Chris Barlow Wine Stories Derby
We spoke to Chris Barlow, owner of Wine Stories, a new wine bar in Derby that is set to open in the city in a few weeks.
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00:00Wine Stories, Wine Bar and Tasting Routes. We're looking at bringing in quite an eclectic mix of wines, that's my passion,
00:07and bringing in wines from all over the world, from merchants to growers, so rather than anything that you see supermarket-based wines,
00:14everything that you see here will be from specific regions and growers.
00:18So quite interested, they'll all have their own little stories behind it, which I'll see how we can talk about at the time.
00:23Everybody who likes wine will have their own stories about things, so again, all very, very subjective,
00:28so we can talk about those things. The wine tastings will include the wines that they're looking to bring in,
00:33so again, if people go, I really like this, it's a collective, we'll bring those in, so it's quite a flimsy wine list.
00:39We'll have world beers, we'll have a selection of, obviously, spirits, gins, but again,
00:44all sort of wines that you wouldn't necessarily find across any kind of usual outlets in the country.
00:52Keeping it interesting, whilst also adhering to people who like rum, or like whiskey, or like wine,
00:58you'll have everything that will be here, all in one place.
01:01So this is a three-storey building, talk to me a little bit about your wine tasting rooms.
01:08Yes, the top floor is a beautiful space, it's really high ceilings,
01:12obviously with a strand of arcades on the side, so the idea is to create a wine tasting room,
01:18so again, we'll put events on, we'll do wine tastings, we'll do specific regions,
01:23so again, what we call wine flights, even some sort of pairing evenings with food.
01:27A friend of mine is a very, very talented chef, so we might want to bring him in to sort of bolster that as well.
01:33But also, it'll be an event space, so if you want to book out a private wine tasting with yourself,
01:38for an event, birthday, or whatever it might be, or even just hire the space out and use that space,
01:44it will be available for everybody, it'll be a sort of beautiful setting, and can be put to any kind of event.
01:51Will there be food, Chris?
01:53Will there be food? We're not going to be a restaurant, there is plenty to offer on Southgate already,
02:00what we're going to focus on is the wines, that's where my passion is,
02:03but we will be offering some artisans and cheeseboards, so again, matching up those wines
02:09with a really quite sort of eclectic mix of cheeses and olives and meats and stuff on those boards as well.
02:15So there will be things to eat while they're here, whilst they're enjoying their wine as well.
02:19Sounds epic. Do you have anything else to add to the piece, Chris?
02:23I'm just really, really looking forward to meeting everybody and talking about the wines.
02:27This project is something I've probably wanted to do every single day for probably the last 10 years at least,
02:33and it's here we are, a few weeks away from opening, I'm incredibly excited,
02:38I just can't wait for it to be here and just meet people face to face, come in, have a chat, have a glass of wine,
02:45and just sort of see where this goes.
02:47Dates then, what are the key dates that we need to know?
02:50We, fingers crossed, are looking to open on the 26th of July, so a couple of weeks or so away.
02:58Not long now!
03:00We're opening Friday afternoon, Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening to start with.
03:07We may potentially sort of move that to possibly Thursdays or whatever.
03:11Again, we'll just sort of see how things go, if the necessity or the need is there, then we will do that as well.
03:17But Friday afternoons, Friday evenings, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evenings.
03:21Will there be dress code?
03:23Yeah, we want it to be in keeping with what we're trying to see for instance,
03:27so we don't want tattoos and caps and things like that.
03:32Smart, casual.
03:33We're not going to have a strict on the wall, but we just want people to come in and have a good night,
03:40and be around people, and just have a great evening.
03:44But yeah, we will have a certain sort of code there.
03:48Smart, casual is perfectly good for us.
03:50Amazing. Thanks Chris.
03:51You're welcome. Thank you very much.