We're Ben & Gyorgy, two wine lovers with a passion for undiscovered wine from the globe's finest winemakers. Thank you for your support!
by Ben Franks in Bath
Thank you so much for your support so far!
We've set the stretch target to £8000 so we can raise an extra bit of capital to help us hit the ground running, introduce more limited edition wines and reach even more curious winelovers like you!
Bring on September 2016! #discoverwine
Hey wine lovers!
We're Ben and Gyorgy, two wine lovers with a passion for fantastic wine, and we want to share our brand new business Novel Wines with you.
Our goal with Novel Wines is really simple: We want to help wine lovers like you discover your new favourite wine from the world’s finest undiscovered winemakers.
Pic: Gyorgy & Ben
From England & Wales to Uruguay, Hungary, Macedonia and Bulgaria; Romania, Croatia and Greece to Thailand, India and Japan, it's all about great winemakers you haven't heard of yet.
We've even got craft wineries from Italy and Spain, and a fantastic social enterprise wine merchant - Vin2o - who has two fabulous wines from Bordeaux.
The buzz for great wine is always the same:
We need your help getting started. £5,000 will go towards the first order of our full Launch portfolio, featuring around 60 wines, and allow us to 'hit the ground running' with our marketing, ensuring we reach as many people as we can!
Our aspiration is to be the UK's leading specialist retailer in undiscovered wines. After Christmas this year, we plan to expand our range significantly to 150 wines and take on staff as we scale significantly.
We'll be stocking around 90 wines for our launch on 24 September. All of these wines will be available to pre-order from 1 September to anyone who subscribes to our mailing list.
Our 90 wines have been carefully selected over the last two months. The full list of regions we will be stocking is below:
Only the finest quality so we never disappoint
As wine lovers, we know there's plenty of online wine shops offering you exclusive wines. However we've tried a few and the wines always seem to disappoint.
For us, one of the main reasons Novel Wines is different is because we're keen to impress you with every single bottle we stock - whether it's £8 or £30.
We want you to share the same excitement we had when we discovered these wonderful wine regions and craft winemakers, so that means we only stock the very best wines we discover. That means you get a great bottle of wine every time.
Pic: A few of Gyorgy's Hungarian wines, some of which will be exclusive to Novel Wines.
Our main selection of wines will be from England & Wales and Hungary. This is mainly because it's where our specialisms lie. Ben has been working with amazing producers like Oatley Vineyard, Furleigh Estate and Camel Valley, while Gyorgy has successfully been importing some of Hungary's most incredible wines, including some that will be completely exclusive to us.
Pic: Our flagship dessert wine, Kardos Tundermese "Fairytale" - personalise you're own extra label in the rewards!
One of the wines we're most proud of is the Tundermese 'Fairytale' from the Kardos winery in Tokaj. It's a beautiful dessert wine that we've trialled at over half a dozen tastings - every single time the fairytale comes out number one. It seems to be a total crowd pleaser!
England & Wales
There's such a wonderful buzz for English and Welsh wine at the moment. Both of us are huge fans of some of the amazing still white and sparkling wines we're producing. However, we've also come across some stunning red wine from Sixteen Ridges (surprise, surprise!) and a gorgeous rosé produced by Dunleavy's just outside Bristol.
One of our flagship products is from Jane and Iain Awty at Oatley, who produce to beautiful bone dry white wines. One, the Jane's, is perfect for summer drinking, while the Leonora's (made from the Riesling crossing Kernling) is an excellent dinner wine, showing some of the characteristics of its parent Riesling.
Pic: Iain & Jane Awty with Novel Wines co-founder Ben Franks in 2015.
Of course, we'll also be stocking wines which are already competing on the world stage like Camel Valley from Cornwall. Made by winemaker Sam Lindo and father Bob Lindo, Camel Valley's wines are going from strength to strength and are today recognised as strong competitors with the likes of Champagne.
Pic: Entrance to the multi-award winning Camel Valley vineyard in Cornwall.
We're also excited to be stocking wines from Furleigh Estate in Devon, including two sparkling wines which are simply sublime, Wraxall Vineyard from Somerset, and a glorious sweet wine from Denbies in Surrey.
The Classics (with a twist)
Don't get us wrong, we love wines from classic regions like France, Italy, Spain, the USA and New Zealand, but we know there's tons of shops who are doing a fantastic job with these regions already. We want to specialise in the undiscovered and, for us, there's only a couple of producers and merchants from the classic regions we're eager to share with you!
