The Naked Truth
Kieron Atkinson – aka ‘Tom Booze’ – is founder of the English Wine Project and winemaker at Renishaw Hall. We quiz him on the future of winemaking.
Why did you get Naked?
Being part of Naked Wines is being part of the best wine club in the world. As a producer I get to meet my lovely customers on the summer tours and interact with them about the wines online. I also get to meet the other winemakers from around the world which is a blast – I don’t think there is a better online retailer out there.
Working with Naked Wines has also made it possible to grow as a small independent winemaker. This is such a cashflow heavy game that the barriers to entry are extremely high – to grow year on year makes owning your own business almost impossible in the UK. The Naked Wines model means I can purchase the grapes, glass, corks and cardboard in the knowledge that the wine will be departing the winery in the Spring en route to Naked Wines customers, and I get paid, meaning I can concentrate on making great wine.
Why is talking to customers so important?
As a producer you often don’t get feedback – but you do with Naked. It’s so important to know that you have been part of a special occasion, event or just great a evening at home and have contributed just a little to make life more fun. The Angels’ support makes such a positive difference.
How did you get into wine.
In 2007 I was an army officer serving in Afghanistan. The tour was challenging and enjoyable in equal measures. It taught me that in the UK, we are so free to do what we want with our lives, and therefore we should seize the opportunity with no limits. With this came the spark of an idea, which ended with me producing wine.Where do you create your wines?
I have a winery in Derbyshire in an old cotton mill that is a UNESCO world heritage site – I source the best fruit from around the UK, some from places you would expect like Essex, Kent and Sussex but also some more unexpected sites in the north of England.
What is next for you?
I want to double down on winemaking, refining the art, understanding flavour and balance. I always strive to improve as both a brand and an individual winemaker.
What about the future of wine?
I want there to be more small independent producers in the UK, pushing the boundaries of styles and not making ‘lookalike’ or copy wines. I worry about the homogeneity of wine and about marketing push dictating what the consumer likes or thinks they like. To find the real hero wines takes effort and this can mean taking a risk on buying a wine from a grape variety or producer you may never have heard of; this is where Naked comes in; these guys thrive in finding the great wines for the customer.
The Perfect Pair
A Naked Pairing: La Orphica Monastrell x a good walk
Am I the only one who hankers after the days of lockdown walks? Venturing out in the fresh air during the pandemic, I would often meet friends (at a safe distance) in the park with a bottle of wine, walking and swigging as we got our dose of sunshine and humanity. As the seasons changed and we crunched through the leaves on the ground, our wine selections turned to deep, dark reds, smooth and with a hint of ripe sweetness to brighten the cooling grey of the weather.
Heading out this week for a long, late afternoon stroll, the sun filtering through the trees with the hazy, golden light particular to early Autumn, I was overcome with nostalgia and decided to grab a bottle for the road – or rather the grass path. I chose La Orphica Monastrell (Naked Wines, £13.99; Angels price, £10.99) and it could not have been more welcome or more warming.
The cosy comfort food of the wine world
This Spanish Monastrell (a grape also known as Mourvèdre) is ‘Late Selection’, meaning the grapes were left on the vine longer than usual, leading them to partially raisin. This concentrates the sugars and fruit flavours, creating a rich, luscious wine full of dark cherries, blackberries and purple plums. It isn’t a sweet wine, but it is not bone-dry either, and the additional sugars lend it a generous, rounded quality. It feels like velvet in the mouth, with curling whispers of baking spices.
Though I have paired this wine with a walk, which I realise is slightly left-field for a pairing section, I would say that this is a bottle that could pair with most red meats but would be especially good with pork, game or roast duck. For me however, if was perfect with the great outdoors.
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