Jascots appoints new head of fine wine proposition

Jascots has founded a new dedicated fine wine arm which is being led by Omar Raafat, the former director of fine wine at Bibendum.

Raafat, who joined the company in December, spent five years at Bibendum, and two years at Enotria, leading it’s fine wine division.

Jascot said that the move had been prompted by the rapid growth of fine wines in the last 12 months, which saw turnover rise by around 300% compared to its previous year’s record sales. With demand at an all-time high, Jascots is looking to develop the next stage of its fine wine proposition by offering as broad a selection of fine and rare vintages to the on-trade and independent off-trade.

Jascots Managing Partner Miles MacInnes said he was delighted that Raafat was joing at a very exciting moment in the business’s evolution as a business to develop a leading fine wine offer for our on-trade and independent retail customers.”

Raafat said it offered the opportunity to not only offer an industry-leading range of fine wine but also to set a new benchmark for service. “Fine wine can have a transformational effect on the profitability of our clients’ wine offers and we are determined to help venues of all sizes to unlock its potential,” he said.

A spokesman told db that while the focus continues to be the premium on trade, the opportunities across all channels were”very exciting”. This year it has seen around 250 new restaurant customers, and the growth of its Jascots at Home private customer channel to around 3,000 members.

“We are also looking to support our colleagues at Slurp with a fine wine offer for their retail customers,” they said. “All of these channels have shown an appetite for fine wine and we have seen growth in sales across the board.”

“With regards to the on trade, we strongly believe fine wine is not just the preserve of our many Michelin starred customers – there are plenty of great gastropubs with the customer base to sell fine wine to and we will work closely with them to deliver the right wines as part of their offer.”

The aim is to offer fine wines – from  growth Bordeaux to Super Tuscans, top Burgundy to the icons of California – to customers with the same level of service that is provided to its agency wines.

“We are busy building our stock holdings to support this alongside our growing range of agency wines. ”

By increasing its stock holdings, the new head of Fine Wine and his team will be able to offer more of the fine wines our customers are looking for with next day delivery.

“We are aided in our sourcing of these traded wines in part thanks to our relationship with Bordeaux negociant Yvon Mau giving us the freedom to source with confidence in quality, provenance, and value,” they said.

Founded in 1991, Jascots was bought by Freixenet Copestick out of administration in 2020, after a challenging year due to the impact of Covid-19 on its client base.