Taking Henley closure on chin

Henley-on-Thames independent Chin Chin has closed after just a year of trading.

Owner Adrian Fry says: “While we’ve continued to tick over, unfortunately a wine shop that doesn’t sell enough bottles of wine simply isn’t a viable business.”

• Less than a year after opening, Vinoteca’s Birmingham branch has closed. A statement from the business reads: “The challenges of a much-changed economic landscape over the past 12 months of rising costs, inflation, spiralling energy charges and regular train strikes have proved too great for a site which Vinoteca had hoped to continue to grow over the coming years.”

Congratulations to Blur bassist Alex James, who has teamed up with Furleigh Estate to launch a sparkling wine called Britpop. We assume that James was educated the expensive way, and knows his claret from his Beaujolais. No mention on the label about the wine being made in the traditional method, however. So we have to ask the obvious question: is James the model of a charmat man?

Do we trust the new pilots?

Winebuyers.com has been sharing the “exciting news” about its takeover by a consortium of investors, which hasn’t done much to change perceptions of the business among merchants it shortchanged in its previous incarnation. Maybe the “new” team should find a moment to sort out their homepage link to recent Trustpilot reviews. One example: “I bought some hair for my highschool graduation and the hair lasted a while after. The hair was some good quality hair.”

Correction

In our July issue we incorrectly gave David Almeida from Vinotopia the title of Master Sommelier in his Rising Star profile. This was a mistake entirely of our own making and we apologise for our error.