Spanish food importer Ultracomida will be opening a warehouse space in Cardiff under its Spanish Wines Direct operation, as part of the firm鈥檚 continued focus on retailing wine following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The delicatessen and wine merchant, which has sites in Narberth and Aberystwyth and owns Curado Bar and Vermut in Cardiff, will be opening the 6,900 sq ft unit on Penarth Road, near Grangetown in July.
Open to both trade and the general public, the new site will stock more than 500 different Spanish wines from smaller producers, indigenous grapes and unfamiliar Spanish territories, as well as olive oils, olives, tinned fish and other snacks.
There will also be a bar area for small group tasting sessions and 鈥榯ry before you buy鈥 option.
This is the second Spanish Wines Direct site opened by Ultracomida as the company looks to increase capacity for online wine sales.
Last year, the firm acquired a 4,500 sq ft unit in Glan Yr Afon Industrial Estate in Aberystwyth in order to grow the wine retail side of the business after the Covid-19 pandemic closed its restaurants.
Since then, co-founders Paul Grimwood and Shumana Palit believe demand for quality Spanish wines is set to continue.
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Mr Grimwood said: 鈥淲e saw our online wine sales increase by more than 50% during the pandemic, as people looked to drink better and more interesting wines at home. This gave us the push to open our Aberystwyth warehouse, which has gone from strength or strength.鈥
He added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to emulate that success in Cardiff - and increase the storage capacity for our online sales, too.鈥
Last year, the group also launched a Spanish wine subscription service via a dedicated Spanish Wines Direct website. Customers could pay 拢35 a month and get 12 hand-picked bottles of Spanish wine delivered on a quarterly basis.
Ms Palit said: 鈥淲e import so much directly from the producers, which allows us to offer a more varied range than anyone else. We have used the last couple of years to focus on wines from under the radar regions in Spain - think Montilla-Moriles, Valencia and Catalunya.鈥
She added: 鈥淲e鈥檝e deepened our connections with winemakers who have challenged themselves to look for new ways of reviving traditional grapes, and of using low intervention and more sustainable methods of farming. We can鈥檛 wait to share all of this with our Cardiff customers at the new warehouse this summer.鈥
