio editing vocals and guitars. I like the technical side of it, and fiddling about with compressors and EQ.

When we started this idea of the podcast I knew immediately that I’d want to do all the editing myself. Brad, knows all the people, and started booking some of the best guests from across the industry, and I started scrolling through Sound on Sound looking at the best entry-level USB/XLR mics and reading up on the current state of digital audio software.

I’m often surprised by how many DIY podcasts have “difficult” audio, and by that I mean, the content might be brilliant, interesting, insightful, but impossible to actually listen to. Whether that means the audio is just too quiet/echoey, poorly recorded through laptop microphones or ripped from zoom recordings, or just plain distorted.

Listen to any mainstream podcast and the audio is great, listen to most DIY podcasts and it’s not. I wanted the audio from the get go to be nice. Clean, bright, alive, loud and comfortable.

“Difficult” can also mean badly mixed, with people talking over each other or volume levels all over the place. I’ve spent a good few hours on each episode snipping and tweaking the actual conversation into something that people want to listen to.

Yes, that involves a tiny bit of creative licence with a subtle reordering of the odd sentence, or shifting some cross-talk around, or shortening bit of waffle. The conversations and the structure of the chats we’ve had so far remain true to the speakers intent, and yet flow more coherently.

At it’s heart Brad is the storyteller, and I’m the enquirer, and we want the podcast to reflect that by making a 30minute episode that is worth the listeners time.

The other thing is the soundtrack music. I knew that I wanted an ear-worm. There’s a handful of silly, radio-style podcasts that I like, and the theme tune to each of them is catchy as heck. You can say what you like about the one I picked, there were a few options, but it sets the tone exactly as I want it to, as well as being frustratingly memorable.

I’m a nerd about everything. I don’t really bother with much that doesn’t REALLY interest me. Part of starting a podcast for me, is the process of doing it, well.

Part of doing the MW is the process. I’ve replaced one with the other for now, and I’m hopeful that with the calibre of people we’re chatting to on a weekly basis, and the contacts I’m making through it already, that the two should go hand-in-hand eventually.

See ya. GO LISTEN.

Dan

I’m quite excited to say, that with quite a big nudge from … we’ve started a Podcast.

You can head over to the new Second Press Substack page, or find the trailer on which ever podcast player you use.

I’ll post a few links below. But for now, here’s the blurb. Head over to the new substack page too.

At its heart, it’s a wine-ish podcast for the curious and the kindred.

We’re aiming for informal interviews, wine trade insights, and honest drink recommendations.

It’s about the people, the culture, the business, and everything in between.

The first proper episodes go live in march, and we’ll be here every two weeks after that.

Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

A wine-ish podcast for the curious and the kindred. It’s about the people, the culture, the business, and everything in between.

By Dan Kirby

What’s the point?

I’ve actually mentioned on this newsletter, and discussed with a number of friends about starting some form of podcast related to the newsletter or as part of my MW studies.

Secondly to that, my good buddy Brad, who’s more well known as winetimelondon on Instagram, or writing for Decanter, or being an all round wine communicator, you’ll probably already know him.

Well, I’ve said for ages that he should have a space for longer form video, audio or written content that runs in parallel to his successful Insta acct. Turns out a podcast was just what we both needed.

Over Christmas Brad sent me a message to say, “let’s do a podcast”, and I was an immediate “YES”.

Brad is so well connected, and frustratingly likeable, that pretty much everyone he’s asked to come on so far has said “of course..”.

I knew I’d host the pod here on Substack as there are a few others I love already here, particularly the Beyond Organic Wine podcast, and the ecosystem for comments and social sharing from a ready to go website makes so much sense.

Brad taking on guest relations, and I’m taking on digital, editing and audio and stuff, so between us, for now, we’re in a great position to be self sustained.

Brad is also checking in with his wine PR contacts, an outlet for new ways to introduce wine stories, producers and regions might just help out my future wine studies too.

I’d love you to listen

The trailer or teaser episode is up now.

Listen on Substack:

Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

sp#01 - teaser

welcome to second press. we’re glad you’re here…

Listen now

2 months ago · Dan Kirby and Bradley Horne

Subscribe on Spotify:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

Why ‘Second Press’ ?

So, it’s kind of a wine term, the later press factions. We liked that. But we wanted it to be more of a news-y, current affairs, casual radio show, because there’s not so many of those in the wine world, so the word ‘press’ made a bit of sense.

And the tagline is “A Wine-ish Podcast”. Which is deliberately a bit unconventional, if we drift off topic, or bring on guests from outside the industry, we’re fine with that. It’s not just for wine nerds, it’s going to be me and Brad, and a few guests talking around wine, every couple of weeks to start.

