Wine to the rescue! Berkmann Wine Cellars to save restaurants and bars with Help4Hospitality
The lockdown has forced many businesses in the UK to change their business model in order to survive. In the words of my friend Warwick from Renegade Urban Winery, it really was ‘innovate or die’. For many businesses, the change of tact has brought insurmountable challenges, but with them, ideas which have brought communities together in this time of hardship.
The hospitality industry is one of the sectors that has undoubtedly been hit the hardest during the Coronavirus pandemic and the future is still uncertain for many of our beloved restaurants, hotels, pubs and bars. But, pulling together and creating initiatives that are designed to support each other in the industry - chefs, bartenders, suppliers, wineries, venues - is keeping the hope alive that hospitality could be the phoenix that gloriously rises from the ashes. I know I for one will need giant drink after this and I’ll need somewhere to drink it!
Berkmann Wine Cellars is a company who is leading one of these uniting initiatives, Help4Hospitality, with the help of Master of Wine, Alex Hunt. Pre-lockdown, Berkmann’s sold almost exclusively to the trade, meaning that 90% of their income was coming from restaurants and bars, which are now sadly closed. They found themselves with millions of pounds worth of stock sitting in their warehouse, as well as a team of warehouse workers and drivers. On top of this, their customers, the restaurants - friends of theirs who had been long-standing supporters of theirs - suddenly had no income and were suffering. Alex Hunt MW, explains that for all three of these problems, there was one solution: Help4Hospitality was born.
The initiative involves reforming their business model into a direct-to-customer offer, selling cases of wine with an incorporated donation to the hospitality industry. They have already raised £30,000 through the donations and their target is to reach a quarter of a million pounds by the end of August.
Berkmann’s mixed cases have been hand-selected by chefs, sommeliers and, of course, Alex himself. Customers may not have seen these wines other than in restaurants, so it’s an exciting opportunity for wine lovers to drink exceptional wine at home for as little as £60 for six bottles - an absolute steal.
New to the selection is the summer mixed case, a haul of seasonal staples - your BBQ friendly reds, heady, scented evening whites and, naturally, a beautiful Provence rosé, M de Minuty, which is the best-selling rosé on their site.
You’ll most certainly find summer favourite Pinot Grigio in there, which might seem like an odd choice for Berkmann (its popularity has inevitably made it become a commodity and it is now somewhat a cliché for “unthinking drinking”), but this is no run-of-the-mill PG. Mezzacorona Castel Firmian Pinot Grigio 2019 is from the Trentino region of Italy (north of Lake Garda, in the dramatic scenery of the Dolomite foothills) and it really shows what Pinot Grigio is capable of when winemakers have the desire to express the grape in its more concentrated form. It’s intense on the nose with peach and floral aromas, and on the palate it has that slight twist of bitterness, which makes it taste very Italian. Alex makes the comparison between tinned fruit and real fruit - tinned fruit is slippery, whereas real fruit has a grain to it; this is real fruit, with substance.
The Côtes-du-Rhône is a new one for Berkmann, which you’ll also find in the summer case. It’s from Ferraton Père & Fils, a family of winemakers who started their craft in the Northern Rhône (Hermitage, St-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage) and now produce superior wines through the length of the Rhône Valley. Alex suggests that though they are working with grapes from the south to make this wine, they have brought somewhat of a northern sensibility to the winemaking, ‘a bit of finesse’. The grapes are never baked and rustic and, although it was a hot year, the winning fruit shines though and the strawberry in the Grenache is beautifully preserved. Mouthwatering but structured, this wine completely represents summer: it’s a great BBQ wine, with a rich spiciness, but it could even be chilled slightly to show off its minerality.
As with the Côtes-du-Rhône, another wine you’ll discover that is wholly evocative of a place, is the Katnook Founder’s Block Coonawara Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. Alex describes the Coonawara region as the ‘counter example to New World prejudice’. It is a strikingly small region, with around 20 wineries, and this specific winery, Katnook, has been making wine (in a sheepshed) since 1896. The grapes inside this bottle are from their young vines, aged between 20 and 35 years old, which show a tightness and acidity to this wine, leading Alex to make a favourable comparison to Bordeaux. Ten per cent has been in barrel and the rest in tank, so this is a youthful, refreshing wine that has been designed to be drank early. It’s smoky, with notes of liquorice and mint, making it another great wine for grilled foods.
The Survival Selection - a mixed 12 bottle case
Other summer wines include an Australian Fiano, an Italian Verdicchio, plus a Garnacha and a Mencia from Spain.
The initiative will go on for as long as it takes and I’m sure that improvisation will go on even longer than that. Alex suggests that the pandemic will most certainly change the way customers buy wine - particularly in restaurants, where the lists will be shorter and more streamlined. It might not be such a bad thing, especially if we can support smaller wineries who are focussed on quality and value. And if we can save the hospitality industry through buying wine? Well, that’s no bad thing at all.
I've just bought my 12 bottle mixed case of Survival Wines for £120 - bargain! Buy your Berkmann wine cases at the Help4Hospitality shop here.