Oddbins: Fall and rise of a British institution

By Jonathan Ray 700AM GMT eleven March 2010

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Previous of Images Next Fighting behind Oddbins is ditching the big brands in foster of not as big individualist producers Photo MARTIN POPE Jonathan Ray"s prime Oddbins wines Photo MARTIN POPE

After far as well prolonged in the ennui Oddbins has a open in the step once again. I worked there years ago in my year off, and during university holidays, in the days when it was wild, dumb and eccentric, with delightfully quirky wines (and even quirkier staff).

Friday nights in the Covent Garden store in Earlham Street were a hoot, with multi-tattooed Marcus on one till, Tom in his bespoke tux and black tie (off to the opera) on the other, and the physical education instructor blotto and snoring in the office. Locals would dump by to fire the breeze, fool around a discerning diversion of cards at the finish of the opposite and have a ambience of whatever new and sparkling bottles we had open.

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I gathering the Oddbins smoothness outpost for a while, too, until I was relieved from avocation after identical tiwn disasters. I returned multiform cases lighter interjection to carrying taken that kink in the Blackwall Tunnel a diminutive bit as well quickly and, a day later, incited up dual hours late with the sparkle for a Duran Duran manuscript launch. If Simon Le Bon had put as majority bid in to his singing as he did afterwards in to his invective, I unequivocally think that rope competence have done something of themselves.

Oddbins did majority to popularise booze celebration in Britain, pioneering the wines of Australia and Chile in sold and, for a while, those of Bulgaria as well (remember them?). It non-stop shops in Paris, put the staff by the Wine and Spirit Education Trust"s higher obligation and diploma courses, and was the usually sequence to exaggerate the own full-time art department, producing splendidly ardent posters and point-of-sale material. Having been sold, the organisation fell on tough times, though, and became something of a high-street joke, initial in the hands of Seagram and afterwards underneath the carry out of French drinks hulk Castel, who insisted on seasoned mixture it with cheap, dull brands and uninterested, lifeless staff.

It has not long ago been bought, though, by Simon Baile son of the prior owners Nick and it has been transformed. The list has been cut and the brands mostly ditched in foster of small parcels from individualist producers.

Baile has pronounced that if he and his group find a booze they like, they"ll happily buy only 600 bottles of it. Now happily out of the hold of Castel, there is no vigour simply to raise it high and sell it cheap.

As I find on a revisit to my internal store in Hove there are right afar wines of genuine impression on the shelves and at satisfactory prices, too. Unlike Majestic a long-time prime of cave there"s no smallest squeeze either, but if you buy by the (mixed) dozen you get twenty per cent off, at that point prices turn unequivocally keen.

Of the dozen or so wines I taste, there isn"t one that I wouldn"t happily splash again. I had rather taken my eye off Oddbins of late, but it"s a great British establishment and deserves to be taken severely once more. It once had something of a repute as a rather individualist booze traffic finishing propagandize and the traffic is congested with those who outlayed time in the employ. It"s great to see it behind on form. Its nearest rival, Majestic, needs to see to the laurels.

See the row (below) for five of my prime Oddbins wines.

jonathan.ray@telegraph.co.ukA full list of Oddbins wines can be found at www.oddbins.com

High travel gems five of the majority appropriate Oddbins wines

2008 Lobster Reef Sauvignon Blanc, 13.5%vol, New Zealand (�6.39 as piece of a churned dozen, differently �7.99).

I unequivocally love Kiwi sauvignons and this e.g. from Marlborough is a pink of a booze at a disarmingly medium price. It has the approaching cut grass, cats pee and gooseberry impression but is less pleasant and some-more calm and minerally than most. Almost thirst-quenchingly drinkable, it creates a penetrating aperitif or partner to majority fish dishes.

2008 Les Ollieux "Capucine, Vin de Pays de lAude, 13%vol, France (�6.39 as piece of churned dozen, differently �7.99).

A surprisingly formidable mix of carignan, grenache, syrah and merlot from Corbières-Boutenac in the Languedoc. Its jammy and succulent, with a deeply gratifying earthiness and rusticity. You unequivocally need something similar to a bubbling pot of daube de sanglier mopped up by crusty French bread to do it justice.

2007 La Multa Old Vine Garnacha, 14.5%vol, Spain (�5.49 as piece of churned dozen, differently �6.99).

From Calatayud in north-east Spain, this is conspicuous value. Made from 45-year-old garnacha vines, the violet-scented, intense, strong and richly flavoured with poetic hazed shear and cherry-like fruit. Its big stuff, with stout tannins, but these will warp afar when served with a luscious T-bone beef and hand-cut fries.

2007 Alain Roy Montagny 1er Cru, 13%vol, France (�11.99 as piece of churned dozen, differently �14.99).

Montagny can be a prolific sport belligerent for well-made, sincerely labelled white burgundy, nonetheless there are most prosy examples, too. This is first-rate, with crisp, crunchy ripened offspring and a toasty finish with blink-and-you-missed-it hints of honey. Its positively grand things and the tasty with duck and fungus pie.

2008 Falanghina di Majo Organic, 13%vol, Italy (�7.99 as piece of churned dozen, differently �9.99).

From Molise in southern Italy, this unblended falanghina is full of impression and charm. With pointed aromas of quince, pears and flowering plants on the nose and rounded, full-flavoured ripened offspring and spices on the palate, it seems roughly greasy in texture. Try it with a salad of frise lettuce, parched scallops and smoked bacon lardons.