John Casson writes this entry as a part of our indie writing competition.
I have dealt with Laura Taylor and Andrew Gordon since they started Private Cellar (and before that at Corney & Barrow) and the versatile, personal nature of their business model very much suits my wine buying.
It’s the little things that make a difference: keeping me up to date with monthly reports and tailoring their usual invoicing system to accommodate my busy international schedule, small tweaks to their systems that make dealing with them very easy for me. I buy a lot of wine en primeur from around the world and it has been well documented, especially recently, that this comes with an extremely high level of trust, a trust that I am very happy to put in the hands of the Private Cellar team.
For my cellar at home, Laura has tuned in to my palate and knows exactly what I’m looking for and their delivery service is excellent too. On the one occasion when we did have a problem with an incorrect wine arriving, Laura drove down to Devon to personally oversee the exchange – now that’s what I call good service!
And it’s not just the supply of wine that matters to them: they’ve helped me to find the right man for the job to build a bespoke wine cellar at home and over the years have been enthusiastic supporters of my annual charity lunches and dinners, helping to raise a great deal of money in the process.
We always have a huge amount of fun whenever we meet and I look forward to our encounters, whether in Devon, London or Suffolk: it’s great to see such an enthusiastic team of colleagues so tuned in to their customers and to each other; a spirit that is often missing from larger companies today.
Private Cellar
57 High Street
Wicken
Cambridgeshire
CB7 5XR
01353 721 999
orders@privatecellar.co.uk
www.privatecellar.co.uk