The guests we’ve got lined up are great, Masters of Wine, Master Somms, winemakers, educators, and more. It’s going to be great.

We want to get a bit deeper into industry news, stories, people, the broader wine world, opinions and chat. We thought that extracting that bit extra, beyond winemakers narratives, and long from interviews.

We also didn’t want to focus on learning, or education. There are also so many great resources for education at the moment, and we just wanted to keep the overall vibe a bit more us. Trying to get under the skin, and talk like we would once the recording has stopped

Incidentally I was thinking calling my podcast “Wine: Pressed” too, so this is a neater version of that.

The first episodes will be out in March, so I’ve got a bit of editing to do, and the first recording is tomorrow with Anne McHale MW and my very good friend Anna Spooner.

See you there!

Dan

Some Links:

Beyond Organic Wine

Embracing Hybrid Grapes - What Happened & What Will Happen

Last Monday Elodie Oliver and I hosted a sell-out crowd (we had to add extra seats!) of winegrowers, winemakers, wine sellers, grape breeders, wine industry leaders, wine press, academics, and wine aficionados at the UC Davis Conference Center for a conference dedicated exclusively to the benefits of hybrid grapes for the California wine industry. The c…

Listen now

2 months ago · 4 likes · Beyond Organic Wine

Anna Spooner Wine

I've finally done it! I've set up my business

[here it is…

Read more

a year ago · 9 likes · Anna Spooner

I hate the winter, and for whatever reason I’ve decided to make it a little bit worse, but cutting out all the good stuff for a while.

Reasons I’m not drinking alcohol for a bit.

1. Trying to stay healthy.

2. Dry January.

3. Alcohol tolerance reset.

4. Histamine and Allergies.

Healthy Living.

I’m not drinking, not specifically for a calorie deficit fitness related reason, although shit-me it’s helping. I heard the phrase “don’t drink your calories” the other day and that made sense; whole milk in your coffee, sugar in drinks, calories in alcohol, they all add up.

I’ll get to the main reason in a bit, but, turns out, if you live off very only fresh things, skip all the nice stuff and stop drinking, the Christmas fat reserves don’t last all that long.

When you’re not drinking booze that’s around 500 calories per day saved by skipping a couple of glasses of wine. Bonkers really.

Health nerds can be a right bore, but If you’re looking at 1,500 calories per day as your target deficit, 30% of your calories coming from 2 glasses of wine is a bit of a waste.

I did read this the other day too.

Changes in alcohol intake, fitness, and all-cause mortality in the HUNT Study, Norway

J Nauman, E Ingeström, A Tari, U Wisløff, Changes in alcohol intake, fitness, and all-cause mortality in the HUNT Study, Norway

Conclusions

Increased alcohol intake over time was associated with higher mortality risk. However, maintaining high cardiorespiratory fitness attenuated this association, highlighting fitness as a stronger predictor of mortality.

Key messages

• Even small amounts of alcohol raise premature death risk. Regular physical activity may modify alcohol-mortality association, but it’s unclear if changes in fitness affect this association.

• Maintaining a high fitness lowers the mortality risk associated with alcohol intake, and a 10-year change in fitness is a better predictor of mortality than contemporary changes in alcohol intake.

I’m taking from this that keeping fit and healthy is better in general than stopping drinking altogether. Something like that anyway.

Dry Jan

I’m certainly not drinking for any trend around Dry Jan either, that garbage was a marketing ploy that too many people have jumped on.

It just so happens that the start to the year is a sensible time to try a few new things, particularly ones you’re definitely not going to start in December.

Other than the Finish Government’s 1940’s ‘Sober January’ campaign, the modern iteration of Dry Jan seems to have started with with a girl called Emily, and her marathon training, pounced on my Alcohol Change UK’s and their “Evidence based reduction of harm caused by alcohol” narrative.

Tolerance Reset?

You can tell yourself “Wine is just a nice drink, and I don’t want to live off squash and green tea” all you like, but there’s a zone, around 3 glasses of wine that’s a lovely spot.

You see, people who drink little and often have a bigger tolerance, and you have to work at maintaining it. The feeling non drinkers get after a couple of glasses is very different to that of a seasoned professional.

But, what if, like me, finding the gentlest comfort in that perfect “not quite yet tipsy-zone” is further away than acceptable, or long term sustainable?

I’m wondering if there’s some logic to taking a month off every now and then, to keep that sweet-spot at around 2 glasses of wine. Maybe hitting the reset button, for one full month, twice a year, rolls back your tolerance just enough to enjoy two glasses of wine again the rest of the time?

Essentially, can you proactively manage your alcohol tolerance?

I’m wondering about month off in Jan, ready for the spring and summer, and then a month off in September, ready for hunkering down through the winter. That’s the framework for riding the tolerance levels through the year.

I’ll update you in Feb.

The main reason is the histamine.

I’ve said before I take anti-histamines most days, and I’m not going to bore anyone with the science again, but if you overload on histamine, it can feel like an allergy. If you can’t breakdown excess histamine quick enough, you can overload all the time.

I’ve had an inkling for a while, and confirmed an inability to quickly break down histamine with an enzymatic blood test, but never had the gumption to actually cut it all out and see what happens.

So, it’s January and I’ve cut out all the high histamine foods, which inevitably with any diet, is all the nice, delicious stuff.

Histamine is high in anything preserved or matured, or fermented, especially yeasts. Wine, beer, chocolate, soy sauce, kimchi, nutty old cheeses, all the cured meats, most bread. All the nice things in life, plus weirdly there are naturally high levels in random stuff like tomatoes, spinach, aubergine and beans and pulses.

I’m essentially eating like a sick dog, living off chicken and rice, fresh veg, salads, flatbreads. Annoyingly it seems to be working. I think I feel better?

I’m longing for a sourdough pizza with tomato, Parmesan and salami, washed down with a glass of red wine though.

As a side note, caffeine isn’t ideal either. But the week I stopped drinking coffee was horrible, so I’ve at least decided to “reintroduce” that pretty quickly. It’s only so long before wine makes a welcome return.

Look, there are plenty of reasons why people might not drink for always or for just some of the time. But, I’ll definitely be starting again soon.

Let me know in the comments what your thought are…

dk

Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

Ok, so I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas this year. It ended up being super chill, and I’m not a huge one for blow out Christmas events anyway.

My collection of booze doesn’t feature unicorns, or expensive showpiece bottles, or big-dick-swingers, just a simple selection of nice bottles that capped off a pretty simple couple of weeks, mostly at home, either mine, or my families.

There’s a reason I don’t keep wine ‘in’, maybe 20-30 or so bottles in the house of wines in rotation for drinking, and a handful of other bits I’m keeping for whatever reason. I don’t really care too much for “having a cellar”. I’ve met too many people over the years selling off 100’s of bottles of old wine that haven’t managed to drink, while simultaneously regretting buying too much new wine to add to the collection. I very rarely buy a case of anything, pretty much only if I can’t easily grab a single bottle from a shop or online if I really wanted one.

In no particular order.

Exclusively Chardonnay for the whites. Not intentional. Just, that’s what was in the house, that’s what I fancied at the time. And, that is what I like. The age of weird is by the by, and I’m slipping effortlessly into the winter of toastier, richer whites, and say what you like, Chardonnay is the top of the pile.

Alain Chavy - Bourgogne Chardonnay, 2023.

Bought this from Majestic, it’s a staple for me. I visited Alain a couple of years ago, a lovely quiet cellar, a small father and son operation, and calmly making some brilliant wines. I’ve been a fan for a while. This £20 Bourgogne Chard is his entry level wine, and it always hits the spot. Textbook clean and tidy, slightly toasty Chardonnay. Lovely stuff.

Mark Haisma - Macon Chardonnay, 2022.

I LOVE this wine. As above with Alain, it’s another textbook Chardonnay at first, but now with a couple of years in bottle there’s a nutty, salty, brilliance to it that I love. This is a rare wine that I actually did buy a case of, and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it on the internet somewhere every time I’ve had a bottle. I think me and my partner had this on a quiet night to ourselves in that post Christmas limbo bit where time makes no sense to anyone.

Shaw + Smith, M3 Adelaide Chardonnay, 2022.

Another regular pickup at Majestic, £25 ish I think. Look, I sell wines to Majestic now, and as part of my Brand Ambassador day-job, I’m required to hang about in Majestic stores quite often, hawking my wares, while also filling up my wine samples box with wines for my personal collection. This was out Christmas dinner wine, an average roast all round, I think the thermostat on my oven started playing up so nothing really got crispy, and everything took ages to cook, so we were a bit deflated about the whole thing. Maybe it’s just that small number of times in the year when you’re trying to cram everything in a small domestic oven, and it simply couldn’t keep up. The in-laws were delighted with everything, rightly so as guests, but we had another go a couple of days later to make up for it.

Other Wines - Fizz and Such.

Flint Vineyard - Charmat Rosé NV.

Work wine! A freebie, of course, the best perk of working for a winery. Frustratingly, even if I didn’t work for them me and my partner would gleefully pay for this anyway, this was our Christmas ‘cooking wine’ while we were waiting faaaking aaaages for the roasties to get some colour on them.

