Pick the style, the grape, the bottle and the label. We make it, bottle it at source and ship it by the pallet.
Past buyers include
Build your wine
Choose the style, the winemaker and the bottle, then put your name on the label. The spec goes to David with your brief.
Your spec Red wine made by Fernando Castro in Valdepeñas, in 75 cl Bordeaux bottles, under your own label.
Add This Spec to My BriefClosures, label artwork and volumes are agreed with David.
Labels we’ve made
From a Dubai hotel’s house wine to a cricketer’s Tempranillo: wines we have created for buyers on three continents.
Our Masia J blends were the hotel’s opening house wines in 2003, poured for four years. Then came Incognito: South African wines blended for the hotel, carrying its logo.
Four Sandpiper wines from the Languedoc went into Morrisons in 2005. By 2009 it was the seventh largest Southern French brand in the UK, and it came back in July 2026 with new labels.
An exclusive Tempranillo, a sparkling wine in 2017 and The Red, a Shiraz worked out through tastings in Canada and Europe.
Spanish varietals under bright, simple compass labels, first made for Market Basket in 2018.
A Bordeaux from Château Bauduc, first served at Turf Moor on 5 December 2018. £1.50 a bottle went to Prostate Cancer UK and the Barry Kilby appeal.
Six wines for the former England cricketer Phil Tufnell, with his portrait on the label, sold only through Virgin Wines from 2021.
Who makes it
David Rowledge started Alchemy in 2002 to shorten the supply chain between winemaker and buyer. You deal with the people who make the wine.
Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Boris has run our winemaking and bulk buying in France since 2003. He took the French National Diploma of Oenology at Montpellier, worked a vintage in Margaret River and co-founded Domaine de l’Agly at Latour-de-France.
Valdepeñas, central Spain
A family bodega since 1850, with 380 hectares around Santa Cruz de Mudela, 705 metres up in DO Valdepeñas. Masia J, The Red and The White are made there with us.
Boris is the winemaking artist. David drives the commercial side.
Together for over 20 years
The top of a range
Carignan from a parcel of vines over 100 years old in the Languedoc, and a 100-year-old Tempranillo from central Spain.
“A standout wine in every sense.”
“Great concentration and density for the price.”
“Old vines bring excellent concentration, and the wine finishes smooth and long.”
“A rewardingly savoury wine with notable elegance and weight.”
From brief to pallet
From your brief to a pallet leaving the winery, in six stops.
Boris or Fernando picks the grapes and parcels for your brief.
Blends are tasted and changed until they fit your brief.
Bottled at source: Sandpiper at Celliers Jean d’Alibert, 6,000 bottles an hour.
Your label on every bottle and on the outer case.
Collected straight after bottling, to keep stockholding down.
Freight quotes from Hillebrand, or from GORI for the USA.
“Such agility is all the more welcome as it is not conditional on massive volumes of individual SKUs.”
The minimum order
Sandpiper’s minimum order of 490 cases of 12 fills seven VMF pallets exactly, five layers of 14 cases on each.
7
full VMF pallets
Sandpiper’s minimum is 490 cases of 12, which is seven VMF pallets. For a wine under your own label it depends on the wine and the format, so give David a rough case count in your brief.
Mostly in the Languedoc-Roussillon with Boris Kovac, and in Valdepeñas in central Spain at Bodegas Fernando Castro. We also work with partners in Italy, Georgia, Chile, the USA, New Zealand and Australia when a brief needs them.
No. We work with winemakers and growers we have known for years: Boris Kovac and growers from Nézignan-l’Évêque to Limoux in the Languedoc, and the Castro family’s 380 hectares in Valdepeñas.
Yes. We make wines under exclusive labels and buyers’ own brands, and can source different grape varieties and blends for them. You can also take one of our ranges, such as Sandpiper or La Révérence.
75 cl bottles, 150 cl magnums, 18.75 cl bottles and bag-in-box, with a Stelvin Lux screwcap or a cork and capsule. We have also made 1.5 litre pouches for Japan.
Yes. We have shipped to Canada, the USA, Dubai, China and Japan and prepare the documents each market needs. Freight quotes come through Hillebrand, or GORI into the USA, on standard VMF or Euro pallets.
The brief
Send David Rowledge the outline: who you are, the styles and roughly how much. Anything you set in the builder comes with it.
Your wine so far
Your name
Nothing set in the builder yet
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