Category — Australia

The store just opposite the railway station has a wine bar above. This is Five Reasons Wine, a mighty fine looking shop offering 400 or so wines. All are listed on the website but sadly there is no online ordering.

Owner/manager Irene writes

Our approach is to operate a one in one out policy at our optimum number of 400 wines This means that we aim to ensure that our range is continuously improving over time rather than expanding willy nilly, and our customers aren’t met by a bewildering wall of wine, creating the illusion of choice, but actually risking alienating all except the most dogged wine enthusiasts.

This discipline ensures we can keep in touch with how our wines are tasting, and give knowledgeable advice - following a high quality service rather than largely product-driven/cult-wine-chasing model of an independent wine merchant.

Tastings are at the heart of what we do. We’d like to think we are getting a pretty good local reputation for our fortnightly tasting events.

This rolling wine range has resulted in some choice pickings from New Zealand, Alsace (Zind Humbrecht, Clos Wintzenheim, Gewurztraminer for example), Australia (Coriole Shiraz amongst many choice bottles), the Americas, Spain, Italy and across the regions of France. On the bubbly front the Billecart Salmon and Jacquesson bottles would be my recommendations.

Prices are generally in the £10plus range with many in the super-fine league of £30+ a bottle. Delivery is free locally in Tunbridge Wells while overnight delivery elsewhere in the UK is £10.80.

FIVE REASONS WINE
7 Vale Road
Tunbridge Wells
TN1 1BS

Easy Wine/Wine Of Course probably have the largest range of Bulgarian wine in the UK. A total of 18 different wines at the last count, ranging in price from £4.99 up to one at £14.99!

But there is a lot more available from the company than just Bulgarian wines. The nicely designed website holds vinous treasures from across the globe.

Strengths are in Australia (look out for Vasse Felix, Innocent Bystander and a Sangiovese from Uleybury), California (expensive but Ceago, Hirsch and Shafer are listed), Italy, New Zealand (Dog Point, Akarua and Isobel), The Rhone and Spain. Chile is a little light at just four and there are no listings for Austria or Germany.

We’re an independent wine specialists with shops in leafy north London and beautiful Ongar, Essex. Our goal is to source top quality wines from around the world from producers who are individualistic, small (but perfectly formed), and who represent the best that their respective regions have to offer. We deliver across the mainland UK at no additional delivery charge* and offer monthly wine courses and additional events to suit the casual enthusiast to the hardened connoisseur.

Free delivery across the UK.

Wine of Course (London)
216 Archway Rd
London N6 5AX
T: + 44 (0) 20 8347 9006

Wine of Course (Essex)
135 High Street
Ongar, Essex CM5 9JD
T: + 44 (0) 1277 365116

From their Eastbourne base the Sussex Wine Company are rather active on the tasting/gourmet dinner front. Their calendar brims with delights, that quickly sell out by all accounts.

We’re an Independent Wine Merchant based in Eastbourne supplying quality wines from boutique producers around the world. We have a comprehensive selection of whisky, spirits, Champagne, organic wines, and luxury goods such as caviar, foie gras and handmade East Sussex organic chocolates. We deliver to the UK and now the EU, offer free (UK) delivery over £100 and feature many discounted mixed cases. We also produce a monthly newsletter with further subscriber offers.

The range is strong on France, Italy and Australia. Other areas are a bit light but offer ’selected quality’ - Millton Opu Riesling an organic wine from New Zealand or Quinta da Boavista Espiga Tinto from Portugal for example.

For the gourmet the deli section holds many, mostly French, delicacies plus a wide range of caviar for those with deep pockets. Glasses, gift packs and gift certificates complete a good, broad range. Nothing wrong with the website either - easily navigable, clear and with just the right level of details on the products.

Delivery for orders under £100 is charged at £6.95.

The Sussex Wine Company
47 South Street
Little Chelsea
Eastbourne BN21 4UT
Tel/Fax: 01323 431143

Following our last visit the Vineking website has been given a bit of a spruce up (well done Eric!). We can only conclude that the Vineking is an independent not to ignore.

I have been following the developments of Eric Lann, The Vineking himself, from hesitant start-up through to fully fledged wine shop. The wine list, fully searchable online, has plenty to explore. The list has been updated with those gaps in the range - New Zealand, South Africa and America - now filled. The Australian range and France are well represented with a smattering from across the various regions and, more importantly, interesting producers.

Tasting events are an important way of discovering a merchants range. The Vineking has regular tastings with Vergelegen, the Loire, California and Champagne/Sparkling planned through the Summer. These cost £30 per person and are held in Reigate.

On all orders up to £300 delivery is charged at £10. Orders of £300 or more attract free delivery for UK mainland.

