Nick’s influence, especially on those involved with Italian wines, left a lasting impression. His ground-breaking 1985 book, Life Beyond Lambrusco, commissioned and edited by Jancis Robinson, opened the closed door of Italian wine to a new generation of retailers, restaurateurs and consumers. He explored and explained Italy in a way nobody had done so previously, combining limpid prose with a knowledge of Italy built on numerous visits and tastings. At a time when Italian wines were not taken seriously, Nick delighted in its myriad traditions, its bewildering array of grape varieties and its strongly defined regional characters. Without his pioneering work, Italian wines would not be as well established in the UK – or many other markets – as they are today.
Nick was born in Los Angeles in 1940 to English parents living in the United States. He returned to the UK aged 14 when his socialist father ran into trouble with Senator McCarthy and was educated at St. Paul’s (at the same time as Clive Coates) before studying French at University College London. Like his older sister Sally, he always wanted to be a writer. While writing, he played poker with his old school friend, Albert Vince, who opened Europa Foods, a convenience supermarket, at a time when UK supermarkets closed early during the week. “You speak French,” he said to Nick. “Why don’t you become the wine buyer?” The chain expanded, thanks both to the convenience offered and the quality of the food and wine. Nick later left to set up with Colin Loxley a business called Bretzel Foods, which grew to have eight stores trading as The Market, and one as Le Provençal.
Nick became a Master of Wine in 1980 and set about combining his love of writing with wine, while continuing to buy for The Market, where he built an enviable reputation for its range. In 1982, a restaurant called Café St. Pierre opened in Clerkenwell Green. Its owners lived in Islington, shopped at The Market in Upper Street and were impressed by Nick’s selection, so they asked him to consult on their wine list. In early 1983, I was hired as their wine manager, and began a long professional relationship with Nick. He offered me a job just over a year later at Winecellars, where I worked with and learned from him until 1994. Not only was Nick the best retail wine buyer I’ve ever come across, but he was also a great communicator and teacher. Sebastian Payne, then head buyer at The Wine Society, dubbed Winecellars ‘the MW factory’. Tony Brown, Peter McCombie and I all passed the MW exam while working for Nick, and Michael Hill Smith, Australia’s first Master of Wine, says “without Nick’s help, I don’t think I would ever have passed the MW exam.”
Nick’s commercial acumen was never clouded by his love of Italian wine. He was quite clear that Italy’s complexity was a commercial strength, and that once people got into Italian wine, they would grow to love its diversity. He could revel in its diversity because he was one of the few buyers in the UK who spoke Italian. In 1986, he gave me the best piece of advice I’ve received: “Learn Italian - everyone in the wine trade speaks French, but nobody speaks Italian. Italy is the coming country.”
Late in 1986, Nick was preparing to open a wine warehouse in Wandsworth, with me as its manager. As we were working on the list, Nick asked: “Should we make it an Italian specialist?” It was a bold and daring decision at the time, but he was convinced it was the right one. With some trepidation, I agreed. Winecellars opened in November, and we filled the shelves with wines from every Italian importer in the country, complemented by our own imports from producers like Mauro Mascarello in Barolo. The 1982 Barolo ‘Monprivato’ was on the shelf at £9.99!
Convinced that Italy had much more to offer than what was available in the UK, we both started travelling to Italy and were soon importing from Isole e Olena, Fontodi, Fèlsina Berardenga, Selvapiana, Capezzana, Aldo Conterno, Vajra, Ca’ dei Frati and, in the late 1980s, Allegrini and Pieropan. We soon had more wine than we could sell through the shop, so Tony Brown joined us and we started wholesaling to retailers and a few London restaurants. It wasn’t long before the wholesale was bigger than the retail side, which worried Nick and Colin. They were brilliant retailers who were used to having money in the till as soon as the wine was sold, so they soon decided wholesale wasn’t for them. Winecellars was sold to Enotria Wines in early 1994, with Nick remaining as a consultant for two years before setting up Vinexus in 1996. At the same time as building Vinexus as a company that brought a wide range of producers to various international markets, Nick wrote three more books on Italian wine, published in 1999, 2001 and 2009. Today, Vinexus has an extraordinary portfolio, which includes producers such as Burlotto, Castello di Neive, Cavallotto, Gianni Brunelli, Le Macchiole, Vallone, Lis Neris, Coffele, Nino Franco, Quintarelli, Tiefenbrunner and many, many others, covering every region in Italy.
Nick’s lasting legacy in the UK wine business can be traced back to Winecellars. Neither Vinexus nor Liberty Wines would have come into existence without his influence and teaching. Enotria still retains some of the producers from their purchase of Winecellars in 1994, while Tony Brown’s influence at Boutinot owes a great deal to his training under Nick.
Nick’s intellect was too active and curious to be satisfied by the world of wine alone. Between 1980 and 1985 he studied Sanskrit at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) so he could read the Upanishads in the original. He studied and taught philosophy at the School of Economic Science in South Kensington during the 1980s and early 1990s, trying to make sense of the world. Wine was in many ways a sideshow to this quest.
He married Maria Candida de Melo in 1988. Although they separated in 2006, they remained close friends until his death. They have two daughters, Beatriz, a potter, and Ixta, a cook and food writer.
Photo: Wine Scholar Guild