Meeting the Collectors – In Conversation with Ahmad

Photo by Ning Shi on Unsplash

In this mini-series of articles, ARENI meets with Fine Wine collectors from all over the world. 

Ahmad has residences in multiple cities, with most of his family in Koweit but developing his health-care start-up business in London. He is a Burgundy aficionado, follows Jancis Robinson, and is loyal to his Fine Wine merchants.

ARENI:

How did the pandemic affect your life ?

Ahmad:

As a person who is multi-city or multi-country, part my children, are in the UK. It’s been a challenge, because I haven’t been able to go back to see my mum and dad and brother and other parts of the family. But it coincided with my personal need to remain a lot more in the UK. I’ve just started a business. I’m very focused on that.

Thankfully, with the likes of Zoom, it’s actually taken away a lot of the time you waste in life, whether it be commuting or unnecessary dinners. It just made one reflect on what’s important. My walk has become a daily routine, not because of exercise, but because I realized it’s one of the joys of life.

ARENI:

Part of your business is investing in businesses. Have you ever considered investing in a wine-related business?

Ahmad:

I’ve never really invested in a wine business. I’m not interested in fractional ownership of a vineyard. It’s a sort of folly and I invest to make money.

I’m not your quintessential banker/hedge fund guy, that’s ordering $3,000 bottle of wine at dinner. I’ve never done that and I think it’s a bit uncouth. I think what I get excited by is actually finding good wine at a very attractive price.

ARENI:

How are you involved in tech as a consumer? Has any device changed the way you order or buy?

Ahmad:

I’ve always been a tech adopter. I use technology quite excessively in my life, whether it’s devices, whether it’s my books, I read my books online. I think the notion of buying more paper, it doesn’t make sense to me, except if it’s a special book, if it’s a nice book and I would love to have it.

ARENI:

Do you use a voice system to order?

Ahmad:

No. Alexa and Siri are not yet to the state where they can actually respond well. In the same way, I think that even the use of Delectable [the app], which I use, isn’t really a hundred percent accurate. I use it more as a wine diary and I think it’s very US oriented in terms of the pricing.

I’m old school, I like going to Berry Brothers where I’ve had an account for years and where it’s a process of browsing and thinking and learning. Part of the shopping experience is learning from the expert.

ARENI:

What is luxury for you?

Ahmad:

My pleasure shopping is far and few in between. I’ve become sort of very Japanese in my approach. I wear a black t-shirt every day, the same jeans. I don’t have a very big wardrobe. I realize I wear the same things every day. I know where to buy them. I buy them in one go and that’s it. I don’t have to stress about, you know, this. My specific shopping will be more unique things that I will find or something that I would pick up somewhere in a city I’ve been in and is interesting.

I used to collect watches. I don’t do that anymore.

Having possessions is overwhelming. You know, lots of people in my network have more money than God and they continually acquire stuff. You know, with wine, I’ve been less of a collector and more of a drinker lately.

I have a cellar, but I haven’t been really focused on just buying and acquiring more in that cellar. I think I have enough to drink for a few years, but I used to collect wine. At 23, I was buying wines at auction in New York, for fun. Not a lot. I’ve done that, I’ve bought wine. I’ve had a cellar. Over 2,000 boxes of wine in my cellar. I sold all of that because I left the US and it just didn’t make sense to have them brought back here.

ARENI:

What is Fine Wine for you?

Ahmad:

You start learning about wine in a variety of ways, whether it’s just by drinking when you’re young in a restaurant and picking up information. The world has changed. Now I can go online and learn so much. Before I just had to buy the Wine Spectator or spend time at Sherry Lehmann in New York and read certain books. Now it’s a lot more prevalent in terms of the availability of information.

Similarly, you start from defining fine wine by cachet names, right? Whether it’s the big Bordeaux’s of the world and what everybody talks about. When I started buying that was the big thing. People in the US were just wanting Bordeaux and the 82 was a big thing.

And slowly but surely, you start to have a bit more finesse. You travel, you start to realise, and that’s how I ended up in Pinot country.