I could talk to you about this wine for hours, because that is literally what I get paid to do, so I won’t, not here. Only to say if you haven’t tried it, most people who try it bloody love it, it’s bright pink, fizzy and pretty delicious.

An indestructible bottle of Curatolo Arini - Marsala Superiore Riserva 10 Year Old

Bought from The Wine Society, hands down my favourite place to buy wine. Except for having to wade through all the bumph I get in the post, and maybe except for navigating the 1000’s of wines on their website. I basically buy 5 wines from the wine society because it’s a minefield if you go in blind. You kinda have to know what you want, order it and not get distracted, then get out quickly while your bank balance is still intact.

I bought a load of weird ‘study’ wines for the MW programme last spring, Port, Madeira, Marsala, White Port, Fino, PX, Passito, etc etc. Wine Society is one of the few places you can get all these in one go. Turns out this stuff is properly, dangerously delicious. Over the break, this was the wine I kept in the fridge, for those almost daily moments where the bottle of wine is empty, and you don’t want to open another one, so you reach for something interesting. I didn’t even open the bottle of Port I bought because this was much more entertaining.

Onto the Reds.

In my house I mostly, normally drink white, maybe 70:30 White:Red, but I do really like red wines, but while I’m a classicist for whites, other than Red Burg (everyone appreciates a good red bug), I don’t really care too much for the mainstream red selection, Malbec can fuck off, Barolo is more over-inflated than Burgundy for the most part, posh Bordeaux and can also fuck off, same goes Syrah from outside France, or maybe South Africa. In general I like complex, but light reds, and so…

Thymiopouos, Xinomavro, Naoussa, 2022.

Christmas Day red wine sorted. This is one of the 5 wines I regularly buy from The Wine Society, the Jeunes Vignes from Thymiopoulos, but this is the *I think* the same wine in a different label for Majestic, it basically tastes the same. Trying to explain this to my in-laws for Christmas lunch was fun.

“So, it’s from Greece…”

“Do they make wine in Greece?”

“Yes, quite a bit actually, and it’s great. The grape variety is…”

“What’s a Xinomavro?”

“Well.. yes, that is the grape, and the most Greek sounding word ever, underneath? That’s the chap who makes it”.

“Oooh, it tastes nice…”

Pietradolce, Etna Rosso, 2023.

I saved this for a night on my own when my partner had popped round to be sociable with some friends, and I stayed in to eat cheese and curl up under a heated blanket with the dog. I’ve seen this wine about, read about it, it’s a Nerello from Etna, pretty well respected producer by all accounts, probs about £25 I think. It was pretty tasty, if you sum up all the things I’ve said about red wine, and then have a look at 3 of the 4 red wines we had, you deffo get the broad sense of the kinda red wines that I like.

Domaine Petit Perou, Morgan ‘Tradition’.

Oh, lovely, lovely Beaujolais. I asked a few people for some Nouveau this year, it’s back in with the cool kids, I hear. Nouveau is good and all, like cherry juice, but a decent Morgon is streets ahead. This is a cheapie though, like £15, to one of the super cool, hipster, natty, earthy, grown up efforts. This is as the name suggests ‘Tradition’, in that it’s not had a lot of oak, it’s clean and bright, juicy and just a twist of pepper. Honestly, for £15 this is really nice. We had this on a lazy ‘picky tea’ early evening. That point of the Christmas break where you watch the clock, and watch each other until one of you breaks and ponders on whether it’s too early for a glass of wine, and the other person has grabbed the corkscrew before you’ve managed to turn a statement into a question.

Bodegas Riojanas, ‘Borisa’ Rioja Reserva, 2020.

This is a steal, a wine that I helped bring to the UK while I was covering as head of wine at Adnams about 2 years ago. I like Riojanas, old-school very trad Rioja, none of this “French oak, single plot precision”, this is plums, vanilla and coconut American Oak, 100% Tempranillo and silky smooth. Also, I got it for a steal, so ended up being about £14 on the shelf, one of those little wine buyers delights: “Oh, Dan we’ve got 1,200 bottles of this wine that we don’t have a home for” some moments that just make sense.

Riojanas make the Adnams own label Rioja Crianza for them, so we piggy backed a couple of pallets of this. I can’t remember when I had this specifically, but I kept a pile of all the bottles we opened over the break to write this piece, and this was one of them, so we definitely had it at some point, but no idea when, or why, or what with.

That’ll do.

Some kinda update on how I’m feeling about the MW coming soon ish.

Dan

My Instagram algorithm is now flooded with coffee gadgetry and gizmos… those little wiggle WDT distribution tools, puck screens, funnels, scales accurate to 0.01 of a gram,oak handled tampers, bottomless portafilters.

