Corke & Caske
The unit Peckham's used to have on Hyndland Road opened in December 2020 as the first Scottish branch of Cavavin, a French family firm that owns vineyards in Bordeaux and buys from more than 150 independent growers.
Why go
Twins Yvonne and Alan Cozens took the site and hired a wine expert to run the floor (Glasgow West End Today). What the room does now is a shop and a tasting bench in one: up to ten wines by the glass, rotated every four to five weeks, so the board turns over about ten times a year rather than sitting still. Weekly guided tastings run six wines with the in-store wine manager, and the themed evenings, Fizz and Fromage, Spanish wine and tapas, wines of Portugal, run GBP 39 to GBP 59 a head (venue). Private sessions take up to twenty and come in wine, gin or whisky formats. The site's own description is flat and accurate: a wine store, wine bar and tasting venue.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever sits on the by-the-glass board that week, since it is the only part of the list that changes on a schedule, plus a cheese or charcuterie board to hold it up. Book onto the weekly six-wine tasting if you want the buying explained.
- Avoid: treating it as a restaurant. The kitchen is a cheese knife. And do not walk in hoping to join a tasting; they run to a calendar and need booking.
What locals & experts say
- Cate Devine, food and drink journalist (November 2020):
Cavavin, run in Glasgow by brother and sister twins and specialising in high-end French wines, is a franchise of the family-owned French company which has its own vineyards in Bordeaux, is supported by over 150 independent growers and partners, and has 150 franchises in France and Switzerland plus Hertford and Sheffield in the UK.
1 - Yvonne Cozens at the launch, to Glasgow West End Today (Ian Marland, November 2020):
We feel so lucky to have found such a perfect location for what we want to do.
2 - No critic has reviewed the list. Searches of the Herald, The Scotsman, The List, Glasgow Live and GlasgowWorld turned up nothing, and there is no award from any body. That is the honest state of the evidence.
- Food hygiene: the FSA record shows an inspection dated 1 September 2022 but carries an awaiting-inspection status with no rating letter published.4
Good to know
- Timing: noon to 8pm Sunday to Wednesday, noon to 10pm Thursday to Saturday.
- Booking: walk in for a glass. Tastings need booking, both the weekly six-wine session and the themed events at GBP 39 to GBP 59 a head, and private groups run to twenty.
- Getting there: top of Hyndland Road, up from Highburgh Road, about a mile west of Kelvinbridge.
Craft signals (wine: glass rotation plus a tasting programme)
Wine craft reads on by-the-glass churn, grower relationships and tasting programmes, and all three are documented here. The shop rotates up to ten wines by the glass every four to five weeks and runs a six-wine guided tasting weekly, with themed sessions from GBP 39 to GBP 59 and private tastings for up to twenty. Behind the list is Cavavin, the French family firm whose 150-plus grower partners and own Bordeaux vineyards make this the first Scottish branch. A four-to-five-week glass cycle is a genuinely fast rotation for a shop this size.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "wine shop in hyndland"
Verdict
could-visit — Corke & Caske is a Hyndland Road wine shop with a bar attached, ten by the glass rotating every month or so, and structured six-wine tastings with someone talking you through them. The lineage is real: it opened in December 2020 as the first Scottish branch of Cavavin, a French family firm with its own Bordeaux vineyards and 150-plus grower partners, in the unit Peckham's used to have. Nobody has reviewed the list, there is no award, so this sits at competent-and-interesting rather than a detour. Book it for a group of up to twenty who want a guided tasting instead of a table.