ABOUT US

INTRODUCING MENTZENDORFF

We are very proud to retain the name of our founder Ludwig Mentzendorff, who sailed to London from Riga in 1850 and we continue to distribute the brand he brought with him – Mentzendorff Kümmel, still faithfully produced for us to this day according to the original recipe.

However, the central thread of the Mentzendorff story remains our 154-year unbroken agency for Champagne Bollinger, which Ludwig Mentzendorff agreed with the Jacques Bollinger in January 1858. Ludwig established the Bollinger brand within a thriving Victorian society, being particularly proud to have gained the first Royal Warrant for Bollinger in 1884. When Ludwig, who never retired, passed away in 1901 the business stayed within his family, passing to his son Stanley and then to his cousin Toby Folks, both of whom were greatly helped by the eminent Harry Newman, who effectively managed the business until 1932 and who coined the phrase "Special Cuvée" to describe Bollinger's superior quality Non-Vintage Champagne in 1911.

By the outbreak of World War II Bollinger was firmly positioned at the head of the UK Champagne market. However, following difficulties in the Champagne market caused by the war and the ensuing economic difficulties, Champagne Bollinger took financial control of the business in the early 1960's; retaining the ethos and family business model via successive Managing Directors who carefully added quality family owned agencies to the portfolio – most notably Delamain Cognac in 1964 and Fonseca Port in 1977.

The Fonseca Port agency was to lead to the formation of what could be termed "modern Mentzendorff" as Taylor Fladgate (owners of Fonseca) purchased a minority share of the business in 1990 and introduced Taylor's Port to the portfolio. Bollinger now had a partner brand of equal status and this was to create the path for the company to expand into new channels of distribution and to also further expand the portfolio, with most notably M.Chapoutier, newly headed by the young Michel Chapoutier, joining in the early 1990s.

Today Mentzendorff remains one of the very few remaining "full service" agency houses, offering its Principals quality distribution in all channels of the UK market from the finest of London's restaurants, through the traditional merchants to our supermarket groups – we have specialist sales teams working closely with all our customers. We are also very proud of our carefully selected Agency portfolio, at the core of which remains our Shareholders' two globally renowned brands, but which we have strategically expanded in Champagne with Ayala and in fortified wines with Croft Port, Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla Henriques & Henriques Madeira. We also continue to strongly develop our quality wine portfolio which includes Klein Constantia, Roda, Domaine Chanson, Turkey Flat Vineyards, The Crossings, Tapanappa & most recently the innovative cool climates Chilean producer Casa Marin from the San Antonio Valley.

Andrew Hawes