Wine importer Vine Trail of Bristol has one of the UK's most interesting ranges of hand-picked French wines. Founder Nick Brookes really did blaze a trail when he first assembled his collection of small, family-owned domaines sniffed out personally. At the time, this was unusual in a British wine merchant, most of whom tended to use a network of agents and wholesalers to source their wares.
Today, thanks partly to the rise of online retailing, similar operations have mushroomed, many of them with particular specialities, but Vine Trail's range remains highly distinctive. (Which other wine merchant features a consultant geologist...