Wine Advisors... your own personal sommeliers!

“I have found Averys Wine Advisors a delight to deal with, very knowledgeable and helpful. It is a pleasure to discuss a wine order when you know the Advisor will be friendly and give reliable advice.” Mr E W Hughes. Ringwood

Whether you are new to wine or an old hand, our wine advisors speak your language so you’ll immediately feel relaxed. You could not meet a friendlier, more helpful bunch and their enthusiasm and passion for wine is contagious. They are constantly sampling wine, in the tasting room and at home, to ensure they can offer you the best service. Whether you are looking for wines for a special occasion or for everyday drinking, our wine advisors will help be happy to help you.

“We relish the numerous opportunities we have to meet our suppliers and attend bespoke tastings, and are always eager to recommend these wines to customers afterwards. We hope to get the chance to show you what a unique (not to mention, free!) service we can offer you soon.” Fiona Bailey, Head of Wine Advisors

When buying wine in a good restaurant, you have an expert sommelier to help you find your ideal purchase by understanding your taste preferences and budget parameters.

Here to help you with your every wine need, from advice on everyday drinking wine, to selecting the wines to serve your guests at a special family event such as a wedding. They can give you advice on the best wines to help build a cellar or help you acquire the finest wines in the world for investment purposes. The service they provide is free to you as an Averys customer.

You’ll find many of our wine advisors have worked in vineyards and wineries around the world, run restaurants and pubs and their own wine businesses. Passionate, educated in wine and dedicated to selecting the best wines for you.

Averys Fine Wine Department

“To some people, fine wine is defined by its price – bottles over £10, £20, £50 or more. For other people, a wine’s potential for ageing contributes to its degree of ‘fine-ness’. Other definitions depend on classic European origins or whether a wine gains in value on the secondary market. At Averys, we’ve given up arguing about this, settling on the all-encompassing definition that fine wine is ‘wine worth talking about’.” Matthew Hemming, Fine Wine Manager

Meet the fine wine team

Our fine wine department is comprised of Matthew Hemming and Richard Dare, each of whom have their own specific areas of interest and enthusiasm. might be nice if we could have a line spelling out what these are? Matthew and Richard work closely with both the Averys’ buyers and the sales team and travel to Bordeaux each year for the en primeur tastings.

What they do

Customers looking to lay down cellars frequently come to the fine wine team for advice, as do those looking to investigate the world of wine investment. Matthew and Richard spend time each week valuing customers’ reserves, either held in bond with us or stored elsewhere. When clients wish to sell or trade wines, either because they have too much or because they were initially bought as an investment, it is the fine wine department that executes this, working with trade and private clients throughout the UK and beyond.

The fine team look after the en primeur campaigns, rare vintages and special releases. But it’s not just about advising on which wines to add to the cellar. Matthew and Richard also suggest which wines are hitting maturity after a decade or more in the cellar.

A lot of time is also spent on wines for current drinking. Sometimes we might find parcels of junior wines from great estates, such as the delicious Bourgogne Chardonnay from Antoine Jobard which outclasses many of his neighbours’ Meursault. On other occasions our current drinking may be Clare Valley Riesling or a classy Malbec from Mendoza. None of these is expensive but – crucially – they all meet our definition of fine wine as they are each characterful and well worth talking about.

Fine wine events

There are a number of events run annually by the fine wine team, most recently a dinner at one of London’s top Michelin ** restaurants featuring great Burgundy from as far back as 1969. Later this year we are taking a few lucky customers to visit Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux. Do contact us if you’d like to hear more about these events.

How to contact the fine wine team/h3>You can call Matthew or Richard on 01275 811 107 or email finewine@averys.com.

Averys Customer Services

Where other wine companies have come and gone, Avery’s has thrived for over 200 years by putting customers first. With every phone call or email we answer we go the extra mile to make you feel that buying from Averys is an absolute pleasure.

I’m lucky to have a terrific team - they love talking wine with beginners and experts alike and take every opportunity to show you what top level service is all about.

“It’s like having my own personal sommelier service at the end of the phone’ P Mullineux

We also offer peace of mind. There’s nothing worse than paying for a wine and not liking it. If that’s ever the case, we’ll happily replace it (even if the bottle’s half empty!) or give you your money back.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. It couldn’t be simpler, by phone, online or by post. We look forward to it.

You can call us on 0843 224 1224 or email us on enquiries@averys.com or click here. We look forward to hearing from you very soon.

