WHY US
Sourcing proper wine, supporting honest winemakers, and making wine memorable for all who step into our mad little world of delicious wine.
we must be doing something right…
… because we’re Best Indie wine shop in the whole of the UK, awarded by Drinks Retailing Awards AND the IWC, no less – out of a legendary line up of over 1000 wine shops! Harper’s have awarded us ‘Best in the Southwest’ too! Though, if you ask us, we’re just six WSET* winos (It’s a thing!) and two English Bulldogs, selling fine wine, trying to change the norms of the wine world – one bottle at a time – whilst making a noise about inclusivity in the wine industry.
Established in 2005 by Hannah Wilkins, a local with a childhood rooted in the Loire and a palate that rivals the best, Vineyards is Sherborne’s award-winning indie wine merchant, and we’ve got a big personality.
We don’t stock a single wine that hasn’t been sourced and sampled by Team Vineyards. We are adamant about not being pressurised into having something just because we ‘should’. With sampling at the heart of our business – for both customers and staff – our corkscrew gets a great workout!
As a team of six, plus Hugo & Lola Bulldogs, we all have different wines that makes us go weak at the knees – from a lip-smacking Georgian Krakhuna to an enticing Italian Negroamaro. Ask Sadie about the ‘wild and wonderful’ quirky grapes, Niki about zippy Sauvignon Blancs, Julia about champers, Dan for a foodie pairing, Ionas for an espresso martini and Hannah, well, she’s the wine oracle! We write wine columns, judge wines for the UK indie market and genuinely worship all things wine – which is why we sample everything without knowing the RRP until the end, to squash any cheeky little preconceptions that might crawl in…
*WSET – Wine & Spirits Education Trust
It is our very personal approach to selling wine that makes being an indie special. Wine is not just a drink: it’s a talking point, it’s a social tool, it’s a thank you, a sign of gratitude, an accompaniment to a meal with others.
BREAKING DOWN THE STIGMA
For some, a wine shop can be intimidating. And so, some folk feel like their local wine shop is only somewhere to go when Uncle Bob’s birthday comes around as ‘he loves his claret and knows his wine’. Sure, we’ve got Uncle Bob covered – in fact, we know his favourite, but it’s the breaking down of this stigma that is our daily focus.
And if you know your wines? Then we have you covered too. We sell stunning wines, and we really know our stuff, but we also are the masters of making midweek wines special.
More than wine
Honestly… it’s beyond the wine bottles. It’s not just having a wine business; it’s about the town – the culture. As an indie retailer, we love our high street and strive to make it thrive; as a wine lover, we are outright lucky to run a great little wine shop for our daily job; as a resident, we want to live somewhere that cares for its community, is inclusive and has a buzz!
It just so happens that at the root of all these great things is a stonking bottle of wine and a head full of dreams.