Bat and Bottle Wine Merchants

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Bat and Bottle Wine Merchants

Wine Merchants. We buy directly from the wine cellar, mostly from small artisan producers, and sell directly to the general public (you and I).
(19)

Straightforward importers of Italian wines
We are always sending wine out, but the warehouse is not always open - please check the website before visiting (https://bat.wine/pages/diary) Awarded first ever UK “Online Specialist Wine Buyer” of the year (inaugural Wine Buyers Awards held by the London Wine Fair in May 2020), we are a mail-order Wine Merchants, also with a retail site in

Oakham, Rutland; we have been importing Italian wine since 1994. You can buy wine online from us, over the phone or by email - or visit us at our warehouse in person. We started trading in 1994, a classic kitchen table and van operation that started simply in Uppingham, Rutland and has now travelled all the way to ……. the outskirts of Oakham, also in Rutland, the smallest county in England! This is not as bad as it sounds, as we weren’t in Uppingham very long before we upped sticks and moved to Staffordshire, where we remained until 2003. We have always been a pared down business, as all the frills are found in the stock. At first, we aimed to sell cricket bats as well as a range of wines. The cricket side has been and gone, wine remains a passion, but a much more focused one. We caught the Italian bug badly thanks to a chance meeting and an introduction to the late Felicita Pask-Hughes, a charming Italian lady who came to Britain after the war. She had a remarkable eye for quality and was fearless in the wines she imported. In a time of straw-wrapped bottles of Chianti, she was importing Isole e Olena and Sassicaia. Ben was told (by Felicita) that we should buy her business. We did and the die was cast. Felicita’s influence on us, helped by a six month journey round Italy, means that our emphasis is mostly, but not completely, on the wines of that country. Whether from Italy, France, Spain or Portugal, we have developed a taste for wines made by men and women who cherish the history and traditions of their hills and valleys. Such individuals make wines with a sense of place and unique character. We aspire to follow our mentor’s lead and do not buy wines for our customers – we find customers for our wines. We try to be serious when buying, but never too serious when you are buying from us! Our Wine Club offers two types of membership: Vinicuriosity and Conspirators. Please have a look, it is really special: https://bat.wine/collections/wine-club

Here are some of our customers’ testimonials that we thought you might want to read:

Antonio L: “Excellent Italian wine selection and Ben has a real passion for all things Italian!”

Leah P: “Thank you Emma and Ben for the superb service you provided to Greenwoods GRM LLP. Our virtual wine tasting event ran extremely smoothly, you organised the dispatch of tasting kits to our guests brilliantly and Ben’s insight into the wines and their origin during the event was fascinating. Ben was highly praised by our guests for his ‘extensive knowledge’ which he delivered in an ‘interesting and informative’ way and everyone enjoyed the selection of ‘fantastic wines’. If you are thinking of a virtual wine tasting event, get in touch with Emma and Ben at Bat and Bottle, they come highly recommended.”

Steve B: “it's great to see a wine seller with a range to suit all tastes and budgets, they seem all too rare.”

Maggie B: “I would like to give a recent example of how you go above and beyond customer expectations. When lockdown came into force in March, you were the only suppliers of wine who were able to guarantee and organise next day shipment of wine not only locally, but also to members of my family who live as far away as Cumbria. Your singular approach over the years means that you understand my allergy to sulphites in wine, and are also able to recommend wines which are particularly suited to my palate. You have provided delicious wines for special family events such as weddings and birthdays, allowing us to relax in the certainty that our guests will be happy. You and Ben are always bright and cheerful, nothing is too much trouble for you- even small orders or requests for individual bottles of wine.”

15/11/2024

A dinner the remember! Max is a genius, epic food, great company and quirky, wonderful wine! What’s not to love?

28/10/2024

• Otters After Hours •

Wine Tasting & Small Plates with Bat & Bottle at Otters!

An evening of Wine Tasting with Bat and Bottle Wine Merchants & delicious small plates made from our very talented Chefs at Otters - menu to follow…

Book online through our website:

https://www.ottersfinefoods.co.uk/category/events/wine-tasting/

Or book in store…

18/10/2024

and yet more good news... Camillo Favaro is returning to Smith Square (6 November), he crafts two of Piemonte's great, homegrown white whites. Erbaluce di Caluso is one of the great under-the-radar white wines, the purity and precision it can give is so invigorating, Camillo's wines are world class.
We will be showing the:
'Le Chiusure' Erbaluce di Caluso 2022 for the first time.
Tredicimesi '13' Erbaluce di Caluso 2022
Freisa 'F2' 2019
'Ros' Nebbiolo Canavese 2021

16/10/2024

just over a week ago, the joy of fatigue... L'Eroica, 135km of Tuscan white road and some tarmac on a Hetchins curly (most of the time). Excellent company, my admiration to the organisers, a truly great day.

