The Nysa Wine Boutique is a one-off in the UK, with a single outpost on Westfield London’s fringe as you approach from Shepherd’s Bush tube station.

This is a French retail concept and the offer stems entirely from that country. It is merchandised by grape varietal rather than region – still an unusual approach for a Gallic wine retailer.

Nonetheless, this would all be unremarkable were it not for the simple yet instantly appealing shopfit. The normal modus operandi when creating a wine shop is to put a series of wine racks against the wall and then perhaps a graphic or two with pictures of a vineyard with perhaps a river in the foreground.

Nysa eschews this, opting instead for a monochrome colour scheme with red, open-fronted, wine bottle-sized boxes attached to the back wall. These are arranged in diagonal lines that run the length of this shallow store. And each line is topped by a black and white sign, indicating the grape variety of the bottles on display. To give the offer bulk, there is a run of waist-high black wine-bin fixtures beneath this.

The central part of the store’s main display wall has been whitewashed, but its upper reaches, where it is unlikely the eye would stray, have been blacked out and fitted with further bottle storage.
The floor is wood and the area behind the cash desk is exposed brick, adding to the sense of having wandered into a vigneron’s shop.

In the present climate it is questionable whether there is a market for good to better-end French wine, but Nysa certainly provides an environment for it to have its best shot.