I love visiting wine shops, most feature these cool and creaky wooden floors. A little musky and dusty, in London the shopkeepers are almost always very cheerful and friendly. I mean, you got to be if your job is to sell not just a drink, but an experience to your customer.

Established since 1698

Primarily purveyors of very fine french varietals, you will also find that they carry a nice port & whisky collection. In addition, their other Old-world and European selections are also quite formidable.

Before I get to their wines, I want to talk about the shop itself, it’s really atmospheric. The inside is rather small, and it doesnt feel like a wine shop at all, as most of the bottles seem to be hidden away. As you stroll in, it’s like walking into 17th century London.

The staff are all very well dressed in smart suits, but exude a friendly glow and make you feel surprisingly relaxed and comfortable. Being that BBR are in the very posh end of Mayfair, I was half-expecting an epic showing of the stiff upper lip coupled with famously snotty service… but none of that here. The shop may look 17th century, but the staff certainly have moved on with the times. They are helpful, warm and most important of all, know their wines.

Literally, they are like walking wine encyclopedias.

I’m quite amazed at how much they know; it was here that I learnt that German rieslings (mostly from the Mosel region) come in 3 different varieties which are characteristically either dry, medium-sweet or very sweet. This has something to do with the time of harvest and the amount of sugars present in the wines during vinification. The person serving me was really clued-in. Best of all, they sell the different types of Rieslings in the shop. Rest assured it’s on my list so look forward to my riesling review and comparison post sometime in the near future.

Selection of wines

These guys have been around for a long time, and this translates into reputation and connections. I will note that the store features a cellar in the basement ( a real plus if you are a fine wine afficianado) , so you can be assured of well-layed wines which are undamaged by the harsh vibrations & light from the shop floor.

While predominantly french, I was recommended a nice looking 2000 italian barolo by G.Mascarello, costing £40. Bit on the pricy side, but I trust the professionalism and feel really confident its a great bottle.

My parents are in town next week, so I’ll post a review up soon… with a little assistance from the man who gave life to the man who gave life to London Eater. (intentionally intended.)

I suppose you’d expect prices to be sky high here, but it’s not the case at all. The shop features very nice wines that fit all kinds of budgets. They also managed to get a few smaller vineyards to brand their wines under the BBR banner. Although I’ve not tried it yet, they do feature Burgundies at X price. here.

I’m a stickier for rarity. I was on the look out for an upbeat and crisp bottle of white, but with a bit of creaminess, basically something a little refreshing and challenged the staff to recommend me a bottle that would fit the description under £20.

She started with some petit chablis, but then suggested this bottle, a 2003 Vouvray by Dorleans which is apparently a very small area and run limited produce. It costs a meagre £10.50.

This bottle was very sturdy, really crisp and clean in taste, but carried a hint of creaminess too. No oak whatsoever. The other thing I noticed was how lively the wine was, like it was freshly bottled and had a very light natural fizz in the finish. The livelyness really surprised me. Amazing for the price, it tastes as good as any £30 Chablis grand cru.

If you are searching for the best (and the rarest) french wines, this is the place to go, as far as London is concerned. The one thing that you will find lacking is their selection of new world wines. I was in the market for a jammy californian pinot, but the closest they could offer were pinots from Marbororugh NZ, and even that came relunctantly recommended.

Tasting the juice and eating the wine

In addition to the excellent shop, they also hold events (tasters and dinners) down in their atmospheric cellar. I wasn’t allowed to venture down there, but check it out here. Some of the events are very reasonable, like these one, which features full tasting events starting from £65.

Ok, £65 is not exactly cheap, but relative to other stuff out there, I’d much rather do it in a 17th century cellar with walking encyclopedias than a rented ‘seminar room’ in some dodgy office block in canary wharf.

I’m looking to sign up for some events here, but if anyone of you are interested in joining me, be sure you let me know (leave a comment below).

Next to the wine society, these guys probably boasts, in my opinion, the best selection of wine in the UK. Not only do they carry the best of the best, its also the more rare French wines that nobody really heard of that caught my eye.

