The Little Wine Shop

While it would be an exaggeration to say that the circumstances are entirely beyond our control, sometimes in life choices have to be made.

We sincerely hope no wine emergencies will arise as a direct result of the choice we have made, and unreservedly apologise if any do, or indeed if anyone is inconvenienced short of actual emergency.

And, without wishing to make excuses, or divert blame, we’d recommend anyone who has a fundamental problem with the basic principle of skipping out early to take it up with the Prime Minister (for now).

Getting creative with the framing!

Easter weekend.

Open as normal Saturday & Sunday.

Closed Easter Monday.

Happy bunnies.

Sip and spit. Sip and spit. Will it never end?

Well, yes, but not in time for us to open before 3pm today.

Apologies for the inconvenience, as ever.

What it says. This will apply both today, Monday 18th March, and tomorrow, Tuesday 19th.

Apologies in advance for anyone who is going to be in desperate need of wine between midday and 3pm today or tomorrow. But if this is you, perhaps we need to talk…

Cheers!

This is the time of year that wine importers are keen to show off their new portfolios, with freshly discovered producers and new vintages of old favourites. This can mean new and exciting wines (yay!); it can also, unfortunately, mean price rises (boo! Although this year, so far, and keeping fingers crossed and in contact with wood, increases have mainly been in the range of small to insignificant). The other thing it can mean is that those importers need to clear space in their warehouses and put out their bin end lists.

This is a fun time. Because while I can’t absolutely guarantee that wine that falls into the bin end category will never actually be rubbish, an awful lot of it is quite the opposite. Bin end lists are often stuffed with obscure, esoteric and interesting wines that have failed to find a market not for any lack of deliciousness on their part, but on account of the market’s inherently conservative preference for the known quantity. More fool the market.

It’s also a good time to lay in a supply of more immediately recognisable things that are, at normal prices, just stupidly expensive (yes, Burgundy, I’m looking at you…)

Anyway, I’ve been having fun, rummaging the bins, and among other things (Burgundy, for instance) I’ve come up with this handful representing the length of Italy.

From Piedmont, a dry moscato and a Barbaresco (hardly obscure, but definitely living in the shadow of Barolo); a red/white native combo from Campania, of Piedirosso and Coda di Volpe; and a Sicilian Insolia. Of which only the Barbaresco’s on the shelf at over 20 quid.

Happy days!

Like it says. I have a wine tasting this morning (I know…) and while I’d hope to be back in time to open as usual, it’s possible I might not. Apologies etc.

A slight change of plan…

Happy New Year everyone - we’ll see you again a day further into 2024!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a thoroughly splendid 2024. If you want to come in and reciprocate the sentiment, here’s when we’ll be here.

In previous years it’s been known as the “James Brown Xmas Album” case, now it’s the “Funky 1-11”. Why ? Because it’s funky and it costs 1 hundred and 11 pounds.

Christmas cases continued: this year’s version of the old “Get Christmas Done” cost of living crisis classic, has born the brunt of the duty increase and we’ve had to nudge it up a full 10% to £66. To be perfectly honest with you, we could have worked out a case for a little less, but would it have felt like we were offering you a Christmas treat, or just like we were selling you some cheap wine? Anyway, sixty six is a satisfying sort of a number, and it means we can call this year’s cost-of-living-crisis-buster “Trent’s Christmas Cracker”. Some of you will make that association straight away, some who know me, or have keenly followed this account, might be able to work it out…

It’s Christmas case time! Sadly, for the first time ever in our 5 years of Christmas’s, we’ve had to increase the prices (years of generationally high inflation and a big fat duty increase does that, I’m afraid). On the upside, we’ve had to come up with exciting new names for the cases we offer. Yay! So to kick us off, last year’s “Keep Calm” case, is this years “Carry on Christmas”. 4, red, 4 white and 1 each of fizz, sweet, Sherry and pink, all favourites. Christmas in a box, £160, done!

We’re on the winter Toy Story trail, in aid of the winter toy appeal, and the sun’s (nearly) come out!

And the cases are open! Happy Beaujolais Nouveau Day one and all!

Les Beaujolais Nouveaux sont arrivés! But the cases can’t be opened till tomorrow. Happy Beaujolais Nouveau Eve everybody!

Dressing up bad news as good is normally the preserve of political parties and their armies of spinners and dissemblers, so feel free to dismiss this post with a cynical sigh (as we hope you might the vast majority of stuff posted on social media). On the other hand, we are just looking for the positives in an enforced price hike, in a glass half full (of nice wine) kind of way, so don’t judge us too harshly…

Anyway, we’re still holding our prices down as best, and for as long as, we can. But prices will start to go up (by 50p or £1, depending) on individual items as the new duty kicks in from today onwards.

As the sign says, sorry about that.

You’ll probably have heard about the duty increases coming in to force next week, but if you haven’t , don’t worry - we’ll be stocking up so you don’t have to. Although, being a little shop, we don’t have a huge amount of storage space, so it would be doing us a favour to come in this week and stock up just a little bit.

