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 named us ‘Best in the Southwest’ too. Though, if you ask us, we’re just a bunch of wine-loving humans and two English Bulldogs, selling brilliant bottles, challenging a few wine-world norms and making a noise about inclusivity along the way.
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 with a big personality – now stretching well beyond the shop walls.
We don’t stock a single wine we haven’t sourced and sampled. Nobody gets shelf space because we ‘should’ have them. Sampling remains at the heart of everything, so our corkscrew gets quite the workout.
We’re a gloriously mixed bunch. Ask Sadie about wild and wonderful grapes, Niki about zippy Sauvignons, Julia about champers and Hannah, well, she’s the chief wine-buying, vino oracle. Mixologists Ionas and Devan know their way around a cocktail shaker; with Ionas knowing a thing or two about cigars too. Musical theatre graduate Delaney happens to possess a super-taster palate, while Saturday coffee queen Beth might just be the friendliest welcome in Sherborne.
We write about wine, judge it, travel for it, source it, pour it and talk about it endlessly. We even made our own Chardonnay.
Hugo & Lola Bulldogs mostly supervise.
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.