Community Spotlight – Aghiles Ourad, founder of The Other Grape

Aghiles Ourad is the founder of ‘The Other Grape’, importing quality wines from the Arab world. He aims to spotlight ‘both the forgotten grapes and their untold stories’.

Tell me a bit about yourself…

I was born in Algeria but I grew up in Birmingham. English is my mother tongue, but I grew up in an Algerian home. So, I’ve always had these two identities. I came of age during the war on terror, if you want to put it that way. At the start I didn’t understand the significance of its impact on me. After I’d had a few run-ins with the authorities, although I’d never done anything other than being in a public place, being randomly checked had an effect on me. I felt almost like an imposter in my own society. This led me to go on this quest for identity which has played out in this desire to bring Arab wines into the UK. The fact that these countries are majority Muslim, but they make wine which is alcoholic. I think that fits in really well with my mixed identity.

M

One of the main aspects of English society is its drinking culture. For my Algerian side, the rest of the Arab world and with countries that are majority Muslim, alcohol is seen as taboo and as something that shouldn’t be a part of society but it still is. After living in Algeria for work I discovered that the wine industry is not only good, but full of interesting stories and history. I have always been interested in wine and after spending a lot of time during summer holidays working in restaurants and dealing with nice wine, that piqued my interest. I’ve been doing that on and off since I was 19. Then in the past year I set up the Other Grape. I know that there are these fantastic stories and histories, society, religion intertwined with the wines, and because it almost sat well with my identity as well, I wanted to pursue it and rise to the challenge of bringing these wines over. 

M

Can you name the thing you love the most about wine?

The variety. From one plant, you can have this huge range of fundamentally different expressions. You can go from something very tart to something really sweet, or really light to really heavy. It’s a way of life, whether it’s for the winemaker who is tending the wines out in the field, to the person who is drinking the wine at home or in a bar. And the fact that you can feel the elements in the wine, and understand why the wine might taste or feel a certain type of way, it really opens up the world. You understand why a certain type of wine can come from a really hot country or a certain type of soil. Of course, it’s not just the biological or natural element to it but the fact that there are humans behind this, and the effect that this has on society, especially in the Arab world, is fascinating. 

M

Have you encountered any challenges in your career to date?

Haha, yes. There’s a demand and supply challenge. In terms of demand, there’s a lot of people that want to try something new. There are a lot of people who are just happy with the wine that they enjoy and they’ll buy time and time again. There is quite a bit of work to be done to convince someone to part with a sum of money to try something new. It’s quite risky. We found that wine from the Arab and Muslim world is a paradox to people. They’ll question whether it’s going to be any good or not. With the fact that it’s still quite expensive to bring it over, more to do with poor transport links, it’s hard for people to take a risk and then go for it. We’re talking about bottles that are between £12 and £20, it takes a certain type of person to spend that sort of money and you have to have at least one anchor to the region. Maybe you’re originally from there or you have a friend from there, or you may have visited there. In that aspect, the demand is quite difficult to reach. 

M

The supply side, there are just many many obstacles. These are countries that tend to import more than they export. You have rife instability in many of them as well. With wine there are a lot of tricks which bring the costs down of importing the wine. However, because there’s not that many people importing wine from North Africa and the Middle East, save Lebanon and Turkey, you’re almost forced to get a container full. And it’s not possible to do that at the moment. There are serious structural challenges in being able to commercialise these wines properly and get within that price range that would make people try them and realise that they love them.

Are you able to name your proudest moment so far during that journey?

Definitely. The proudest moment so far… we have a TrustPilot with over 40 reviews and everyone has given five stars, which I wasn’t expecting. I know the wine is great. But I wasn’t expecting that. We’ve held a few wine tastings, and I wasn’t expecting the feedback that we got from them. People really engaged with the stories and the wine they loved as well. I imagine that getting negative feedback is normal for any start-up and you have to learn to deal with it. The reception we’ve got from the wine so far is incredible. So that’s really gratifying and validating.

M

Do you have any plans or hopes for the future?

Investment! To know exactly what I want is difficult. For me, the hope is to hit scale and to make profit where there is a return on investment because at the moment it’s not there and it’s really quite hard. Being able to prove a business case and show that there is enough space in the UK market for wines from the Arab world. Also, to show that it is profitable is the biggest challenge that we’re facing. And it could take a while. The fact that the praise and positive reception that we’ve got is really encouraging. The fact that the wine is good itself is really encouraging. We just need to be able to find a way to make it work. 

The future of hospitality is…

Feeding curiosity. That’s what we’re trying to do.

M

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