The list is pretty much endless as are the variations in use and quality.

I’m a coffee gizmo fan now. The final nail in the coffin was some coffee influencer telling me that if you want to get better coffee at home then you should “just go and buy the gear”.

No amount of posh coffee from the hipster roasters under the railway arches is going to solve the issue of channelling at home. In fact you’re at risk of not getting the best out of your expensive beans unless you’ve got the best kit.

Similarly if you’re an audio nerd a low quality streaming service connected to a Bluetooth speaker is a disaster. There’s lots of parallels I could suggest.

BUT if you’re a wine nerd I’d say the opposite is true in almost all cases.

There’s an infinite list of gadgets and gizmos that categorically will not improve the wine in the slightest.

The best gift.

The best gift you can get a coffee lover who has all the gear is a training course on how to use the gear. Don’t buy them posh beans if they can’t make good coffee from them.

In total contrast the best gift you can get a wine lover who has ANY of the gear is to throw the gear in the skip for them. Definitely buy them posh wine instead, but only after you’ve extracted gadgets from the process.

The reason is pretty straightforward. Wine is a pre-packaged ready to drink consumable item. You don’t need to make the wine at home, the winemaker has already done that for you.

There is temperature, extraction, grind size, pressure, and water quality … all sorts of things that can go wrong with making good coffee at home. Most people will do just fine and never notice or care why the stuff at home isn’t quite as good as their favourite café.

Coffee beans have more in common with a raw fillet of turbot than any bottle of wine you can buy.

When cooking fish I could spend a lot of money on a fishmonger prepared, perfectly filleted piece of turbot, get home and burn it, wiggle it, over season it. There’s a skill in both of these practices and this is where great cookware or a decent bit of coffee preparation kit and, of course, a bit of experience and knowledge will make your ‘at home’ experience better.

With wine no matter how much kit you buy unless you really fuck it up you’re gonna open that bottle and drink it and that is pretty much all the influence you have on how it tastes.

The Gift of Appreciation

Appreciation of the final product is a different story. Walking into an amazing coffee shop with a considerate attentive barista with the skill to turn ground beans into something delicious is not an easy job.

Give three baristas the same equipment and they may each make a coffee that has a different characteristic. Give three enthusiastic sommeliers all the gear in the world to pour the same wine for you and it will taste almost identical.

Doesn’t matter if you pull the cork out with a £100 gizmo or with the cheapest Mr Flappy corkscrew it’ll taste the same. All the flair suits ceremony process whatever. Open the wine and pour the wine.

Same in a wine shop whoever you are if there 500 wines in that shop and I ask for a decent Chardonnay and you offer me pretty much any wine and I go home and like it job done. The person in the shop hasn’t really affected the flavour or taste of that wine. I can’t really go home and cock it up.

Other than knowing what the wine tastes I’d argue in most cases there’s less skill in suggesting a wine that a customer will like than there is in making them a brilliant coffee.

The What-Not-To-Buy Gift Guide

I get asked quite often what to buy for a friend who’s into wine and the answer is always “More wine.” Which is often met with disappointment as if I was going to suggest some special new fangled object of wine wizardry. I’m not.

Things that I would advise you to never buy for a wine loving friend.

• Wine Glasses: They’ve usually already got some. Unless they’ve smashed them or have explicitly expressed an interest in some new glasses don’t bother. Certainly don’t bother getting various grape or wine style related glasses. Any wine loving friend will likely already have a preferred wine glass often a single style of universal design. I have. I also have glasses all over the house I’ve been gifted but don’t use.

• Elaborate bottle openers: If you’re a wine lover bottle openers are essentially free. I don’t think I’ve knowingly bought a bottle opener in 10 years and I probably have 20 or 30 at home. If they have 1 solitary yet functional bottle opener they’ll be OK.

• Associated bottle opening periphery: Such as knives foil cutters any knife is fine. Any method of getting the wine out of the bottle that isn’t just opening the bottle.

• Fancy wine racks: Honestly that lovely looking oak carved thing? It probably wont fit a bunch of bottle shapes anyway. Those sturdy wood and metal things are just fine and you can pick them up for £5 at pretty much any flea market and your wine loving friend definitely already has one.

• Aerators: the air does that for you. I’ve seen some that look like a three year olds marble run for wine that do about the same just letting the same kid pour the wine all over the kitchen table first for you.

• Decanters: They 100% already have one in the cupboard they don’t need or use.

• Any form of chemistry set: Look that little sachet or stick or wand or whatever that alters the flavour of the wine is not of interest to anyone truly into wine. You can’t remove sulphites or hangovers from a bottle of wine.

