We all know the wine names we’re supposed to be impressed by.
Pétrus. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Bollinger. The classics whose reputations are firmly established and, if you have the money, the bottles you’re expected to buy.
But who comes next?
That’s the thinking behind Future Icons, a new corporate tasting I’ve been developing around the winemakers and producers I believe people should know about before everybody else catches on.
One is Samantha O’Keefe of Lismore in South Africa, whose career I’ve followed for around a decade. She moved from California, established her winery in an unusual part of South Africa and had only recently built it when the wildfires came. She lost the winery and one of her dogs, but rebuilt and has since gone from strength to strength.
Then you have the Antinori family, who have been making wine for more than 600 years and are now led by three daughters after generations of men. Alessia took over her grandfather’s tiny vineyard outside Rome, where the old vines were close to falling into ruin. She now makes a beautiful, age-worthy semillon white wine from just three rows of vines, for less than £50 a bottle.
Those are two examples, but the idea can take us across regions, generations and styles of wine.
I’m looking at the person behind the bottle, what they’ve already achieved, the place they’ve chosen to make wine and the care and time going into it. Some are rebuilding after setbacks. Others are taking responsibility for a historic family name and finding their own way forward.
There’s something very enjoyable about going beyond the classic labels and introducing people to wines they would probably never find by themselves.
I like helping to put a brand on the map, and the fact that guests will not only remember the new label, but that they’ll associate it with the event and the company running it.
The famous names have already had plenty of attention. Future Icons is about sharing the ones I think deserve it next.
