Wanderlust Wine is on the hunt to deliver the best bottles from small wine producers the world over right to our doorstep
If Richard Ellison had to choose one bottle of wine to drink with a proverbial Last Supper, it would be a Vintage Jamet Côte-Rôtie 2000. Produced on the upper slopes of Ampuis in Rhône, just south of Lyon, Domaine Jamet is a family affair; Jean-Paul Jamet left school to work with his father in the family’s winery in the 1970s and, more recently, Jean-Paul’s son Loïc came onboard and redefined the appellation. The 2015 vintage Jamet costs £275 and is, according to Ellison, a once in a lifetime experience; the 2000, however, is priced at £400 and is something else. How would he describe it? ‘Just… incredible!’
Ellison knows a thing or two about wine. He set up Wanderlust Wine in 2015, after spotting a gap in the market: like everyone else, he would go on a holiday or work trip, visit a small vineyard and fall in love with the wine. But then what? You can’t sneak six bottles of sublime shiraz back from South Africa or a stunning case of red back from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. The solution? A boutique online wine company that offers sustainable, high-quality wine imported directly from small producers around the world.
Wanderlust has been an unqualified success, and in 2021, Decanter magazine awarded it Best Small Online Retailer. Part of its success is an accessible, knowledgeable and enthusiastic website that is upfront about its ethos. Wanderlust embraces, for example, minimal intervention, a moral compass and certified standards (organic or biodynamic) but dislikes mass-made wine and lack of respect for the environment.
“Living in Portugal for the best part of a year gave me the chance to immerse myself in the wine culture”
Although Wanderlust is driven by ethics, it’s also an ambitious business. Its success is, in part, thanks to Ellison’s diverse background: he’s a former chef with a degree in food and wine technology who once worked in the City. ‘I was in corporate banking for 10 years, risk assessing and lending money to companies who wanted to expand or buy out one of the directors. I attended wine school in London while I was still in banking, and that gave me the confidence to properly explore the idea of setting up my own company. Wanderlust has grown very naturally and organically and we’re now supplying high-end restaurants such as The Fat Duck, L’Enclume and Chiltern Firehouse as well as running a wine club. I started with eight wineries and now we have more than 80.’
The company was not only named in honour of Ellison’s insatiable desire for travel – he has visited more than 80 countries to date – but it also allows him to indulge his peripatetic lifestyle. When we speak, via Zoom, he’s in New York, where he used to live, and he casually mentions that he spent 2021 in Portugal. ‘Living in Portugal for the best part of a year gave me the chance to immerse myself in the wine culture and to get to know the wine makers personally.’
‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of rubbish wine I have to taste, but I get blown away all the time’ says Wanderlust Wine’s Richard Ellison
Not every bottle can be “special”, so how much of the wine he tastes still blows him away? ‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of rubbish wine I have to taste, but I get blown away all the time. One in particular – Tickerage, a husband-and-wife team based in Sussex – was unbelievably good.
I don’t like the way white Rioja is oxidised, but a producer emailed us out of the blue and sent us some of their Panorámico Tierroya Old-Vine. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was amazing.’
Although the changing climate continues to impact vineyards, Ellison says that smaller producers have more control over the wine they make. Which of course means that the buyer, in turn, has more control over what they drink. Ellison’s rule of thumb is drink less, but drink better. ‘Somewhere between £12 and £20 gets you great wine and, even better, if you buy it from us then you know its provenance.’ My final question is rhetorical. Would he return to the City? He laughs. ‘I’m getting paid to do something I love and there’s so much more wine to discover. So… no chance!’