• Preservation devices: Wine lovers don’t need to store the wine anything unfinished will just have the cork squidged back in then put in the fridge for another day. If they come back to it in a week or so and it’s knackered so be it an expensive preservation device or not.

• Thermometer: Oh, come on now.

Cheers,

Dan

Some AI Suggestions: None of these, either

That’s a great gift idea! Here is a bulleted list of wine related gadgets and periphery items covering a range of prices and focuses:

• Coravin: The ultimate high end gadget for the serious wine lover allowing them to pour wine without pulling the cork preserving the bottle for months or years.

• High Quality Decanter: A functional and beautiful piece of glassware. Look for modern sculptural designs or classic shapes that offer maximum surface area for aeration.

• Electric or Lever Style Corkscrew: For ease and speed. A good lever style corkscrew like a rabbit is robust and satisfying while electric models offer ultimate convenience.

• Wine Preservation System: e.g. Private Preserve or an inert gas system Essential for someone who frequently opens bottles to enjoy over multiple days preventing oxidation.

• Wine Thermometer and/or Digital Cellar/Fridge Thermometer: Crucial for ensuring wines are served at their optimal temperature 10-14 degrees C for most quality whites and lights reds 16-18 degrees C for full reds and stored correctly.

• Aerator: Pour through or in bottle style Helps softer wines open up instantly when pouring ideal for young reds or robust whites.

• Set of High Performance Glassware: Focus on a specific style such as thin lightweight glasses for aromatic whites like Riesling/English Bacchus or large bowls for Nebbiolo/Pinot Noir.

• Bottle Stopper/Sealer e.g. Champagne stopper: An absolute necessity for sparkling wine lovers to keep fizz fresh after opening.

• Wine Stain Remover Wipes/Spray: A practical thoughtful item for preventing mishaps especially if they entertain often.

• Subscription to a Niche Wine Magazine or Digital Resource: For ongoing learning and discovery focusing on regions or styles they love…

But, maybe, actually, that last one might be a good idea.

Most people open one bottle and stick with it. Even if it’s not quite right. Even if they wish they’d chosen something else. Call it indecision, call it obedience. Just open a second bottle. It might be frivolous, could be considered wasteful, or worse, incorrect. Open three bottles, try a glass of each, save the open ones for another day, or give them away.

The idea of free will in wine is fragile. It exists in theory, but in practice, wine is one of the most rule-bound things.

If I asked, “do you feel constrained by wine?”

You’d say, “by what?”

And I’d say, “by all the rules.”

And you’d say, “which rules?”

And then I’d get you to consider every single situation where you’ve ever had a glass of wine.

I’d say, “those ones.”

My Favourite Wine?

The other night, someone asked me: “What’s your favourite wine?”

As always, I immediately said “Any Champagne”.

I followed that up with: “If you can… go and spend £100 on a bottle of Champagne.” It’s worth it. For the experience, the taste, the feeling of luxury, to peek behind the curtain of what ‘wine snobs’ do day-in, day-out.

I was in Norwich, and mused at the time how I’d actually struggle to think of a shop in town where I could just wander in and hand over £100 for a bottle of grower Champagne. Yes, perhaps vintage Pol in Majestic, but they’re not that easy to find, are they?

There’s a sense that certain actions must be earned, or allowed. That Champagne opened without an occasion or celebration is somehow wasted.

It’s not that free will doesn’t exist in wine. It does. It’s just that most people don’t use it. Or maybe they don’t notice when they’re conforming.

People don’t hesitate to spend £100 on an average meal forgotten by morning, or on a jacket they’ll stop wearing after six weeks. Take the cost of that meal out, buy some average fish and chips from your local chippie, and spend the rest on any bottle of Champagne.

Spending that much on a bottle of George Laval feels irresponsible, but it’s not. It’s a choice. You’re allowed to do that. It’s possible. You’re an adult with free will.

Teach Free Will.

The responsibility sits with ‘educators’ who are not teachers. The best teachers are the ones that don’t play by the rules.

Mr Lord, my old science teacher, would occasionally hide in a small cupboard he called an ‘office’ and pounce out when we were doing things we shouldn’t. It wasn’t ‘correct’ to hide in a cupboard and spy on us. But with thirty 14-year-old kids in a science lab, it was probably a prudent way of making sure we didn’t set the place on fire.

The unintended consequence of his eccentric, cantankerous behaviour was the tacit freedom to not give a shit about the rules. I liked that. Wine’s not like that.

He also swore more than he should.

Wine wisdom passed down implies the right time is required. Not now. Not this. Not yet.

