An interview with Nick Dobson, the UK’s premier Swiss wine merchant

‘’I spent my early working life in the consumer electronics industry, initially in technical roles, but later moving into management, with experience in Europe, mainly Switzerland, and India,” says Wokingham-based Nick Dobson.

And it was the ‘’mainly Switzerland” bit that led him to discover Swiss wines. In 2002, Dobson left the corporate world because, he says, ‘’I had a long-held desire to combine my passion for wine with the independence of running my own business.”

I first met Dobson in 2005 when I interviewed him for a magazine I am the editor of. Now called Terrific Terroir because it features all Geneva products including wines, back then it was devoted exclusively to wine, as reflected in the title Geneva Wines. You can read the interview here; click on English version, then Press, then Geneva Wines, Winter/Spring 2005 issue. The interview is on pp. 2-4.

Dobson was certainly a pioneer, importing first Geneva wines and then adding on other Swiss regions to sell via a UK-based Internet business, so I decided to catch up with him and see how his business is faring.

Gail Mangold-Vine: You were up and running in business in April 2003 - seven years ago. Can you tell me about developments since? Is the concept of a web-and-special-event based UK wine business profiling Swiss, Austrian and other niche wines turning out as you thought? Because of your high degree of specialization, particularly as Swiss and Austrian wines go, are you also drawing web clients from elsewhere in the world?

Nick Dobson: Is it really seven years? A lot has happened since then. We were up and running in early 2003 but we didn’t start selling Swiss wine until about a year later, and then it was only Geneva wines to start with. Since then we have broadened the Swiss range quite considerably, and added new ranges such as Austria, Portugal, Alto Adige in Italy, and Hungary.

Is it turning out as I thought? Yes, I suppose it is. The business has seen steady growth since the launch, and has now reached “critical mass” - and although the last 12 months have been a bit tricky, we have still posted a modest growth in turnover in 2009. We started with nothing, and we now have a viable business which suits our lifestyle well. I’ve sold Swiss wines to small numbers of customers outside the UK - in the USA, Canada, France, Ireland, and…. Switzerland!

Gail Mangold-Vine: What are client trends as regards wine preferences and prices?  Do you feel that over the past seven years you’ve ”educated” the palates and tastes of a certain group of clients, can you see discernible growth in awareness and expertise as regards your wines on the part of consumers? How about the trade and restaurants? Do you see certain changes of focus or new areas of growth as a result?

Nick Dobson: I don’t think there are any fundamental shifts or trends in what people drink - at least not with what I sell. Their habits are pretty much the same now as when I started. It’s true there has been some movement down the price spectrum - but I see this as a temporary effect of the recession, and at the top and bottom ends of the price spectrum, demand remains robust. It’s in the middle (the £12-£18 bracket) where things are currently more challenging and where people have been moving down-market.

I’ve never really set out to educate the market - that requires rather more resources than I have. My goal was to create a viable business doing something I enjoyed - but in doing so I have introduced quite a lot of people to Swiss and Austrian wines, and quite a few expats living in the UK have discovered me.

Awareness in the UK of Swiss wines in particular is still extremely low, evidenced by the fact that most people buy ready-made mixed cases [from my business] as they don’t have the confidence to choose wines themselves. There are a few who know a fair bit, but their numbers are very limited. Austria on the other hand is a bit better known - there are more importers, and their well-funded wine marketing board creates something of a “stage presence” for Austrian wines in the UK that Switzerland doesn’t have.

My business doesn’t target the restaurant market - although I do have a couple of customers. I’m in the process of starting another business which is more trade-focused - ask me about that in a year.

Gail Mangold-Vine: So the economic downturn affected your business?

Nick Dobson: Well, I’ve alluded to that already in earlier answers - to put it in a nutshell it certainly has. We’ve seen growth fall from 40-50% pa to under 10% last year - but at least it’s still growth, which many wine merchants have not seen at all. The outlook for 2010 and beyond is unclear at the moment, and even though we’re seeing signs that the recession may be over, we’re certainly not out of the woods yet.

The big problem looking forward is the dramatic shift in exchange rates which will cause retail prices to rise by 30% or so in an already weakened market. We’ve been insulated from this to some extent by older stocks working their way through the system, but as they run out, and as new stocks take their place, we’ll see the full effects of this.

There are also political issues in the UK driving taxation and regulation ever-upwards and the combined effects of these mean that we may be moving to a completely new situation in the UK with alcohol prices substantially higher than has historically been the case - more like the Scandinavian model. This would mean a period of adjustment for both consumers and the industry.

Gail Mangold-Vine: You say that you are indisputably the Swiss wine specialist in UK, talk us through that.

Nick Dobson: Swiss wines have to play to their strengths in export markets - the high domestic cost base and strong currency mean that Switzerland is never going to be able to compete on international markets with new world look-alike products, but it can succeed with wines that are different and well-priced.

The best pricing in Switzerland is from Geneva and some parts of Vaud - Chasselas from these parts can remain reasonably priced in the UK and compares well in terms of quality with wines from New Zealand, Australia, and other European countries. The market is small but in some ways that is a strength for me - it’s big enough to keep a small operator like me in business, but too small to interest the bigger players.

There are very few importers of Swiss wine in the UK - and most of those have quite limited ranges, normally just from one or two producers and few have more than a dozen or so wines. They don’t all have a retail presence, and offer limited information on their websites, if they have one. My offering has wines from some 15 producers, and covers most of the wine-growing districts in Switzerland with more than 100 wines. I have gone to great lengths to make sure the offering includes most of the more obscure indigenous Swiss grape varieties, and some wines with stories - like high altitude wines from Visperterminen [Valais].

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Dobson’s wine selections in general are extremely well-informed, and his website  is much appreciated for its good reads, resources and tasting notes - so it’s not surprising that, in 2009, Nick Dobson Wines was short-listed for the ‘Online Merchant of the Year’ category in the Decanter Retailer of the Year Awards.

Nick Dobson (left) with Swiss winemaker Gregor Kuonen in Valais. Visual courtesy of Nitin Shankar (copyright).