Where it all started

A tribute to Miles Lilliott, founder of Cellar Door Wines 

Miles opened Cellar Door Wines in 2004 and held his first Christmas Tasting event in the St Albans Town Hall, now the St Albans Museum, where our 20th annual Christmas tasting is being held this year. Since then, our tastings and range have grown year on year and we always look forward to meeting old and new customers for this event which kicks off the very busy Christmas period for us.

Miles became interested in the wine industry after his father, Roger, planted his first vines in the Hunter Valley, Australia in 1996 and opened his winery, Iron Gate Estate. After a few years of helping out with the Iron Gate harvest, visiting other wineries and learning about winemaking, Miles and his brother Peter looked into importing their father's wines into the UK and what was available through retail. They soon realised that there was a gap in the market for retailers that specialised in New World wine and started to look into possible locations to open their wine store.

Miles and his daughter Niamh

A particular insight that Miles brought was to present wines by their style or flavour, rather than by country, which was the norm in the industry at that time, and something that we continue today.

Miles's favourite wine was Pinot Noir and he enjoyed visiting wineries around the world to see how much the terroir and winemaker could influence the style of a wine. The name Cellar Door Wines came from visiting these small, independent wineries. Miles wanted to recreate that experience with his customers of learning about the winery, the winemaker and helping them find their wine style.

Miles and Peter wine strategizing

In 2017, wine retailing veteran Penny Edwards joined Pete in running the business, and with hard work and investment, together they built a new brand for Cellar Door Wines, bringing in cutting edge wine dispensing machines as well as refurbishing and renovating the original shop. 

Here's to another 20 years of great wine in St Albans with our special independent wine shop. We hope that we have managed to retain Miles' spirit and love of good wine in the bottles we choose today and the service we provide for our customers.

Penny, Peter and Marlon the dog.