Ninety nine years ago, in 1926, the wine writer Len Chaloner wrote “the difference between a vintage wine and a beverage wine is easily understood”.
Chaloner explained that a vintage wine was one that “hails from some vineyard of special repute”. Adding, “it may proudly bear the name of the chateau”. While by contrast, Chaloner said a beverage wine “may be a perfectly sound wine”. But it will be “young” and will not come from a specific vineyards. Rather it will have “no closer description” than the name of the region “from whence it hails”.
Much has changed in the wine world in the last century. Len Chaloner wasn’t actually called Len. She was Lenore. A woman who wrote using a man’s name, knowing she wouldn’t be taken seriously in the inter-War world of wine. With her book, “What the Vintners Sell”, she was the first British female wine writer.
Almost one hundred years later, something like Chaloner’s distinction is still with us.
Around 80% of the wine in the UK is sold through multiple retailers. It is “perfectly sound” wine. Usually young, convenient, and value-led. These are today’s “beverage wines”. Even if many of those wines now come with a vintage.
Premium wine is the modern equivalent of Len Chaloner’s “vintage wines”. These are wines of “special repute”. Wines with heritage, meaning, and captivating stories. They are the wines we seek out, rather than happen upon. The wines we serve to mark special occasions. Or serve to special people.
As in Len Chaloner’s day, beverage wines and premium wines need different distribution strategies. In the case of beverage wines, one built for economics. In the case of premium wines, one built to gracefully handle the distinctive characteristics of premium wine such as limited, high quality, production. And most particularly that these premium wines are valued as much for their heritage and the stories they embody, as they are for the outstanding liquid in the bottle.
But Chaloner’s distinction between “perfectly sound” beverage wines, and premium wines “of special repute” remains. And the wine industry’s task is to ensure we have the systems, support, structures, and supply chain to serve the distinct needs of both.
Activequity is building the future of premium wine distribution, with a core purpose of bringing the joy of premium wine to a far wider audience.