Wine rules suggest the process is considered. Not like that. Like this. That’s right…

Instead of buying that new dining table and chairs, screw the legs back together with the dregs of that tool kit you don’t use and then sit around the knackered old set for another year, drinking an occasional bottle of Billecart-Salmon Rosé from a pint glass.

It’s an elegant way of describing how a product moves through a market, how wide their distro is, how many points of contact it reaches, and how far from the winery it travels.

The episode grappled with the points of distribution challenge for Bordeaux Négociants, and why La Place gives immediate access to a large number of distribution points, and how this is coupled with the strength of a brand.

As Patrick Schmitt MW puts it:

“Négociants have capillarity, the ability to find demand and fulfil it. Added to this appeal, or pull factor, has also been a push by La Place, with courtiers seeking out producers and encouraging them to come to the distribution network.

But, as I warned any fine wine makers who might now be considering the system, it is designed to distribute wines, not build brands”

In wine more broadly, ‘capillarity’ describes how widely and effectively a producer’s wines flow through the market.”

Immediate access to markets doesn’t immediately equate to growth in sales. How quickly does the second order from a new outlet come through?

Wineries have to understand the ratio between a number of different metrics when understanding sales strategy. One that gets overlooked is ‘Rate of Sale’.

The Maths of Growth: C*AOV*F

For direct-to-consumer brands, the simplest model uses three variables:

Customers (C) × Average Order Value (AOV) × Frequency (F) = Revenue.

This is not new ground, plenty has been written about this data metric idea, but it’s still the cleanest way to think about growth. A hundred customers, spending £100 twice a year, gives £20,000 in revenue. Multiply to 250 customers at the same spend and frequency, and you’ve got £50,000.

Pulling one lever has an isolated impact. If we wanted to double revenues from £50k to £100k, by only changing one metric alone we’d need to do the following:

Double customers to 500, or double average spend to £200, or increase frequency by 250% to five purchases per year.

Instead, aim to compound increases in multiple metrics by a smaller percentage. Increase both Customers and AOV by as little as 20% and increase Frequency by 50% and you’ll be in a stronger overall position from compound growth in all three areas.

300 Customers * £120 AOV * 3 Purchases = £108k

Established businesses would be totally amazed with 5% growth in the current climate without a significant catalyst, so these numbers are for illustrative purposes.

Either way, the compound approach makes more sense than obsessing over one metric in isolation. Don’t go all-in on driving web traffic and increasing check-out optimisation without looking at basket spend or retention rates.

Bottles or Cash?

Unlike a digital brand, a winery has physical constraints, production volume may become a more important metric than revenue in the short term.

There are so many layers of distribution, margin, hidden costs, marketing, logistics that looking at revenue might not be much use compared to looking at ‘number of bottles out of the warehouse’.

So, when thinking like a winery, swap AOV for Average Order Quantity (AOQ).

You can break it down by channel if you like.

100 DTC customers × 5 bottles × 2 purchases per year = 1,000 bottles.

200 export customers × 600 bottles × 6 shipments per year = 720,000 bottles.

You get the idea.

This is also where the distinction between ‘brand’ and ‘estate’ becomes useful. A scalable producer with no ceiling on volume behaves like a brand. An artisan estate, limited by vineyard size and vintage conditions, behaves differently.

One is slower, more deliberate, less flexible. Many wineries drift between the two, the ebb and flow of brand-like behaviour even if their production size can’t sustain it.

Rate of Sale v Frequency

Rate of Sale and Frequency aren’t the same thing.

Rate of Sale (ROS) - Total bottles shifted within a set timeframe, per channel or outlet.

Purchase Frequency (F) - The number of transactions or purchases.

They complement each other, but they don’t tell the same story.

An indie wine shop might take fifty transactions a day, six bottles on average, 300 bottles total. That might look like: 90 bottles of shit Pinot Grigio, 60 bottles of an easy-going Appassimento red, a random case of an expensive Tuscan red, and the rest scattered across ten per cent of the range.

The rate of sale on the Pinot Grigio dwarfs that case of 1997 Brunello Riserva.

The old 10–80–10 rule. Ten per cent of wines drive most of the business. Eighty per cent tick over steadily as the core range. The final ten per cent sell slowly but serve a halo purpose, they make your range look like you know what you’re up to.

The Human Element

Back to the point. Wine industry nerds love trying different wines, love recommending a different wine to every customer, love the next thing their rep shows them, and think fondly of the last all expenses paid trip.

Paying customers are often creatures of habit, they’ll find that one wine they like. They’ll buy it by the dozen until they ruin the memory of it, or their indie merchant best friend finally convinces them that this grape, from that place is both tastier and cheaper than whatever is in their comfort zone.

