Sharon Griffiths meets wine merchant Simon Wrightson at his Colburn warehouse

SIMON WRIGHTSON loves his work. He strides through his warehouse past the cases of wine, each in its own little alcove of country and region.

He’ll seize on a bottle, and tell you all about it, the region it came from, the man who made it, where and when he first drank it. Then there’s another bottle, more lovely people, more stories.

And yes of course, there’s a chance to taste it too...

After 35 years in the business, his enthusiasm is as lively as ever.

Yet it was all an accident really.

As a young man, Simon was working for the family firm – world famous engineers Head Wrightson on Teesside.

Head Wrightson – who had employed 6,000 people and were synonymous with engineering on a truly massive scale – went out of business and the young Simon was out of work.

“I found a job in Jacksons of Piccadilly, the ones famous for tea, but running their wine department. It was like something out of Are You Being Served? full of amazing characters and a great experience.”

But Simon realised wine was his future, studied for his Master of Wine qualifications alongside Jancis Robinson and Jane McQuilty, worked for and with other people and 20 years ago set up on his own. Despite some scary health issues, he has never looked back, winning national recognition and awards along the way.

Now he’s picking up bottles again – admiring the delicate pink of a rose or the deep yellow of a Sauternes, normally a pudding wine, but which he recently sampled matched with sardines.

“Fantastic, “ he says.

His career has seen a huge change in our wine drinking habits and in our knowledge of what we’re drinking.

“Back then it was all Hirondelle, Blue Nun and Mateus Rose in that pretty bottle.

Very limited.

Now people are much more knowledgeable, much more interested in what they’re drinking, “ he says.

In the early days it was the supermarkets which broadened our interest. “But they don’t tell you much, do they?” says Simon. “Faced with a supermarket shelf full of bottles, most people just choose roughly by the grape and the price. There’s not much else to guide you.”

He delights in guiding people, introducing them to new treats, loves talking wine and wine producers.

The other great shift has been the growth of wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile.

“Some great wines,” he says – and he stocks plenty of them, “but they can be a little one dimensional.” Which is why many of us – once we’re past the knocking back as much as we can stage – are returning to the French wines for their interest and subtlety.

Simon is, though, very cross at the prices French wine producers are trying to charge.

“Even the Chinese, who were buying so much, are buying less. Prices have to come down or the whole lot will crash.”

But if the truly great names are beyond most pockets, Simon’s speciality is finding previously unknown gems.

He travels a lot to the wine producers, especially in France, and builds up a relationship with them so he can find those special buys.

His catchline – as he seizes on yet another bottle to tell another story – could be “a great little wine that punches above its weight”. In other words, a bargain. And he has lots of those.

His wine list has symbols beside each wine to indicate whether it’s for drinking or laying down - he can help you choose wines as an investment, if you can really bear to leave wonderful wine locked in a bonded warehouse until you can make a profit on it – but there is also, reassuringly, a little symbol that means “this is a snip”.

And there are some great snips.

Often there are the second wines of producers famous for one particular wine, or gems such as Ronan by Clinet, whose Pomerol sells at more than £100 a bottle.

The Ronan, declassified blended Pomerol, is just a tenner.

There’s a late bottled vintage port at £12.75. And even a Napa Valley at £93 is a bargain when the producer’s other wines can cost £3,000 But many of Simon’s wines are much cheaper, starting from a Chilean Merlot at £5, and Las Condes, Chilean Chardonnay or Merlot – “very gluggable. This is our everyday wine at home.

– with plenty for less than £10 – including Chateau Bel Air d l’Orme, a Bordeaux at £8.35, which Simon’s serving at his daughter’s wedding later this summer. You don’t get a better recommendation than that.

Simon offers regular tastings at his premises near Richmond.

There’s even a state-of-theart tasting table by Yorkshire designer Peter Dixon complete with bits of bottle embedded and a high-tech water feature spittoon that’s only slightly reminiscent of the dentist’s.

He sells by the case all over the country via the internet, but still a good proportion of his customers are local.

He’ll organise a wine course for beginners or those a bit more knowledgeable, can supply wine and glasses for events.

Above all, Simon makes wine fun – which of course it should be.

Whether it’s a fiver a bottle or £500, what’s the point if you don’t enjoy it?