THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers
Issue 148, July 2025
Dog of the month: Mia Delay No More, Bermondsey
Reserve Wines counts down to opening of sixth branch Shop in south Manchester will be based on the revamped Didsbury branch – and a seventh store could also open
M
anchester independent Reserve Wines is in expansion mode,
with a long-awaited branch in
the south of the city expected to open in the near future.
Owner Kate Goodman says the new
branch was scheduled to open 18
People really enjoy them and it’s a great
way of driving new people into the store.” Reserve also operates a concession at
Bents Garden Centre in Warrington, but
Goodman describes the location as “quite
limited”, with no flexibility for events or drinking-in. “We would probably move
away from that as a direction,” she says.
• Full interview starts on page 16.
months ago but has been delayed by redevelopment work on the site.
The branch will be similar in format
to Reserve’s Didsbury shop, which has
recently been overhauled to incorporate a
wine bar and a simple food offer – but with the retail side remaining prominent.
Goodman, who is keeping the exact
location of the new shop under wraps, says it’s possible that another opening
could be on the cards while she waits for
the keys for the south Manchester site. “I
always have an eye out,” she told The Wine Merchant.
The south Manchester store “will be a
standalone shop like Didsbury”, unlike
the branches Reserve has in Altrincham market, the Mackie Mayor food hall in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and Macclesfield’s Picturedrome.
“It’s a bigger space so we can do
different stuff there and a few more collaborations,” Goodman says.
“We’d like different food operators to
come in and build some exciting events
around different food concepts because
those events and experiences work so well.
Rebecca Tomlinson was an NHS manager for two decades before leaving to create Bouquet Wine Cellar in Derbyshire. A year on, the business has been so successful it has had to move to bigger premises. Story: page 8.