Pampas Wines was founded by Anglo-Argentine, or it should probably be Scottish-Argentine, Robbie Ryder many years ago. Fuelled by an entrepreneurial spirit, Robbie plunged into the highly competitive market of wine imports choosing to concentrate on the e-commerce angle to be able to compete. There are plenty of huge Wine retailers, like Majestic or Yapp Brothers, that are reliable, but since its inception Ryder, (followed by subsequent owners Chris Burton and now Robert Smedley and son) focussed on a more specialized, tailored approach that has attracted a large base of loyal and discerning customers. This specialized market decision has also seen them sell to some select restaurants like The Gaucho.
Robert Smedley, co-owner of Pampas Wines
Robert Smedley explains: -
“[Since] Robbie Ryder founded the company in 1993, his objective was to try and source quality wines from small suppliers with limited output, that he wanted to bring exclusively to the UK market … to concentrate on wines you could not get from Tesco, Waitrose, or even Majestic or whatever else. Robbie worked for us as a consultant for about 18 months, to help us get off the ground and get us working. and if something comes up, now, where we need his help, we give him a one- off project and he will help us with that. He’s in touch with various people, also if he spots something that might interest us, in terms of a new winery and new wines, he will let us know… Now, Robbie has his own vineyard, he has all sorts of things! Whenever we speak to him, he has just come from mending a tractor or … trying to get a steer back into the field…so he is into all sorts of things! He also produces olive oil and other things too. He’s a natural entrepreneur!”
Robbie Ryder
Since its inception, Pampas Wines has avoided mass-produced wines, concentrating instead on a selection of boutique wineries in Argentina, based in primarily Mendoza and Salta provinces, that have a unique range of premium wines. Some of these smaller producers are very colourful characters in their own right and many tours in Argentina now include them in their itineraries. Interestingly, Pampas Wine is one business that has not suffered in the Covid-19 pandemic, as Smedley explains: -
“… given the circumstances that we are living through at the moment, strangely and conversely, in a way that I wouldn’t have wished to happen, the Covid-19 pandemic has actually been a boost to our business! It is one of those situations where the benefits of being e-commerce have been exaggerated by people not wanting to go out to the shops, and being unable to go to restaurants.”
The co-owner of Pampas Wine today, Robert Smedley is a multi- talented man. He started out as a musician. Having learnt music since he was six year’s old, he later began to compose orchestral and incidental music for the BBC and other commissions.
‘La Serranía’ orchestral piece by Robert Smedley of Pampas Wines
“When I graduated from university I went into teaching, so I was a teacher for the first 6 years of my working life and I taught a lot of music and I was also writing music for the BBC and other local media as incidental music, so for instance I would get a commission when they were going to do a programme about the moon-landing. They would ask me to write a piece of music… so that is what I was grounded in. Then life and the job and family got in the way, and then I came back to it and started writing orchestral music about 15 years ago. Since then, I’ve had it published and played in Durham cathedral with a symphony orchestra.”
After his years of teaching, Smedley went into business where he learnt many of the skills that he is using today with Pampas Wines. Buying the Pampas Wines company seems to have been a natural progression: -
“I was initially a customer of Pampas Wines for over a decade. Whilst we live in the NE of England, (that’s where I’m from and where I ‘ve always been based), I worked for many, many years as a partner within a major professional services firm in London. During the week, I lived in London and on occasion, we were able to dine out at some very nice restaurants, one of which was The Gaucho on Chancery Lane. I think they have several outlets. A colleague and I sampled quite a lot of their Argentine red wines at the Gaucho and loved it, so I made some enquiries and found that you could actually buy it online, It turned out that the people who supplied The Gaucho were Pampas Wines with Robbie Ryder and then later it was Chris Burton as well. So, I found the website and started buying and my son Rob and I loved the wines and we bought a lot from Pampas Wines. We particularly enjoyed the exclusive nature of those wines that you couldn’t get anywhere else. We also found there was a nice feel to the company with a very personalized customer service. I come from a business background with a great deal of focus on customer service, so I always try to think as I would as a customer: How would I feel if I was to be treated that way, good or bad…and we try to bring that ethos to our business to this day.”
