The pandemic has seen new retailers emerge, on a mission to satisfy your inner sommelier
Some wine merchants have done well out of the pandemic. Among them were big guns such as Waitrose and Majestic, which saw online sales rise by as much as 300% last year. Even smaller shops were unusually busy: on average, sales (many home-delivered) by specialist independent wine shops shot up by 65.6% in April 2020 alone, according to a survey by the trade magazine the Wine Merchant. But, for the sort of merchant whose living is largely based on importing wines to sell to restaurants, dealing with Covid-19 has been as difficult as it has been for the businesses they supply.
During the early waves of panic and uncertainty, many restaurant wine suppliers sought the quick-fix solution of rebranding as retailers. A flurry of online pop-up shops of varying degrees of professionalism emerged, all attempting to fill the space where the UK’s on-trade used to be. Most of these efforts lasted as long as a lockdown sourdough starter, sputtering to a halt with the first lifting of restrictions.