The Highlands & Islands Food & Drink Business of the Year 2026 goes to Crofter's Kitchen on the NC500. A brilliant business and a thoroughly deserved winner. Congratulations to them. 🏴🍷
With five finalists and no ranking beyond the winner, I am proud to say Wine Guy on Skye was runner-up!! For a new business, that feels significant.
Independent wine retail is brutally competitive. Doing it from a remote peninsula on the Isle of Skye, with all the logistical challenges of the Highlands and Islands, makes it harder still. What I have that the big players will never have is something simple: personal relationships with every small producer I stock, in France, in England, and beyond. I have visited their vineyards. I know their stories. No supermarket buyer can say that.
Thirty-eight years in the military taught me that the conditions are rarely ideal and the resources are rarely sufficient. The answer is to get on with it anyway.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this business. It means more than you know.
Back to Skye. There is wine to sell.....! 🍾
#HIFADA2026 #WineGuyOnSkye #IsleOfSkye #VeteranBusiness #IndependentWineMerchant #SmallProducers #HighlandsAndIslands #VeteranOwned #RuralBusiness #ScotlandFoodAndDrink
Yesterday was the feast day of St. Isidro the Labourer, the patron saint of farmers and agricultural workers. 🌾
It felt like a good moment to think about the people who actually grow the grapes. Not the winemakers, not the merchants, but the people in the vineyard every single day, tending the vines through whatever the weather throws at them.
That connection to the land is something I think about every time I visit a producer. The best wines I've found don't come from factories or formula. They come from people who treat their vineyards the way Isidro treated his fields: with patience, care, and a deep respect for what the land gives back.
That's the kind of wine I want to bring to Skye.
If you'd like to find out more about the producers behind the bottles, head over to 🍷
#WineGuyOnSkye #StIsidro #VineyardLife #IndependentWineMerchant #IsleOfSkye #WineLovers #KnowYourProducer #SkyeWine
*** Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year *** This is why we are proud at WGoS to stock high quality English sparkling wine - our @silverhandestate wines gained rightful recognition at the London Wine Competition across the range we hold. Have you got your bottle of award winning bubbles for the weekend?
#independentwinemerchant #veteranownedsmallbusiness #englishwine #visitwaternish #discoverdunvegan
It's Pizza Night — but what wine works? 🍕🍷
Pizza night is one of those occasions where the wine question actually matters more than people think.
If you're going classic Margherita or a tomato-based pizza, the Montmarin Red is where I'd start. Good acidity, fruit that works with the sauce, and nothing that's going to overpower what's on the plate. It's the kind of wine that just gets on with the job.
Going white? The Domaine de Chaude Écuelle Chablis is a better call than most people expect, especially with a white pizza or anything with seafood on top. The minerality and clean acidity cut through the richness beautifully.
And if you fancy something a little different, the Montmarin Horizon Rosé holds its own against a Margherita or a vegetarian pizza far better than most people give rosé credit for.
Pizza night deserves better than whatever's on the supermarket shelf. These are wines I've chosen because they work — not because they come with a flashy label.
🛒 Order at with delivery across Skye and the whole of the UK.
#WineGuyOnSkye #PizzaNight #WineAndPizza #IsleOfSkye #IndependentWineMerchant #WinePairing #Chablis #RoséWine #FridayNightWine #WineLovers
English wine keeps proving the doubters wrong.
@brightwell.vineyard in Oxfordshire just picked up a Silver Medal at the London Wine Competition 2026 for their 2021 Pinot Noir, scoring 88 points from a panel of Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, and professional trade buyers. That's not a participation prize. That's a serious result in one of the most competitive categories in wine.
I visited Bob and Carol at Brightwell because I wanted to understand how they made good red wine in England. The honest answer is that they started when almost nobody thought it was possible, planted Pinot Noir in 2000 when the consensus said don't bother, and just kept going. The medals are catching up with the work.
The 2021 Pinot Noir is on the shelf at Wine Guy on Skye right now. If you've ever been curious about English red wine, this is the one to start with.
Available for delivery across Skye and the whole of the UK.
#EnglishWine #PinotNoir #BrightwellVineyard #LondonWineCompetition2026 #WineGuyOnSkye #IsleOfSkye #IndependentWineMerchant #SkyeWine
🌿 What if the vineyard was the winemaker?
Holistic winemaking starts with a simple idea. The vine, the soil, the insects, the seasons - all of it is one living system. Work with it, not against it, and something remarkable happens in the glass.
I’ve stood in vineyards where the moon calendar sits alongside the weather forecast on the kitchen table. It sounds eccentric until you taste the wine. Then it makes perfect sense.
That’s why I visit every producer I work with. You can’t understand a wine like this from a catalogue.
#WineGuyOnSkye #HolisticWinemaking #BiodynamicWine #NaturalWine #IndependentWineMerchant #IsleOfSkye #WineLovers #SoilToGlass
After a week of amazing sunshine, the Misty Isle proved her name this morning. We are not going to let a little drizzle@stop us enjoying our @silverhandestate traditional brut. Apples and sparkles are the order of the day! Order yours from the WGoS website and enjoy whatever today’s weather!
Step outside tonight and look up. 🌌✨
If you're staying on Waternish, what you'll see above your head is something most people in the UK have never experienced. A proper dark sky. Thousands of stars. The Milky Way as a physical presence, not a photograph. And on the right night, shooting stars falling faster than you can count them. 🌠
Waternish is a designated Dark Sky area, recognised internationally for the quality and protection of its night skies. It sits alongside locations people travel to Iceland and Canada specifically to visit. Except this one is on the Isle of Skye.
I've written about what makes these skies so special, what you can actually see from here, and why a good bottle of sparkling wine is exactly the right thing to have ready when someone comes back inside and says "you need to see this." 🍾
Because those moments deserve the right bottle. And I can have it waiting at your cottage before you arrive. 🛖
Link in bio, or head straight there 👇
👉 wineguyonskye.com/dark-skies-shooting-stars-and-why-waternish-is-one-of-the-best-places-in-the-world-to-watch-them/
#WineGuyOnSkye #IsleOfSkye #DarkSkySkye #WaternishSkye #DarkSkyScotland #StargrazingScotland #NightSkySkye #MilkyWayScotland #ShootingStars #NorthernLightsSkye #AuroraBorealisScotland #AstrotourismScotland #DarkSkyIsland #VisitSkye #VisitScotland #IsleOfSkyeLife #ScotlandTravel #ThingsToDoOnSkye #SparklingWine #WineOnSkye
The Skye holiday season is quietly gathering pace… and you can feel it in the air. More visitors, more stories, more evenings spent looking out over views like this.
The question is — have you got your wine plans sorted?
Because after a day exploring, there’s something special about having a bottle ready. No rushing, no guessing. Just a glass in hand, a deep breath, and that moment where everything slows down. Maybe it’s a crisp white with some local seafood or a smooth red as the sun starts to dip behind the hills. Nothing complicated. Just the right wine, in the right place, at the right time.
If you’re heading to Skye soon, would you like your wine waiting for you when you arrive? That first evening is always better when it’s already taken care of.
Have a look at or drop me a message and I’ll help you find something you’ll really enjoy. 🍷
