Over his 30+ years buying for The Wine Society, Toby Morrhall has worked with dozens of producers across the globe to source, blend and craft wines for our members to enjoy. Whether it has been a case of curating classics or introducing new styles or regions ahead of the curve, many of these wines have gone on to become firm favourites. What’s the secret behind the success of our own-label wines? Toby distils his thoughts on this below and explains that there’s so much more behind these wines than simply the liquid in the bottle.
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The importance of partnerships, a shared ethos, respect and mutual trust
We take enormous care and considerable time in selecting wines to be sold under our label. We aim for the best value for money that we can achieve and that each wine is the most representative example of its type.
Conducting business with integrity is one of the fundamental tenets of The Society. We build and maintain trust with wine producers by buying year-in, year-out, and not just in the top vintages, paying on time (or even early if a key supplier is experiencing cashflow issues) and never reneging on deals. All this goes a very long way in maintaining high levels of trust and loyalty, often putting us at the front of the queue when it comes to getting our hands on the cream of the crop.
Our own-label wines are sourced from exceptional producers, often those with whom we have a long-term relationship. Such a partnership is not entered into lightly. The fact that we are able to work with many highly reputed producers is a reflection of the high reputation in which The Wine Society is held. Working so closely together is a potential risk to each other’s cherished brands. A successful relationship will protect and enhance the standing of both parties and forge a closer partnership.
For example, we require producers to agree to certain minimum ethical and technical standards, while the supplier must trust that the considerable value of stock produced will be shipped and paid for. Equally, The Wine Society must trust the supplier will faithfully bottle the wine selected by the buyer. Such a relationship can only work when there is a deep, mutual trust between each party, which grows ever stronger over time and often across generations of buyers and producers.
Crafting wines especially for our members
In many cases suppliers will offer us a range of excellent wines to choose from, and we make bespoke blends to suit the palates of our members, which are exclusive to The Wine Society. As buyers, it’s our job to understand the kinds of wines that our members will enjoy; over time our suppliers – many of whom turn up to pour their wines and chat with members at tastings – also learn to appreciate the exacting tastes of Wine Society members!
Whether you consider the blending of wine an art or a science, it is undoubtedly a skill, and one with the capacity to be transformative. This is particularly so at the Society level. Some component wines may be complete and well balanced, but more often some wines might have more weight and power but may lack finesse. Others might have vibrant and fresh flavours but lack body. Combining different wines in the right proportions produces a wine that is greater than the sum of its parts. It adds value so it can be sold at an attractive price and creates a wine with a unique character.
The early bird catches the worm
Buyers often make these blends early in the production cycle with the producers’ winemaker. Judging young wines often means tasting, for example, cloudy white wines when aromas are diminished and the palate weight is increased. Clarification and filtering will reverse these aspects. It demands a certain skill and knowledge to recognise quality and predict how a wine will evolve, but in so doing we get to choose from the largest and best selection of wines the supplier can offer, before they are committed to other programmes the producer may have. We also benefit from the skill and time of the producers’ winemaker and their teams. This joint effort between The Wine Society buyer and producers’ winemakers combines the skill and experience of both parties and results in making the best wine we can and further enhances our relationship and mutual respect.
It can also give rise to new opportunities so that our producers start to think about wines that we like to purchase for our members and keep an eye out for potential parcels that we can put our name on.
What’s the difference between The Society and Exhibition wines?
The Society bottlings may contain a blend of wines of differing styles and terroirs to make a representative example of its type or appellation. Exhibition wines tend to focus on wines from a narrower geographic origin and may reflect a particular terroir, commune or cru (vineyard or group of vineyards). Thus, we may offer a Society’s White Burgundy and an Exhibition Saint-Aubin, a Society’s Australian Shiraz and an Exhibition Victorian Shiraz and an Exhibition Barossa Shiraz, a Society’s Beaujolais-Villages and an Exhibition Fleurie or Exhibition Côte de Brouilly, or a Bordeaux and an Exhibition Margaux, Exhibition Pauillac or Exhibition Saint-Julien.
We aim to cover the popular styles and mainstream examples, and we may also choose to use the Society’s endorsement to help promote less well-known areas like Exhibition Côtes du Jura, Exhibition Valdeorras Godello, Society’s Greek White and Society’s Exhibition Naoussa Xinomavro to encourage exploration. It isn’t just our suppliers that trust us, our members do too, so when you see that we’ve bottled something under a Society or Exhibition label, you have the confidence to jump in and explore!
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