Which firm was crowned Northern Ireland's ‘best wine retailer’ at UK excellence awards in London?

Crossgar-based wine retailer JN Wine is raising a special toast to new sparkling success after clinching two top awards at the UK wine industry’s annual retail excellence awards organised by global wine brand Decanter.

JN Wine, one of the best-known independent wine merchants, supplies many of the top hotels, restaurants and wine shops throughout the island of Ireland.

The 46 year-old business which employs more than 40 staff and has outlets in Crossgar in County Down and in Highbury, London, was this year acknowledged as best regional wine retailer in Northern Ireland – as well as in the UK capital – at the Decanter Retailer Awards 2023, securing top gongs in a shortlist containing some of the UK’s best-known retail wine specialists.

Awarding its Crossgar wine retail outlet number one in Northern Ireland, judges noted JN Wine’s ‘excellent service, wide range of wines along with an efficient operation that made it a worthy winner’.

The company’s London outlet, Highbury Vintners, picked up the award for Best Regional Wine Shop in London, with one judge saying: “Highbury Vintners is exactly what you want from your neighbourhood wine merchant, offering a great range with a very proactive, educated staff – what every high street should have.”

The Highbury store was also named runner up in the Decanter Awards ‘Spain Specialist Retailer of the Year’ category.

The two top Decanter award wins come hot on the heels of JN Wine’s 29th consecutive win at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in May which saw the Co Down team pick up the title of Regional Retailer of the Year for Northern Ireland 2023. Highbury Vintners was also named Best Regional Retailer in London.

Founder James Nicholson, said: “We’re over the moon with our recent award successes. They reflect the strength of the team and our consistent dedication to delivering expertise, excellent service and a wide and expanding range of carefully selected, quality wines to our customers.

“Each and every member of the team plays a key role in our collective success and I’d like to thank them for embracing our ethos of constant improvement in delivering for our growing base of loyal customers at home and in businesses across the UK and Ireland.”

JN Wine, which was founded in 1977, specialises in quality wines sourced from family and artisan wineries around the world, and remains committed to a long-standing focus on sourcing sustainable and organically certified wines.