Faversham Life
Faversham Life
Words Posy Gentles Photographs Posy Gentles
Macknade Wine Store is renowned for its selection of English wines
Reader, I’m sure you are a wine connoisseur who can sniff out a terroir, descry a vintage and, by the merest flutter of the tongue, nail the grape. If however, you are a wine dunce like this particular writer for Faversham Life who, faced by ranks of bottles on supermarket shelves, falls for the one with the fanciest label, only to find it tastes of heartburn or Ribena – then head for Macknade Wine Store, where the connoisseurs already buy their wine.
Rupert Nicholson, who runs the Wine Store, says: ‘It’s my job to guide people to find the wine they want.’ True enough – he deftly interpreted my clumsy attempts to describe the red wine I would like for Christmas (‘Not fruity; tasting rather like the back of a cupboard’) and told me the perfect thing would arrive in a couple of weeks.
The Wine Store’s selection starts where the supermarkets’ end
A range of inexpensive, but well-chosen, wines
If you like the sound of this approach, Macknade is holding a wine fair on 27 November where you can meet local producers and importers in person and try their products. Among others, you can meet Kent distillers Pleasant Land, who make an amaretto from Kent grown apricots, and a nocino, from Kentish walnuts. The Figgis Family Vineyard at Mount Ephraim will be selling its newly-launched Figgy’s Fizz, a sparkling wine produced using the Charmat method (fermented in a pressurised tank like prosecco, not in the bottle like Champagne). If English wine isn’t your cup of tea, there will also be agents and importers such as Moreno, Alliance and Mentzendorff, and specialist Italian wine importer, Astrum.
Pleasant Land distillers who make amaretto and nocino from Kent grown apricots and walnuts
A variety of Hastings gins
All bottles are clearly labelled which makes for an enthralling and informative read
Rupert says: ‘There’ll be more than 50 wines and spirits to taste, with a good mixture of different stuff.’ The deal is you go round with your glass and try as many drinks as you can manage between 6.30 and 9.30, and still drive home. Tickets are free but limited and you can apply online.
Rupert Nicholson curates Macknade Wine Store’s offer
Rupert is the curator of the exciting selection to be found at the Wine Store. He has worked in wine for most of his career, starting at Oddbins when he left university. From there, he went to work in a winery in the Barossa Valley in Australia and came back to study viticulture at Plumpton College. The next five or six years were spent travelling around the world from winery to winery in Germany, France, Moldova, Australia and New Zealand, followed by year in the Camel Valley in Cornwall. He started a company importing wine from artisan producers to independent retailers, and now has moved back into retail himself, completing the circle since his early days in Oddbins.
There is Spanish wine from Galicia and Tenerife as well as Rioja. Also delicious Greek wines
A selection of French wine
I ask Rupert how he selects the range of wines stocked by the Wine Store and he says: ‘We start really where the supermarkets end.’ The range of Spanish wines include wines from Galicia and Tenerife, as well as Rioja. Rupert’s favourite Spanish region is Ribera del Duero. The shop is expanding its selection of wines from Greece: ‘We’ve got some lovely crisp dry citrusy whites, as well as Xinomavro reds – a grape variety somewhere between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo – which produces a wine rather like Barolo, pale in colour and fragrant.’
There are around 80 English wines on the shelf, with several produced within walking distance of Macknade
Ranks of English wine
The Wine Store is particularly renowned for its range of Kentish wines – around 80 on the shelf, with several produced within walking distance of Macknade. Brenley Bacchus is a best seller; the Cary Estate at Norton has just produced a sparkling wine and makes a good Chardonnay; Figgy’s Fizz from Mount Ephraim is ‘Fruit forward and fresh’.
It is pleasing to be educated while you drink wine; you feel more deserving somehow as you roll it thoughtfully round your mouth, rather than just necking it after having hurled clanking bottles into a trolley. The Wine Store works closely with its producers and suppliers and is in regular contact with them, so that its customers too have direct access through regular tastings and events.
Wine tastings keep customers in touch with the producers
Comparing Taittinger’s Chilham-produced sparkling wine Domaine Evremonde Editions I and II
In preparation for this article, Faversham Life attended Macknade Wine Store for the exclusive launch of Edition II of Domaine Evremond, the Taittinger sparkling wine, produced at its winery in Chilham. The tasting was led by Patrick McGrath, managing director of Hatch Mansfield, specialists in independently produced wine from around the world, and Faversham Life was introduced to a seductive yet practical language to describe and communicate about wine. We were encouraged to note ‘the piercing length of the very light buttery character’ of a Cherubino Clonal Selection Pemberton Chardonnay. The Domaine Evremond Edition II ‘feels tighter’ (than the first edition) but had ‘really nice length and will fatten out’. It was fascinating to learn that Taittinger is not simply aiming to reproduce the Champagne it makes in Rheims, but to make a sparkling wine that reflects the maritime climate and flinty soil of Kent. Rupert says: ‘Taittinger’s investment in Kent is a great endorsement of English wine.’
Patrick McGrath of managing director of Hatch Mansfield, leads the tasting, while Rupert fills the glasses
Shopping at Macknade Wine Store is a leisurely process: there is no suggestion that one should be in a hurry to leave. The rows of bottles of wine, spirits, fortified wines and liqueurs with detailed labels invite curiosity and browsing. There are tables and excellent coffee, and various encyclopaedias and books lying around to expand your knowledge. Dogs are given a cordial welcome.
Customers are encouraged to linger and browse
Tina the whippet has little interest in wine but is a welcome visitor
Rupert’s Christmas Recommendations
An English sparkling – Cary Estate Classic Cuvee 2021 (£37.00) For something celebratory an excellent Traditional method sparkling from Norton, within a couple of miles of Faversham.
A white allrounder – Russolo Braida Antica Blanc (£14.50) This is a staff favourite. A crisp, dry flavoursome white made from a blend of different grape varieties in Friuli, NE Italy that would be ideal to have to hand in the fridge door. Fresh and not too alcoholic (12.5%), for drinking on its own. However it has the body and structure to slip down effortlessly with a meal.
Christmas Day red – Gomez Cruzado Rioja Crianza 2023 (£19.75) A complex but easy going, smooth red which would happily handle any roasted meat you choose, or could be savoured on its own by the fireside. It would also make a good emergency present.
A glass of fortified wine for Santa – Doubleday Cherry Wine (£19.00) Grown and made at Bax farm near Teynham, this warming fortified cherry wine is a Christmas best seller with a vibrant, pure Morello cherry flavour.
With a loyalty card, Macknade Wine Store offers a 10 per cent discount for three bottles, and for 12 bottles or more, a discount of 25 per cent.
Details of Macknade’s Winter Wine Fayre can be found here
Email: wines@macknade.com
Tel: 01795 534497
Visit: Macknade Food Hall, Selling Road, Faversham ME13 8XF
Text: Posy Gentles. Photographs: Posy Gentles
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