Shropshire Magazine

Louise Acton meets the man at the head of a family wine dynasty

James Tanner at home near Shrewsbury with wife Katy and son William

James Tanner admits that he “didn’t have to ponder too hard” over whether to join his family’s wine firm. He was studying for his A-levels at the time, but two decades later and James is managing director of Tanners Wines, which has its headquarters in magnificent headquarters on Shrewsbury’s Wyle Cop.

There are also thriving outlets at Bridgnorth, Welshpool and Hereford. It’s a coveted role, a fact not lost on James who admits: “I couldn’t turn my back on a fascinating job and a very nice family business and product.”

James is following in the footsteps of several generations of Tanners. In the press cuttings given to me by way of background material, it is reported that James’s father, Richard, took over from his father, Clive, only after “terrible rows”. Richard says the experience informed the way in which he handed the firm over to his son.

Richard Tanner is much admired in wine circles, as James explains. “He moved the business away from beer and spirits and into wine, riding the wave of interest in the 1970s in all things French and European,” says James. In so doing, he keenly influenced his son’s tastes, and among other shared passions – they both enjoy country sports – James says he has developed a “life-long love of France and Europe.” James’s journey into the wine trade was aided before, during and after university (at Bristol) by work experience at wineries throughout Europe and also in Australia and Chile, at a time when wine was “really beginning to take off from the New World”. This was followed by the completion of an MBA at Imperial College, London.

The work experience helped James develop his nose for wine. “People often write to us and ask how we can smell all these things in wine. Essentially, it’s down to practice, and one of the most important things is to be able to articulate in words the flavours that you taste.

Fortunately, I don’t have to stand up and entertain in the way that Oz Clark does – he’s a really funny guy who I often run across – but I do write a lot of our wine descriptions.”

Today, the Tanners buying team covers all the global wine regions on a 24-month rotational basis, with major areas visited more than once. James says: “We like to pioneer quirkier places, partly because we are able to travel to the more esoteric regions, including Israel, Sicily and the Italian-Slovenian border, and customers will be adventurous if we say something is good.

“But we’ve always been strict about the quality; we don’t have wines from everywhere, they have to be really good to make the list.”

James Tanner, managing director of Tanners Wines, in the cellars shop at Wyle Cop

James has been joined on some of these buying trips by his wife, Katy. “We once visited a restaurant on the southern coast of France and were told by our supplier that the great speciality, traditionally reserved for the fishermen’s wives, was monkfish liver – which they said tasted like foie gras.

“Forgetting she was six-months pregnant, Katy went and ordered this. However, monkfish is very large and its liver is absolutely massive! Not surprisingly, the dish was surreptitiously passed across the table for me to share.”

Evolving the firm’s own-label collection has been a particularly successful project for James, and now both the Tanners Claret and Champagne have a nationwide following. “The own-label claret was originally a project between my father and Peter Sichel, of the French house of Sichel, with whom we have had dealings since the 1890s.

“Now the next generation has taken over and we have developed the blend to be softer and riper – closer to a Chilean Merlot, which is what customers expect. I also moved our Champagne supplier, about eight years ago, and we have since seen a huge improvement in quality.”

While James points out that “it’s not a strategy to have something from everywhere,” Tanners does “very well on wine that sells in tiny quantities and, in a good claret year, we have customers who will buy claret at £7,000–£8,000 a case. Of course, at this end of the market you are dealing with the value of exclusivity – which is why I do the Burgundy buying, so as to make sure we get the right allocations from the leading growers.”

It is clear that a keen sense of social responsibility also runs deep in the ethos of this family business, and Tanners is well known for supporting deserving causes. But this has created its own challenges. James chooses his words carefully, but speaks of the increasing “burden” of managing the thousands of requests for free drink from charitable organisations.

“We will do what we can and we do have a budget for sponsorship, but sometimes people don’t realise how much work, accumulatively, they are putting onto a small to medium-sized business, employing 115 staff, when they ask for support.”

Moreover, James is not afraid to get involved in local issues that he passionately believes in. He has been particularly vocal in his opposition to a congestion charge being set up in Shrewsbury.

“Introducing a charging scheme that covers a tiny area of the town is not the way to deal with a nationwide transport issue,” he explains.

Meanwhile, his family has fished in Mid Wales, on the lakes above Llanfair Caereinion, for 90 years, and he speaks with sadness of the “spectre of wind farms over it . . . with a planning application having just gone in.”

Sensible and thoughtful, James is his own man. This is coupled with a keen understanding of his family’s history and he is proud of his ancestry and south Shropshire and Montgomeryshire connections, which can be traced back to the 16th century.

The exterior of the premises at Wyle Cop has changed little over the last 160 years

The Tanners have always been involved in agriculture, which continues in Australia today with cattle- and sheep-breeding operations, and James sees the wine business as an extension of this agricultural heritage. Closer to home, the Tanners have farmed at Eyton on Severn, and the very same farmer, Craig Tanner, a great uncle, was one of the best point-to-point jockeys of his generation.

Both the family name and family life are important to James. He points out that his youngest child, William, aged one, has the same name as the wine firm’s founder. “Of course he’s a bit young to know if he’ll join the business, isn’t he! But Katy and I do have three children, so there’s a good chance one of them will get involved. With a turnover of over £18 million last year, the key thing is to keep growing the business, especially if two or three children look like they may come into it.”

So it only remains to ask James for his advice on wines to look out for, as Christmas approaches.

“The key thing is to spend as much as you can afford. Each additional 50 pence spent on a bottle which retails between £4.50 and £7, will go straight into the quality of the wine.

“The region of the Mâconnais in Burgundy is where the most affordable white Burgundies are produced and the fantastic 2006 vintage is now beginning to come in. There are also plenty of new, exciting reds on the way from southern Italy, specifically Basilicata, Puglia and Sicily.”

James has been adept at blending his personal and professional passions and interests. Both self-aware and unassuming, he acknowledges: “What other jobs really combine being able to be your own boss, travel to wonderful places and work in one of the nicest bits of Britain? You’d be pretty mad not to do it if given the opportunity!”