Martin Roach, the manager at Nicolas wine shop, informed me today that the store will be closing in the next 2-3 weeks. It is highly likely that it will be replaced by an independant wine shop but Martin will be moving on to a new store.
Previously Oddbins, the shop was rebranded in April 2007 but although there are currently 80 Nicolas branches in the country these are predominately in the South and Martin feels that "it hasn't worked partly because people are not aware of the brand".
I like many will certainly be sad to see Martin leave the village after 7 years because whenever I wanted to try something different or needed advice when buying a gift I knew I could rely on Martin's knowledge. Over the years we have been introduced to a number of wines which we would otherwise not have tried.
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