We have four magnificent single vineyards from Germany, all producing Riesling, who make such beautiful wine that it would be a crime not to share it with you.
We're stocking two wines from Bordeaux because we love what Chris Coles at Vin2o is trying to do. Working with Chateau Toutigeac, his Merlot blend and Sauvignon blend wines are made with clean water projects in mind, donating 25p per bottle sold + 100% of Vin2o's profits straight to the Bristol-based water aid charity, Frank Water. How cool is that?
Pic: Chris Coles, founder of social enterprise project Vin2o.
We'll also be stocking some FAB boxed wines all sourced from craft producers and imported by Rob Malin at When in Rome wines. There's an awesome Nero d'Avola and a pretty cool Chardonnay you really ought to try, plus it stays fresh for up to 6 weeks - so it's both a top table wine and party wine.
Pic: When in Rome boxed wines, run by Rob Malin
All our alcohol-related rewards are strictly 18+ and delivered to the UK only.
We never forget those who support us. We wouldn't be anywhere without you. Unless you would like to remain anonymous, we'll publish your name on our website's Customer Heroes page, which pays tribute to everyone who supports Novel Wines past, present or future.
Everyone who pledges will receive exclusive pre-order access to our wines, which will be released by email on 1 September 2016. To thank you for supporting us, we're also giving you a discount to try something new and explore a few of our wines!
On the 24 September 2016, from 5-10pm on the Saturday evening, we're launching Novel Wines in Bath's Hilton Hotel. At the launch event we're opening all 90 wines for you to try, and we're also hosting some excellent Bath-based foodies as well. Limited to 300 tickets, they'll go on a first-come-first-serve basis. A few of our winemakers will also be at the event to talk about their wines.
We're offering a range of wines you can choose for your reward. Depending on the level of pledge you make, you can enjoy anywhere between one of our exclusive wines to a whole case of six wines hand-selected by Ben & Gyorgy. You'll also receive full tasting notes, as well as regional and winemaker information, to fit every wine.
This is already our most popular wine. A stunning dessert wine crafted from a blend of Furmint, Harslevelu, Sargamuskotaly from Tokaj, Hungary. It was made by our excellent winemaker friend Gabor Kardos and features notes of citrus, honey, apricot and pair with a green nettle freshness. You really ought to try it! For each reward this features in, we'll also let you customise you're own label message - making it the perfect gift for a wine lover friend!
We're huge fans of our local restaurant The Chequers, a gastropub based in Bath. As a sincere thank you for donating so kindly, we want to take you out for dinner at The Chequers. Enjoy a three course tasting menu alongside four of our own wines and have the chance to ask us anything about Novel Wines! These are limited to 20 spaces.
Hosted in Bath or Bristol for up to six people, enjoy a wine tasting hosted by the founders Ben & Gyorgy where you'll get to try 12 of our exceptional wines. All the wines will be paired with artisan cheese sourced from Bath's oldest cheesemongers, Nibbles, and you'll each get to take a free bottle of your favourite wine home at the end!
Pic: Ben hosting at a recent wine tasting event.
Our Explorer's Club is for wine lovers who admire what we do and want to join us on our journey through the world of wine.
We offer two tiers of Club subscription. For just £45/month you join our Globetrotter Membership, enjoying all our membership perks plus 6 bottles of wine delivered to your door every three months. However we also offer the Adventurer Membership for £70/month, which doubles the wine to 12 bottles every quarter.
Here are the main benefits of our Explorer's Club:
If you have any questions about our rewards, send us an email at [email protected] - we'd love to hear from you :)
What is the dream?
We would love to see as many people as possible getting excited about our wines. We're always looking to discover something new. So our passion is to become the UK's leading retailer for undiscovered, weird and wonderful wines - and we would love you to be a part of our journey.
Can I be part of your team?
We're only a small start-up, so we're not hiring yet - but if you love what we do, drop us an email at [email protected], we'd love to talk to you about how you can get involved.
We couldn't have done this without the help of Adrian & Debra (Creative Wisdom) who did our graphics and logo, Katharine who shot the brilliant video, Josh who did the soundtrack for us, and the very kind endorsements from Chris Coles, Charl Coetzee, Jane & Iain Awty, and Gabor Kardos.
Then of course there's YOU. Thank you so much for any support you give.
Thank you!
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.