Unlike traditional merchants, Honest Grapes does not carry stock, which allows it to focus entirely on the client’s desires. The company has excellent contacts with producers across the world due in large part to charismatic, creative and articulate co-founder Tom Harrow, who’s also known as ‘the Wine Chap’.
Harrow is very excited about the success of the 2016 Bordeaux campaign, especially in light of the diminished harvest in 2017 due to catastrophic frosts. Along with a lifelong love of Burgundy, he is also a fan of English sparkling wine, which has taken off thanks to the dip in the pound and a string of ‘really good vintages’ since 2009 (‘only 2012 was a disaster’).
‘Ten years ago we were half a degree the wrong side of a marginal climate. Now we’re half a degree the right side,’ he explains, recommending Exton Park in Hampshire, Herbert Hall in Kent, and Sussex’s Nyetimber.
Honest Grapes hosts the most extraordinary wine experiences. ‘There’s been a movement towards experiential luxury,’ he says. ‘It’s not just about the brand and product but the context in which they’re presented.’ Thus Harrow might be found organising an ‘air, land and sea tasting’ at the Monaco boat show, or a truffle and Barolo tour around Piedmont.
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