We're often asked how we go about choosing the wines we sell from our online shop and physical shop in Milford, Surrey.
The answer may seem obvious, but we only sell wines that we like.
We've been in the trade for a very long time, initially as publicans and restaurateurs and for the last seven years as English wine merchants. Over that time we've built up a huge set of relationships with vineyard owners and winemakers across England. We've watched them grow and develop, sympathised with them when harvests were poor or when frosts stifled the grapes at birth. The flip side is that we've celebrated with them when the grapes were particularly good or the harvest particularly full.
As a result we've tried an awful lot of English wines, you've only got to look at the “cork tree” in our courtyard to know that!
Along the way we've kissed a few frogs as you might say, but in that process we've found some absolute gems. Wines that sing a song of hedgerows, summer fruit and crisp acidity, all the elements that make English wines so good.
We now buy wines from over 40 different English vineyards. Vineyards that exemplify the very English style of wines that we produce in this country.
And these are the wines that we've picked to go in our shop. Great wines we love from producers we know.
Here are some of our particular favourites: Ambriel, Greyfriars, Wiston and Albourne