Try before you buy

The moment you walk into The Sampler you know it's not like other wine shops. Not only are the wines arranged by grape variety rather than region or country of origin, but bottles are lined up in gleaming silver dispensers. Started by wine enthusiasts Jamie Hutchinson and Dawn Mannis—without a day's experience in the trade between them—The Sampler relies on the idea of retail as entertainment.

The Sampler is built around the 10 sampling machines, which make 80 wines available to taste. Customers buy a sampling card at the till and use up the money with each sample. Prices vary from as little as 28p for a 25ml sample, right up to £20 for 25ml of some of the "wine icons".

"The idea behind the wine icons is that people are able to try wines they wouldn't normally be able to afford," says Hutchinson, a self-confessed "wine nerd".

As Mannis says, people can taste at their leisure. "The beauty of this is that people don't need to know about wine. They don't need a member of staff hovering over them. They can try stuff and make their own mind up." With a wine club and in-store tasting events the High Street wine shop may never be the same.