Things looking up in West London

A new wine shop in Brompton Road! A fully-fledged independent called SIPP at No. 203, quite near Emporio Armani for those who know where that is. They are knowledgeable and nice young French people whose selection is eclectic and discerning. We bought a Brazilian red blend of Touriga Nacional, Afrocheiro, and Tinto Roriz which we had enjoyed from a previous source just to encourage them. Their website will soon be active: www.sipplindon.com

Meanwhile, in our researches was the discovery not far away of another wonderful establishment, Troubadour Wines of 263 - 267 Old Brompton Road, SW5 which has been open for just over 2 years already.

There we found not only the same bottle of Brazilian as at Sipp for slightly less but also Bests Great Western Pinot Meunier which we used to buy from Harvey Nichols with much pleasure before they stopped carrying it.

This was actually Troubadour's last bottle but we hope they will order it again. Almost on our way out we were thunderstruck to find an Ancelotta by Familia Zuccardi from Argentina!

We were promised by the thoroughly well informed and bright young chap behind the counter that they were expectin a big consignment of new stock in mid-March. We will certainly scoot back to check that out as soon as possible.

Another result from our Googling - sorry, researching - we discovered that Harrods were the only stockists of our latest enthusiasm a Grignolino, so along we went to discover they have made their wine department over to excellent effect.

The staff there are enthusiastic almost to a fault. How good to see practically the entire former Pantry given over to what looks like a greatly enlarged selection of wines. Harrods is a strange place. Some departments have remained excellent while others...

Meanwhile over at Selfridges, we picked up a real rarity - one now with added poignancy - the first example we have seen of the indiginous Japanese grape Koshu.