Crouch End’s Bottle Apostle

Although you might think that Hampstead and Richmond are the places in London where the well to do reside, there is a greater chance of seeing someone famous in Crouch End. And I’m not just talking your ‘I’ve been on TV twice’ famous, I’m talking proper high-class celebrities.

For instance, Peter Bradshaw, the film critic for the Guardian, has been seen shopping in the local Waitrose. BBC business editor Robert Peston gives blood in the local church and Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens can also be spotted looking round local antique shops with those lovely blue eyes of his.

Crouch End is now home to the second branch of Bottle Apostle, a wine shop that both harks back to the customer-orientated outlets where a doddery old man would be an expert on every single bottle in the shop and brings in a little more technology. The innovation that Bottle Apostle has over other wine shops is the ability to taste the bottle that you are thinking of buying.

Whilst a piece of paper underneath a bottle of wine detailing that it has notes of raspberry, liquorice and intermittent shoulder pain might be useful, it does not give you a full insight into what the actual experience of sampling the wine.

Fortunately, the folks at Bottle Apostle have come up with a unique method of getting a sneak preview. Simply buy a sampling card, insert it into the Enomatic machine which is stocked with six to seven bottles, with one for reds and one for whites. The service in the shop is informed and unthreatening, which is a welcome relief. Many is the time that I have felt my backbone sliding out of me as a snooty oenophile has coerced me into buying an overpriced bottle that I ended up resenting.

The stock is wide-ranging and the branch is determined to educate, with events and tastings planned for the forthcoming months ahead. At the time I visited, the store was planning to introduce more English wines in store. Along with the wide range of German, French, Italian and South American wines, they have a captivating range of wines. Plus there’s always the off chance that you might bump into the comedian Mark Watson whilst he is perusing the latest selection of Rieslings.

Bottle Apostle
49 Park Road
Crouch End,
N8 8SY