⚙️ Table Talk #164: Another Chair at the Table 🪑
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Written by Luke Hemsley
TABLE TALK #164
If there’s one image that’s sat at the heart of Wednesday’s Domaine since the very start, it’s a table.
Not a perfectly laid one. Not styled within an inch of its life. Just a good, honest table - noisy, crowded and full of people who’ve decided to stay a bit longer than planned.
There’s food on it. Half-finished plates. Bottles dotted about. And, most importantly, there’s choice. Some people are drinking. Some aren’t. Some are on their second glass, others are pacing themselves. Nobody’s really keeping track.
That’s always felt like the point.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
Because for all the talk of what’s changing in how we drink, what hasn’t changed is why we gather.
We still want the long lunches that drift into evening. The midweek catch-ups that turn into “just one more”. The ritual of opening something, pouring it out, raising a glass - not because we have to, but because it marks a moment.
What has changed, gradually but decisively, is how people want to feel while doing it. There’s a growing instinct to find a better balance. To enjoy the night without writing off the morning. To stay present, to stretch things out, to choose what suits you - not what you feel expected to do.
And yet, for a long time, the options haven’t quite caught up with that mindset. You were either in, or out. Drinking, or not. Full throttle or nothing at all.
Life, as it turns out, is a bit more nuanced than that.
Which is why this next step for us feels less like a launch, and more like a natural extension of what we’ve always been trying to do.
From day one, Wednesday’s Domaine has been about making yes the default. About creating something that welcomes people in, rather than excluding them. Not just a drink, but a seat at the table.
So, alongside our
0.0% wines, we’re introducing something new. Wines that sit somewhere in the middle -
6.5% to be exact - offering a little lift, a little looseness, while keeping things firmly in balance.
Still considered. Still built around the same idea: that you should be able to enjoy the ritual, the flavour and the feeling of sharing a drink - in whatever way suits you. Because modern drinking doesn’t look one way anymore. It looks like choice.
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
Some nights call for clarity. Others for a gentle glow. Sometimes you want to be fully in the moment and fully functional the next day. Sometimes you want to stretch things out without tipping over the edge.
Often, it’s all of the above - just on different days of the week.
That’s what “modern wines for modern times” has always meant to us. Not rewriting the rules entirely, but loosening them. Making space for more people, more occasions, more ways of doing things.
The goal isn’t to take anything away. It’s to add.
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
What feels like a lifetime ago, when our 6.5% wines were just a twinkle in our eye, I sat down with Zoe Fox on the
Getting to Grow podcast to talk about what it really takes to build a brand in a category people don’t always take seriously - and why that’s exactly what makes it interesting.
We got into everything from the psychology of drinking, to why most people don’t actually want to stop entirely, just to rebalance, and what it means to build something that doesn’t feel like a compromise.
If you’re curious about how we think about all this behind the scenes, it’s a good listen.
Until next week,
Luke x