You can rely on the award-laden James Nicholson to find interesting bottles, writes Joe Breen
For a novice, the back roads of north Co Down can be difficult to navigate, but once you're in the neat village of Crossgar it's easy to find James Nicholson's headquarters. Just ask. "Aye, Jim's place is just up that road. You can't miss it."
The locals are right. The new home of James Nicholson Wine Merchant stands out in the autumn sunlight, the wood-and-glass finish striking a sharp modern note. Inside is a dedicated tasting area and a fully equipped theatre-cum-lectureroom for seminars, as well as offices, a warehouse and a gleaming shop. It is the culmination of a €6 million expansion plan that has seen Nicholson, who used to run a Northern Ireland-only operation, take a big step forward on both sides of the Border.
Nicholson says he would never have founded the company had decent wines been available in the North 30 years ago. He and his brother ran a restaurant in the village; short of good wine, Nicholson went off to source his own, armed with what has developed into a very keen nose for fine wine and a strong business sense.
The company has been remarkably successful, with its shop and its mail-order and internet business (www.jnwine.com), plus, on the wholesale side, selling to restaurants and independent off-licences. Little wonder that it was recently named regional wine merchant of the year in the International Wine Challenge, for the 11th year running.
The company sources almost all its wines from quality independent makers. Nicholson says he deals with more than 300 producers, including Braida, the vineyard credited with making the Barbera grape a star. According to Norbert Reinisch, a young Austrian doctor who gave up his vocation to become the vineyard's sales director, Braida's founder, Giacomo Bologna, was a visionary. He believed that the Barbera in his vineyard, in the Asti region, was capable of making wine of the quality that Piedmont's superstar Nebbiola grape achieves with Barolo.
In 1989, after years of work, Bologna produced Ai Suma, which roughly translates as "we've done it". This wine, produced only in exceptional years, bears Giacomo's name in tribute, as he died some years ago, leaving the vineyard in the hands of his wife, Anna, and his wine-making son and daughter, Beppe and Raffaella.
Reinisch - who, lured to visit the vineyard by his love of Barbera, then fell in love with Raffaella - makes a strong case for all Braida's wines, including a lovely understated Chardonnay, Asso di Fiori 2003, but it is the red wines, such as Bricco della Bigotta 2003 (€42.95), that are, understandably, Braida's greatest claim to fame.