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Nicolas wine shops, London and other places

I stumbled across this branch of Nicolas in bustling Soho.  Wine shops are magnets to my liver and I felt the power dragging me across the street and in through the door like I was a hypnotised automaton.

Nicolas Nickleby?

Julien (the manager) was French and, therefore, knew a bit about wine.  He persuaded me to part with about £50 (US$100) on four bottles, but I made him work for it.  “Have you got anything unusual?, Is Bordeaux better value than Burgundy?  Would you recommend this cheap plonk from Morocco?  Why haven’t you got any South American wines?”.  My list of banal questions droned on and Julien manfully responded.  I probably would have bought more if I hadn’t been on the train back to Leeds the next day.

My Nicolas branded box received some attention.  On the tube back to the hotel a gurning sycophant smiled hazily “erm, it’s my favourite shop!” she said, realising I was looking at her quizically.  The owner of the resto we ate at that evening also nodded approvingly at the cardboard carrier.

Sweet shop

I’ll post about the wines when I get around to drinking them.  In the meantime, if you like French wine and you have a branch of Nicolas nearby, I would pay them a visit.  Apparently there are 80 stores in England.

Nicolas, 21 Berwick Street, Soho, London W1F 0PZ.
T: +44 (0)20 7494 4287 W:  www.nicolas.com

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 8:40 am and is filed under france, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Nicolas wine shops, London and other places”

  1. Peter May Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    Good grief.

    I can’t remember the last time I read anything good about the ghastly Nickerless and their overpriced range of dull wines

    Are you feeling OK?

    I’m looking forward to reading your tasting notes ….

  2. Douglas Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    Two facts about Nicolas:

    1). Their tills are in French
    2). Every year store managers pile into a Eurostar carriage (exclusively theirs), heading for the homeland. Can you imagine the vinous vapours emanating?

    Glad you got to Le Cafe Anglais…

  3. Douglas Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    BTW, is that a palm tree adjacent to the shop front? Vive global warming!

  4. julien Says:
    August 13th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    Hello narrow minded people.

    Maybe when you get older, you’ ll appreciate french wine, wich won’ t be overly oaky and will have at least a bit of lenght..
    Hope to hear from you when you’ re 90…
    Cheers.

    P.S.: Take time to drink your wine…
    J.

  5. pierre Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 12:47 am

    To reply to
    Douglas!!!!!!!!

    you are wrong!

    Two facts about Nicolas:

    1). Their tills are no longer in French.
    2). Every year store managers pile into a Eurostar carriage (exclusively theirs), heading for the homeland. – No longer true
    the french party in february is no longer in place…

    Nicolas is amongst the best wine merchant in the UK
    their staff is enthusiastic, proud of working for Nicolas and have great knowledge..

    no doubt, tresher is dead, odd bins staff is sooo boring and lazy…why dont you go to tesco to get your pseudo vinegary plonk~?

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