29/02/2024
This is the time of year that wine importers are keen to show off their new portfolios, with freshly discovered producers and new vintages of old favourites. This can mean new and exciting wines (yay!); it can also, unfortunately, mean price rises (boo! Although this year, so far, and keeping fingers crossed and in contact with wood, increases have mainly been in the range of small to insignificant). The other thing it can mean is that those importers need to clear space in their warehouses and put out their bin end lists.
This is a fun time. Because while I can’t absolutely guarantee that wine that falls into the bin end category will never actually be rubbish, an awful lot of it is quite the opposite. Bin end lists are often stuffed with obscure, esoteric and interesting wines that have failed to find a market not for any lack of deliciousness on their part, but on account of the market’s inherently conservative preference for the known quantity. More fool the market.
It’s also a good time to lay in a supply of more immediately recognisable things that are, at normal prices, just stupidly expensive (yes, Burgundy, I’m looking at you…)
Anyway, I’ve been having fun, rummaging the bins, and among other things (Burgundy, for instance) I’ve come up with this handful representing the length of Italy.
From Piedmont, a dry moscato and a Barbaresco (hardly obscure, but definitely living in the shadow of Barolo); a red/white native combo from Campania, of Piedirosso and Coda di Volpe; and a Sicilian Insolia. Of which only the Barbaresco’s on the shelf at over 20 quid.
Happy days!
Proper neighbourhood wine shop, selling good wine, by good people, to good people.
