The result is excellent, a typically robust but keenly balanced take on the classic southern Rhône red blend, with herb, black pepper, meaty savouriness, liquorice and hedgerow fruit all jostling for attention. Since there wasn’t quite enough of either vintage to stretch far enough to make it worth Tesco’s while (the company has a little over 2,800 stores in total, and its Châteauneuf is sold in 609), Lemoine’s solution was to use the parcels as the basis of a blend with other, more recent vintages. Apparently, Julie Rouffignac, the talented Rhône Valley winemaker responsible for making Tesco’s Châteauneuf (and other Rhône wines in the Tesco lineup, such as the succulent, spicy red Arbousset Lirac), had managed to find some small parcels of wine from the outstanding 20 vintages in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. A bold move, then, by Tesco to make the latest release of one of its most upmarket own-labels – its Finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape – a non-vintage wine.Īrbousset Lirac, Rhône, France 2020 (£12, Tesco) I initially assumed that cost-cutting, or scarcity of supply, was behind the switch to non-vintage, but when I asked Tesco buyer Charlotte Lemoine what was going on, she offered a different explanation. One possibly malign side-effect of the emphasis on vintage, however, has been to ingrain the idea that non-vintage still wines, containing wines from two or more years, can never be as good as those from a single season – an assumption that is given credence by the fact that cheap mass market plonk doesn’t mention a year on the label. That brings a constant flow of novelty, too, with each vintage effectively a new wine, which in turn provides endless excuses for wine enthusiasts to indulge their never-very-well-disguised trainspotter tendencies. By basing each release on a single year’s crop, we’re reminded that wine is an agricultural product, one that changes from year to year according to the conditions. This will have a negative impact on gross margins, no doubt, but the companies that will listen to their customers and adopt eco-friendly practices early will be rewarded with top line growth in the mid to long term.Tesco Finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône, France NV (£18, Tesco) The idea of the vintage is a big part of the romance of wine, and it’s easy enough to understand why. The younger generations tend to be more in tune with the idea and as they burgeon and their incomes rise the industry will have no choice, but to pay attention and adopt more environmentally friendly practices. Budget is still and will remain a key factor, but our habits are certainly changing. In order to do that, we need to replace fast fashion with what is called “timeless fashion”.Īndrey Omelich, a co-founder of CODOGIRL, and with 20 years of Investment Banking experience shared his thoughts: "Society is beginning to recognize the impact that our abundant use of clothes is having on the environment and we are beginning to make more conscious choices when shopping for clothing. The solution? Our concept of clothing ownership should return to how it was before fast fashion exploded in the early 2000s. And while individual prices are cheaper, a fast fashion wardrobe often ends up costing the consumer much more compared to the alternative. According to a McKinsey report, the average fashion consumer bought 60% more clothing items in 2014 compared to 2000, but only kept each item for half as long. The main problem with fast fashion is its expiration date: fast fashion clothing by design is intended to fall apart after one wash. After hundreds, even thousands of dollars spent, with fast fashion you end up with a heap of cheap, throwaway clothing destined for the landfill. The fast fashion model is unsustainable in every way: it’s bad for the environment, it's bad for factory workers and, when you add up the cost of every fast fashion item you bought, bad for you and your wallet. New trends are released weekly by large apparel companies with an objective to make you constantly feel behind-trend and out-of-style with their prominent marketing campaigns and daily turnover of cheap, low-quality merchandise.Ĭompanies of this size should make more of an effort to support sustainability practices, this shouldn’t only include the materials they use for their garments, but the overall design to retail structure as a whole Today, fast fashion has blown up the two fashion seasons into some 52 “microseasons”. Clothing production used to be slower, and garments were made with greater emphasis on quality and longevity, so that you could keep and wear them for years to come. Designers used to spend months, even years putting together a collection for two fashion seasons: spring/summer and fall/winter.
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