THE CHAMPAGNE DEVAUX MERCHANT PROFILE
Butlers is a Brighton institution, run by a man in nail varnish who sometimes uses images of Ming the Merciless for publicity photos. But don’t look for gimmicks. This is old-school wine retailing in a residential area of the seaside city, and Henry Butler has been embedded in the local community all his life
be the generation that lets it slip out your hands.”
His father’s health issues meant Butler
was effectively running the shop with his mother for a while. Later he bought their shares in the business.
Muesli Mo Henry Butl
The shop isn’t in a part of Brighton that
casual visitors would know. It’s near the top of a steep hill, on the fringes of the
trendy residential Hanover area (at one
time known locally as Muesli Mountain)
and a short hop from the racecourse. It’s
H
enry Butler considers his
earliest experiences of alcohol. “The first wines my brother
and I would have enjoyed would have been German wines or sweet Loires, but nice
ones. Looking back at it realistically,” he
suggests, “they were probably way better than I could afford now.”
Butler’s father started a wine business
in Brighton as a sideline to his day-job in
the London whisky trade. “I’d be in there helping out for pocket money,” Butler
remembers. “I sort of got into it. I knew
all the first growths and got to see all the German wines and tried to pronounce them.
“I’d help make up the orders, which
a compact space, though bigger than the satellite branch in nearby Kemp Town. Bottles are stacked on the floor and
displayed in rudimentary wooden shelves, without tasting notes or many obvious
buying cues. Clearly this is a place where
talking to staff is difficult to avoid, and you
get the impression that suits Butler and his team just fine.
With the business about to celebrate its
40th birthday, it’s fair to call it a Brighton institution, though Butler is the first to
acknowledge that the city’s wine scene is now much more vibrant and competitive than it once was. He’s also keen to share any credit for his success with partner
Cassie and the rest of the Butlers team.
What kind of learning curve did you go
would come in by letter. People would
through when you were starting to go it
collectors. The house was full of wine all of
I learnt and that was OK. You don’t fully
come in and collect or dad would send
alone?
the time.”
understand it, but you learn enough to
things across the country or abroad to
Henry: I was out of my depth. The wine bit
A career in wine was by no means
keep things going. But then learning how
inevitable. “I’ve done stupid jobs,” Butler
says. “I got up to A-levels but mainly I was
playing football and organising club nights. I did part-time jobs and then dad needed help here, so I thought I’d do it for six months and didn’t really leave.
“That’s a good thing and a bad thing,
really. It’s good to take on a family business and the responsibility in one sense. But
also a bit of a burden as you don’t want to
to run a business and do everything – that was quite hard, and mum and I muddled through.
bought her out.
away. People might assume it was handed
errors?
she didn’t want to, but she stayed on to
maybe too scared to change it and make it
The turning point was when mum and
dad separated around 2000 and dad moved
Do you think you made any catastrophic
to me, but I had to buy him out at market
Henry: I think maybe it was an error not
make sure I was OK. Then she left and I
my own. I thought I should carry it on as
value. Mum stayed on. Really in hindsight
THE WINE MERCHANT FEBRUARY 2019 26
to be bold enough. I was too cautious and