In the spotlight
Yannick from YanFlorijn Wijn
Do what you love and you will love what you do; that’s kind of what YanFlorijn Wijn is founded on. And it shows! With a great list of natural and artisan wines, full of expression and energy, you can feel the good vibrations. Read on for more about their business and vision plus some of Yannick’s top wine tips right now.
Q: In a few sentences, tell us about YanFlorijn Wijn.
A: YanFlorijn Wijn was founded from a desire to do good while enjoying one of the very good things in life. To combine the pleasant with the useful. For this reason we exclusively import organic, natural wines from small artisan wineries in Europe. Our wines are delicious, sustainable and pure. The grapes are grown in healthy, biodiverse vineyards - filled with not only vines, but trees, flowers, herbs and all the little bugs and insects. The grape juice is fermented and bottled without all sorts of procedures and additives to ‘create’ a desired flavour or appearance. The flavour is in the grapes! Pure, unadulterated, expressive wines, attained in harmony with nature.
Q: What about You personally, why are you working with this? What's your story?
A: I have no background in hospitality or whatever, but certainly have a big love for wine - and so does my partner Floor, who I met at a traineeship about sustainability. Those two things, wine and sustainability, eventually amalgamated into our business.
We knew of the harmful impact of conventional viticulture on the environment, so we preferred to drink organic or biodynamic wines, but we weren't actually aware of this thing called 'natural wine' back then. It was through the winemakers of some of the organic and biodynamic wineries that we visited during our holidays that we were introduced to the concept of less/minimal intervention winemaking. It opened our eyes to what kind of a product wine often is: no different from all the other products in the supermarket with long lists of ingredients and additives. And we were amazed by the vibrant, energetic wines that we tasted from these winemakers!
This brought about the idea of importing sustainably grown, minimally intervened wines. Because we were also amazed by the fact that we were ignorant of it before, despite the several levels of a wine course we had done. We wanted to spread the word and, of course, the wine.
Q: What is your favourite bottle in your store right now, and Why should we all buy one?
A: Ask me again in a month and the answer will be different, but currently I just keep coming back to Andi Weigand's 2019 'SILVANER' from Franconia, Germany. In the perfect moment right now: super fresh, rich and with this lovely flinty, reductive aroma. The magic of yeast!
It's so easy and thirst-quenching: perfect for a first glass on Friday after a long week of work. (Great MOOD BOOSTER wine!)
Q: From your shop right now, name a bottle that you consider to be perfect for IMPRESSING YOUR WINE LOVING FRIENDS.
A: 2012 Perill Noir from Clos Lentiscus, because it's an incredible wine, nearly a decade old, but still drinking incredibly young and vibrant! There's so much going on in this wine, with an amazing balance and an incredible purity to it. Natural wine in optima forma.
Yannick and Floor at the YanFlorijn Wijn warehouse