Smedley is painfully aware of the challenges of working in the wine business. It is a hugely competitive and difficult market and notoriously hard “to establish yourself as a name that is very much a small player in a very big market, that can "stack ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap"… Their buying power! So, the challenge has always been: how can we differentiate? Being niche, we are more expensive so we are having to compete on price all the time.”
But ‘You gets what you pay for’, and Pampas Wines has an excellent selection for those who enjoy a sophisticated quality to their wine. Other costs that wine import companies have to take into account is the high cost of keeping imported and as yet unsold wines stored in bonded warehouses so that the company only pays the relevant taxes when the product is sold.
“It’s a good idea [to have bonded warehouses] but you have to be careful because they charge a lot to hold the goods. You need about three months to get the wine out of Argentina to the UK, so it is always a delicate balancing act. You have to calculate how much you’ve got, and I think that in the early days, we tended to buy too much, especially because, clearly, it was quite slow to move to start with. We had a 3- year plan and it did build up. We expected it to be gradual but we didn’t expect it to be as gradual as it turned out to be… fortunately, it then accelerated, and now we have a loyal core of regular customers that is growing by the month.”
Cabernet de los Andes SA- Mendoza Argentina
Argentina is the 6th largest wine producer in the world, but until relatively recently, its output was largely for internal consumption. The wines were initially not of such high quality. I myself, recall in my youth when we would buy our wine in 10 litre demi-johns or Dama-Juanas for our ‘asados’- BBQ picnics on the delta islands of the River Plate.
Dama Juana/ Demi-John 10-litre bottle
In the 1860s, Phylloxera, a sap-sucking insect, was accidentally introduced to France, Britain and most of Europe from North America. The vineyards were decimated and after that, vines from the New World that had developed natural defences, were -re-introduced into Europe. The wine producers found that the most successful means of controlling the nasty bug was by grafting their vines onto phylloxera-resistant American rootstock as, in most of the Americas, the vines have some natural resistance. As it happens, Chile is one rare country that was never affected at all, as it has three natural barriers to protect it, the Atacama Desert in the North, the Andes to the east, and the Pacific Ocean West and South.
Argentina is largely associated with one particular grape. This famous MALBEC grape actually originated in Cahors in the south of France, where it was known as Côt. It was like a black gold for the area, being very popular, even in its day. In the 19th century, it was introduced to Argentina by Michel Pouget, probably thanks to the most remarkably enlightened president that Argentina ever produced, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. On April 17th 1853, he founded the research centre that was to bring international grape varieties to Argentina, and this date is now celebrated as ‘Malbec World Day’. Sarmiento also improved the lot of his country by writing to Napoleon III, who was busy incarcerating all the French intellectuals, writers, artists, philosophers and thinkers that he could lay his hands on. Sarmiento asked him to kindly put them on a boat and send them to Argentina, as he felt that his country was suffering from a dire lack of intellectual rigour and actually needed them. It was duly done and the country has benefitted forever more.
French oak barrels for maturing the wines
This ‘Côt’, black grape of Cahors flourished in Argentina, becoming the jewel of the vine, as the warm, sunny climate meant it was largely free of rot and frost. In under 100 years, Argentina had close to 60,000 hectares cultivated with Malbec, making it the most popular variety and it remains the champion of Argentina’s Wines. This Malbec grape can produce stunning wines, from the cool, floral notes of those grown in rocky, higher altitude lands to the spicier and spiky acidity of Salta and Mendoza. Meanwhile Argentine Wine exports are growing the whole time: -
Smedley: -
“We found that the advent of places like The Gaucho and other steak restaurants, the emergence of e-commerce, the fact that people travel a lot more to Argentina and that they now tour the vineyards and the wineries [has made a huge difference]. One of our wine producers is a wonderful chap called CARMELO PATTI … he is a legend. He basically runs his winery from his own garage, [it is a] family run boutique vineyard. He is also our greatest salesman; he always points the [visitors] in our direction… we are guaranteed to get orders after a Carmelo Patti wine tour.”
