Meet Henry and Cassie from Butlers Wine Cellar in Brighton

Who are you and where is the business based?

The Butlers Wine Cellar is a family-run and operated vintner with outlets in Queen’s Park Road and St George’s Road, Brighton.

The business begin in the 1970s and is now headed up by partners Henry Butler and Cassie Gould.

Henry, what is the background of Butlers?

It is a fiercely independent wine shop, focusing on wines that are interesting, tasty and represent good value.

We sell wines from most wine-making regions, with a particular focus on California, Portugal and the wines of England.

We are founder members of a national group of some of the finest independent wine merchants across the UK, focused on importing exciting new wines to the country.

We’ve always taken a fun approach to wine, whether through our social media presence or hosting events including as part of many Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festivals.

Cassie, what has your experience of the past year been? Are things improving?

It finally seems like lockdown is a thing of the past and we are moving into a more normal way of trading again.

It’s definitely a new and different normal but at least we can finally see and talk to our customers again.

Having survived the erratic lockdown wine shopping trends, for us business has quietened down a little at the moment for home consumption since the bars and restaurants have reopened.

That said, as soon as it rains we receive a flurry of local deliveries. May has been a better month for us due to the miserable weather I’m sure.

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We’re now open from Wednesday to Saturday, hooray!

We are definitely seeing demand for more “treat” wines now people have something to celebrate, and others to share them with.

We are also seeing an interest in orange, natural and low sulphur wines of which we sell quite a few now.

Henry, why should people look to their local vintners to buy wines, beers and spirits rather than supermarkets?

I come from an independent background – we are an independent local shop – and we personally shop in other local businesses as our default setting, it’s the way I am wired.

Some people like the shopping relationship you have when entering an independent, some like the non-confrontational approach of a wine aisle in a supermarket.

There is room for both, but we are a specialist and put hours of work in refining a range of products which we strongly feel provide a lot of joy.

It is in our interest not to make a one-off deal with a customer, but rather build a long-term relationship.

Prices are comparable unless you only buy on discounted supermarket deals.

We, as independents, have time to discuss and advise, so hopefully the customer ends up with the wine most suited to their needs.

Henry, looking to the next few months, are there any key drinking trends?

There are always lots of mini trends or fads, which can be distracting.

We try to stay true to our mission, taste as much as possible, constantly review our range and stock the wines we feel offer interest and value.

There appears to be a lot of chat about buying natural or orange wines.

We have some of both – we have had for many years – but we make sure we choose wines we like and think are good quality, rather than just stocking them because they happen to be natural or orange.

Henry and Cassie from Butlers

We have seen an increase in sales of lighter reds, such as wines from Portugal, France and Italy.

My immediate fear would be that due to Brexit costs and admin delays, it might make importing small parcels from funky producers too costly.

Cassie, have you had time to get out to bars and restaurants?

Yes! We’ve already been out a few times and sat outside and this week we have our first indoor bookings which we cannot wait for.

We have been to the fantastic Flint House – whose sweetcorn fritters I have actually dreamt about over lockdown – and are heading to Wild Flor, Due South, Fourth and Church, and The Grand hotel in the next week or so.

We have a booking at Mere in London in July which will be an adventure.

We supply hospitality businesses across the city and many can’t order wines fast enough now.

This is great to be a part of as we are as happy as everyone else about the return of hospitality, but we are now dealing with the aftermath of Brexit which affects many aspects of our business.

It’s a continual juggling act but we are really pleased to moving forward again.