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Tanners Wines Ltd (also known as Tanners Wine Merchants and Tanners) is a family-owned independent wine merchant based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. In recent years Tanners has won many important national awards and accolades, acknowledging the firm as one of the most highly regarded wine merchants in the UK. ==History== Tanners was established by William Tanner, a sea captain, hence the company’s logo of a ship’s decanter . Records exist of his voyages as far afield as Chile and Australia. The family were also well known breeders of Shropshire sheep and Hereford cattle. Tanners comprises five other old businesses: Thomas Southam & Sons (estd 1842 in Shrewsbury, acquired 1936) ; William Pulling & Co (estd 1760 in Ledbury and 1813 in Hereford, acquired 1978); Thomas Whitefoot (estd 1825 in Bridgnorth, acquired 1926); the Welshpool Brewery (estd 1860, acquired 1912) and Terry Platt Wine Merchants (estd 1962 in North Wales, acquired 2005) . The original Tanners cellars were underneath Shrewsbury’s Victorian Market Hall. When these were requisitioned during the Second World War the company moved its head office to its current premises in Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury, parts of which date back to the 1490s and are Grade 2 listed. These were the former premises of Thomas Southam & Sons and the firm operated for some years subsequently as ‘Tanner & Southam’. The buildings were used in 1984 for the filming of ‘A Christmas Carol’ starring George C Scott, Susannah York and David Warner because of their Dickensian appearance. Before the wine boom of the 1960s Tanners was also a beer wholesaler, bottling ale and minerals on its premises. From the 1880s the company acted as local agents for the Burton-brewed beers of Worthington & Co, latterly part of Bass. Butts of sherry, pipes of Port, hogsheads of claret and burgundy were shipped via London, Bristol or Liverpool and on by rail to Tanners for resting and bottling. Rum arrived in puncheons via Liverpool from Jamaica and Guyana and Irish whiskey was more popular than scotch. Until the 1960s respectable wine merchants had no bottles on show, everything being ordered from wine lists. When Richard Tanner opened Shropshire’s first self-select off licence in 1968 it was called ‘The Wine Centre’ to disassociate it from Tanners. Tanners stopped bottling wines and beers on its own premises in 1976, ending an era of having bottled great wines such as Château Palmer 1961 and Taylor’s Vintage Port 1963 amongst many others. Many artefacts, photographs and equipment are displayed as museum pieces within the buildings. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tanners (company)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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