Our story began in 2014 in the basement cellar of Hawksmoor Guildhall, busily slinging out top Bordeaux and Burgundy to big-city bankers, traders, and the occasional tourist. We often talked about the idea of setting up our own company: sometimes it was a bar, sometimes a shop, maybe an import business. It changed depending on the day, but we always knew it would be focused on our shared passion for wine.
After a few years working in different areas of the trade, we decided to finally take the plunge and open Turner & Jones in October 2019. We’d originally planned to call it Bloomsbury Wines, but someone had already taken that, so we went for the most original name we could think of. It wasn’t the best timing to start off; within a few months, all of our on-trade clients would be closed due to Covid, so we were stuck with a warehouse full of wine and no one to sell it to!
Luckily, things settled down eventually, and since those early days, we’ve sold to hundreds of trade and private clients across the UK, plus a couple of cheeky exports out to Dubai, the US and Asia.
Our focus has always been to provide quality wines at fair prices, whether that’s a bottle for a tenner on the sofa or for £100 at a posh restaurant in Mayfair. We’re not trying to re-invent the wine world; just keep it simple: selling wines, we love to drink, working closely with our producers and clients to ensure it’s a good deal for everyone, and drinking some nice bottles along the way.
Best wine that we’ve ever drunk:
Sam: Not 100% on the vintage, but it was Comtes de Vogue, Bonnes Mares 2006 (thanks Ken!)
Felix: it’s got to be Armand Rousseau, Chambertin Clos de Beze 1986. A good friend of ours who works in the trade once smashed a magnum of the same wine from 2006 right in front of us, gutted!
Worst wine we’ve ever drunk:
Sam: “Pet Nat ain’t wine”… or basically anything natty.
Felix: An Aussie version of Retsina. Even the original in Greece is horrible, let alone a copycat!