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Three from Naked Wines

Perhaps one of the most innovative new merchants to appear in recent years, Naked Wines is the brainchild of Rowan Gormley. Although certainly not a household name, Gormley's previous businesses will be familiar to many of us. At one time he headed up Richard Branson's financial operation Virgin Direct, but unable to persuade his mentor of the potential for online wine sales he left in order to set up his own company, Orgasmic Wines, in 1999. A year later Branson bought into the business, and it morphed into Virgin Wines, which still trades today, although since 2005 it has been part of the Direct Wines group. Having overseen this transition Gormley left in 2008 to work on a new project, Naked Wines.

So why do I say innovative? After all, the concept of online selling is old news, and the wines tasted here are from Australia, hardly undiscovered country (I should point out that there are plenty of other styles and countries listed). A quick glance at the Naked Wines website yields a few answers to this question; the site is a hybrid of wine merchant and social network, facilitating inter-consumer chat about the wines, with the sort of honest feedback you might expect to see on Amazon but perhaps not on a wine merchant's site. There is similar discourse between staff and consumer and, most remarkable of all, between the Naked Wines winemakers and consumers. If there was ever a retailer set upon demystifying wine, bringing consumer and winemaker closer together, then perhaps this is it.

Gormley builds on this interactive facility to market the wines, something which many of the small producers he chooses to champion would apparently otherwise struggle to do; good marketing is expensive, and isn't as strong a feature of the Old World mentality as it is in the New World. Consumers with the exalted title of "angels" taste and review the wines for fellow consumers, providing much of the aforementioned feedback, having paid only taxes and delivery costs on those wines they review. It is novel, and perhaps worthwhile, although in the light of the recent furore that has erupted over the ethics of wine writers and the hospitality, gifts and perks they can receive, a system which depends on reviews from customers who have been sold the wine effectively for a knockdown price is naturally wide open to criticism. Who bites the hand that feeds it?

Naked WinesThe cost of marketing, and how much this contributes to the price of a bottle of wine, has also stimulated Gormley to bring together winemakers and customers in other novel manners. A recent consumer-powered auction, hosted by Gormley and the Australian Trade Commission, did just that. Fifty customers travelled down to London for a tasting of Australian wines, followed by an auction the process of which determined not only the final price of the wine but also the quantity Naked Wines would import into the UK, each wine effectively fighting for its cut of an Aus$100000 spend. Of course, this could be seen as little more than a public relations exercise; the wines were all pre-selected by Naked Wines and so I would assume had all been deemed worthy of import and sale. Nevertheless, there is a degree of consumer involvement and empowerment here which has to be admired.

The tasting notes below represent three new additions to the Naked Wines list, all bought in on the basis of the Australian tasting and auction described above. The figures represent the price the Naked Wines angels were prepared to pay, and the cut of the Aus$100000 each wine attained. The distribution of the prices was very narrow, ranging from £7.27 to £10.78, and in the case of all three here I think these are overestimates.

I was surprised to see the Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch bottling take such a tiny proportion of the overall spend; it has some good aromas and flavours, and although it has insufficient acidity for my palate I would have thought that the soft, easy drinking style would have gone down a treat. It was certainly my favourite of the three here. (8/5/09)

Three from Naked Wines - Tasting Notes

Tasted in May 2009. Click to locate stockists.

White Wine

Plunkett Fowles Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Wild Ferment Chardonnay (Strathbogie Ranges) 2008: I know I perhaps shouldn't comment on branding or label - it's the wine inside that counts - but this does have an admirably funky presentation. As for the wine, there is a pale hue to this Chardonnay, suggesting a cooler climate. It has an attractive nose, not too brassy as some can be, but with little nuances of tropical fruits with a mealy layer beneath. Fairly cool and fresh on the palate, although with a rather weighty substance, somewhat ponderous style, and swirls of meal and gentle fruit over a grippy seam. A little pepper too. Nicely flavoursome, with nice substance, soft and easygoing despite this, with really very low acidity - a bit too low for me, really. Nevertheless, it's a decent wine for sipping alone rather than with food. 15.5/20

Red Wine

Plunkett Fowles Blackwood Ridge Shiraz (Central Victoria) 2007: A moderately rich hue here, and on the nose a thin seam of chocolate-toffee oak behind some ripe, dark berry fruit. The palate has a surprisingly lean character despite this, with a subtle texture creating the backdrop for a play-off between a slightly bitter application of oak and a rather shy presence of fruit. It has some weight, but the other components don't seem to match this very well. An extracted finish rounds it all off. 14/20

Greedy Sheep Cabernet Merlot (Margaret River) 2007: This has a dark, glossy hue fading out to a matt, oxblood rim. It has a serious look to it, although the nose has a very exuberant character; it presents a wealth of very ripe fruit, especially blackberry and plum cream, with a heavy overtone of minty, cedary vanilla. The palate is fleshy and a touch creamy at first, but then through the midpalate it shows some sparky green apple acidity. Surprisingly towards the finish it seems to turn all fleshy and creamy again, with plump berry fruit. A nice wine. 15/20