Category: News

It Came From Outer Skipton…

Posted on by Andrew Stark

The Wright Wine & Whisky Company has teamed up with The Liberator, Richard Kelley MW (Master of Wine) to bottle a limited-edition red blend, which is inspired by a 67 year-old French law relating to UFO’s.

Liberator Skipton

“It Came From Outer Skipton…” is a from the Newton Johnson winery in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley on the South African south coast. A blend of Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes, it is an assemblage not dissimilar to that which you would encounter in the Châteauneuf du Pape region of France, where a ban on UFO’s has now been in force since 1954.

The law, which was created to protect the vineyards, forbids the ‘flight, landing and take-off of spacecraft’, known as soucoupes volantes or cigars volants.

Due to Skipton’s location not too far from the RAF Menwith Hill military base, whose giant ‘golf balls’ (called Radomes) give the moorland the look of a science-fiction film set, as well as a love of the Syrah and Mourvèdre blend, The Wright Wine Company and Richard Kelley devised a plan to bottle something a bit special and quirky.

Richard (whose Liberator alter-ego is known as Rick) took the brief and ran with it – combining his long-standing connections within the South African wine industry and well-known sense of imagination to come up with “It Came From Outer Skipton…” which plays on the UFO and obscure French law theme.

Richard Kelley MW, said;
“I love South African wine and am a Francophile at heart too. The similarities between these South African and French blends were too similar to ignore, so was perfect for Julian and team at the Wright Wine Company to do something a bit different for their customers.”

Stella, Les, Richard, Julian and Katie

Julian Kaye, Managing Director, The Wright Wine & Whisky Company added;
“We absolutely love The Liberator wines and the chance to do something bespoke with Richard was too good to miss. Having our faces on a bottle is a bit strange to say the least – but giving a wine-themed nod to our local area – as well as a classic wine such as Le Cigare Volant is fantastic. Plus, the wine is spectacular too.”

“It Came From Outer Skipton…” was launched at the end of October and is available in store and here.

Wright Wine Company, Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Wright Wine Co donates over £450 to Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Posted on by Andrew Stark

Skipton-based wine and spirits merchant, the Wright Wine Company, have donated over £450 to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, mainly from the sales of wooden wine packaging crates to customers.

The retailer and wholesaler, whose shop has been a feature in Skipton since 1982, is traditionally known as a wine merchant, although also stocks several thousand bottles of spirits too. Their wine is delivered from all parts of the globe, with French wine in particular coming in branded wooden crates for protection.

Julian Kaye, Managing Director said;

“Some of the vineyard’s branding on the crates is quite ornate – and customers started taking a shine to them. At first we just gave them away, or used them for firewood – but we then had the idea to charge a small, nominal fee – every penny of which goes to charity.”

Customers have reportedly been using the crates as window boxes for herbs, additions to ferret runs or simply re-purposing them as presentation boxes for gifts. As the crates are not returnable to the vineyards, finding a way to reuse and upcycle them is an additional benefit alongside the fundraising.

Julian continues;

“The Yorkshire Air Ambulance provides a fantastic service that covers the more rural and inaccessible parts of Yorkshire, as well as the well-travelled and more densely populated. It’s certainly of benefit to us in this part of North Yorkshire, and we’re proud to support them.”

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity was set up in 2000 to provide fast medical reponce to the Yorkshire region. It costs around £4.4 million pounds per year to run.

Linda Stead, North Yorkshire Regional Fundraiser for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said:

“We would like to say a huge thank you to The Wright Wine Company for their support and generosity and raising an impressive £450 through selling old wine crates. This is such an inventive way to not only raise money for a fantastic cause, but help give older items a new lease of life.

It costs £12,000 a day to keep both of Yorkshire’s Air Ambulances maintained and in the air and the money raised will help tremendously towards the vital running of our service and help us continue saving lives across region.”

The importance of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance cannot be understated – flying time from Skipton to Leeds General Infirmary, for example, is just 11 minutes – whereas by road could take over 60 minutes.

Photo: Wright Wine Company’s Dave Baxter readies more boxes in the name of charity. (Happy Birthday Dave!!).

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About Yorkshire Air Ambulance

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a life saving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across the whole of Yorkshire. The service is operational seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Charity currently attend an average of 5 incidents every single day. Last year (2019) they attended 1,598 incidents and carried 364 of those to hospital for emergency treatment.

https://www.yorkshireairambulance.org.uk

Forget Dry-January. Celebrate Pie-anuary.

Posted on by Andrew Stark

There was no room for ‘Dry January’ or ‘Veganuary’ in this corner of Skipton over the weekend.

Committed as we are to fine wines and accompanying food, we embraced ‘Pie-anuary’ – where, at our regular end of month in-store wine tasting, we matched a series of wines with some of the finest pork pies from Skipton. And Skipton does some good pork pies.

On the last Saturday of very month (except December) we host an informal and free wine tasting between midday and 3pm, with visitors taking advantage of 10% off the wines of the day.