12/10/2024

More good news, Gabriele Cordero will be joining us at our Piemonte Tasting (link in bio) on 6 November, at Smith Square.
Gabriele makes wine under the family home in Piocca, the area is best know for Arneis and his is my favourite, fresh, characterful, with texture and length. The Roero Nebbiolo is made in tiny quantiles, last year when we showed it to our Wine Club it vanished! (We have some more this year).

The first raft of tickets are offered to Wine Club members and subscribers. There are a limited number of places left, for lovers of Nebbiolo and Erbaluce, this is a great tasting.

01/10/2024

We are very happy that Massimo Clerico will be joining us at our Piemonte Tasting (link in bio) on 6 November, at Smith Square.
He is one of the legends of Lessona, forged in the heatwave of 2003. Then, there were just 3 Lessona labels, now there are 12. This is no easy place to make wine, which is probably why it remains a tiny DOC.
Massimo has just over 2 hectares and is a larger producer! He is a great character of Lessona with unwavering belief in the territory and its unique interpretation of Nebbiolo. His wines are amongst Italy's most age worthy, real under-the-radar epic Nebbiolo. We enjoyed a 2008 on Sunday, it was as fresh as a daisy, truly magnificent.

The first raft of tickets are offered to Wine Club members and subscribers. There are a limited number of places left, for lovers of Nebbiolo and Erbaluce, this is a great tasting.

27/09/2024

We import Italian wine, and we work with Matt Gregory. Matt makes Leicestershire wine near Walton-on-the-Wolds. 2023 was his 3rd vintage, and he made his first skin contact Solaris: Solaris loves this style of winemaking - spontaneous fermentation, lots of oxygen, very hands-off; for me, this is Matt's best English wine yet (my favourite is still his The Italian Red (Barbera) 2019 a bargain at £18 and we have 48 left). The Solaris, aka 'The Orange' is all nutmeg, cinnamon, red apple, apricot and rhubarb crumble aromas, a wine with real texture and character: spicy, with sage flavours, a tart lemon finish and a nice gentle tannic hug adding a dimension to an already complete wine. Honestly, I find so many English wines devoid of any character, this is the opposite! Only 750 bottles made and it is almost all gone, hurry, there is unlikely to be any made this year.
ps. Nice name check for Matt in the FT (https://propertylistings.ft.com/propertynews/united-kingdom/7340-buying-a-house-with-a-vineyard.html)

08/09/2024

We’re on the lookout for a part-time Bar Supervisor to join our team at The Felin Fach Griffin Restaurant.

Senior House Manager, Maxine Anderson, is looking to add more brilliant people to our Griffin Bar & Restaurant team. Max makes up one third of our senior leadership team & hails from the capital of books, Hay on Wye.

We’re passionate about eating, drinking & sleeping: the simple things in life done well. And we’re looking for warm and welcoming team players to help deliver this. We offer excellent progression opportunities, delivered through both in-house and external training, for those interested in a career in hospitality.

Pay: £12.20 per hour + share of tronc
Hours: Up to 4 days per week. The candidate should to be flexible to work evenings & lunchtimes as well as weekends. But talk to us & we can see whether we have something to suit you.

Start: Immediate

Skills & Experience:

Previous experience is helpful, particularly to work at higher levels (& with higher pay) within the team, but what we really want is a great attitude & a desire to work as part of a team & look after our guests. We can train the rest and like nothing more than to see people progress through our teams. Many of our Managers across our business started lower down the chain. Our role in this team includes fronting up the bar, we like to play to people’s strengths. We’re particularly keen to recruit someone at supervisor level with a bit more experience. Any candidate would receive in house & external training in coffee making, wine (WSET2) & in food safety, as well as training to become expert in guest service.

Get in touch to apply or find out more here https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=IesIWbzR5kmNt54u8coUos1z1SHbdhFPvg33BRxeuPZUOFlMUFlPQVhOU1VHM01LQlk4WENCRlEzNC4u

13/08/2024

It's easy to forget to get excited about prosecco nowadays! Even when we have a great 30 year history of really good prosecco...
Thank you for a lovely reminder Starfish Accounting
Cin cin

Hey, it's National Prosecco Day and a great opportunity for us to give a client shout-out.

Bat and Bottle Wine Merchants is an English Independent family-run Wine Merchant specialising in importing Italian artisan wines. They also run a very personal and informative Wine Club.

Whether you want wine for celebrating, a wedding gift list, enhancing a fine dining experience, or you are giving someone that extra thoughtful, special gift; or you want to hold a wine tasting for entertainment, fund-raising or you want to learn more about Italian wine; they can provide you with just the right wine and service that you have been looking for.

Check out their Prosecco offerings as well as other sparkling wines here https://bat.wine/collections/sparkling-wines

13/08/2024

Chilled out red wines were the headliner in our latest eNewsletter (if you would like to subscribe, please sign up here: https://bat.wine/pages/contact).

