Wine: The shippers who stay in the shadows

Firms that link wine producers with retailers are a crucial but little-known part of the trade, writes Jonathan Ray

When I worked at Berry Bros & Rudd many years ago, long lunches were still par for the course. Not for underlings like me, you understand, but for the Berrys and the Rudds themselves. We would watch, salivating with envy, as ancient dust-encrusted bottles were gently removed from the racks, decanted and taken to the directors' dining-room upstairs.  

Wine shippers play a crucial role in the trade. Producers, often with no knowledge of the British market, need them to represent their wines and to ship, market, advertise and sell them to supermarkets, independents, wholesalers and restaurants. That such shippers' names might generally be unfamiliar is because they don't sell direct to the public.

When Anthony Leschallas, Mentzendorff's managing director from 1972 to 1990, joined the firm in the late 1950s it was all very leisurely. "There wasn't actually a great deal to do, and what little there was to do was done on a handshake," he says. "The partners would toddle in at around 10, dictate a letter, take a glass of fizz around noon, enjoy a long lunch and then head home.

"Out of boredom more than anything else, I once plucked up the courage to visit a customer. The senior partner was appalled. 'My dear boy,' he said. 'We don't go and see customers, they come and see us.'" The company, which was founded in London in 1858 by Ludwig Mentzendorff, is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary. Ludwig and fellow German Jacques Bollinger, of the champagne house, exchanged letters and so began an agency agreement that runs unbroken to this day.

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Bollinger's name has been kept in the public eye by some canny sponsorship over the years. This has included the Bollinger Trophy for the National Hunt champion jockey; the Bollinger bars at Royal Ascot and the English National Opera; the Bollinger tents at the Open Golf and at Twickenham and becoming the official "Champagne of James Bond".

The current James Bond, Daniel Craig, was even spotted off-duty in central London the other day with a case of Bollinger Grande Année in his arms. While a few years ago in the television comedy Absolutely Fabulous, Edina and Patsy's passion for "Bolly" didn't do the sales figures any harm either.

Leschallas's favourite coup, though (apart from an infamous wet T-shirt competition about which he blushes but keeps schtum), was giving an empty wooden Bollinger box to every news vendor in London from which to sell the Evening Standard. The Bollinger name was seen by thousands every day and sales soared.

"Everything was such a wheeze in those days," he says. "We even tried to arrange for a Bollinger lorry to shed its load at Hyde Park Corner. Just imagine how the front-page photos would have looked the next day." Bollinger now owns 80 per cent of the company (and Taylor Fladgate the remaining 20 per cent) and the portfolio has grown enormously. It includes Taylor, Fonseca, Croft and Delaforce ports, Delamain cognac and Mentzendorff Kummel; Chanson Père et Fils (Burgundy), Bodegas Hidalgo (Spain), M Chapoutier (Rhône), Rubicon Estate (California) and Klein Constantia (South Africa).

The most recent additions are Francis Ford Coppola Presents, the film director's new enterprise in Sonoma, California, and Tapanappa; the joint venture in Australia between Brian Croser (of Petaluma fame), Jean-Michel Cazes (Château Lynch-Bages) and the Bollinger family.

It's a hugely attractive list, cleverly sourced, which, for some reason, lacks only a fine claret.

And the wines aren't all at vintage Bollinger prices either: current bargains include 2007 Southbank Estate sauvignon blanc (£6.49, Majestic); 2006 Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche (£7.99, Oddbins) and Langlois crémant de Loire (£10.99, Oddbins).

"When considering new additions to our portfolio, we have a sort of checklist," says Andrew Hawes, the current managing director. "It goes without saying that we will only consider them if we love their wines.

"But then we consider: what are the guys like to have a drink with? Can they get their bar codes the right way up? Can we get the top restaurants and supermarkets interested?" Theirs is a unique role. In the manner of a literary or theatrical agent with a Hollywood star or Booker prize-winner on its books, Mentzendorff is content to remain in the shadows while its illustrious clients get all the publicity and plaudits.

I, for one, will be raising them a birthday glass.

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Champagne & Port Offer

To help mark Mentzendorff's 150th anniversary, Telegraph Wine has put together two mixed half-dozens featuring wines from the most celebrated names in the Mentzendorff portfolio: Bollinger champagne and Taylor's port.

The Bollinger Box (£260, plus £6.99 p&p, a saving of more than £30 on the usual price) comprises six bottles of Bollinger, including two of the sumptuous 1999 Grande Année, plus two free Riedel glasses.

The Taylor's Box (£156, plus £6.99 p&p) consists of six different Taylor's wines, including the superb 1985 vintage, plus a free bottle of Vargellas olive oil.