Frogs & Clogs Who??
We are an independent, very small natural wine importer based in Leiden,
Zuid Holland, with our own physical shop here too.
We try to find little gems in this crazy world of winemaking.
We look for the right wineries for us and for you — the ones making wines
hat really stand out. So we drive to these areas ourselves, meet the
winemakers, and get a feel for what they do and why they do it. That's
essential for us to be able to sell their wines properly.
We source and import from winemakers who don't yet export to Holland.
That means all our wineries are small, boutique operations run by owners who really care. In addition, all of them practice biodynamic and sustainable viticulture. The wines we import come in small amounts, since these are small-scale producers making limited quantities of their little gems.
For our first two years, before we even had a shop, we focused on just one region: the Alsace.
As soon as we got our shop here in Leiden, we started driving further — to Germany, Beaujolais, Corbières and Bergerac. In the years after that, we added Savoie and Piemonte to the list.
The Alsace will always be strongly represented though — it's where this whole thing started.
Just a quick note on how we got here:
Our background is very much in hospitality — French and Dutch. We met in 2013 while working at St. John's Tavern, a beautiful, brilliant gastropub in Archway, London. After that, we each moved on to different places and countries. Marie-Lou went to Coq d'Argent and Fera at Claridge's, both in London, then back to mainland Europe to work at different restaurants, shops and wineries. I went to Andrew Edmunds and Bedales Wines, both in London, then moved to Rome to work at Marigold Roma.
While we were in different countries, we always tried to meet up whenever and wherever we could. Because of Corona, we both got stuck in one place for the first time in years, and had time to think about our next move. And voilà — here we are, at Frogs & Clogs.
We're still very small, and still finding our way in a wine import world that's crowded with lots of people doing very cool stuff.
We always pick up the wines ourselves by van, so it stays mostly wines from France, Germany and Northern Italy.
Hope you like it.