When you’re a DTC focussed brand, you can take a top line look at those simple metrics. You can incentivise frequency, you can tweak your free delivery thresholds and grow your mailing list.

Rate of Sale exists in the space between comfort and excitement. Consistent discovery coupled with accessibility, new fans and loyalists alike.

Take two on-trade examples:

• A single site restaurant that takes 60 bottles per month, every month

• A restaurant group that has 6 sites taking 120 bottles every 2 months.

On paper, both equal 60 bottles per month overall, but per site the single restaurant has a six-times higher rate of sale. Roughly twelve bottles per week, compared with two.

Almost every channel apart from DTC depends on Rate of Sale.

Focused energy on customers where the ROS is high is where a winery builds genuine traction, not just a list of shiny new customers.

That new on-trade listing? Useless if they only order six bottles a year and let them gather dust in the cellar.

That trendy hybrid merchant? Useless if the staff haven’t even tasted it. How are they going to sell it?

That online mixed case? Great exposure, but if the selection changes monthly, where’s the second purchase coming from?

Capillarity Revisited

In wholesale, the number of customers and the number of outlets are not the same metric either. This is where we come back to capillarity, and why ROS is so important.

For an established artisan producer, like those distributed through La Place, increased capillarity might mean more outlets, more visibility, and a slow but steady ROS from loyal, educated buyers. In their case that’s fine, that’s a prestige brand awareness play.

While a growth brand, built on awareness and maximum exposure, a high ROS might come from a large number of new outlets, infrequent purchasers with a low likelihood of a repeat purchase.

The point there is to establish high ROS through brand recognition and activation, it can often lead to quick range or SKU extensions, a need to remain agile, targeted price promotions, high impact point of sale (POS). Multiple outlets then fight for attention, and eventually some consolidation is needed or a market saturation point is found.

In both cases, understanding the strategic relationship between capillarity and rate of sale is everything. It’s not just how widely the wine travels, but how fast it moves once it’s there.

Next time a winery tells you how much wine they sell, ask them “how does your rate of sale interact with your market capillarity?”

You might get a much more useful answer.

dk

Further Reading

If you fancy the data version of all this, there’s a solid paper by Hirche, Hübner and Wagner called Distribution Velocity in Wine Retailing. It looks into how reach and throughput actually play out across retail channels.

Basically the academic side of what I’ve been calling rate of sale.

“Little is known about the relationship between distribution and market share in the wine category. Understanding the influences of product and distribution characteristics at the SKU-level and incorporating them into marketing strategy and planning has important managerial and academic implications.”

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Shock

noun

1. a sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience.

Friday morning, 11am(ish) was the MW results day dead…

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I’m bored, and lazy and my summer of doing more social, more exercise, and perhaps interacting with friends is not going to plan. I’m more content with doing nothing at all. There’s probably a diagnosis, but in my mind it’s just stasis.

Results are still 6 weeks away. I’ve sure I haven’t passed any of it again, and that the MW journey is probably over. With no need to study this summer, and most likely no need to get back into study again come September, I’m at a bit of a loss.

I can’t reconcile the time and effort I’ve put into this with not passing the exams. I keep telling myself it’s not all been wasted. That I’ve got enough from the process without passing. There are positives.

I like purpose, I like to think I’m working towards something. I obsess about things I *could* do.

I spent most of last Sunday creating a costing spreadsheet and business plan for a Pizza Van as a side project.

I thought I’d waste some time totting up how much we’d put into the MW journey so far. I’ve got all this info because I’ve kept a separate bank acct for MW study since setting up the GoFundMe way back in Sept 2020.

The breakdown is below. It shows that I’ve personally spent about £23,000 on the MW so far. That spread over the last 4+ years is around £5,000 per year, with the first and most recent years, for different reasons being a little easier on the bank balance.

I can think of much worse things to spend that on. I might have a nicer bathroom, or kitchen, or car, but those material things are no less effective today than they were a few years ago.

Back in April a nice young chap gave us a quote of £20,000 on five new sash windows. When you think about the friends, the people, the places, the time, the wines, the experience, the knowledge… but exclude the stress and anguish, I’d say it’s worth more than one sash window per year. We never spoke to him again.

My original GoFundMe pitch was: “Lots of good people deserve a go at the MW, but can’t afford it themselves”. If I hadn’t raised that first £5k, there’s not a chance on earth I’d be in this position 4 years later. One where I’m able to look back at £23k of my own money spent and not be crippled with debt. So there’s that.

Here you go. Paid subscribers can scroll down for what the full P&L looks like over the past few years.

Dan

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