Can-do attitude helps wine business finally taste success

HENRY CONNELL had spent years painstakingly building up his canned English wine business, The Uncommon, when he gathered his family around the TV to savour a taste of its success.

- Lucy Tobin

One of its wines was about to be featured on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. “I got everyone in the living room to watch,” he says. “And as soon as Brian McFadden from [Nineties boyband] Westlife opened our can he was … less than complimentary. In fact, just rude. He said it tasted like washing-up liquid.”

Luckily the entrepreneur is able to see the funny side of the unfortunate live TV experience and has had plenty of other measures of success.

Since he launched the business with friend and graphic designer Alex Thraves in 2008, sales have doubled annually, and are set to hit £2.7 million this year, with stockists including M&S and Waitrose. Connell has big plans: “We want to take 1% of the UK sparkling wine market. This doesn’t sound like a huge amount but it’s a £4 billion industry”. And it all started when he was robbed in Barcelona seven years ago.