REVIEW OF WINES WITH ATTITUDE

It has long been my belief that the independent wine retail sector is best for high-quality, interesting wines. Usually, these are also accompanied by excellent customer service. I say this in the knowledge of once being Contributing Editor for the ASDW magazine and buying from many. It’s how I prefer to buy wine in the UK.

Obviously, some are better than others. All independents must have a talent for uncovering exciting wines and be friendly and approachable. Otherwise, they won’t survive, never mind thrive. Additionally, many of their wines come directly from the winegrower. It often means such wines would otherwise never be available.  Hence I think independents are sources of far better and far more interesting wines. These are the places to discover quality, flavours and memories. Supermarkets democratised wine and helped turn us into a wine drinking nation in the past. Now they have too many mass-produced bland brands, and their ranges have shrunk considerably. At an indie, you’ll taste the difference (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Time to be clear about my motivation for these reviews. These reviews are without financial rewards from those independent merchants. Rest assured that I’m writing because I’ve bought wine from them with my own money and enjoyed the customer experience. So any review is on merit, not because they paid me or wanted some specious advertorial.

I first met Lindsay Cornelissen, who set up Wines With Attitude Ltd., while judging at the IWSC [International Wine & Spirits Competition]. While still working in financial services in the City, Lindsay became WSET Diploma qualified. That parallels my wine career, so I found a kindred spirit.

Lindsay created Wines With Attitude in March 2014. It was born out of her disappointment when buying wines in supermarkets and via mail-order wine clubs. She finds the frequency of poor quality one-dimensional wines shocking. I do too. She has eighty or so wines online, mostly in the £12-£45 price range, mainly from artisanal wine producers. The idea is to help wine-lovers drink better, though not necessarily more expensively.

Hence I thought I’d try Wines With Attitude out with my own money and without asking for any favours. It wasn’t mystery shopping, but the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.

Buying is easy and secure thanks to SagePay and Trustwave [now sperceded by WooPayments and Stripe].  I particularly like their privacy policy and that the bottle prices include Duty and VAT. Unlike some! Delivery is free to most mainland UK on orders over £200.00. Otherwise, it’s £15.00. If you live in their vicinity (Potters Bar in Hertfordshire) then delivery is free.

My advice is not to be put off by delivery costs. London City Bond keep all the wines in storage. Not only does that guarantee that wine storage conditions are top-notch, but it also means a high-quality delivery service too. Beware online merchants that keep stocks in their spare bedroom and cut delivery charges by skimping on quality. It won’t seem like a bargain if you need to deal with breakages or rubbish delivery times.

I received my tracked wine order the next day. That exceeded my expectations, and I didn’t get any special treatment. My bottles were also reassuringly well wrapped. I’ve had crummy experiences with damaged orders from others in the past, but not here.

Wines With Attitude also have a weekly Newsletter, (a good way to keep up with new wines coming in and regular offers), a Blog, and even an App coming soon; Android on the Google Play Store and iOS for Apple [on hold].