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Why don’t you stock supermarket brands?

 

With our friends at Winefantastic in Colchester, we ship direct from smaller growers, people who don’t ordinarily make enough wine to satisfy the Supermarket buyers. Big boys play with big boys. And we’re small…. 

 

Why do you close at 9pm?

 

As a wine shop we think this is an okay time to close. Our drink-in customers are often a bit older and more discerning and they generally like a drink earlier.

 

Why don’t you offer food?

 

We are experts in wine (and beer), not catering. If we did food we would want it to be the best and that’s really difficult and expensive to offer. We do stock some lovely packaged snacks though also hold the odd cheesy night.

 

Why are your wines expensive?

 

What? Expensive? Us? We're not; price for price we are very competitive for take-home and absolutely untouchable for drinking in. What we don’t try to do is sell wines below about £8.50. The tax and “dry cost” burdens on these wines are simply too great compared to the value of the actual wine to make them possible or even desirable for us. Retailers like Aldi and Lidl on the other hand are able to ship bulk wines from bigger factories and get them on the shelves profitably at a low price. For sub £6 wine, we recommend them. Above that, come to us.

 

Is Wine-Boutique independent or part of a chain?

 

There are several businesses called Wine-Boutique in the region. All are independently owned and run but all share the wines and menu you’ll find here.

 

Do you operate ethically?

 

Try to. We pay staff the Real Living Wage (not the lower Government one) as do our friends over in Frinton and Felixstowe.

We try to buy local - our cheese nights are supplied by Tom on the market.

We recycle things.

We never knowingly cheat anyone; customers or suppliers.