The birth of Wine Hub Devon Ltd

Our first wines.

As soon as it had been decided where I would store the wines and where I would operate from I started mass emailing all the contacts from wineries I had met at the Wine expos in Hong Kong and my old bosses were very kind in passing on their contacts for my favourite wines at Winerack too. After a few replies it dawned on me that many had minimum orders way beyond my budget and as I was starting off small I decided I really couldn’t take on that much stock. Imagine a pallet of just one wine! That’s around 600 bottles of just one bottle!

However, I was incredibly lucky to have been introduced to Castelnau Wine Agencies by one of the wineries who were very keen to work with me as we had spoken a lot whilst I was still working in Hong Kong. So they were my first official suppliers and we still work very closely today. Keith, the Director, was also very kind to me and offered advice as I made my first order and was happy to send samples of multiple bottles, many of which have become our top sellers over the years such as the Château Barbebelle Fleuri Rosé from Provence.

We did, however, come across some incredible South African wines by Imbuko Wines who were happy to help me with my first purchase from them by allowing me to order a mixed pallet of their Stone Forest range. This did not work out as cheap as I had hoped. The wines totaled just under £1,000 and the transportation from their winery in South Africa to my parent’s garage was just under £300. So far so good right? Then it reached the shores of the UK. The import tax was just over £1,200! Then there was VAT on top of that, so basically tax on tax which really shocked me. So this pallet of wine went from a potential bargain of under £5 a bottle retail to over £8. It was a massive shock and with the amount of paperwork we decided not to do that again. At least not for now anyway.

So how did we choose our first wines? Of course my business mind consistently asked “can we sell it at that price?” and whilst that was an important question we kept in mind we actually chose and continue to choose wines based on taste. Naturally there are wines that are chosen to fill the gaps and must-haves for a wine shop but still we would choose those based on taste. Are they memorable? Would you want to buy another? Or is it one of those “it’s nice and I’m glad I’ve tried it but I think I’ll explore something else next time” wines? These are the main questions we ask ourselves and then the final was the “can we sell it at that price?” We felt this would make our range more sustainable and interesting to begin with and we would learn along the way how to grow from there. We love to spot a bottle with potential too.

One that’s not a famous label with no brand pricing boost but of equal quality and character if not more. In fact two of our first wines in particular achieved this and have multiple awards and wine article mentions since. One being the Château Barbebelle Flueri Rosé and the other winning No.1 Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand 2020 (awarded by NZ’s award-winning food magazine) the Tiki Estate Sauvignon Blanc.

Then in Spring 2018 we evolved and bought a highstreet shop.