The club of the most traditional, well-established wine merchants in the UK – typically with a royal warrant and/or a member of The Bunch – is a remarkably small, cosy one. As I pointed out recently in A bunch of indies, they are increasingly being challenged by a host of smaller, younger, leaner, more innovative independent wine merchants who are making the wine-retailing scene in Britain one of the most vibrant.
Private Cellar belongs to neither camp but is an offshoot of the former, in that most of their relatively youthful team used to work for traditional, smart wine...