Wine is all about people. We are a company run by wine people. Our mission is to introduce you to the people who craft this wonderful drink with care, attention and passion. By doing so, we want to foster connections, share enjoyment and encourage enthusiasm.
We bring you the full, kaleidoscopic picture of vineyards, places and people. In our seasonal world, we’ll bring you what’s good on the day, and point you to the right wines for the season’s flavours.
We know that great wine experiences are personal, so we’ll always put you, the wine drinker first. Allow us to listen and learn, and we’ll make sure that you get the right wine, for the right reason.
40 years of The Great Wine Co.
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1983
Philip Addis starts the business in the garage of a friend of his, before soon moving to the railway arches in Bath. This prompted the naming of the business ‘The Great Western Wine Company Ltd’. The wines sold were all destined for restaurants.
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1985
Château du Donjon and Château du Vieux Parc are the first wines imported.
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1989
Philip was persuaded to open a shop so his friends could buy the wines. Alan Nordberg joins the company as Shop Manager.
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1992
Great Western Wine outgrows its latest site on the London Road, moving to its current home on Wells Road.
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2000
The business now has four vans delivering around the Southwest every day. The first website is launched. Tom King joins the company as Fine Wine Manager.
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2004
We start to import Bogle Estate wines.
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2005
The first ecommerce website is launched.
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2006
Viña Leyda joins the Great Western Wine portfolio.
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2007
Another perennial favourite, Ken Forrester also joins us.
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2010
We are acquired by Enotria Winecellars, who take on the trade arm while Great Western Wine becomes wholly retail. We now sell some new iconic wineries like Trimbach, Planeta and Thelema.
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2020
Our brand-new website is launched just before Covid hits. Sales explode as demand for home delivery brings 14 times monthly sales in just 3 days. We rebrand, changing the name to The Great Wine Co. to reflect the changing nature of our customer base.
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2023
The Great Wine Co. turns 40!
In June 2020, we renamed ourselves The Great Wine Co. to reflect how we have grown beyond our traditional West Country base. Although Bath is our home, we sell more wine online than any other way, with customers up and down the UK.
This new name emphasises our greatest asset: the wineries that we represent all around the world. Our core brand values remain rooted in the quality of our portfolio of wines; in celebrating the personalities that sit behind them; and in reflecting everyone's individual tastes to recommend the right wine for each customer.
