Martin Crozier-Cook dinner is wine supervisor at Jeroboams meals and wine retailer in Holland Park, west London. Jeroboams was voted Excellent Retailer of the 12 months within the 2022 Decanter Retailer Awards
Christmas time is when issues get loopy – everyone knows this from our personal expertise of buying in December. It brings out all types of behaviour in individuals. I assist handle the Jeroboams retailer in leafy Holland Park, and I can let you know {that a} smile and an excellent sense of humour are completely crucial in making it by way of what’s our busiest and most pressurised time of 12 months – the festive season.
I joined Jeroboams eight years in the past, and have labored in our shops throughout London. And whereas enterprise actually ramps up in each location all through November and December, Holland Park is way and away our busiest department.
What makes my retailer completely different is that it’s a delicatessen in addition to a wine store (therefore the ‘tacky’ picture). Though Jeroboams is understood primarily as a wine service provider, the unique store was the go-to for cheese, charcuterie, vinegars, oils – and naturally wines – in South Kensington. This isn’t the straightforward life: others within the wine business could moan about carrying circumstances of wine round, but it surely’s nothing in comparison with carrying gigantic wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano into our cheese cellar. They go away you weak on the knees in additional methods than one.
We open early at Holland Park: 8am most days, whereas the group members from different Jeroboams wine outlets are nonetheless in mattress. However it’s not unusual throughout December to have clients queuing up earlier than we open, seeking to get a head begin on their Christmas buying. It’s a must to respect the hustle of the early riser, who outlets with the depth of an surprising blizzard.
Our regulars both wish to pace out and in, like these early risers, or cling round to chew the fats, and Christmas exacerbates these tendencies. I’m not going to say it makes everybody a bit neurotic, however there are positively those that really feel the necessity to know each minute element a couple of product – the ancestry of a Burgundian winemaker, or the Sherry home that equipped the casks by which a Speyside whisky is matured – with a view to decide on a present.
Examine this with the busy celeb, for instance, who simply needs the headline data: does it style good, does it look good, and can my pals respect me kind of if I reward them this bottle?
If I had been to explain my splendid buyer throughout the festive season, I might say that they might be appreciative that it’s manic each single hour of each single day for at the least six weeks straight; they know what they need, even when that’s as common as ‘a £50 bottle of wine’; and are blissful to belief us with suggestions.
In any case, we’re the specialists. And, belief me, we spend an terrible lot of time all year long tasting, consuming, and consuming as a lot as doable in order that on the subject of the enterprise finish of the 12 months we’re greater than ready.
So, when it’s time to supply a advice on which indigenous Italian purple grape selection tastes most like cherries (professional tip: all of them do), or what number of bottles of Springbank single malt they will purchase (professional tip: it’s at all times one, you naughty reseller), we’ve executed our homework.
Meting out all these suggestions has a secondary operate, in fact: it’s a good way to ruminate on what I’ll wish to drink myself at Christmas. Whether or not I’m serving to the client or serving to myself, I’m not fairly positive…
Though working in retail throughout Christmas might be attempting, it’s, on the entire, good enjoyable, even when having to work out plans for spending time with the household for not simply Christmas Day, however the myriad different days of celebration all through the latter a part of the 12 months.
Generally we’re on the receiving finish of another person’s stress, however we’re additionally blessed with many very nice clients. There are individuals who recognise how laborious we work throughout this era, and drop in with just a little candy deal with, or purchase us a pint or two within the native after a busy shift. In any case, that’s what the festive interval is about: spreading pleasure, whether or not within the type of cheese, a glass of purple, or just a few pints of Guinness.
All that having been mentioned, I can’t wait till January, when it’s throughout…
What I’ve been promoting
The Domaine Philippe & Sylvain Ravier, La Peyse, Chignin-Bergeron 2017 (£29.56 Jeroboams) boasts a Gold medal from the DWWA 2022. This Roussanne from Savoie is full of gingerbread spice, apricot, honey and exquisite minerality: the type of warming white you want at the moment of 12 months.
La Biòca’s Stërmà, Nebbiolo d’Alba Superiore 2020 (£18.95 Jeroboams) at all times flies out the door. Though not a Barbaresco or Barolo, this Nebbiolo is a blockbuster, giving all the attractive rose petal and tar flavour at beneath £20 per bottle.