I started to move away from those types of wines. One is because you need to drink those wines really aged. They are great wines, but they need to be aged for at least 25 years. And then they have that elegance to them. Whereas, you know, if you drink Pinot young, it doesn’t have that roughness around the edges.

It’s been an interesting transition into that. And the more I learn, the more I get excited about it, and the more I understand it. So here, what I consider elegance or fine wine, I wouldn’t say is specifically the cachet names like Romanée Conti, but wines by interesting smaller producers that are fascinating.  And so, you know, that’s the type of things that I get excited about. And I think that’s what I define as good wine. I wouldn’t say fine wine.

It has to be something that actually really reflects that terroir at the roots, and it’s not combined with crazy things to make to a specific palate.

ARENI:

What’s your main source of information or education when it comes to fine wine?

Ahmad:

Books and the internet. I read anything. I like Janice Robinson’s [Financial Times column]. I get interested by her. I think she’s an interesting Master of Wine. I also think the Times has a good section on wine. If I find an interesting book, I’ll read about it, but I’m not studying the subject. If you look at my YouTube feed, it’s like physics, history, chess, poker, wine, music-making, you know, music theory.

ARENI:

Is there a point where wine gets too expensive for you?

Ahmad:

Yes. I do have a price limit. I bought a bottle for $900. Yes. I’ve done that. Or £900. Yes. But it’s not a regular purchase for me. I’ll buy everything between £15 to £30 on a regular basis and on an irregular, I’ll buy from £30 to £100. The odd time, 20% of the time, I’ll go from £100 to £250.

If I’m buying young, it has to be higher up the chain in terms of going from Premier to Grand Cru or whatever. And then I’ll spend £200 a bottle.

ARENI:

How many bottles of wine do you have in your cellar?

Ahmad:

I have about 900 bottles. I drink now. I’ll buy maybe a case of wine, but I will drink it in two weeks. I mean, that’s easy for me to do.

ARENI:

You mentioned Berry Bros & Rudd. Do you only get your Fine Wine through wine merchants?

Ahmad:

No. I mean, sometimes I’ll find the wine that I really like and I’ll go on Wine Searcher and I’d find a wine shop in Manchester that has it and I’ll buy it from them. I am definitely a Berry Bros customer for many years and I am loyal to them. I do buy wines from odd from Oddbins. I buy wines from Nicolas. Oddbins has interesting wines, by the way. You’ll have different wines and the character of the wines and the shop will actually reflect that seller.

ARENI:

When talking about the wine merchants, are there particular parts of the service and the experience that they offer to you as a customer that’s really important for you?

Ahmad:

Spending time with the customer is important because a lot of times they’re not willing to ask a question or don’t know what they want. I am a very service oriented human being.

I think that today, the world needs more service and less snobbiness around what they’re trying to sell. I bought watches. I bought cars. I don’t like places that don’t make you feel comfortable. Life’s too short.

ARENI:

Which regions are you particularly excited about today?

Ahmad:

I like cold climate Pinot. I used to like my whites that drink like reds and my reds that drink like whites, but I can’t do any more of the heavy white Chardonnay. I can’t do the Chardonnays. I spend a lot of time in Austria. I think they have interesting wines. I like single variety. I’ll even do Pinot Grigios if they’re a good Pinot Grigio.

The only Champagne I can drink and I sometimes enjoy it has to be bone dry.

I like Rhone. I like Syrah as a grape. It’s fantastic to drink one grape where you can literally understand the terroir, not the winemaker’s ability to blend the wine to a specific palate.

ARENI:

Does anything worry you in regards to the Future of Fine Wines?

Ahmad:

I don’t want to go down the road of losing the independent merchants, or losing the independent producers. I don’t want to have a vineyard needing to make a specific amount of wine to be sustainable. I don’t want to lose sight of discovering something new. I want people to be encouraged to come in and do and make new wines if they are passionate about it.

This interview was recorded in October 2020 and has been lightly edited.

For more information on Fine Wine Collectors: