Page 278 - The Bite Magazine - Spring Summer 2013

bitedrinks
JADA BROOKES
STUMBLES UPON
TWO INTRIGUING
BEVERAGE BOUTIQUES
IN CENTRAL LONDON
THAT MAKES LOCAL
OFF-LICENCES OR
SUPERMARKETS LOOK,
WELL, JUST ORDINARY.
There was a time when, if you
wanted to pick up your favourite
tipple, you would just go down to
your local off-licence, pub or the
nearest supermarket and get whatever
was on offer. But now there are boutique
shops popping up in central London that
specialise in a particular or a selection
of alcohol beverages to suit everyone’s
taste. We found two newly established
shops: HedonismWines in Mayfair and The
Whisky Shop in Piccadilly that we came
across very impressive, easy on the eye and
the stomach.
HedonismWines
Walking into fine wine and spirits boutique,
HedonismWines which opened last August
on Davies Street in London’s Mayfair, is like
walking into your own personal wine and
The Tale of Two Beverage Boutiques
spirit cellar. The store is brightly lit with
an array of bottles, organised in neatly
arranged sections and cabinets. An
unexpected decoration of wine glasses
hangs upside down from the ceiling and
a series of little multi-coloured crafted
hands holding bottles are fixed to one of
the walls downstairs. A set of stairs leads
to the lower ground level which contains
larger and more expensive bottles (the
biggest being 27 litres and the most
expensive being £120,000), which are there
for your observation and picking. One of
the biggest champagne bottles, Billecart-
Salmon Brut Reserve, is 15 litres. Every
wine, champagne, port, grappa, vodka, gin,
tequila, brandy and liqueur you could ever
think of and some you may never have even
heard of appears to be contained in this
huge space: a drinker’s paradise for every