Laithwaite's

Where it all started ...

Have you ever enjoyed something so much that you wanted - straightaway - to share it with friends and family?

That happened to me 50 years ago and I have not stopped sharing it ever since. In 1969, by complete chance, I took a job washing bottles at a Bordeaux winery. They made great wines ... and at very reasonable prices. I fell so, so in love with their wonderful world of wine. It was the way the lives of everyone, from the bottle washers upwards, were totally wrapped around not just making wine but making THE BEST wine possible. These wine people weren't just passionate, they were obsessed! I had it drilled into me early ... “C'est qualité! Qualité! Qualité!” 

A long time ago I played golf every week with Tony's dad and heard his son had left school and gone off to Bordeaux. Tony was now all excited about the wine. I said bring some back. So he did. Two cases, on the train. Dropped one, I got the other! That was the summer of 1965. Little did anyone know where it would all lead.” -Norman Henderson-

Meet the makers ...

Great wines simply can't be mass produced ... the best bottles come from individuals working on a smaller scale.

Through Laithwaite's you are plugged directly into a 50-year-old network of 450 or so seriously talented winemakers, making real wines in volumes too small for the pile-em-high retailers. For a few winemakers, wine is just a job. For the most talented, it's their life's passion ... all they think about. No surprise, these ‘wine nuts' make the best bottles! But after all that work, you wouldn't offer your precious bottles to just any trader, not with your family's name on the label. Personal bonds of trust, in many cases built over decades (thanks to the extraordinary loyalty of our customers) are vital.

You're in good hands (in fact, the best)

We like to claim that Laithwaite's is “the best place to buy wine” ... and we also like to PROVE it.

We are one of the first UK companies to have been awarded a ServiceMark with distinction from the Institute of Customer Service. With us you can enjoy not only the finest service in the wine trade, but pretty much the best of any UK retailer! Our customers agree ... online reviews at TrustPilot have seen us rated ‘EXCELLENT’. We've many people serving you at Laithwaite's who've done so for twenty, thirty years or more. Unsurprisingly we've thousands of customers who've been with us just as long. Because we just are the best place to buy delightful wines.

Wine experts are always very happy telling you what they like, but what's most important is what you like! And it's always very personal. Tell us a little bit about the wines you do or don't like and we will start to offer you, too, a truly personal service - online, in store and on the phone. No two wines are the same - and neither are any two customers.