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About Grapevine
Matt Cole started Grapevine in early 2005 after a previous incarnation as a market researcher running focus groups for a small company based in Chiswick. Grapevine was born when he finally took the plunge and decided to make his passion his business.
The original inspiration for the business was - and remains - rooted in Matt's personal experience of drinking dull and just plain bad wines bought by friends. No doubt irritated by his constant claims that he could source better tasting and better value wines, and just o shut him up, these friends agreed to become the first guinea-pig customers of a small selection of wines from South West France that he had sourced direct from growers to prove his point. From this part-time start the business grew by word of mouth to become full-time in 2005. The wine list also expanded so that it now covers three countries and is set to grow yet further.
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Sourcing the wines
The vast majority of Grapevine wines are made by smaller, independent producers as they are usually making the most interesting wines. While there are many "classic" wine types in the list, there is also a fairly heavy emphasis on lesser known regions, wine styles and grape varieties, as Matt believes that the spice of variety is the very soul of the world of wine.
Matt imports about half of his wine direct from the producers and sources the other half from specialist importers selling to restaurants or small merchants like Grapevine - ie NOT to supermarkets or the high street. Many of these importers are themselves small / family businesses like Grapevine. Doing it this way enables him to stock a greater variety of wines rather than if he sourced and imported all his wines direct from a small number of regions. It also gives him more time to run a wine business rather than traveling and drinking wine all the time - tempting though that may seem..
As well as having a fundamental drive to sniff out delicious new wines and an ability with languages, Matt has also consolidated his wine knowledge with some serious study at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust - the educational body for any serious wine merchant in this country. He is currently trying to fit in time to study for his Diploma, considered to be the stepping stone to the prestigious Master of Wine qualification.
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