The Vineking
4 West Road
Reigate
Surrey
RH2 7JT

Retail: 01737 248 833
Wholesale: 0870 850 8997

A beautifully designed website - just a touch of animation/flash to keep things interesting. Did I see somewhere that there are 800 wines on their list? All the boxes are ticked with good representation from Chile, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Australia etc etc. Impossible to pull out just a few recommendations, especially when you take into account the 45 strong range of spirits, various special offers, mixed cases and 40 odd ports!

Prices begin at £5.99. You can down load the price list in a PDF file for printing and off-line perusing. There is also a very entertaining PDF magazine that combines staff recommendations, producer profiles and loads more. All very professionally produced.

Next working day delivery is fixed at a rate of £8.50 per delivery address for all quantities from 1 bottle upwards for those who cant make it to the store. Oh, and don’t neglect the series of wine tastings over the coming months.

Overall a great looking company and worth investigating.

The Secret Cellar
43-45 Church Road,
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent TN1 1JT.
ENGLAND.

Discovered via a recommendation on fellow UK wine blog Grapefan.

From the moment the site pops up in your browser you can feel the class and quality of WineDirect. The site is the on-line arm of Hailsham Cellars, an UK Wine Merchant based in Hailsham, East Sussex.

We’re passionate about wine and believe that knowing more about where the wines come from, the grape varieties and wine styles, can enhance your wine drinking experience and embolden you to experiment with the wide selection of wine styles and grape varieties on our list. That’s why we’ve added a lot of information about wine on the site in the Wine & Food and Wine Companion sections and why we are selling great wine books in our Books section.

The wine range is wide reaching - they list 35 wines from often overlooked Argentina, 100 wines from ever-popular Australia and 69 from New Zealand. But it is not just the New World at WineDirect - Spain with a list of 54 wines, Italy (187) and the regions of France (258) hold many interesting wines.

Prices are generally in the £7-£14 range although more expensive wines are of course listed. Minimum purchase is 6 bottles.

Pre-mixed cases, with prices ranging from £65 and upwards, and various regular wine club offerings complete the picture.

One thing I noticed is the embracing of customer feed-back they ask that their customers send in wine reviews and recipes for great dishes to accompany wine for publication on the site. Very Web 2.0!

A great name for a wine merchant - Philglas and Swiggot. Founded in 1991 the company is unashamedly upmarket with three stores in Richmond-upon-Thames, Marylebone and Battersea. They have been crowned London Wine Merchant of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

When we first started, we believed that there was the need for a good, down to earth, friendly and helpful specialist wine shop offering a range of interesting wines from mostly smaller producers. A sort of antidote to the increasing anonymity and sameness of the big chain stores.

They list a a superb range of wines “cherry-picked from well-known estates and up-and-coming producers”. Australia is their main strength with 160 wines listed. Burgundy, smaller producers only, and Italy, from the approachable to the Super-Tuscans, not far behind in terms of breadth, excitement and interest though.

The Philglas & Swiggot Subscriber Club offers a 12-bottle mixed case with tasting notes (bi-monthly or every 3 months) with prices ranging from £120 up to £250 a case. I have heard some good things about these selections that often include some of the rarer wines from the list.

A good website, although a search facility would be useful, but sadly no online ordering. You can arrange delivery but it would seem they prefer you to pop into one or other of the shops.

A selection of tasting notes on wines stocked by Philglas & Swiggot can be viewed on Spittoon.

An award winning merchant with a mighty fine range, well arrange in a spacious store. Although a few under £10 wines can be found, prices are generally above this level; so not a store for those use to supermarket ‘bargains’.

With awards such as Regional Wine Merchant of the Year and, in 2004, Independent Wine Merchant of the Year you should expect a top level of service and an interesting range to boot. The team don’t disappoint. Consumer wine tastings are a regular feature (both free and fee based) and a weekly email covering the latest additions and offers keeps everyone informed of events and specials.

An email today was requesting orders for bottles of fully mature port sourced from an Oxford college for example. Now this might sound elitist but the hushed tones and rarefied atmosphere, that I fine so off-putting and found in many of the top independent merchants, just doesn’t exist here. Sadly the website is a little lacking - there is no online ordering, no fully searchable list just a PDF download. At least this seems to be kept up-to-date with correct prices (others take note!).

The range is world encompassing but strengths include the Rhône, Burgundy, Australia and South Africa with good coverage of New Zealand and America. A smattering of interesting beers and various spirits complete the package. Wine recommendations can be viewed on Spittoon.

The Flying Corkscrew
Leighton Buzzard Road
Water End
Hertfordshire
HP1 3BD
telephone: 01442 412311
fax: 01442 412313