If there is truth in the mantra that the business of business is growth, then Justerini & Brooks chairman Hew Blair didn’t get the memo. When asked about expanding the 260-year-old firm that he joined 40 years ago, this doyen of the London wine trade – impeccable in a blue pinstriped suit – becomes almost coy. “Well, we have a much shorter list of customers than many of our competitors. Our object is not necessarily to grow the customer base but to have a few customers that we really look after.”
Deep roots
Justerini & Brooks, established in 1749, granted a royal warrant by George III in 1760 (current patron: Her Majesty the Queen), didn’t get where it is today by moving too fast. Indeed, it makes its neighbour Berry Brothers & Rudd – also in St James’s St, Piccadilly and founded 100 years earlier (“but only as a coffee shop,” Blair says with a smile) – seem almost brash. Justerini’s wouldn’t try to run four outlets at Heathrow, for example, as Berry’s did, closing them all in 2006. And although it has a broking arm, it would not get into the online broking game, as Berry’s does with its BBX platform. “We have no plans for that. We like to know where the wine is going on the secondary market, whereas with an online broking formula it just disappears. We try to keep it within our storage system because it’s safer there.”
Safety is a word indelibly associated with this solid company. While fine wine prices rocket and collectors are jittery with fear of fraud, Justerini’s oozes dependability and a reassuring conservatism. This is reflected in the list, which is weighted towards the classic Old World – Bordeaux, Burgundy, Germany, Alsace, Italy, Rhône. Its New World producers, like Napa’s Dominus, or Cain, are chosen for their European sensibility. Burgundy is a vital part of the business, with around 65 domaines, of which just over a third are exclusive agencies. It was J&B which instituted the tradition of January ‘en primeur’ Burgundy tastings in 1992. “It’s got stronger and stronger for us,” Blair says.
Conservative it may be, but J&B is a formidable player in the international fine wine scene. It is owned by Diageo (which brings “the great advantages of finance and insurance”), and runs four offices – the St James’s headquarters, an Edinburgh office, a six-person operation in Hong Kong, and an office just around the corner that deals entirely with the on-trade. There is also a small, wholly-owned Bordeaux negociant, Vignobles Internationaux, set up in 1973.
As for slow growth, that too is deceptive. J&B has experienced what Blair describes as “pretty stratospheric” sales in the last 10 years, increasing its turnover from around £12m ($20.2m) in the early 2000s to £75m ($126m) today. The increase is more value than volume: in Burgundy, for example, new listings are more concentrated in the high-margin Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. The Italian and German offerings have also been boosted, with Germany in particular growing 25% in value year-on-year. And, in common with its competitors – BBR, Farr Vintners, Bordeaux Index, Corney & Barrow – Bordeaux en primeur makes up a substantial chunk of turnover. But it’s unpredictable: in a good vintage like 2009 or 2010 it might be £25m; in a bad year, a tenth of that.
Looking ahead
In fact, Bordeaux is changing so fast that Blair wants to become less reliant on it. “It’s better to have a steady business that doesn’t have en primeur, rather than one with en primeur that goes from highs to lows.” With Vignobles Internationaux in mind, he is worried by the trend for the major chateaux and negociants to build vast storage facilities “in order to control the market”. If more high-end properties follow the example of Château Latour and pull out of the en primeur system, it will drive many negociants out of business. “It’s very hard to make any money without the first growths.”
Bordeaux, moreover, is more and more in the sway of corporates who “treat their wine like luxury brands which are not influenced by vintage”. This has the effect of homogenising the wine. “It can be a bit worrying – you’re getting the same style coming out of more châteaux than you used to.”
As Bordeaux becomes too international, and Burgundy’s price inflates (another worry), where will J&B’s customers find the ‘handmade, family-made wines’ they yearn for? “I believe Piemonte has all the potential. They have all the levels, village wines, and crus and Barberas and Dolcettos. That will be where the Burgundy buyer will go if it explodes in price. They are proper people, living and working on the land.” Blair sees the same potential in parts of Spain – Ribera del Duero or Priorat, perhaps.
Growth will continue in this old-fashioned, organic way, and is unlikely to be “stratospheric” again. Blair suggests that if within the next five to 10 years J&B is a £100m business, “that will be about right. There is only a certain amount you can grow in a fine wine business. You can’t just go on making more and more wine, like a brand.”