A useful article in the Gambero Rosso daily email:
https://www.gamberorossointernational.com/news/do-you-like-chilled-red-wine-no-one-will-judge-you-but-be-mindful-of-the-type/
if you are interested...
There's not much joy in warm red wine at this time of year, I love light red wine, so we have quite a few of them... , , to name but a few.
https://bat.wine/collections/light-rer-wines

06/08/2024

Was missing Ben in the office and wondered where he had got to...

02/08/2024

a great place to work!

14/07/2024

If you choose, like us, to remain eternally optimistic about the weather, despite the recent unpredictability... and 'Summer' spells 'Rosé' here are a few we suggest you try.

Our Italian Rosé Wines Taster case (link in bio) is for anyone who loves Rosé but has no idea where to start:

Frentana. Vallevo Rosato 'Costa dei Trabocchi'
Favaro. Rosato 'Rosacherosanonsei'
Sangro. Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Pomario. Rondirose
Petrilli. Nero di T***a Rosato 'Motta del Lupo'
Le Cinciole. Rosato

If not already signed up, you can get lots of useful suggestions like this, news and information via our mailing list.

25/06/2024

Enjoy this beautiful weather to the max! Want to feel like you are actually in Italy? There are still a couple of places available at tomorrow night's tasting: Castle Cottage Presents the Summer Italian Wine Tastings
e-Tickets are available from:

We are delighted to be holding two Summer Italian Wine Tastings in collaboration with Castle Cottage this year: 7pm on: Wednesday 26 June and Thursday 1 August £25 e-tickets for Castle Cottage, please select your date.

13/06/2024

This is worth a read!

Old labels, some dating back to 2007, all sealed with both screw caps and corks, blind tasting of six pairs. Here are the winning bottles: the traditional cork closure is defeated

03/06/2024

We have just sent out an email about Le Marie's wines, if you didn't get it, you are not signed up to our newsletter (sign up via the Contact us/newsletter page of our website - (https://bat.wine/pages/contact). If you did, I have added a post about the Pinerolese region on the blog within our website.
These are wonderful, individual wines from the Raviolo family who both work the land, and craft their wines - if you haven't tried them, do! (link in the bio)

08/11/2023

A perfect London day to welcome our italian friends. Apparently its due to clear up as we enter the crypt.

Address

18D Oakham Enterprise Park
Oakham
LE157TU

Telephone

+441572759735

Website

https://bat.wine/

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Videos

Bat and Bottle Oakham Winter Wine Tasting

Friday 29th October 6.30pm - 9pm £15 on the door Wine Club members come for free We will be doing things a bit differently this year, 5 tables with a 'mini-tasting' on each. Less people and more space. A full list of the open bottles is on our website. (https://bat.wine/products/oakham-christmas-tasting-ticket?variant=29452433293423) #dicoverrutland #rutland #foodanddrinkweek #Toscana #montalcino #vermentino #passerina #lazio #gattinara #nebbiolo #cococciola #arneis #decanterawards

Celebrating winning Specialist in Italian wines and our Wine Club was the runner up from @Decanterawards

Decanter Retailer Awards 2021

We have won Decanter's 'Best Italian Specialist', and we were the runner up for 'Best Subscription Wine Club' There wasn't much more that we could win as we do just specialise in artisan Italian wines (and are in Italy right now finding more)

The Oxford Wine Festival

a preview of what we'll be pouring 🇮🇹🥂@oxfordwinefestivalco

Sunday evening wine @paolopetrilliaziendaagraria Nero di Troia 2019

Ben's start to L'Eroica 2017

OK, this is the last L'Eroica post of the year. I had a gopro on time lapse in my bike light, this is what it saw before it ran out of power. (thanks to William Lennon Boots and to all those who supported National Parkinson Foundation)

Danilo Trozzi is about to cut cheese ...

Shortcuts

We are Italian Wine Merchants.

We buy directly from the wine cellar, mostly from small artisan producers, and sell directly to the general public (you and I).

You can buy wine online from us, over the phone or by email - or visit us at our warehouse in person.

We started trading in 1994, a classic kitchen table and van operation that started simply in Uppingham, Rutland and has now travelled all the way to ……. the outskirts of Oakham, also in Rutland, the smallest county in England! This is not as bad as it sounds, as we weren’t in Uppingham very long before we upped sticks and moved to Staffordshire, where we remained until 2003.

We have always been a pared down business, as all the frills are found in the stock. At first, we aimed to sell cricket bats as well as a range of wines. The cricket side has been and gone, wine remains a passion, but a much more focused one. We caught the Italian bug badly thanks to a chance meeting and an introduction to the late Felicita Pask-Hughes, a charming Italian lady who came to Britain after the war. She had a remarkable eye for quality and was fearless in the wines she imported. In a time of straw-wrapped bottles of Chianti, she was importing Isole e Olena and Sassicaia. Ben was told (by Felicita) that we should buy her business. We did and the die was cast.