Ruth Le Poidevin
Head of Customer Services

“Dealt with in a very professional manner with fantastic customer service. Cannot get better anywhere and really no need to look elsewhere to purchase wine. A company that actually cares about the customer!’ Many thanks Mr W Muir

Storing Your Wine Why and How?

By Matthew Hemming, Fine Wine Manager

Outside of Oxbridge colleges, stately homes and Bordeaux châteaux, traditional underground cellars are pretty rare amongst today’s wine collectors.

Any collection of wine can constitute a cellar, whether it’s a rack under the stairs, a shelf in a professional bonded warehouse, a wine cabinet in your home or a converted coal cellar. How these collections are built up varies tremendously, and comes down to personal taste.

3 top tips for building a cellar

Whether you’re buying investment-grade wine or creating a drinking cellar of your favourites, it’s crucial to find a trustworthy merchant. It’s invaluable to have someone who gets to know your tastes and requirements and can make recommendations – even the keenest wine collector is unlikely to taste as widely as a good merchant.

If you intend to collect fine wine, buy the great vintages but don’t ignore the less fashionable years. This will supply you with wines for earlier drinking, while the top stuff matures, and also improve your “allocations” of more sought-after wines in the great years. There are always gems to be found in so-called duff vintages too, this is where trusting your merchant comes to the fore.

Never forget, even the most prestigious and rarefied châteaux make wine for drinking. Collectors hoarding cases for year and years are not only missing out on delicious and vivaciously fruity young wines, but also risk keeping them too long, only to discover a wine’s well into its dotage and past its prime. So get your corkscrew out from time to time!

What to avoid

Never assume a wine will automatically improve with age. Most wine is made for drinking within one to two years of purchase. Wines costing under £12 that are capable of improving beyond a few years are exceptional. We do have a few wines in this category – some Cru Bourgeois claret, top Austalian Shiraz or Riesling for example – and our advisors are always to happy to point them out to you.

Don’t assume a wine you have kept will be worth as much or more than you paid for it. Wine investment, like stock market investment, is a specialist area requiring specialist knowledge. It is far safer and more rewarding to build a cellar of wines to drink, share and enjoy and starting in a cupboard under the stairs is as good a place as any.

Alternatively you can store your wines with us on our newly built state of the art wine storage facility. It costs just £9.60 per case per year. Call us today on 0843 224 1224 to discuss your requirements or click here for more details.

You can view your wines in storage here

If you would like to transfer any of your wines in storage contact us today on 0843 224 1224.

Delivery Information

Your frequently asked questions about delivery answered.

Charges and options

When you order wines from Averys, you can expect fast and secure delivery. We have a standard delivery service, which should arrive in about a week.

Why a delivery charge?

We make a one-off delivery charge for any number of cases to single address. We prefer to be transparent with this charge, rather than to amortise the delivery charge into the cost of the wine. This way you see what the actual cost of the wine is, and what you are really paying for delivery.

Leaving in a safe place

Obviously none of us want to spend all day waiting in for a delivery, so if there is a safe place the wine can be left if you are out, it will make the delivery much easier. Just let us know when placing your order. If you prefer to have the wine delivered to you in person, we will of course do so. If you are not there, the driver will leave a card for you to arrange a more convenient delivery time.

Split deliveries

We endeavour to despatch your order in one, but occasionally if you have ordered two cases or more, they may get split up with the carriers and arrive separately. It doesn't always make sense, but it does happen.

Saving on packaging

In order to reduce the packaging waste, wherever possible, we will use the original supplier box for onward despatch to you. Alternatively, if these boxes are not up to the job, we will re-pack into our standard branded boxes. We'd rather make sure you get your wine in one piece than risk breaking a bottle.

Breakages

In the unlikely event that your wines arrived damaged in any way, please contact us sales@averys.com immediately and we will be happy to arrange a replacement or a complete refund.

Where we can't deliver to

We regret we are unable to deliver to the Channel Islands, Eire or Mainland Europe./p>

We also cannot accept deliveries to Universities / Hospitals / Airports or Military bases on our website, please call our sales team on 0843 224 1224 to arrange these deliveries.

Standard Delivery

Our standard delivery charge is a one-off, fixed charge of £6.99 for any number of cases to a single address. Delivery is made by independent carriers on our behalf and should arrive within a week though please allow 14 days. If you live in the highlands or islands, it may take a little longer.

Gift Messages

If you are sending a gift to someone, we can include a brief message on the delivery documentation. The message is limited to 175 characters. Please fill in the appropriate box in the check out.