‘Despite the tastings and events – we have about 14 a month – we are a wine shop at heart, so the online wine store was a natural extension. We did a soft launch in September 2023 – around the time that we won the Decanter Retailer Award – and then properly opened it up in the new year. We offer free local delivery, but most of our orders are outside Balham (London SW12). We’ve even had orders from Liverpool!
‘People will mix and match in store, but we’ve found our online customers choose six or 12 bottles of the same wine.
‘This was already a successful shop when we took over [in April 2022], with a loyal fan base. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves wanting to change so much but we learned to take our time and understand the business, the neighbourhood and the customers before embarking on the renovations, website and now the online shop.
‘We’ve found that the business has naturally evolved more to the bar side. Two years ago, we thought we were buying a wine shop, but in fact we bought a wine bar with a shop attached!
‘You have to follow local demographic and trends. Balham is getting younger – lots of renters, young professionals. We are focusing on that under 35-year-old crowd. So our list of 400 wines has expanded to include more organic wine, natural wine, more low-alcohol stuff, and wines from less-familiar regions.
‘Cristi Dactu, our general manager and wine buyer, is from Romania, so he has introduced lots of Eastern European wine which customers enjoy exploring. But also there’s a big South African community in Balham, so we stock a lot of South African wine.
‘We’re not 35 anymore ourselves, so we’re conscious of offering something for everyone, and we have loads of classics, too, especially from the Old World. People like to browse, and it helps keep their interest if there are new things on the shelves, as well as on our by the glass list, which we change monthly.
‘While you can find everything on our website, and get a few emails that way, most of our interaction with people is via Instagram. It shows how you need to constantly adapt: you can’t just run a good wine shop and be successful – people have to find you, and having a good social media presence is how they find you.
‘We get a real mix of customers, from date nights and people starting on their wine journey, to enthusiasts who want to chat about wine. People have asked if we would expand to spirits, but we only inherited a licence for grape-based products. And with a name like The Wine Tasting Shop, it doesn’t really make sense. Do what you’re good at and don’t complicate it, is the best path.
‘We are thinking about expanding to another premises, but we’ll take things one step at a time.’
