Oxford and London wine cafés to close

The Summertown Wine Café and Finborough Wine Café will cease trading this Friday after the leases on both buildings were put up for sale.

The company directors are understood to have taken the sudden decision earlier this month, with no indication that efforts will be made to sell either business as a going concern.

While the Finborough Wine Café in Earls Court, west London, is understood to have struggled since it opened two years ago, the original Summertown Wine Café, which opened in 2006 in this upmarket corner of north Oxford, was thought to be in a far healthier trading position.

A popular destination for wine lovers thanks to their regularly changing range of wines available to taste, the venues invited their “members” to take part in monthly panels to vote for the new selection.

As recently as this summer, the Summertown branch had been attracting enthusiastic comments from independent review sites such as Trip Advisor.

Users’ comments included: “If you live in/around Oxford, this is the best place to buy your vino”, “fantastic selection of wines – a must in Summertown!” and “My favourite place in Oxford.”

At the time of writing, the drinks business had received no reply from the directors in response to a request for further details about the decision and creditor payment.