Hallowed Ground, an importer with a new way of selling wine in the UK, is being pioneered by two entrepreneurs.
Ocean Eight Verve Chardonnay: ‘smart‘
The company desribes itself as ‘an exclusive membership club’ for high end Australian and New Zealand producers.
Run by Amelia Jukes and Elodie Cameron, both of whom have a good deal of experience in the wine trade, Hallowed Ground aims to allow producers to have full control over their product, preventing brands being devalued by the deep discounting that has bedevilled the Australian wine industry for years.
Jukes and Cameron are offering about 25 wines from five estates: Tower Estate in Hunter Valley, Paringa and Ocean Eight in Mornington, Barossa’s Fox Gordon, and Te Whare Ra from Marlborough in New Zealand.
They also stress that they champion ‘modern winemaking that has an intrinsic understanding of provenance.’
Hallowed Ground takes ‘a small commission’ on every order.
They believe this is entirely in line with the stated ambitions of the Australian wine industry, whose new A+ initiative puts regionality to the fore.
Hallowed Ground’s inaugural tasting took place yesterday in London. One visitor, restaurateur Martin Lam of Ransome’s Dock in Battersea, was impressed and confirmed he would be interested in several of the wines.
‘It’s a good selection, which I’ll pick and choose from. If they are going to build a portfolio based on those criteria then they will certainly be worth paying attention to.’
Lam singled out one or two wines as particularly interesting, including the Verve Chardonnay from Ocean Eight – set up in 2004 by the Aylward family of Kooyong fame – ‘at £13 for Mornington that’s pretty smart’. He also thought the Te Whare Gewurztraminer ‘excellent’.
Written by Adam Lechmere
