Melina Cucchiara’s bold lockdown launch has helped breathe new life into a Cotswolds town. It’s involved hard work, a fair amount of chocolate, and lots of old barrels. By Nigel Huddleston

The third armed robbery was the clincher for Melina Cucchiara. After a quarter of a century retailing fine antiques and second-hand jewellery in Stratford-upon-Avon, and with the safety of a young son to consider, she swapped one three-barrelled town for another, and moved half an hour down the A429 to open a wine shop in the Cotswolds town of Moreton-in-Marsh.

“I had a couple of horrific incidents,” she recalls. “There was one with an axe and one with a machete. I was lucky but didn’t want to push my luck. You hear some real horror stories where people get followed.

“One guy got nine years, not because of what he did to me, but because he assaulted a police officer and that was deemed more serious.”

With Italian parents and a home-winemaker father, wine was a natural choice. “I grew up with wine,” Melina says. “My father used to make it – but nothing commercial. Everybody did. It’s like saying my mum baked cakes: it was normal. 

“It was always on the dinner table and natural when you were growing up to try it, because they were proud that they’d made it with their hands, from their land.”

That connection with food informs Melina’s approach to selling wine.

“They’re very snooty about wine in the Cotswolds, though it’s getting better these days,” she says. “If you were posh, you drank wine. But I don’t want it to be like that. 

“It’s about everyday enjoyment. In Italy, drinking is all about with-food – the wine just happens to be good.”

Moreton Wine Merchants was a lockdown baby, and has become a hybrid – with added “& Wine Bar” – occupying a deceptively large space that stretches way, way back from its single-unit fascia. It’s on one of those broad Cotswolds high streets of easy-on-the-eye limestone buildings, with space in front that doubles as a car park or the market, depending on the day.

Moreton’s range includes spirits, fortifieds, beer and cider from local farmer/TV personality Jeremy Clarkson, posh crisps, Hunters & Frankau cigars and – the most recent addition – a Leonidas chocolate concession.

The premises is divided between the shop at the front, with a huge tasting room/events space to the rear and a bit between with drink-in seating, a bar and a flight of Enomatics. There’s a second rank of Enomatics in the events space.

Throughout, there’s a barrel theme to the interior design, with floor and door panels fashioned out of staves, in addition to the more conventional presence of barrel-top tables.

Perhaps crucially, given the timing, Melina was able to start up without racking up debt. “I had money from the jewellery business. Everybody said to me: ‘it doesn’t matter what your problems are – if you’ve got money, you can deal with it’.”

How did you go about sourcing wine from a standing start?

When I first started, all the range was from Bibendum, but now I’ve hardly got any because they merged and merged and merged. 

A rep from there came to the house even before I had the shop and helped me build a core range, just from a list, with no pictures and no blend information – literally what the wine’s called, who the producer is and where it’s from. 

Because it’s on the main high street, reps just kept popping in. Literally the length of the bar was full of samples and it’s just grown from there. There are now 13 or 14 suppliers. It’s a lot for a small independent, and we’re juggling minimum orders all the time.

Who are the main ones now?

Boutinot is the biggest in volume. We get on really well with Berkmann and Liberty. I don’t want to miss anyone out and upset them … Woodchester Valley in the Cotswolds … Ellis are very good. Boutinot’s minimum orders are 40 cases but their wines do sell and are really well-received. For one of their Italians, Montresor, we have nine of their wines and they supply our house Prosecco. 

I did consider a franchise with Cambridge Wine Merchants to get things started. It wasn’t expensive but I’d worked by myself for too long and wanted flexibility without being tied in.

I didn’t need guidance on how to run a business, as I’d done that, even though it was a different type of business. I thought, “if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it myself, and if it doesn’t work then it’s all down to me”.

Is it still a work in progress?

My range is pretty much there now, so it’s now really only adding when I need something different, cheaper or better than I’ve got. I like suppliers who’ll get their producers to come in and do a tasting. I could stand there and talk to customers about the wines but it’s very different when they tell the history – like Antinori, with 28 generations, the Medicis, the silk traders of Florence … 

Why did you choose here?

I used to drive past when this was a carpet shop. The family still own the two floors above. It was on the market as a whole unit to rent. Where I’d been before, I’d just wanted the shop, but to get it I had to take the whole building. But I wasn’t interested in doing that again: renting out space to other people. 

I drove past one day and the landlord had decided, as retail was on the decline anyway, to split it. I rang straight away and said I was interested, not realising it went back and back and back.

The Wine Merchant’s annual reader survey asks retailers to say what they sell from a range of product categories, some of which are quite niche. You seem to have them all.

There must be something missing. It’s something that’s just evolved. Initially it was just wine. Crisps go well. They like cigars round here, so I got cigars. You have to listen to what your customers are saying.

What made you go for the chocolate?

It was an idea I’d been toying with for about six years, going back to the jewellery days. But back then, I couldn’t take my eye off the ball with the jewellery and risk getting robbed because someone wanted a couple of chocolates. 

It’s quite safe round here and the wine and chocolate go well together. People ask for a few with their wine or when they’re having a coffee afterwards.

What’s the deal with Leonidas? 

The whole thing has to be the way they want it. There’s no fee as such but you pay for their fridge, their cabinet, their this, their that. Even the paint on the wall [in the concession area] has to be the Leonidas colour – and the blinds and the lighting. If I was franchising a whole shop there’s a much bigger range, but this is what they view as the core.

Does it pay its way? 

Not yet, but it’s only been a few months. Most people will buy a little bag or a small box, a little gift or a thank-you for 15 quid. You have to stock their big boxes: sometimes they sell as a gift, but very rarely, because we’re not in London. 

What inspired the overall shop design?

There was a lot that needed doing but I just got on with it. I didn’t know where to start. I was going to get it all fitted out in a much more bespoke way, but the contractor who was doing the work became ill. Initially, this was just going to be a temporary thing but it saved me a lot of money really, and it worked.

I bought those wooden crates, got them all stained and it’s just MDF for them to sit on, with some hessian on the front. I stripped out all the lighting. It’s still not right but it’s a lot better than it was.

I’ve got this thing about barrels, but there are only so many barrels you can source, so I bought a pallet of staves. It’s very rustic. They’ve just been thrown together but it’s kind of a bit different. I just Googled where to find them. The barrels came from somewhere in Cannock, and the staves and crates were a job lot on eBay. 

How has the space evolved over time? 

It was just the shop to start with. Everyone was very excited about having a wine shop in Moreton and a bakery popped up around the same time. So the street went from being dead during lockdown to all of a sudden having a bit of life. There were three or four businesses who opened at the same time. Nutters … “let’s do it now!”.

It’s just been constantly thinking of adding, expanding and tweaking. What else can I do? How can I change that? How can I change this? It has to be an organic process. People don’t want to come in and see the same thing every time.  

The back room was just like an empty shell and had no character to it at all. It needed a tasting table. I rang a friend at Newark Antiques Fair, where I used to have a jewellery stand. He had this one, which is six metres long. They’re old Victorian floorboards. I could have done with it being a little bit shorter, because when we have a band in and the tables on the side to get more people in it’s a big task, walking round trying to serve drinks. But it’s so tactile; everyone loves that table.

You’ve said that the events are important.

I try to get a winemaker every month. It’s all right listening to me but if we can get someone from one of the wineries over that’s much more fun.

We had Diego [Surazsky] over from Mendel in Argentina. He said he’d only come if we made empanadas. I liked the fact he was talking about the food but wondered where I could get authentic empanadas in the Cotswolds. It just so happened the son of one of my customers had just done a stint in Argentina and had an Argentinian girlfriend who had an amazing recipe, so they made them. Diego was so chuffed when we came in with this great big tray of empanadas.

How do the events go down?

There are a lot of new people who’ve come up from London to live in Moreton and don’t know anyone. But if they come to one of these events they’ll find they’re sitting next door to someone who lives in the same street – and they didn’t even know each other. 

Food is important. I went to a few other businesses’ tastings when I was doing my WSET. At a lot of wine events you just get a little bit of cheddar cheese and a biscuit. Where’s the imagination? There’s just isn’t any. James Richards at Vin Neuf [in Stratford-upon-Avon] was one exception, with really nice breads and cheeses. 

I went mad for the Tour of Italy tasting and made meatballs and tiramisu. With Babich from New Zealand we had asparagus and little Cotswolds lamb cutlets. I find those events are well-received because people know they’re going to get something for their money. 

But it’s not just wine events?

We try to have a music event once a month. I always put on a complementary glass of Prosecco or wine. They’re easy to plan because musicians are very organised. It’s been a slow-burn thing. I’ve only been doing them for about a year. 

We have Marvin Muoneké, who was on The Voice. He does Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, James Brown, Frank Sinatra … and he’s got so much energy. They were all doing the conga to Love Train. I do get artists emailing me and asking if I’ll look at their YouTube videos. 

I only sell tickets for the back space where the music is and we’re always sold out. You’re welcome to sit in the wine bar and you’ll hear it, but you won’t see it. 

I read in The Wine Merchant about somewhere that was doing a similar thing. I did Google the music they had, but it sounded a bit too strange for me. You know those weird alien noises? It was that. I thought, “I can’t see that going down too well in the Cotswolds”.

 I’d never ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I’m always on the go, so I expect them to be on the go as well. 

What part does tourism play?

It’s mainly local. There’s a caravan and campsite round the corner. There is a flow of traffic from there. We advertise there when we have wine or musical events. 

How has business been in 2024?

The first three months of this year has seen retail generally slowing down. I saw more reps than customers at one stage. But you have to up your game when it gets like that and think what else you can be doing. 

No matter what they say on the news, until people feel more money in their pockets they’re not going to spend. We’re very lucky in this area because when people say they’re a bit short it means they’ve got a couple of thousand, not a couple of hundred. They’re not going to food banks. 

Do you do business on the web?

We have got an online presence but it mainly works for the tickets. With wine, people like to come, knowing they can try them. 

What about wholesale?

I thought about it but the margins are so small and the customers want you to finance it. I could get credit to cover that but the way I work is, stock lands, I check it off and then I pay for it. That way you’ve got the stock and then you know what’s in the bank is yours. I’ve always worked like that, especially in the jewellery business. If you paid on credit and had a robbery, you’d end up with no stock and no money because you’re not insured for stock you don’t own – and the premiums are extortionate, as you can imagine. So my approach is: get it in and pay for it. Suppliers like it like that, which is why they’re always knocking on the door.

Any regrets about the switch, then?

I wished I’d done it earlier and got it to a level where it was ticking over and then I could have gone back to the jewellery. I’d have been able to finish early – and just go shopping. But no, really, no regrets. It’s a lovely business to be in. Most people in wine are happy people.