Corks of Cotham

Corks has become a firm favourite of mine. The wine and spirit selection is amazing. So many varieties of wine. Delivery also super fast. Love it.

Although they have a great selection, after visiting here for 4 years I shan't be shopping there anymore. I've tired of being talked down to by smug, pretentious staff who don't actually know that much about the products that they sell. As a business they should really learn to stop judging customers by their appearance or accent and also keep their opinions to themselves.

Superb range of wines, excellent staff all very passionate about wine. You'll always get a better bottle of wine for you money here than a supermarket. Make the buying part of the experience.

In all my nearly sixty years I've never been so badly treated in a shop as in Corks of Cotham! It being my local off-licence I went to buy some beer and wine for Christmas. I like to support local independents when I can. A selection of four local ales in a plain cardboard box for £16.10 caught my interest, but when I investigated further I realised that this was priced at least £3.00 more than if I bought the items seperately, which seemed a lot to pay for a plain box. I questioned the manager about this and used the phrase 'it seems a bit of a rip-off'. I'll admit saying 'over-priced' may have been slightly less confrontational, but instead of explaining calmly that actually (as I subsequently discovered) the plain cardboard gift boxes cost around £2.50, he went straight to DefCon 5 - refused to serve me and told me to leave the shop immediately, which I dutifully did, too shocked to protest. I can imagine that as the manager of an off-licence you have to be prepared to occasionally assert your authority in a similar way with customers who have been drinking too much, but I certainly hadn't touched a drop and at no time used any strong language or raised my voice. This guy certainly hadn't been to the school of the customer always being right! Is this total knee-jerk reaction and lack of service-mindedness a result of the pressures of running a non-essential business during a pandemic, I have wondered since, in an attempt to empathise. It's a great shame I won't be using Corks of Cotham again because it's part of my local high street and the other staff have always been helpful and friendly in the past. If I receive an apology for my humiliating treatment I will remove this review, so if you're reading this, you'll know that it has not been forthcoming. I can highly recommend the always friendly service at Gripe & Grind on Gloucester Rd instead.

In all my nearly sixty years I've never been so badly treated in a shop as in Corks of Cotham! It being my local off-licence I went to buy some beer and wine for Christmas. I like to support local independents when I can. A selection of four local ales in a plain cardboard box for £16.10 caught my interest, but when I investigated further I realised that this was priced at least £3.00 more than if I bought the items seperately, which seemed a lot to pay for a plain box. I questioned the manager about this and used the phrase 'it seems a bit of a rip-off'. I'll admit saying 'over-priced' may have been slightly less confrontational, but instead of explaining calmly that actually (as I subsequently discovered) the plain cardboard gift boxes cost around £2.50, he went straight to DefCon 5 - refused to serve me and told me to leave the shop immediately, which I dutifully did, too shocked to protest. I can imagine that as the manager of an off-licence you have to be prepared to occasionally assert your authority in a similar way with customers who have been drinking too much, but I certainly hadn't touched a drop and at no time used any strong language or raised my voice. This guy certainly hadn't been to the school of the customer always being right! Is this total knee-jerk reaction and lack of service-mindedness a result of the pressures of running a non-essential business during a pandemic, I have wondered since, in an attempt to empathise. It's a great shame I won't be using Corks of Cotham again because it's part of my local high street and the other staff have always been helpful and friendly in the past. If I receive an apology for my humiliating treatment I will remove this review, so if you're reading this, you'll know that it has not been forthcoming. I can highly recommend the always friendly service at Gripe & Grind on Gloucester Rd instead.