History

Wine Cave is part of the Angel at Hetton Partnership and has been established for eight years. Denis Watkins, Wine Cave founder and Gastro Pub pioneer, first started importing wine for the Angel Inn, twelve years ago from a bearded giant called Jean Claude Dagueneau in Pouilly Sur Loire. After that, Denis approached Jean Durup who was widely (and still is) recognised as the best producer of Petit Chablis and started importing direct from Maligny.

It was three years later when having lunch at George Blanc's restaurant in Vonnas that he instigated buying his house wine direct from George Blanc.

Denis Watkins' wine acumen reached far further back in time to when he was a Hotel Manager at the Grand Hotel on Broad Street in Bristol. During that time he was among a few people that had the idea of holding a World Wine Fair in Bristol and proposed to all the other Hotel Managers in Bristol at the time that they each adopt a country and lay on menu's and entertainment appropriate to the chosen wine producing nation. In the mean time he proposed to the Lord Mayor that the then derelict docks around St Mary's Quay be turned into an exhibition hall for wine producers from around the world.

The year was 1978, Mumm Champagne ran a special bottling of its Cordon Rouge under a special celebratory label commemorating the first ever World Wine Fair in the UK, a pre-cursor to what is the biggest wine event in the world held annually today at Excel in London.

Sadly Denis passed away in July 2004, he did however pass on his love of wine and passion for Burgundy to his son, Pascal, who having worked for Oddbins and having worked for a stage on a vineyard, rejoined the family business in October 2002.

Since his arrival Pascal has expanded the business and has chosen to specialise in French wines with a heavy leaning towards Burgundy. Burgundy wines now account for about 70% of all wines stocked in the Wine Cave.