WELCOME TO THE SAVAGE SELECTION WEBSITE

This website is a shop window rather than a shopping basket and is designed to give an insight into our style and scope. We hope that our range of wines will whet your appetite and encourage you to contact us for further information and advice. We are here to provide a level of service and information that it would be impossible and unreasonable to expect from a supermarket.

Our Approach...

Savage Selection is the distillation of more than 40 years of experience of travel and tasting through most of the world's wine regions, the well trodden and the obscure. It may be safely assumed that the wines that Mark selects have passed more than normal scrutiny in respect of natural balance, vitality and originality. To offer wines than can be considered as yardsticks of quality within their given appellation is not enough. Mark identifies and work with producers who have higher aspirations, and are not content with the merely satisfactory. Together we exist in order to provide solutions for those who are not satisfied by mediocrity.

As the market for wine in the UK and Ireland continues to grow, so does the number of discriminating consumers who demand more than the pedestrian offerings of the big brands or those producers whose greatest skill appears to lie in cutting corners to meet low price points, with the inevitable loss in quality that entails. For us, the most intriguing aspect of good wine is its potential for originality and we still think of interesting wine as an artisanal rather than an industrial product. As such we are committed 'terroirists', secure in the belief that a wine's uniqueness ultimately results from its place of origin and the joint influences of climate and soil when properly harnessed to good vineyard management. The voice of a given 'terroir' is thus the expression of a proper wine's own sense of place.

Furthermore, we recognise too that this voice is a quiet one, a subtle sound that is easily drowned by winemakers who interfere too much. We therefore look for intelligent and sensitive wine producers who allow this voice to be heard, who recognise that the old-fashioned virtues of elegance, balance and restraint are those that stand the test of time and who share our view that delicacy is a more difficult, but ultimately more satisfying result than sheer power. The overextracted designer blockbuster is the arch enemy of the drinker who wishes his wine to be refined and refreshing.

The Ox House Wine Company

The Ox House Wine Company was created recently as the result of a management buyout of the retail division of Savage Selection Ltd by Stephen Eggerton a former Director and is proud to continue the tradition of seeking out the original and authentic. The two companies now work in tandem, with Savage Selection as a share holder in the new enterprise and Mark Savage acting as principal supplier and consultant to the new business. The Ox House Wine Company has taken over responsibility for the management of the retail shop and winebar and will service private clients and 'on-trade' customers, leaving Savage Selection to focus principally on our consultancy work and developing sales to other wine merchants.

The Ox House Wine Company savage selection savage selection savage selection savage selection savage selection savage selection savage selection savage selection