Bruce Evans at Grape & Grain Wine Merchants in Crediton, Devon, has opened a wine bar just a few doors down from his shop.

“There’s a gap in the market in this town,” he says.

“I’ve been here 12 years and people will buy better things if you give them the opportunity.”

Evans has transformed the former bank into a welcoming bar with room to seat around 40 people.

“It’s very much in the Spanish style,” he explains. “There’s a little bit of standing space but it’s basically a sitting, table service bar. The issue I have with wine bars in this country is that most of them are just restaurants that serve wine, but this is a bar which will do a little bit of food.”

As well as creating a prep kitchen, Evans has invested in a Verre de Vin preservation system and intends to have around 40 wines on by the glass (and carafe, if he can locate the ones he recently purchased), and has three lines for keg wines.

“The wines in the bar will be different from the wines in the shop,” Evans says, “so there will be no issue with people asking, ‘why is that 25 quid when I got it in the shop for 12?’ I know most people understand [the mark up] but there’s always an idiot.”

To complete the Spanish theme, Evans has named the new bar Amapola (the Spanish word for poppy), in honour of his beloved dog Poppy, who died earlier this year.