Very rich, megalomaniacal, powerful and
egotistical people often do a lot of good. Take the example of Shah Jehan who
constructed the Taj Mahal. Take the example of someone like Donald Trump who
has made the luxurious Trump Towers and other buildings in the USA. Take the
example of the Sheiks in Dubai who have constructed the magnificent building in
Dubai that I have waxed lyrical about in previous posts.
Now from megalomaniacs on to alcohol. Or more
specifically - alcohol retail. Alcohol retail is big business all over the
world. Alcohol retail has many dimensions, in as much as you have shops in
India selling predominantly spirits and beer, shops in France sell
predominantly wine often just the local wine and in the UK you also have shops
selling predominantly wine. Supermarkets predominantly sell beers, ciders and
spirits. So, to put it differently, it is not often you get a store with
everything.
Up comes Evgeny Chichvarkin a Russian
oligarch who made money in Russia in retailing mobile phones. He was falsely accused
of kidnapping and extortion but the charges were dropped. He moved to London and
was marking time thinking of what to do. Whenever he ordered wine, he received strange
answers, basically the shops treated a customer with the least respect. One day
was looking for a particular wine and his local retailer did not have it. He
called all the big stores, Harrods, Berry Brothers, Fortnum & Masons, all
of whom said they did not stock that particular wine. This situation he thought
was unacceptable, and he set about correcting it.
First he poached the chief wine buyer from
Harrods and set about buying wine. They spent 18 months buying wine from all
kinds of suppliers. They then identified a space in Mayfair - a huge 2 floor
retail unit and filled it with the wine. They have some 3500 types of wine and
some 1000 types of other alcohol. In addition they have all the paraphernalia
used in wine drinking, decanters, glasses and what have you. Next up they
staffed the store with 12 multilingual staff, many of whom were Sommeliers at
restaurants to help customers buy the wine.
We walked in one afternoon and were
astounded. The wine collection was, to us, completely incomprehensible. This
was because we simply have no knowledge of wine. But looking at the spirits
also available, I was truly staggered. Every type of Vodka, every whiskey –
American, Canadian, Irish, Japanese, Scottish and Indian, yes, Amrut Fusion and
Amrut Peated Malt were both available – brandy, Grappas, Tequilas, Liquers,
Bitters, some 40 varieties of Gin. You name it, they seemed to have it.
We bought a bottle of wine to have with our
dinner. It cost very little, but the service given to us was unmatched by any
shop we have been to in the past. Wines there cost upto GBP 130,000, ours cost
a very small fraction of that. The shop will deliver any wine to any location
in Central London or to a hotel or even a private jet. Now is that not service?
I was very pleased with the shop. I will
certainly be back to buy more wine. Such friendly staff, why not go back? None
of that snooty French attitude or contempt for a people with limited wine
knowledge. Just smiling, helpful, knowledgeable service.
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