Wines here suit all kinds of budgets, not having to suffer in quality and a top-notch cellar that preserves and stores wines correctly. Coupled with a knowlegeable staff whose recommendations will fit exactly what you want, you can be assured that all the bottles you buy from BBR will be great. Really worth a visit.

A very interesting concept that is the first ever to be implemented in this country. Yes, you are looking at the concept right now. The little metal tubes sticking out from the top of the machine are where your glass goes for a ‘sip‘.

So here’s how it works:

1. Get a pre-paid card (in-store) and top up with cash. 
2. Go to one of the machines, each focusing on a style or region (featuring a total of 80 wines at any one time) and make your selection.
3. Press for either one sip, a double sip or a triple sip. Each ‘sip’ is roughly a shot glass, or 25ml.
4. Sniff, swirl, whirl.
5. Spit or swallow.
6. Repeat again and again until pre-paid card is empty.

The Sampler is located in the Angel/Islington area of North London. The high street is rather eclectic and almost feels as if you’re in a suburb in Sydney, especially on a sunny summers day. This shop is a really nice visit in itself. Run by a charming couple and their shop dog, Ivy (whom you can kind of make out in the picture). 

Talking vending machines

Wine is a high maintenance baby. It doesn’t travel well, doesn’t like temperature extremes and deteriorates as it gets exposed to air. That’s why wine shops can’t just store opened bottles in the fridge, it’ll just go off after about 3 days.

 Except when some genius invented a way to keep lots of opened bottles from oxidation and preserve them for up to 3 weeks. I didn’t look up who invented this technology, but I think it’s originated from Europe (our euro cousins are sharper winos than we are). All this means is that there are 80 wines on hand for me to savour.

Forgive me for all the slanted images, obviously I was feeling a little worse for wear while doing this write-up. 

What did you drink Kang?

I topped up my card to 20 pounds and tried as much as I could! This is like wine tasting taken to the max, I feel like a wine-child in a candy shop. I counted 8 machines in the shop, each featuring a region or a style. So I stick my card into the machine, the prices for 1 sip shows up at the top of each wine. The prices are all very reasonable. For a bottle costing around 15 quid, a sip is only about 50p. Obviously for more expensive bottles, the prices go up accordingly.

The most expensive bottle was a ‘96 Rothschild that costs a cool £780. A sip, however, weights in a hefty 38 quid. That’s not bad really. If you’ve always wanted to know what people with super deep pockets drink, then that experience can be had for significantly less.

Ok, so as expected, some wines are awesome, some are so-so and others are just bad. The best one in the shop in my opinion, was the Meulenhof 2002 Riesling Spatlese.

It was sweet, as Rieslings usually are, really fruity and carries a natural fizz to it. Tastes of lychees, honey and sweet apples and just very nicely balanced flavours. Not too sweet but not too dry. At 18 quid a bottle, superb.

The most expensive sip I had costed me a fiver. It was a ‘97 ‘Le Meal’ Ermitage by M.Chapoutier. The bottle costs £110.

 Super smooth and very peaceful going down. It’s a dry palate, very clean and pure. However, this white is big and creamy, like a well-aged champagne and has fruity elements to it too. It’s a good match with thai food and will stand up to big flavours. I suppose one should expect no less from a bottle that costs over a hundred quid.

Wine on an oyster

They also had a £200 bottle of 1983 Penfolds Grange, I really wanted to try it (about £10 per sip) but by the time I’d a few sips in, I was out of cash on my card already. I resisted topping up, because if I did, I would just keep trying stuff till my bank broke.

By the time I left the store, I was a really happy man. It’s really such an interesting shop to visit and I recommend it anyone to try it. There are lots of nice bottles featured on the machines and you basically try everything until you find one that really catches your palette. Great idea and really nice little activity to fill up those lazy sunday afternoons. 

In addition to their excellent shop, they also hold various wine tasting events throughout the year. If you are catching this on Sunday (27th Sept), then do check it out today as they are doing a free Bordeaux tasting from 1pm to 6pm plus discounts on the bottles being featured. No need to book so just show up and taste great stuff.

One final thing I forgot to mention, at the end of the session, my mouth was just alive with all kinds of fruity flavours and after-fizz from all the different wines. Sensational.  

Details