New faces at Vino Vero in Essex Sam and Charlotte Brown, who started Vino Vero seven years ago, recently decided to move on and embrace a more “nomadic” existence. As they explained on their Facebook
post: “We are moving to Europe … working and living where the wind (or indeed the wine) takes us. Once we’ve rested and
recharged, we’re going to learn how to
make the product we’ve spent seven years selling. Wineries don’t know what they’re in for.”
The good news for the people of Leigh
cap
on Sea is that the business has been bought by Jaime and Holly Fernandez who were
already running their own wine company, Copa Wine – a pop-up wine tasting
company with a focus on biodynamic, organic and natural products.
“We extended that to an online platform
and we were looking to open a bricks-andmortar shop,” says Jaime. “I knew Sam and Charlie really well – I’d been shopping
in Vino Vero for about five years and we became good friends.”
Vino Vero will retain its name, but the
new owners will put their own identity on
the business by developing a “new look and feel” with some new branding at the start of next year.
WSET course sparks new career Shekleton Wines opened during the first week of November in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Charlotte Shek had a career in finance
before she was lured into the wine trade by WSET. “I bought my husband and my
dad a WSET course about four years ago,”
she explains, “and then I got the bug. That
More indies put faith in Suffolk
Weber & Tring’s closes Bristol store
Holly and Jaime were running a tasting company called Copa Wine
Level 1 course became Level 2, then 3 and
currently I’m halfway through Level 4 – it’s something that’s grown from there.”
Shek is working with Dreyfus Ashby, New
Generation and Hallgarten and has sourced direct from some English vineyards
including Simpsons and Gusbourne. The
range will be organised by flavour profile rather than by country
Shek says the shop is her opportunity to
share her passion for wine and, once Covid is no longer an issue, she hopes to run instore tastings and events.
Battle gets a bottle shop at long last This month Sarah and Paul Truman opened their shop, Sarah’s Cellar, in Battle, East Sussex.
THE WINE MERCHANT november 2020 6
Sarah’s love of wine started 20 years
ago when she did a stint at The Wine
Corporation before becoming a maths teacher.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a really
long time,” she says. “I’ve never stopped
enjoying wine and Paul and I have travelled around the vineyards of Europe and gone
to the cellars and tasted the wine – I’d say
that was my travel hobby and Europe is my particular passion.”
Battle High Street is full of independents
and foodie places including a “wonderful butchers and fishmongers, and Battle
Abbey Brewery has just opened a little
shop … there’s a great vibe,” Sarah says.
Any renovations to the quaint Grade II
listed building will have to wait until early next year as the couple concentrate on
fulfilling orders by delivery and click and collect.