Claudia

“I’m sorry, do you mean Bill and Claudia Small?”

“Yes, of course” said Ian,” you know Bill and Claudia? We grow their Theodore Reserve here.” “You are joking” says I, “like, that is why we are here. I’ve been in touch with them for the last few months trying to arrange to meet up.” “I’ll give them a ring.” says Ian.

For over four years I have been an “Angel”, a loyal customer and member of the Naked Wines, eh, club, society, group? Anyway, I am a member of Naked Wines. They support mainly young wine makers all over the world to do their own thing. Each month I pay a subscription but I also use that subscription to buy the odd case of wine, or two. Once a year I deliberately order their mixed case and it is a complete adventure, we love it. It was about three years ago that the mixed case contained a Sauvignon Blanc, well two actually, from Small and Small. Wendy loved it, well, we both loved it to be honest.

So, the very next day found us walking the vines with Claudia Small. Such a treat. Claudia actually lectures in Viticulture at the university in Blenheim and boy did we learn so much about viticulture and had quite a lot of preconceptions debunked at the same time. There’s so much more to wine producing than we ever imagined, but in Claudia’s safe hands we were gently guided through the complexities

and then, guess what? Oh, I bet you got there before us. Yep, Claudia had a few samples with her. So the seven of us, Claudia, the two of us, our hosts and our temporary Canadian neighbours all lounged under the olive trees and had a personal and wonderful wine tasting from a real expert!

In between slurps I chatted to Claudia and I discovered that Naked Wines actually do what they say they do and without them Claudia and Bill could not produce the delicious wines that they do. Now, I know Naked Wines are owned by Majestic but Claudia says that that is a huge benefit for them because their financial strength ensures that she is paid on time, four times a year. However, our Canadian friends were not at all pleased because 100% of Small and Small’s production is exported by Naked Wines and she doesn’t even have a licence to sell in New Zealand.

However our hosts, Ian and Leigh, had a quiet word, a very quiet word and they managed to secure a sample of the 2017 Pinot Noir for our little soiree at their place later.

Thankfully the walk home was relatively short.