North South celebrates ‘Ten Years Young’ anniversary

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 08 March, 2024

North South Wines marked its first decade yesterday (7 March) with its most comprehensive portfolio tasting to date, capped by a lively party at Covent Garden’s Bunga Bunga.

The B Corp’s Ten Years Young tasting, held at The Crypt on the Green in Clerkenwell, featured a roll call of producers pouring wines that included the likes of De Bortoli, La Gioiosa, The Wine People, Doña Paula and KWV, plus new agencies Vignobles André Lurton, Maison Brotte, and New Zealand winery Giesen.

This innovative company was celebrating its tenth year since its founding by MD Kim Wilson, a major shareholder alongside The Wine People, De Bortoli and Reh Kendermann, having been set up to partner with organic, family-owned producers, and fast-evolving to meet its goal of putting sustainability in all its forms to the fore.

A decade on, North South works with 35 producers, representing an 18m bottle business annually, distributing across all the major UK trade channels.

Speaking at the after-party, Wilson thanked both the producers and the North South team for making such a journey possible.

“It’s ten years to the day since I left Ehrmanns to set up North South Wines,” said Wilson, adding: “Today, where we’ve come from, that is just amazing, it’s been a whirlwind and there have been lots of things on the way, but we wouldn’t be here without everyone who supported us along the way, many of whom are in the room here – so thank you.”

The Wine People’s co-founder Stefano Girelli described Wilson as “an incredible entrepreneur”, saying that while there had been challenges along the way, North South Wines was now “where we wanted it to be”, with that success down to the work and vision of Wilson and her team.

Most recently North South has been growing its French portfolio, adding Rhone specialist Maison Brotte and Picpoul producer Domaine Félines Jourdan to its range in 2024, with estates such as Mirabeau from Provence and Cremant de Loire producer Louis de Grenelle also fairly recent additions to the range.

North South was an early signatory to Harpers Sustainability Charter as a top-tier Sustainability Champion and ranks as one of the most sustainably-driven businesses in the UK trade. Wilson added that she was confident that despite hurdles such as falling consumption, high duty and cost-of-living, the business would continue to thrive, with a five-year road map in place to lead it into its second decade.

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