Since we launched Wasted Wine Club, we've naturally been getting a lot of questions about the idea. How does wine go to waste? Why do winemakers end up with excess wine? Is the wine still as good, even though the winemakers aren't using it? We thought it might be the perfect opportunity to address some of these, and share a little story about our humble beginnings and where this journey began.

We were once visiting and tasting with a winemaker in his cellar, and during the conversation he mentioned in passing that he had three barrels of Cabernet Franc he hadn’t used from the 2018 vintage, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. The wine was really good, he said, but he just had too much of it from that vintage. And it made us wonder, how often do winemakers end up with leftover or extra bits of wine they don’t need or use, and why?

Sometimes they experiment with a batch of fruit and don’t end up using it because it doesn’t fit in their range. Sometimes they have a big harvest crop, and end up making more wine than their market is capable of consuming (that whole supply and demand thing I didn’t pay attention to in economics). Sometimes, the farmer makes them commit to a block of Cinsaut, in order to get the epic block of Chenin Blanc that they want. The reasons go on.

But what ends up happening to these wayward wines? Usually they’ll get blended away, or sold off for bulk wine. In the worst instances, it’s easier to just bin it. And if you consider all the resources that goes into getting a grape from vine to wine, that’s a crying shame.

So, we are hoping that the Wasted Wine Club offers a creative and sustainable l solution to this problem. The idea is to collaborate on custom bottlings with winemakers who have amazing wines that they aren’t planning on using. We recognise the provenance of the wine, celebrate the producer and all of the hard work and effort they put into creating it, and bottle it as a Wasted Wine Club collaboration. Easy as that.

The first collaboration with Alex McFarlance is now live, featuring a Cinsaut and Chenin Blanc / Semillon blend, are both now available to purchase in the U.K.. So why not go grab a few bottles and tell us what you think.