Oddbins....

I just wanted to let people know that Oddbins has closed its doors for the final time.

I was Assistant manager in Richmond Hill, Kennington and West Dulwich.

We closed our doors in West Dulwich yesterday for the final time

They weren't able to find a buyer for the business.

All other remaining branches have also closed.
Thank you for taking the time to share sad news with us.
Clearly Oddbins has influenced many of us over time.
Best of Luck Louis
 
People naming so many wines that I too used to buy; it's clear our education centred around a set of wines that Oddbins sourced like Orion, Armagh and the Jaboulet's, that were both iconic and relatively easy to buy - because of Oddbins. I know the wine world has changed, but how many other genuinely iconic wines of their region/style are available on the high street of most cities now?
 
In the mid to late '90s Oddbins did what they described as 'en primeur on the shelf' (I see Alex has already mentioned this as I was typing!) where you could buy single bottles at e.p. prices, and I took advantage of this for the 1995 vintage - there are still odd bottles of Mouton, Carruades de Lafite, Batailley etc left in my cellar, as well as some of the Grange, Hermitage La Chapelle, Ch d'Yquem 1990 picked up earlier - plus possibly rather too much Dead Arm...
 
I have a very significant collection of Dead Arm back to '94 largely sourced from OB, recent (ish) tasting of some of the mid 90's are showing quite nicely, even if still on the fulsome side of the spectrum
 
Very fond memories of the Oxford High St branch (fodder for our blind tasting club c. 2000)
I remember the High Street Oddbins as being the main wine shop in town in the later 2000s but can that be true? Fond memories of buying a rich Chilean red wine whose name I no longer remember there.
 
I remember the High Street Oddbins as being the main wine shop in town in the later 2000s but can that be true? Fond memories of buying a rich Chilean red wine whose name I no longer remember there.

Ben, 2000s possibly too late, but may have been the 'Grand Vidure' from Carmen, which was an absolute mind blower from Oddbins in the late 90s. Turned out to be Carmenere basically, but before we knew anything about Carmenere. I bought and enjoyed so much of that.
 
I remember the High Street Oddbins as being the main wine shop in town in the later 2000s but can that be true? Fond memories of buying a rich Chilean red wine whose name I no longer remember there.
I don't see why not? There was another big one by the roundabout nr Magdalen Bridge, but it was a lot less good
 
An Oddbins memory. When I first started dating (is that even a word these days?) my futrure-wife I was a bit intimated by her father who has a cellar full of beautiful Bordeaux...... it was the first visit to the house we were sharing. I was stressed as fk. Went to Oddbins, explained the situation and they sorted me out with an amazing selection of really good Australian and Spanish wines.

Looking back at the photos a while back (oh my god I looked so young) there was

Ygay Gran Reserva
Some Autralian Shiraz that I remember was beautiful
An Australian Chardonnay (Cape Mentelle??) that my father-in-law still has in the cellar because he liked it so much.....

I might be mis-remembering, but the feeling of calm when I said "French Father In law - need booze - not French - needs to be good" and the staff were more excited than I've ever seen.
 
We all look back fondly on Oddbins both for the ambiance of the shops and the range of wines they sold. I know many independent merchants today trace their history back to Oddbins and have carried forward some of their concepts but isn't it strange that no chain has managed to replicate the Oddbins success story? Is it because the independent sector is a lot more diverse these days, that on-line retailers have won over the kind of young wine-curious buyer that would have walked into Oddbins or some other reason?
 
Personally I find it a lot easier to do internet shopping nowadays - can check things on CT, no need to carry bottles home. There are plenty of merchants who have a similar approach of having a good, curated, not entirely predictable range if I fancy trying something new by the bottle, e.g. Vin Cognito, Wine & Greene, Blast.
 
Is this a general case of death of the High Street, then? Visiting the Oddbins tasting sessions on Saturday afternoons was just a part of my weekend routine back in the day. I've had similar encounters at independent merchants on the High Street (indeed Jon himself has been known to attend them - Cambridge Wine Merchants and that place in Muswell Hill that I've forgotten the name of). I don't know if the likes of NYWines and CWM do regular tastings every Saturday. Maybe they do, but I'd have thought they would advertise them on social media. It's not the same, the way Majestic have a few tired bottles open at any one time.

Just thinking that many, if not all local wine merchants seem to be branching into offering wine bar type service, and it seems very popular, but free tastings seem more ad hoc.
 
As I've said, Glasgow really was a stronghold for Oddbins, with numerous shops across the city and a thriving trade. But I have noticed that a few of the indies that sprung up over the past few years have closed their doors - Inverarity, Pop Wines, Cavavin plus a couple of others whose names now escape me. I seem to recall all were quite active with tastings and events but still failed. Quite a few others have survived and seem to be trading well though. So in-store tastings and similar activities may not be enough with the pressures of online shopping and changing shopping habits, rising rents and other bills and squeezed pay packets. I do think location location location plays a part too admittedly. A couple of the failures were on the sites of previous failures....

Cavavin was odd - don't know if anyone has a branch near them? It's a French franchise that someone opened near me. It held my interest only for the two minutes it took me to look round the first few shelves. Kind of sub-Nicolas, slightly dreary wines with little obvious incentive to buy. I remember a young Glasgow couple opened the franchise from an interview in a local free sheet, who had no previous experience.
 
i've had reason to visit a few towns/cities recently that I hadn't in some time, and the decline of the town centre is quite remarkable, even versus 5-10 years ago.
Rows of empty shops, boarded up; event locations crowded into edges of town /specific developments - the kinda cinema/chain restaurant/out of town larger retail premises combo you get everywhere now. Typically more interesting areas in towns often a combo of eateries/vape shops/tattooists, the only pub with more than one man and their dog is Wetherspoons. It's hard to see where a dedicated small retail unit should position itself in location or relevance in order to succeed, be it a wine shop or otherwise.
Even Majestic, which has a realistic concept and accessible locations (you can park and fill the boot!) is often close to empty if I visit.
And online retailers are diverse and make it so easy. Just all seems inevitable
 
I think Andrew Stevenson posted an old Oddbins List a few years back - it was amazing in is breadth and value . I recall the manager of Oddbins Sheffield in the early 1990s being particlarly knowledgeable and helpful and she got me to buy some Grand Pontet St Emilion which then was absurdly cheap .
 
Cavavin was odd - don't know if anyone has a branch near them? It's a French franchise that someone opened near me. It held my interest only for the two minutes it took me to look round the first few shelves. Kind of sub-Nicolas, slightly dreary wines with little obvious incentive to buy.
My brother is a good customer of the Cavavin in Hertford. I find a drive to the WS showroom in Stevenage to be more productive.
 
The problem with these independent wine merchants is that they usually only have one or two outlets so if you wanted to attend a tasting and buy in store, you were either local or had to make a special trip to go there. Oddbins was all over the UK so very easily accessible by a large proportion of the population and, in larger towns and cities would have loads of outlets. At a guess, even Edinburgh probably had about ten Oddbins shops.
 
I don't see why not? There was another big one by the roundabout nr Magdalen Bridge, but it was a lot less good
I think that was a Majestic? They used to have lots of Penfolds, as I remember.
Ben, 2000s possibly too late, but may have been the 'Grand Vidure' from Carmen, which was an absolute mind blower from Oddbins in the late 90s. Turned out to be Carmenere basically, but before we knew anything about Carmenere. I bought and enjoyed so much of that.
Tom, sadly I fear it was a wine rather less exalted than that.
 
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