Carmelo Patti and his wines
Carmelo Patti wines
Malbec may be the grand favourite and big seller, but it is not the only popular grape: -
“There are, as you’d expect, [many] red wines, the red grape varieties, which are associated with Argentina, particularly the Malbec. We carry a range of Malbec wines, but we also have some wonderful blends and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as blends, such as Malbec, Cabernet and Syrah blends. Now we’re also selling a lot of Tannat, which is emerging as, maybe, the new Malbec. Particularly from the North, Cafayate, in the province of Salta, where the grapes are grown at altitude, they produce some very flavoursome wines. Such as those from Bodega El Transito. The team from there produce a lovely Tannat, Pietro Marini (Pietro Marini Roble / Gran Cortes)."
Bodega el Tránsito wines
"It is a wonderful location and one of the things that I underestimated, rather foolishly when I went to Argentina, is that I didn’t realize what a big country it is! I had decided I would do it by car. Nothing like a 3000mile round trip! Buenos Aires- Mendoza- Salta and back to Buenos Aires… a very interesting 3 weeks! The biggest danger is boredom as the roads are so straight! The best way to get around is by [sleeper] buses…It is an amazing country and when you get to see the foothills of the Andes … it is a ‘wow’ experience. Apparently, there is a train, El tren de las Nubes, [The Train of the Clouds], I think it’s in Salta, and it runs along the eastern part of the Salta/Antofagasta railway line connecting the Argentine Northwest with Chile across the Andes.”
El Tren de las Nubes- Salta to Antofagasta in Chile.
Robert Smedley has now been considering expanding their selection of wines and has been looking at Uruguay, with their Tannat and Albariño varieties, as well as wines from Patagonia.
“We wanted to establish more ranges from Argentina first, for instance, I would like to get some Patagonian Wines if I can, as that is an area that we don’t currently cover, but I have tasted some and they are exquisite. It is the whites that we’re after, as we have a limited range of whites. It has tended to be Torrontés or Chardonnay. These also tends to be oak- Chardonnay which some people love but some people don’t. I love the Calathus Chardonnay which is, in effect, one of my favourite wines. We want to broaden the range, perhaps by sourcing Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Alberiño as well. If we can introduce that into our range, Patagonia might be a good bet as a source for some of those wines.”
The Albariño grape originally came from Galicia in NW Spain, and has been used to make white wines like Vinho Verde in Portugal. These are dry whites with aromas of citrus and peach. In some cases, they can also have characteristics of grapefruit, lemon peel, apricot and sweet melon. They tend to be light bodied, low in tannins but high in acid. Now these are being grown in Argentina and in Uruguay, such as some new areas near Maldonado on the coast, Canelones (with a mild Atlantic climate) or even Carmelo, which faces the city of Buenos Aires across the River Plate.
Smedley was loth to admit to having a favourite wine: -
“It’s very hard to say, because I like all of our wines. But if I was going to have just one, it would be the Calathus Malbec Grand Reserve which I absolutely love. It is full-bodied, yet surprisingly smooth with a wonderful finish. We also have a lovely relationship with Finca Don Carlos that produces it.”
Finca Don Carlos's Calathus Gran Reserva Malbec
This splendid specimen has been described as having “an aroma of ripe summer and autumnal fruits and ‘on the tongue’ there’s the classic Malbec trifecta of liquorice, cassis and vanilla, finished by soft, rounded tannins.” Now there’s a tribute! Velvet in a glass!
Robert Smedley and his son have been developing a new website to introduce more information and colour: -
“As we refine the website, we are going to try to introduce other things as well, particularly as we are bringing in new wines, but also perhaps keeping the blog of today, and what is happening in the world of Argentine wine… what’s happening in the world of Pampas Wines… we just want to make it more contemporary and modern.”
Pampas Wines are also moving into a variety of fine sparkling wines such as those by Bodega Cruzat, which boasts the wine- maker Pedro Rosell, who is known as the ‘King of the Bubbles’ having worked at some of France’s most prestigious Champagne houses. We hope that their new website will also get to include more on the interesting and colourful wine producers that create these wonderful wines, they each carry interesting histories of their own.
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