“Bedales: it’s the long tail of wine”
March 2nd, 2006
So says James Governor , who met up with Johnnie Moore , Stormhoek head honcho, Nick Dymoke Marr, and myself at this charming bodega in Spitalfields market. Basically, Bedales is a wine shop with a couple of large bench tables, some stools and a tiny deli counter for bread, cheese and olives. I am more wine buffoon than wine buff, but James recommended it and Nick liked his choice, and that’s good enough for me.
The last bottle was chosen by Bedales’ own Emily - L’Aventura, I think, a 2000 Syrah from California. “Unusual choice,” thought the wine buffs, but we all agreed it was lovely, velvety plush stuff, and tremendously priced, thanks to Bedales simple pricing policy. At Bedales, you pay the price of the bottle plus £5 corkage - far better value than the price of the wine multiplied by three, which Nick told us is the restaurant pricing rule of thumb.
Emily stopped by our end of the bench to see how we liked the wine and tipped us off to Vinoteca , another similar operation - with, apparently, an Italian leaning wine list - near Smithfields market. James called this “being more competitive by being less competitive,” but I don’t think that was in Emily’s mind. She was just being a good host. Such a generous recommendation will pay dividends in the long term - we plan to try Vinoteca next, but I expect to return to Bedales often.
Bedales .
Entry Filed under: Communicate better
6 Comments Add your own
1. james governor | March 2nd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
nice.
2. Andrew | March 3rd, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Sorry I couldn’t make it - suffering the worse cold in the history of man…
3. fanboi | May 18th, 2006 at 11:52 am
That sounds a great place. £5 corkage is like you say so much better. The corking (sorry!) prices of wine in restaurants put me off - when you know you are paying over the odds it’s not pleasant.
4. Digital Thoughts : Geek 2… | May 26th, 2006 at 9:12 am
[…] We all travalled down to Bedale’s Wineshop just up the road from Liverpool Street station (the one we were at isn’t on their web site, but James is there a lot!) and by mutual consensus starting with some red wine and didn’t change. We started with a “Fat pino”, moved on to a “Really fat pinot” (James’ descriptions, not mine), whose name’s escape me, but they were both from New Zealand (i’m a bit of peasant when it comes to wine, but I like it!), though one was called “Shaky Bridge”. After that came a 1982 Chateau Neuf du Pape, which I think was the one that smelt of leather! There was another French wine after that, which I think cost about £35 per bottle and was actually very nice
[…]
5. | July 15th, 2006 at 1:55 am
Now I know where we need to go next time I’m in London! Great post, Adrian.
6. Paul Mabray | August 30th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Proof of the long tail of wine -
Inertia - Powering the Wine Revolution
—Paul Mabray - CEO
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