Working towards a better future

Drinking fine wine shouldn’t cost the Earth. While our environmental impact may be relatively small, we feel it’s right to minimise our carbon footprint in whatever way we can. Whether that’s asking suppliers to reduce the weight of their bottles or finding more sustainable packaging, we have a responsibility to find better solutions.

As a basic rule, our buyers only work with producers that make wines in ways that are both ethical and environmentally responsible. We are also a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, a dedicated community that aims to support foodservice businesses, suppliers, and discerning diners.

We also actively support beacons of sustainable winemaking. For example, we are now working with Felton Road in New Zealand, Frog’s Leap in Napa Valley, and Château de Meursault, which is soon to be the largest certified organic estate in the Côte d’Or.

And, while our buyers always try to use trains, some destinations still aren’t served from St Pancras… so we also offset all our business flights.

The little things matter too. For example, to improve our carbon footprint, we have partnered with distribution service Great Bear, which uses hybrid vans to deliver our wine. We also now send out tasting samples in more eco-friendly 50ml and 100ml bottles. 

Since our inception in St James’s in 1749, Justerini & Brooks has always looked to push boundaries and explore new territories in the world of fine wine. Before it found such popularity over the last decade or so, Burgundy had long been at the heart of our illustrious portfolio.  

In 1992 Hew Blair pioneered the introduction of Burgundy En Primeur tastings by becoming the first British merchant to showcase barrel samples from family-owned Burgundy domaines to private customers, fundamentally altering the way the UK bought its Burgundy.  Hew would go on to become our Chairman in 2008, a position he still holds to this day, and served as President of the Royal Warrant Holders Association in 2011. During his 45 years of service to the company Hew has watched the wine world blossom, seeing Burgundy go from the point of near commercial irrelevance to its current position as one of the most coveted wine-producing regions in the world. We now buy from over fifty producers and are immensely proud to be one of the largest domaine-bottled Burgundy importers in the UK.

We all have our romantic image of ‘Winemaker’ – stood proud on rolling hillside, in worn Timberland boots, jeans, slightly crumpled shirt and hardy jacket – and most of the time that image is male. 

As the riddle goes, a boy and his father are out for a drive when they are involved in a car accident. The father dies at the scene, his son is alive but in critical condition, and is rushed to hospital for surgery. When the boy arrives in A&E, the doctor takes one look at him and says, “I can’t operate on my son.” How is this possible? Of course, the doctor is his mother. 

We are all guilty of our assumptions, our “single stories” and gender biases, and it doesn’t stop at doctors, firefighters, and military pilots. When I show customers our portfolio, they will often stop at a winery and exclaim, “Oh, I love his wines!” leaving me to gently agree that yes, her wines are indeed fantastic. 

Historically this may ring true. Wine-making is a gruelling, physical job – crushing grapes is hard work! There are many winemaking regions where land ownership would have been passed to the sons and not the daughters. But there are electric crushers, and laws have changed. However, as any woman in wine will tell you, changes in technology and law are only the beginning. Attitudes too must change. Here are some of our favourite winemakers who are doing just that.

Laurence had been admired by all who came to know her, and her talent for winemaking was well documented. She had a prodigious talent and was recognised by wine drinkers around the world, as well as her peers, as one of Alsace’s brightest lights. Her immediate family included her two children and her sister Catherine and mother Colette, the latter two both remaining at the estate, Catherine remaining very much hands on. Catherine’s son Theo will continue to look after the vineyards, as he has done for a number of years, while the current cellar master will continue the work he’s done for over ten years. They have suffered a very sad loss this year, but Laurence leaves the estate in good shape and excellent hands.

When searching for a word to sum up their 2011 wines Catherine Faller came up with 'seamless' - a word that very elegantly encapsulates much that is great about these new releases.