Category — Drink Accessories

If you are lucky enough to have more wine than you know where to keep it, or unlucky enough to have a flat too small to hold more than the odd bottle, then Big Yellow has just opened a new self-service wine storage facility in Fulham, London.
Fine wine needs to be kept in good conditions if it is to reach its potential, which means a steady cool temperature, no vibration and little light. That is why cellars in older houses were ideal - except for often being a little too damp for the labels and corks. Certainly modern houses tend not to have a cellar or any space which meets the criteria - central heating which is too warm, the cupboard under the stairs suffering too much disturbance, garages where the temperature varies too much, and no cellar!

This new venture seems to offer a solution (if you are in London):-

We have launched a unique new wine storage service in our new flagship store in Fulham. It’s the UK’s first dedicated self storage wine facility and boasts features to keep your wine collection in perfect condition.
Climate control: The environment is maintained at 15 degrees centigrade (+/- 2 degrees C) and 67% humidity levels (+/- 5%)
Free access to your own personal cellar is available during our store opening hours, with out of hours access also available for a small weekly charge.
State of the art security: Every room is alarmed; the store is monitored 24hr with CCTV and 24 hr security on the premises

See www.bigyellow.co.uk.

Cooden Cellars is an independent wine merchant established by Colin Barnes and Ian Jarman in 1997. In May 2001 we opened our retail shop in the Grand Hotel Buildings, Compton Street, Eastbourne. They were awarded Independent Merchant of the Year 2007 as well as Regional Wine Merchant of the Year in the IWC Awards for the last three years, in 2003 and 2004 as runner-up and in 2005 outright.

For those not lucky enough to live within the bounds of Eastbourne they maintain a very functional and informative website. Registered users can login and leave their own tasting notes. The only thing that is lacking are images of the wine bottles (perhaps they should engage this budding photographer?)

The range is excellent across the board - lots of interesting wines from Argentina and Australia, New Zealand and Portugal are particularly interesting with several wines we are yet to discover. Regular offers, a regularly updated blog section and a decent range of spirits plus a regular payment wine club complete the picture. Perhaps the perfect wine merchant?

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

A whole new world of jugs can be found at www.judgealer.co.uk - a collectors site featuring the weird and wonderful world of ceramic decorated jugs for that all important nip of water which seems to enhance rather than dilute a good malt whisky. Legend has it that adding water will help release the aromas, and reduce the strong alcohol kick in the nose that will mask the more subtle aromas of the whisky. Much debate can be made about your choice of water - but avoid chlorinated tap water, sparkling waters and any that are too distinctively flavoured. Personally I like Malvern Water which is soft and does not mask any of the flavour.

The ceramic jugs relate mainly to various Scottish highland distilleries, although they also feature some Irish Whiskey distilleries!
Also on the site is a section called “Breweriana” which might be of interest to real ale drinkers e.g. water jugs from the Tom Wood brewery in North Lincolnshire. They also have several beer drinking glasses of different sizes and shapes (including glass boots), commemorating different beers from home and abroad PLUS ceramic beer fonts (bar pump heads), which have been converted into table lamps!