Cape London

We’re an online wine retailer bringing the joy of drinking wine to everyone, from connoisseurs to occasional drinkers. We want to demystify the practice of buying wine and make it fun for everyone. Each wine we sell is accompanied by our own take on it, explaining its taste or advising in plain, often light-hearted English, as well as traditional tasting notes.
In addition to our refreshing new approach, we recognise that many of our wines have terrific histories or backstories that have never seen the light of day – until now. We’re excited to tell the stories behind the wines, which are guaranteed to start conversations at the dinner table as soon as they’re served.

Our beginnings are via a love of South Africa and its vineyards, and we have one of the UK’s finest selections of wine from SA’s Western Cape. More than 80% of our initial portfolio is South African, featuring iconic wines such as Meerlust Rubicon, Vin de Constance from Klein Constantia, Reserve wines from Vergelegen and bubbles from Graham Beck, plus some great new products from Women in Wine, Corder Family Wines and Black Elephant Vintners, as well as a select choice of wines from Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Cape London is the vision of boyhood friends Andy Leach and Tony Cooper. Following hugely successful careers in their respective fields of marketing and management consultancy, the pair decided on a new direction following significant events: Tony experienced a life-changing epiphany when he suffered a potentially fatal brain injury. Against odds of 4-1 he fully recovered, but decided that the old adage ‘life’s too short’ must be followed and took early retirement from Deloitte to travel the world, including a return to South Africa, where he had already spent some time. Best friend Andy had previously sold his marketing agency and established a love of South Africa and its vineyards and on Tony’s return to the UK the pair embarked on a new business chapter together, with the aim of supplying quality wines – several exclusively and many from South Africa – and enabling wine lovers to discover the great stories behind them. And thus, Cape London was born!

With an extensive knowledge of the vineyards they source from, and an unrivalled enthusiasm for their business, Andy and Tony have a great story to tell, and at Cape London all the wine do too!

Andy says: “We’re so proud to have finally launched Cape London, a business which we truly believe will enable buying wine in the UK to be a more exciting and enjoyable experience. The stories behind our wines range from quirky to inspirational. For example, the Women in Wine company was the first wine business in South Africa to be owned and run exclusively by black women. We have a sparkling wine that was favoured by both Obama and Mandela to celebrate their inaugurations as Presidents, and the Corder Family has its roots in murky English folklore. When you buy wine from Cape London wine you also discover a world of fabulous stories and anecdotes.”

www.capelondon.co.uk