Lots of people think they only like the really pale salmon pink Provençal style of rosé, to the extent that these days, the really pale salmon pink Provençal style of rosé is, all too often, all you see on the shelves. As in many things - unsurprisingly - lots of people are wrong*. They only think they don’t like other forms of rosé because they’ve never had a good one - like this dark, rich, Primitivo rosato from Puglia. It’s delicious and just so much fun - basically it’s grown up cherryade, in such a good way. One of those wines it’s impossible to drink without smiling.

If you are one of those lots of people, don’t be shy, try it. You just might like it (you will**)!

* There is, of course, no such thing as wrong. As in all matters of taste, it’s entirely subjective. Nobody’s right, and the only people who are wrong are those who “don’t like” something without trying it.

** If you don’t, bring it back. We’ll swap it for a pale Provençal style one.

Happy Easter every one. We will be open our usual days & hours throughout, but we will be taking next Tuesday off. Hope that doesn’t mess with your plans…

As it says. It’s not wise to rush tasting wine, but we’ll be open as soon as I can get there! Hopefully by 1.30/2pm - ish

And we’re back!

And back to our normal opening hours 12-7, Tuesday-Sunday.

Hope to see you here, then.

Cheers!

Sorry to do this to you all, but we’re going away for a few days, and unfortunately there’s going to be nobody around to open the shop this Sunday and Tuesday of next week. We’re open as normal today and tomorrow, so get yourself stocked up (not forgetting any Valentine’s plans you might have for Tuesday…). Again - apologies for the inconvenience.

The return of an old (but not as old as used to be) favourite. And the arrival of a new contender. Castello di Potentino’s Sacromonte has skipped straight from 2011 to 2015 without missing a beat, and offers the same magical balance of mature complexity and brilliant freshness that it ever did, and still at the bargain price of £17.50. And it brings with it a younger but bigger sibling - Sacromontino - younger, and therefore simpler but even fresher, and so knock-backable it’s just as well it comes by the litre (and for only £16.50)!

Many of us might have good reason to hope that 2023 might bring better things than 2022, but free with better reason than the people of Ukraine. Why not toast to that hope with a bottle of Ukrainian fizz? Recently landed after an epic journey ( not least through Britain’s own post Brexit customs - but that’s another story…), along with a white and a red. The importers - our good friends at Other World Wines - donate £1 to Ukrainian charities for every bottle sold, and we’ll match that. Here’s to a happier new year. Slava Ukraini.

Now we’ve got to the pointy end of the festive season we’ll be open EVERY day next week (yes, including Monday), and for extended hours (11am-8pm), right up until about 4pm on Christmas Eve. And then we’re off for a nice lie down.

Two old favourites back in after too long away, and just in time for Christmas! Chasing Rabbits, a super light, super fun, but seriously good Grenache from South Africa @ £18; Bender Pinot Noir, a top notch German pinot from Pfalz - and still under 20 quid! Both perfect for any upcoming festivities…

It’s a Christmas miracle! Taking a lead from Liz and Kwasi (remember them?), we have defied (or denied) economic reality, but - unlike Liz & Kwasi - we’ve done it for your benefit.

For the 3rd year running we’ve kept our Christmas case offers the same. The same quality of wine in the selection, the same Christmas bonus discount, and - above all - the same price as last year (and the year before!).

Pictured here is the selection for the old favourite “Keep Calm” case - 4 bottles each of red & white, a fizz, a pink, a sweetie and a dry sherry - all for £150.

We’ve also got the cost of living crisis busting “Get Christmas Done” 6 pack at just £60.

Or, as ever, we’re more than happy to put a bespoke case together to your own specification and budget (5% off a 6 case, 10% off 12)

Happy Christmas everyone!

Or, if you don’t feel you need the entire top 12 best selling wines from our first 4 years, how about just the top selling red, white, orange & pink plus the 2 best selling sparklers, to take away in one of our super special jute bags, all for the bargain price of £84?
Obviously we can’t show you which specific wines those are without offering clues to anyone trying for the free case, but trust us (and 4 years’ worth of our customers) - you’ll like ’em!

Yesterday marked the 4th anniversary of The Little Wine Shop opening its doors for the very first time. Happy Birthday us!

Out of curiosity I crunched the numbers on our sales over those 4 years, and almost spookily the top 12 best selling wines turn out to make up a beautifully balanced celebratory case. 4 nicely differentiated bottles of fizz, 3 red, 3 white, & 1 each of rosé & orange. In the circumstances, it would seem churlish not to offer that case for sale, at a special discount of 14% - that’s 1% for every year on top of the standard 10% case discount. Rounded down that comes to £138.
Nice!

Even nicer, the first person to rank the top 12 (as pictured) in the correct order (of bottles sold, obviously), can take them away for free!

It’s that day of the year! Due to an administrative oversight one of our two Beaujolais Nouveaux won’t actually be arriving till tomorrow, but let’s not allow that to put a dampener on the festivities.

For today, we can happily say Le Chateau de l’Hestrange est (actuellement) arrivée!

Life. Getting in the way. As it does. Sorry about that. Hope to see you later.