The following interview with Kevin Griffin, Proprietor of Maison du Vin and The Wine Word first appeared in Harpers Weekly.What possessed you to buy a shop on a really busy 'A' road between the two parts of a Kent village?
We were looking for a property. We wanted to add some asset to the company. John Toogood and I were looking for a farm or a building with some land where we could have maybe a wine warehouse and storage. We went up many fruitless dead ends, then this property came up. It was an old hairdresser's, with a gym in the cellar and a three-bedroomed apartment upstairs.
It was in a terrible state so it was on the market for a cheap price.
But you guys are former salesmen. I thought you did not want to open a shop?
I had always said I would never, ever run a shop. Forget it, impossible, non-starter – shoot me if I even think of it. But this property happened to come with a shop window, so we thought we'd put stock in the window and if someone comes in and buys a bottle, that's a bonus.
You obviously haven't got any hypermarkets or superstores close by.
There is a Budgens at the top of Moor Hill, but otherwise the nearest Sainsbury's are in Tunbridge Wells and Hastings, both about 15 miles away, and there's a Waitrose in Tenterden. Also, what you have to bear in mind is that this is a rural community and, by definition, they do not like supermarkets.
How did you and John meet and come to work together?
We were both regional sales managers for Pieroth, the company that owns Hallgarten. John left in 1995 and I did not get on with the new German sales director, so I left in 1997. I had not seen John for two years, so I rang him and he said: 'Come and join me.'
We both had loyal customers so we just continued buying wine from the likes of Enotria, Alliance and Wine Services, and picking up bin ends from the likes of Corney & Barrow and Bibendum, and then selling them on. John has customers predominately in Surrey and London, whereas mine are in Kent and Sussex.
We do visits to homes and offices, and John still does a fair amount of selling over the phone.
That's all very well, but you're still in the middle of nowhere.
We're actually in the middle of a huge, moneyed area. All of the villages around here still have a butcher, a baker, a local store, a hairdresser and a post office.
A housewife will ask the butcher to recommend what she should cook and then she asks us what wine she should buy. A man came in and asked if we had Louis Roederer Cristal. I said: 'Yes, the 1997, at £130.' He said: 'Great, I'll take two.' We also do Dom Pérignon 1986 in a gift box for £79.99.
I see you have Penfolds Grange at £150, but what would you say is your speciality?
We are 75% French. I have a hugely wealthy stockbroker who rings me up and says: 'I have no wine and we're having a dinner party.' He orders four or five cases of claret at £40/£45 a bottle and two half-bottles of Y'Quem at £89.99 each. There aren't many shops that have magnums of Mouton (Rothschild) out in the shop.
That's all well and good, but how do you get word around?
We have visiting winemakers – Marion Giribalbi from Piedmont, Florence Guy of Château Coujan in
St Chinian and Rueben Uribe Echevevria of Virgen Blanca in Navarre, Spain – who do business lunches and tutored tastings. We get 15 people to lunches and 20 or 30 people to evening tastings. We make about £500/£1,000. We also do wine safaris. Last year, we went to Beaune, the year before Bordeaux and this year the Rhône. We have a luxury coach, and we charge about £750 per person all inclusive. We also have two fine wine auctions a year.So life seems pretty good. What gets your goat?
What p***** me off is the likes of Sainsbury's and Thresher selling things at cost or 40% off. We are one of the few independents that import our wines direct – we source about 50% direct. Unlike some, that wait and see who the medal winners are and then order them in. We are prepared to take the risk and try different things.
We may have only one Sancerre, but it is a good one.
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