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Camden Review | Sam Dowek | Wine shop Corks | Highgate
Sam Dowek reveals how his new store Forks should provide the perfect complement to established and innovative wine shop Corks
IT’S Sunday, the sun is shining and Sam Dowek is having a good day. The local Tesco is shut for refurbishment and Sam’s wine shop, Corks, in Swains Lane, Highgate, is bustling with thirsty customers. With Tesco temporarily out of the market, Sam has fast-forwarded the opening of Forks, a deli-stlye food store specialising in natural products.
Forks is situated next door to Corks, which adjoins Baba, Sam’s other shop that specialises in rugs.
“Baba is a gift shop, really,” Sam tells me. “That’s what the market round here wants.”
Sam has always had a passion for rugs. This led him to open a shop in the West End. He then spent many years touring the rug-making world acquiring stock. During this period he developed an extensive knowledge of food and wine.
The area around Swains Lane was a centre for the English carpet and rug trade and for Sam it was the ideal place to live.
Around 30 years ago he and his wife Mary set up the family home there.
Five years ago they opened Baba, then Corks three years later.
“Food and wine go together,” Sam proclaims, revealing that from the beginning he planned to open a food section.
“It’s taken us two years to do it, but now at last Forks is here,” he adds.
A cheese section, linked to a new wine bar, will open soon at the back of the wine shop. The bar will offer ideal pairings of cheese and wine.
Although Sam and Mary are very hands on, there is no way two people can run three – soon to be four – shops. Neither do their business commitments end in Swains Lane.
While the West End rug shop is gone, there are two other Baba outlets, one in East Grinstead, the other at Arles in the south of France. They are in the process of selling off the French shop, and want to concentrate on Swains Lane.
They have several helpers, including qualified sommelier Rostisoav Petrov (they call him Rosti), a Russian who gained his wine credentials in London. He is key to Sam and Mary’s interesting approach to retailing wine.
There is no promotional material in the shop, or any other printed information to guide the shopper around the extensive range of largely unknown wines and beers. Sam does not want customers to become distracted and confused by marketing propaganda.
Instead Sam, Mary and Rostisoav are there to answer questions and guide the shopper round the store if required.
“We want to engage with our customers and hopefully assist them in finding an exceptional wine,” says Sam. “Our aim is to learn from them, create a dialogue and develop.”
Among the large supply of wines from around the globe is an extensive range of ciders, English fruit wines and liqueurs. Plum, peach, damson and strawberry are stocked, alongside the quintessentially English dandelion and elderberry. Prices range from £4.95 to £6.99 for the larger 75cl bottles.
On the crowded shelves, the main French regions are strongly represented, including several whites and even a red- Pinot from the often overlooked (in the UK, at least) Alsace region. The French bottles jostle for space along with wines from Spain, Italy (several Chiantis) Germany and, of course, many from Australia and the other New World countries. The wines are rotated around the shop on a systematic basis in an effort to banish familiarity and encourage buyers to forage and discuss.
Sam and Mary hold regular free tasting sessions at the shop, sometimes opening very expensive wines costing up to £50 a bottle.
If you believe wine is more than a simple mass-produced, low-priced alcoholic drink and want to learn and discuss the subject in a relaxed and easy-going environment, then a stroll to Swains Lane is a must.
And why not finish your outing with a meal in one of several good restaurants in and the around the area?
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