So Vino Vero has been open for a month (ish). What have we learned? Plenty:
Lots of people think we are ‘brave’ for opening an independent wine shop in the ‘current economic climate’ (what they really mean, but are far too polite to say of course, is that they don’t think it’s going to work). Maybe we are brave/foolish/naive but for every naysayer, there are several more who tell us that we are exactly what the area has been crying out for. Which is nice.
People are really excited about trying something new. Sure we’ve sold plenty of Malbec and NZ Sauv Blanc, but weird Languedoc blends, Maria Gomes, Bierzo and many other wines that are a bit more off the beaten path have been flying off the shelves too.
People really want to learn. A lot. I love it when customers ask ‘what is Biodynamics?’, ‘what does Crianza mean?’ etc. It’s great. That’s what we are here for. To help customers find out more about wine and discover some amazing bottles along the way.
People are prepared to spend a lot more on wine than we anticipated. When selecting which wines to stock we were very careful to make sure we had plenty in the £7.50-£10 range. And for the first couple of days that’s where a lot of our sales were. But almost immediately people started trading up. Our average bottle sold is now around £12-13. At that price point you can really taste the difference (if you’ll excuse the phrase) between mass-produced supermarket wines and what we are offering.
You can’t judge a book by its cover. This equally applies to wine and to the public.
That we have a lot more to learn. But will have a lot of fun doing it.
Vino Vero 