DW's genius for salesmanship was displayed in two ventures in 1927, the first of which involved fine port.
A friend of DW's, Naps Derouet, was the agent for Offley's Ports, and offered him a range of exceptional Tawnys, the oldest of which had been one hundred years in cask. The trouble was that the best ports of the day cost 12/6 per bottle and the ports Derouet was offering would cost far more than that.
DW's solution was to commission a glass manufacturer to imitate an old, square shouldered bottle with a raised crest that he had in his possession, replacing the crest on the bottle with a Wheatley family device.
A catalogue was then sent out with a photograph of one of the bottles on the front and the following sales pitch :
So exceptionally Fine are the
Old Ports quoted in this List,
that to prevent any possibility of
a mistake being made in a Cellar
where there are a number of bins
of Port, and a bottle opened
without due consideration, we
have thought it well to bottle
Nos. 1. to 6. In the old Dumpy
Bottles contemporary with their
age, as shown in the illustration.
There were six varieties and DW priced the top one at 25/- a bottle.
He sold the lot and gained many new customers as a result.
