Press

Trust the experts

As supermarkets swallow up small rivals, it’s reassuring to see our independent wine merchants still holding their own.

“……we should be thankful. At a time when most supermarket wine lists are getting more commercial and bland, the choice on Scottish high streets has never been better. Chris Lockett, who runs Lockett Bros in North Berwick, is an example of an emerging breed of wine merchant. Often fresh out of college, they are sourcing lively, unusual wines, giving it a go and succeeding”
Will Lyons Scotland on Sunday, December 06

Matthew Jukes review of the 04 ATF Merlot listed in the 'Best Wines of 2007'

"Peter Logan pulls outstanding fruit out of the cool Orange region high in central New South Wales, turns it into great wine and bangs bargain prices on it. His '04 ATF Merlot is the best he's ever made. In fact, we can't remember the last time we tasted a Merlot as plush and defined as this at such a teeny price. It's juicy, ripe and packed with blueberry and violet perfume. Seriously, if this wine were double the price, it would still be on this list - just quite a few pages further on! For an extra $5, break the bank on the Logan Wines Weemala Merlot 2004. You get a bit more oak and structure, but it comes with a warning: give it a year in the cellar before you expose yourself to it's charms."
Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer 'TASTE Food & Wine 2007'

Locketts

"It's not often that a wine merchant comes on the scene and makes an immediate impact with a selection that wouldn't look out of place on London's St James Street. Chris Lockett has done just this. His list shows an eagle eye for quality and is littered with big names, cult vintages and exciting bottles."
WILL LYONS Scotland on Sunday

The man with a nose for a full-bodied opportunity

The idea of opening an exclusive wine bar in Edinburgh came to Chris Lockett when he was picking grapes in New Zealand and Australia. But it was not to be. Instead, he became a wine merchant in North Berwick last year and says his business life since then has been "absolutely amazing". Read the full article
JIM DOW
Edinbrugh Evening News

Here's Mud In Your Eye

MUD and tractors. "For all the intellectual musings that surround the great subject of wine, the truth is we're dealing with an agricultural product - something that has been made from the ground. Getting your hands dirty - that's what it's all about, Will." My first boss, Tom Gilbey, was a frustrated farmer. As we worked together, for a rather grand Scottish wine merchant, he would wistfully relieve his yearnings for the land through his many philosophical meditations. I was reminded of Gilbey's mud-and-tractors eulogy during a recent sojourn to North Berwick. There, halfway down the High Street, just a stone's throw from the beach, lies one of Scotland's most interesting and progressive wine merchants - Lockett Bros. Run by Chris Lockett, a jazz-loving, flip-flop-wearing surfer, his list is peppered with the sort of off-beat wines you might expect from a man who rides the waves. Read the full article
Will Lyons
Scotland on Sunday

New Zeal and Zest

A tour of the New World yielded a rich harvest for one intrepid wine merchant.

Chris Lockett’s story has a peculiarly noughties feel to it. He won’t thank me for saying it, but spending 10 weeks away from Scotland trundling round the wine lands of Australia and New Zealand in a VWcombi is rather, well, Jamie Oliver. “I asked the Logan vineyard if I could do a vintage,” he says with bubbling excitement in his well laid-out shop on North Berwick’s high street, “and stayed for eight weeks. I did all the whites and the pinot.” No matter that it’s first thing in the morning: we’re tasting one of the wines he had a hand in making, Logan’s Weemala Gewurztraminer 2007. Lockett was there just at the right time for the southern hemisphere harvest, roughly in line with our spring. But this was no off-the cuff scheme. “It was a year in the planning,” he admits, confessing that as he’s since got married, a 10-week solo trip on the other side of the world is something that may not happen again. Which perhaps explains why this sort of experience is so rare today. Many of Scotland’s most highly regarded wine merchants – Alexander Wines in Glasgow, for example, or Inverarity in Biggar – started with someone setting off for a wine region and coming home with a van laden down with bottles. Although doing it on the other side of the world means Lockett doesn’t bring the wine straight back himself. “The Gewurztraminer is on the water at the moment. It’ll be here in a week or so and we’ll stock it. Cornelius Beer and Wine [in Easter Road, Edinburgh] are taking some too,” he says as we sip the grapey, apple-scented white. It’s fresher and less oily than is usual in the New World, with a long, clean finish. Most wine companies will tell you how close they are to the producers or how they’re committed to “close relationships with our suppliers”, but few can match the tales of how Lockett came to stock wines never before seen in Scotland. “I bought this pinot noir in a bar in New Zealand,” he explains as we sniff the wine. “I loved it, so I looked on the internet and just turned up at the winery. The owner and his son were shooting pigeons and covered in feathers. But we just had a chat and agreed that I could have a shipment.” The wine is stunning. But because of the way it was bought – bypassing agents and importers – it’s also £5-£10 cheaper than other central Otago wines of this quality. Lockett is keen to acknowledge the secret to his trip. After all, while he was away he still had a shop to keep up. Graham Kinniburgh, the shop’s manager, has years of experience in the wine trade behind him. We look over the shelves, which are filled with fascinating discoveries new to me and inspired selections from the world’s best winemakers. Australia and New Zealand are a focus and there are wines from all the world’s great regions. But we chat about some common friends in his unusually large Portuguese section, next to a stunning Italian range. I mention Paolo de Marchi and his Isole e Olena Chianti Classico. Turns out Kinniburgh has just been there. I’m glad. If your boss is away for 10 weeks, you deserve a treat.
Joe Fattorini
Saturday Herald