Maker Spotlight: Wine Monkey

Wine expert and sommelier Bryan Houde opened The Cellar by Wine Monkey in 2023, bringing his extensive experience in vineyards across the world to Chippenham. We spoke to him about his background in wine and why Wiltshire was the perfect place to start a bustling wine bar and shop.

What inspired you to start Wine Monkey? 

As a business, The Cellar by Wine Monkey was an opportunity, but also an exciting chance to take Wine Monkey from only selling online to an actual brick-and-mortar location. I grew up in America, but I lived in the south of France for about 12 years. That’s where I studied wine to eventually become a sommelier and educator. I was working for a winery for several years, and during the off-season, I’d come spend my time in the UK. There, I’d do marketing and events for the winery, introducing them to restaurants and so on.  

I quickly realised that this winery, as well as lots of other small independent family-run vineyards, didn’t have a way of selling their wines in the UK, outside of tourists coming to visit them. The traditional way is to find an importer and distributor, but that’s a very difficult thing to achieve for many wineries. Plus, it’s a very clunky process. So, I set myself up as a sole trader and started selling these wines on their behalf at tasting events as well as via their own branded website. Taking this model, I then reached out to many other small, family-run producers to get them on board, and it all started building from there. 

Where did you get the idea to open up as a shop and wine bar?

I eventually left the south of France and moved to London for work. Then, about three and a half years ago, I decided to leave “the city” and found myself in Chippenham, where I was disappointed to see there wasn’t a proper wine bar in town. A good space was available in the town centre, so I decided to roll the dice, and here we are! 

Last December, I partnered with Coffee Gems, an artisan micro-roaster in Chippenham, so now during the day, we’re here as a coffee house, and then the afternoon, the wine bar proper – The Cellar – opens, so it’s a very multipurpose venue. We hold lots of events, such as wine tastings, fondue nights, Paint and Sip nights, live music, and of course, we have a Valentine’s Day evening coming up. 

What’s next? Well, I’m soon planning to expand into something more food-led to give me more opportunities for wine and food pairing, events and education, so watch this space! 

Wine Monkey’s not just a place for drinks though, you also offer artisan nibbles – tell us more about that. 

Even though my background is in wine, I’m a massive foodie, and my family have always been very involved in hospitality (worked in my grandma’s restaurant since I was 13), so I’ve always wanted to pursue that, too. Plus, great food enhances great wine! So, we serve charcuterie and cheese boards, homemade tapenade, hummus, salsa, pâté, a variety of compound butters and dipping oils, and the like.

For anything I can’t make myself, it’s really important to me to source from local producers, and we’re so lucky to have so many in and around Wiltshire, such as the guys at Pano Bakehouse right here in Chippenham, who do fantastic breads and sourdoughs, Mellifera Honey who cultivate their own beautiful honey in Pewsham, and the Wiltshire Chilli Farm for their awesome hot sauces, too.

How has the local community supported you since opening?

Massively! That was one of the biggest shocks I had when I first opened – the amount of interest that the community had; also the amount of support they’ve given us! Our regular customers are always asking what can they do to help? “Do you want us to bring more people? Can we buy tickets to your events? Or shall we just keep buying wine?”

And that’s been really nice, because as a business owner, you’re usually fighting to get customers, but there’s been so much positivity around the me instead. It’s what every business owner dreams of! 

You try and use local businesses wherever possible, but there aren’t that many wineries in Wiltshire! Do you stock any Wiltshire wines? 

That’s true, there aren’t many, but there are a few! 

The English wine geography tends to skew more towards the Southeast, because that’s where you get the kind of soil that’s best for Champagne-style sparkling wines, but as you move more westerly, it gets a bit warmer. So, producers around here are focusing more on stills and even starting to experiment with red wines, which is quite uncommon given our cool climate. 

One of my suppliers from Wiltshire is Whitehall Vineyards near Lacock, which is just down the road. I’ve worked with them very closely from the beginning, before I even opened The Cellar, because the wines are great. They’re high-quality, classic style single varietal wines for the most part grown by a local family.

It’s really important to me to work with local producers whenever I can, because they’re most likely a small business, like me. So, if we can support each other, that’s a win for everyone. 

One of the things Wine Monkey has at its core is sustainability – why have you decided to focus on that? 

The short answer is that the wine industry has lots of unsustainable practices, at least in what we call “conventional” wine making. The concept of wines that taste good, are good for you and good for the planet is slowly becoming a thing that winemakers are taking on board, but it’s a slow process. I’ve only ever worked for sustainable vineyards, and I believe that it’s a much better product at the end. 

Wine is one of the few food products that doesn’t have any labelling requirements other than allergens (sulphites), so commercial wines can be pumped full of additives, adjustments and preservatives. And lots of pesticides and herbicides can be used in the vineyard, too, which isn’t great for the environment. 

That’s why I’ve decided to focus on these smaller vineyards, because they’re often family-run, they choose to support the environment they’re part of, and they see the bigger picture of the impacts that their activity can have on consumers and on the planet. 

Are there any wines in the shop at the moment that’d you’d really recommend? 

I’m very passionate about wines from the south of France, as I said. My very first job in wine was an internship with a producer called Mas Baux (near Perpignan), whose wines are just phenomenal. They’re totally organic, biodynamic, and everything is done by hand. Winemaker Serge has also introduced some grape varieties that aren’t traditional for the region, so that’s really interesting and makes for unique wines in a traditional region.

So if you like that kind of bigger, richer, warm climate style wine – Mediterranean wine – then I’d recommend trying something from Mas Baux (and I just happen to be the only supplier in the UK!). 

What does being part of the Wiltshire Marque mean to you?

I think it’s great that someone’s put in the initiative to do this, and the fact that the Wiltshire Marque exists means that people are recognising that Wiltshire has some fantastic food and drink. Living here for now several years, I’ve noticed that artisanship is a really big thing throughout the county, and I really respect that. It’s great to see the Wiltshire Marque bringing suppliers together as well. 

To purchase wines online or book tickets to Wine Monkey’s events, visit www.winemonkey.co.uk. For the latest updates, follow them on Facebook or Instagram. 

Share this story: