Sam and Charlotte Brown, who started Vino Vero seven years ago, recently decided to move on and embrace a more “nomadic” existence.

As they explained on their Facebook post: “We are moving to Europe … working and living where the wind (or indeed the wine) takes us. Once we’ve rested and recharged, we’re going to learn how to make the product we’ve spent seven years selling. Wineries don’t know what they’re in for.”

The good news for the people of Leigh on Sea is that the business has been bought by Jaime and Holly Fernandez who were already running their own wine company, Copa Wine – a pop-up wine tasting company with a focus on biodynamic, organic and natural products.

“We extended that to an online platform and we were looking to open a bricks-and-mortar shop,” says Jaime. “I knew Sam and Charlie really well – I’d been shopping in Vino Vero for about five years and we became good friends.”

Vino Vero will retain its name, but the new owners will put their own identity on the business by developing a “new look and feel” with some new branding at the start of next year.