Wednesday 19th September, 1-2pm: AMA with buyer Freddy Bulmer
Freddy’s our youngest and newest recruit to the buying team - he started as a trainee buyer in September 2015 and has gone on to take responsibility for: deep breath English wine, beer, accessories, Austria AAAND Eastern Europe!
Especially relating to beer and English wine, but you can ask him anything you like.
Send your questions by replying to this topic. Freddy will then join us live for an hour’s chat at 1pm on Wednesday 19th September, where he’ll answer your advance questions and as many followup questions as we have time for!
With all we hear about climate change making SE England a perfect Champagne climate, have you seen any shift away from traditional ESW grapes towards Champagne varieties? Do you envisage one? I know we can buy quality sparkling wine from all these varieties but I’m interested where the market is heading
Hi Freddy,
I’ve grown to love English wine very much - especially sparkling and white, but I haven’t yet come across a convincing English red.
Do you have any examples you can recommend? And what is your take on the future of English red wines?
Thanks!
Haha, that would have been my other question! Would love to see what Freddy recommends. I had a good red from Chapel Down (possibly Union Red but not sure) - but very vintage variable and another one I tried was not great
Hi! Once again, a big thank you for your time at the press tasting and selecting so many dreamy wines!
My question is beer related - I think we’re currently seeing a shift away from big breweries supplying the low rent-pilsner type lagers of the 90s through to the craft ale boom, especially in IPAs which now seem to be everywhere, in fact you can’t move for IPAs! There’ll always be the bog-standard carling type beer I think, but the market has certainly diversified, in particularly with the ‘casual dining’ type bars and cafes serving a better class of drink.
What do you think will be the next style to come along or grow to have its time in the sun? (Praying it’s a crazy belgian dark quad monster )
With respect to Accessories!?!
I had a protracted but eventually fruitful conversation on the provision of Riedel Vinum Glasses in packs of 2 with the Society. We all buy (I imagine?) glasses in sets of maybe 4, 6, or 8 but eventually get breakages.
My idea was the Society might do packs of 2, you don’t need another 6 when one has been broken, and when ordered with wine would save the member carriage and generate hopefully good business for the Society.
Mark Buckingham thought that the idea might “fly” and most of the work was done prior to his retirement. Then the problems started as procrastination and obfuscation then became the order of the day with his temporary successor, after 6 months I lost the “will to live” and I was sad to see that the idea seemed to be discarded.
Not looking for a huge range of Riedel glasses, just the red and white Vinum in packs of 2, and lets see how it goes.
In the mean time, I resorted to eBay which has been fine, but I was saddened as to what might have been. I strikes me that as members we spend a lot on wine collectively, but seem to miss the opportunity to provide full service to the membership with respect to ancillary products.
And might I say, that the workload for this niche part of the Societies activities would probably be quite small, might it be “outsourced” or given to a recent retiree rather than a busy buyer?
There again I am more than happy to crash and burn on this subject, but given that you have made yourself available for this Q & A session, I might at last get a definitive reply on this subject.
The lengthy correspondence should be on file for you to examine, if not I can supply it.
I would be interested to know this too having recently bought a case of the Heather IPA. It wasn’t cheap
I would also like to know WHY if Freddie knows the answer, is it sooooo difficult to get hold of English wine. Aside from TWS which has a fair selection, I don’t see anything other than the bigger brands such as ridgeview, chapel down, Nyetimber, Hambleton etc… on the shelves of wine shops etc… It seems even through trade suppliers its difficult to pick up a decent selection and if there is something I particularly want to get hold of I have to buy direct from the producer, ie: Breaky Bottom, Davenport winery.
I’m going to make a broad assumption too that English wine is FAR more readily available in the counties where it is produced with stores and merchants actively promoting their “own” as such, but living where I do, I am disappointed with the lack of choice and how difficult It is to A) see what is available and B) get hold of it.
Would welcome your thoughts of the above.
Also
Would TWS ever consider an “English wine case”? Or something along those lines with still and/or sparkling?
Why is English sparkling wine so much more expensive than their European counterparts??
Thanks Freddie.
From a research of one (myself, that is) - I think you’re right. It’s relatively easy to get hold of English wine from Sussex in quite a few of the local shops I use. But as you say, there’s probably promotions/deal struck between the shops and local producers, which I totally get- but perhaps misses opportunities for promotion in other parts of the country, which is a shame.
Perhaps English wine is not produced is large enough quantities to sustain a mass market. Similarly with ‘local’ beers. However, I am confused by what is sometimes called ‘craft beer’. To me this is just a marketing ploy, and an opportunity to sell at a higher price in smaller bottles.
I try to buy locally in 500ml bottles…Ludlow Brewery, Swan Brewery, Slaters, Wye Valley, Woods etc. None of which market themselves as ‘craft beer’.
My question to Freddy would be about the accuracy of my views and what actually is a craft beer as distinct from a filtered real ale in a bottle?
I’ve really enjoyed the beers I have ordered from the Wine Society. There have been some exceptionally well made beers, with great flavours and at entirely reasonable prices. Have you given any thought to offering a regular beer selection on subscription, along the lines of Wine Without Fuss? It would be lovely to see you do something to compete with the likes of Beer52, Flavourly, etc.
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