If you know Dom…
You’ll probably already have a favourite bottle of his.
Maybe it’s one of his Terra wines – rich, powerful, and shaped by the sunshine and local character of southern Italy.
Maybe it’s one of his Burgundies – shaped by years of close relationships in the region, and blended at his base near Prissé in southern Burgundy… think Saint-Véran, Mâcon-Villages, Pouilly-Fuissé.
Or maybe you’ve simply had enough of his wines over the years to know one thing: if Dom made it, it’s probably going to be very good.
However, what you might not know is that Dom Hentall’s story with Naked runs much deeper than the bottle.
Employee number 42
Dom has been part of Naked for over a decade – but he didn’t join as a winemaker.
He first came on board as a Quality Control consultant, “I was employee number 42 in the whole company.” Back then, Naked was still small enough that “building the company” meant doing things like putting together desks in the office.
He started out working one day a week. But that didn’t last long. Dom quickly fell in love with the idea behind Naked – the chance to cut out the middlemen and bring winemakers and wine drinkers closer together.
One day a week grew to two, then three… and eventually Dom was Naked full-time. In those early years, he helped shape the technical side of the business, brought new winemakers into the fold, and played a big role as Naked began growing beyond the UK – launching in Australia and the USA. As part of that, Dom was instrumental in bringing in winemakers who’ve since become Naked legends in their own right – like Stephen Millier.
Then a few years in, he changed tack to start making wines under his own name. Which, putting it mildly, turned out to be a very good idea.
What makes a Dom Hentall wine?
Angels have had a soft spot for Dom’s wines since the very first bottle landed on our shelves, and it’s not hard to see why.
Dom will tell you his style has always been about balance and elegance. Big on flavour, yes. But always with freshness, shape and drinkability in mind.
In his view, great winemaking starts long before anything reaches the cellar. It starts in the vineyard: tasting grapes, understanding the site, deciding which rows to pick first, and working out how best to bring out what nature’s already given you.
For Dom, the job of a winemaker is to understand the fruit well enough to let it shine. That’s why he works so closely with long-standing growers, many of them family businesses he’s known for years. It’s why so many of his wines come from old vines and hand-picked fruit.
And it’s why, whether he’s making a Sicilian red or a white Burgundy, there’s always a strong sense that he knows the vineyards – and the people behind them – inside out.
Life before Naked
The funny thing is, Dom didn’t even like wine at first.
He grew up on a farm, where wine was part of Sunday lunch and very much not to his teenage taste. But while he wasn’t keen on drinking it yet, he was fascinated by how it came to life. His mother made homemade wine from flowers, berries and whatever else the farm gave her. He still remembers glass demijohns bubbling away above the Aga, and helping bottle the finished wines by hand.
At that point, wine wasn’t the plan. Music was. Dom studied piano from a young age, finished his grades early, and was expected to go down that route. Then at 18, everything changed…
On a year out, he went to the south-west of France to help renovate a house near the Spanish border. It was there, living with a French family and seeing wine treated as part of everyday life, that something shifted. Soon after, he did his first harvest in Saint-Émilion – a tough vintage, by all accounts, but a defining one.
A winemaker there took him under his wing and, one day, set out six wines and asked Dom for his thoughts. Dom gave them not realising it was a test. “That’s where I found out I had a palate for this.”
He came back to the UK, put music on hold, and did a bit of everything: mechanic, pianist, restaurant work, hotel work, writing wine lists, selling wine at weekends, trying to find his way back to the thing that had got under his skin.
Eventually, he got his first proper cellar role in the south of France before heading to Australia to make wine in Clare Valley. From there, the story only grew – years of learning, years of travelling, and eventually a career making wines all over the world.
By the time Naked came along, Dom had already seen more of the wine world than most people ever do. But Naked offered him something different: the chance to stop making wines for everyone else and really focus on his own.
If you haven’t tried Dom’s wines yet…
You’re in luck. If you’re an Angel visiting us in April 2026, you should have a free sample of one of Dom’s bottles sitting in your basket.
For red drinkers, his Terra Nera is Dom’s extra-concentrated Sicilian red. Made with old vine Nero d’Avola – gives it extra time in oak so the tannins soften and the whole wine comes together beautifully. It’s all dark fruit, texture and structure – as he says “It shows a wine can be full-bodied without being heavy.”
For white drinkers, his Mâcon-Villages shows the other side of his style: all citrus flavour, creamy texture and a clean mineral finish. Dom talks up his favourite notes of cream soda / lemon sherbet, while keeping the palate fresh, poised and precise.
Why Naked still matters to Dom
Dom could have kept consulting. It probably would have been the easier option.
By the time he found Naked, he’d already built a serious reputation making and blending wines across the world. He’d worked with big importers, big retailers and big businesses. He’d seen the wine trade from every angle – including the bits that can get a little disconnected from the wine itself.
“That’s part of what drew me to Naked in the first place. The bit about cutting out the middle man and going straight to the winemaker.”
Stopping the consultancy work and going all-in on his own wines was a risk, and he knows it. But as he puts it:
“If I was going to join, I wanted to commit. I didn’t want to be sidetracked by lots of other bits and pieces.”
That decision gave him something he’d been wanting for a long time: focus.
It meant he could stop splitting himself across dozens of projects and really pour his energy into the wines he believed in – the growers he trusted, the parcels he loved, and the style he wanted to keep refining year after year for Angel members.
Even while Naked has changed over the years, he still sees the spirit in it: the connection between the person growing the grapes and making the wine, and the person opening it at home.
That’s why his favourite memories of Naked Wines mainly involve the Tasting Tour. More than anything, he loves catching up with fellow winemakers, meeting Angels face to face, and seeing people discover a wine they genuinely love.
“I’ve always called it the Naked Wines family, right from the start, and I still believe that. If I am part of Naked, I am part of Naked for good.”
Want to meet the man himself? Come to the Naked Wines Tasting Tour 2026.
Quickfire with Dom: a rapid Q&A
If you could only drink wine made from one grape for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pinot Noir.
If you had to live in one wine country forever, which would you pick?
That’s impossible, because I’ve worked in so many and I love them all. But if I go back to the dream, I’d say France – with a little château in Bordeaux.
What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of Angels?
Loyalty.
If you could share a bottle with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
My mother.
If you had to pick one of your wines to introduce an Angel to you – your style, your philosophy – which one would it be?
If it was a white, it would be Terra Bianca. If it was a red, it would be Terra Forte. They’re probably the most “me” in terms of complexity and style.
What’s your ultimate food and wine pairing?
A really good venison bourguignon with a top Bordeaux or a top red Burgundy. Or a great paella with white wine – I love paella. At the end of harvest, wherever I was in the world, I used to cook a huge paella outside for the winery and vineyard team, using old vine wood to cook it over.
Who’s your favourite Naked winemaker – whose wines you enjoy the most, aside from your own?
That’s impossible. It genuinely changes depending on the day, what I’m eating, what mood I’m in. At the moment I’ve been really enjoying Ben Darnault’s wines, and I’m also a big fan of Katie Jones, JP Lacaze, and plenty of others. There are some that fit my style more than others, certainly, but I can’t pick just one.
If you weren’t a winemaker, what would you be doing instead?
Probably what my father wanted me to do originally – I’d be a concert pianist or a composer. Music is still probably my greatest passion. Maybe a mechanic or a racing driver, if I weren’t too tall.
