The Sampler expands

Good news for London's wine lovers. One of the capital's best wine shops, The Sampler, is to open two new branches - in South Kensington and Notting Hill. For those unfamiliar with this innovative shop, which allows customers to taste a range of 80 wines from its Enomatic machines, there's a write up on this site.

Dawn and Jamie, the owners, have raised more than £1 million funding from investors to make this expansion feasible. One of the investors, regular commentator on this blog Keith Prothero, has this to say:

"I see The Sampler as the future of wine retailing. By offering over 1000 interesting wines at all prices and styles, and enabling customers to sample the wines, the experience is fun, educational and most importantly the customer buys a bottle of wine that they know they like."