By Nico McGough
Wine importers often look back as the wine year is coming to an end. I certainly do that, and for 2019 there are two, maybe three, ‘wine discoveries’ that have made this year special.
We have to go back to last January, the moment our purchasing starts up again after the very busy Christmas season. During more than three months, we taste all the new vintages of wines that are in our collection, about 600 to be precise. But there is also a great ‘urge’ to add new titles, to find new wines that will knock our customers off their socks. Of the 1,000 to 1,500 new wines we taste, only a tiny proportion will successfully make it into the collection. After coming in number one in five buyer’s guides in a row, here in Holland, we have a reputation to uphold. Extreme precision in purchasing is the basis of our nationwide success.
One sunny January day, I made acquaintance with two new wine producers, and re-connected with one Domaine that I have been following now for about 30-odd years. It is evident that Wine God Bacchus was on my side that crisp winter day all the way ‘down south’ in France.
