Wines of the week: 10 Esoterica bottles from the London Wine Fair

This week, Terry Kirby hung out with the ‘cool kids’ at London’s Olympia and discovered some carefully sourced beauties from small (but passionate) niche importers

The three-day-long London Wine Fair, held at Olympia at the end of May, is one of the biggest wine trade shows in the world – it is where domestic importers, distributors and buyers rub shoulders with New World exporters and Old World bodegas and chateaux; it is where new wines are launched and many deals made amid a frenzy of sipping and spitting around giant, corporate stands. Put it this way – there are almost as many industrial-size spittoons as visitors.

But it’s not all deal making – in the gallery above the main concourse is the area known as Esoterica, where, as one participant put it, “the cool kids hang out”, and the smart casuals and suits of the ground floor mingle with hipster beards, T-shirts and the odd tattoo. These simple table-top stands are taken by smaller importers and retailers offering individual wines, usually the work of family or small producers, from around the wine world.

This is where you find a Yorkshire-based couple selling boutique Spanish sparklers and a London doctor offering wine from his part ownership of a Bordeaux vineyard. This is where you come if you manage, say, a natural wine bar and you want to find some new wines to freshen your list. And there is a lot of passion for wines that really mean something to people. The Yorkshire couple are Tony Stones, formerly in IT and wife Helen, an ex nurse, who sell champagne, proseccos, cremants, cavas and English sparkling.

You won’t find the big names like Tattinger on The Fizz Company list, but interesting small concerns, such as the award-winning Charmant Brut Premier Cru Champagne (£24.99, thefizzcompany.com), made by a family that has been making champagne for six generations, or the apple-scented, very dry 1+1=3 Xarel·lo Cava (£12.99, thefizzcompany.com), created entirely from the xarel·lo grape by a small producer in Penedes and a fantastic alternative to prosecco for your next party. The same outfit’s organic, sulphur-free cava could soon also join their list.

Staying in Spain, Matthew Desoutter is a long-time British resident in Madrid who realised there were many Spanish regional wines from small vineyards which simply never make it to these shores, so with business partner Ben Giddings they formed a company to do just that, supplying both the on- and off-trade. At Esoterica, Desoutter & James were displaying a range of new wines including gorgeous whites from Galicia and a vibrant garnacha from Montsant in the northeast of Spain.

None are yet available in the UK apart from the full-bodied, velvety, spicy Que Si! 2015 (£9.99, frazierswine.co.uk) a blend of garnacha and carignan from the esteemed Priorat region, ideal with all roasted meats. Also check out their light-bodied, fragrant, chocolate-and-cherry-flavoured Castillo de Belarfonso (£14.49, gustowines.co.uk) from Castilla La Mancha in central Spain; drink lightly chilled with tapas and discover a very different side to garnacha.

Anthony Cunliffe is a south London GP who discovered a love for wine on a trip to Bordeaux many years ago; more recently he took a part share with a group of friends in a vineyard in the Blaye area once owned by actor Gerard Depardieu. Now with partner Patrick Bernie, they have formed Redevined Wines to sell that wine alongside a small number of high quality, handmade wines from the often overlooked Cotes du Blaye and Cotes du Bourg appellations.

Cunliffe’s (and co’s) Etalon Rouge 2015 (£31, redevinedwines.com) is a 100 per cent cabernet sauvignon, packed with velvety, vanilla and cassis-spiked dark fruit flavours. Among the other wines they sell is the Fig 10 Malbec 2014 (£38, redevinedwines.com) made by fourth-generation winemaker Corinne Chevrier-Loriaud only in certain years from ancient vines of this original Bordeaux blend grape, handpicked by an all-women team. Deep and dark, but with fresh, juicy red fruits. Both wines are exceptional special occasion bottles, for your finest cuts of steak or other red meats.

Woodwinters, based in Bridge of Allen, near Stirling in central Scotland, is one of many independent wine retailers, based in local high streets that can now sell their interesting, carefully sourced wines online, but also showcase them at Esoterica. Among their many natural and biodynamic wines is the aromatic, complex and beguiling Castellari del Giglio Calzi Della Vignia, 2015 (£37, woodwinters.com), a skin contact white wine made from indigenous ansonica grapes on the small island of Giglio off the Tuscan coast.

And for a very different dessert wine – and dinner party conversation piece – they have the Bosman Family Vineyards Dolce Primitivo (£21, woodwinters.com), made in South Africa from sundried primitive grapes, made in honour of Italian prisoners of war who worked in the vineyards during the Second World War. Terrific with any chocolate-based puddings.

And it’s not all Brits selling wines from elsewhere; many stalls showcase specific countries. Malux is a London-based company, but run by Hungarians that sells Hungarian wine and spirits to both the on- and off-trade, who showcase the joys of one of Europe’s most underappreciated wine countries.

Try their Chateau Megyer Dry Furmint 2015 (£14.45, slurp.co.uk) for a fine example of Hungary’s most famous white grape – think smoked and spiced peaches – or the peppery and very full-bodied Korona Egri Bikaver Bull’s Blood 2015 (£14.95, slurp.co.uk). And they will also sell you some mean paprika.