We meet self-proclaimed “enthusiastic amateur” wine retailer John Valentine, and raise a glass to his first year of business.
John Valentine (pictured above) is a wine lover. After becoming fed up with trying to source dependable, quality bottles elsewhere he set up WineTrust100 a year ago to sell the stuff himself.
“WineTrust100 was born out of my own frustration at how difficult it is to consistently buy exceptional wine at a great price,” he says. “I was amazed at how erratic wine generally is. There is so often very little correlation between the price and quality.”
Grape expectations
Using his experience of setting up and building new niche businesses, on top of over a decade of work for Tesco, John set about laying the foundations for his new company in early 2012.
“The idea began to take shape while I was studying for my WSET (Wine & Spirits Education Trust) Intermediate and Advanced courses,” he says. “I was being tutored by Nick Adams, a Master of Wine (MW), who I approached with the concept for WineTrust100. He understood exactly what I wanted to achieve and he has been our resident MW ever since.”
Working alongside other wine professionals, Nick helps select and delist wines from a standard catalogue of 100 wines every month. Most recently, the company has also enlisted the expertise of MW Jo Ahearne, who has selected wines for M&S and Harrods.
One hundred of the best
There’s a simple idea behind all this.
“Our aim is to search out and sell 100 of the very best wines for a great price – from all over the world,” says John.
However, WineTrust100 isn’t a discount retailer. The 100 wines on the ever-changing list must be excellent quality as well as being a good price. The company rates wines from 1-100, on a scale they call QPR, or Quality-Price-Ratio. The higher the number, the better value for money it is – and only wines with a score of 90 or over make it onto the list.
“We stand for both quality and value," says John. "If we are choosing a Sauvignon Blanc, for example, the very best one might sell for £18 – but we might decide we need one to sell at less than £10. So we would set out to find the best example of a Sauvignon at that price.”
A third of the wines on the WineTrust100 list are less than £10 a bottle, approximately two thirds are £15 or less, and 80 are £20 or less.
“I think that once customers have received their first order, they are converted," John says. "They love the idea that we’ve taken the risk out of buying inexpensive, but great quality wines. I love it too, and we are totally focused on continuing to deliver our proposition. There is nothing I enjoy more than listening to our customers talking about and enjoying our wines.”
Win some wine!
Until 5th May 2014, we are running a competition to win a crate of sparkling wine from WineTrust100. For more details and to grab a voucher for a £20 discount on purchases, head to the competition page.
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Win a case of sparkling wine worth £240