Partners in Wine
In conversation with Jim Dawson, owner of the Jolly Vinter Too wine shop in Bournemouth. Words by Grace Allen.
In the 1980s, university researchers in Italy rediscovered an ancient variety of grape. Called Pugnitello, it had been cultivated thousands of years before, even before the Romans, and then lost and forgotten. Now wine from these grapes is being made again, in a small corner of Tuscany.
I know about Pugnitello not because I’m some kind of wine expert (you might call me an enthusiastic amateur) but because I’ve been talking to Jim Dawson, who owns the Jolly Vintner Too wine shop in Boscombe East. Here, if you like, you can buy a bottle of Pugnitello and try it for yourself. “You’re not going to find it in a supermarket, and you’re not going to find it in a little corner shop,” Jim says. “You're going to find it from somewhere like me, who knows about the product.”
Jim is a wine expert, who dropped out of university to spend a lifetime studying grapes instead. “It wasn't one subject. It wasn't like maths or physics or chemistry,” he explains. “It is history, anthropology, geography, geology, chemistry with the vinification and viticulture. It was a whole gamut of products and subjects put together to make one.” He tastes hundreds of wines each year, and has tasted or drunk everything on sale in his shop.
If you’re looking for something a bit unusual, Jim suggests trying wines from small regions of Italy or Portugal – or Lebanon. “People are surprised about wines from Lebanon,” he says. “But you know, Lebanon has been making wine for six and a half thousand years. It's mentioned in the Bible.”
Talking to an expert is also the best way to find something really special on a budget. This is definitely something to think about when we’re about to celebrate the festive season in the middle of a cost of living crisis – but still want something delicious to drink on Christmas Day.
“I appreciate, in current circumstances, people might not be able to spend £8 or £10 or more on a bottle of wine, but they can still come to me and get a really good product,” Jim says. He suggests good-value Rioja for Christmas dinner. And while many of us think of Rioja as a red wine, trying white Rioja could be a way to switch up the Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay you might usually go for.
For an alternative to traditional New Year’s Eve champagne he recommends Klein Constantia Cap Classique, a sparkling wine from South Africa. “It's made in exactly the same way as champagne, and it's half the money.” Another idea is to ditch after-dinner port for Marsala, which he tells his customers is not just for cooking: “It’s wonderful stuff.”
And if you’re looking for something truly knockout, there’s the Amarone Valpolicella, an Italian red wine made by drying grapes for months to intensify their flavour before pressing them. “Very concentrated, very rich, that dark, dark sort of black cherry-like fruits, maybe other black fruits in there as well, with maybe a little hint of tobacco and smoke and spice,” Jim says. “It's just one of the world's great drinks.”
I’m sold. This kind of knowledge is what makes going into one of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s independent wine shops worthwhile. “Not just me, but any independent who knows what they're talking about,” Jim says. “I've tasted everything, I know what it's like, and I hopefully can match it to what the customer is looking for. So that little bit of extra time coming into an independent wine merchant, you're going to get a much better service.”
Website → thejollyvintnertoo.co.uk
