A true West Didsbury institution, Reserve pride themselves on making wine accessible to everyone…read more I must admit that the concept of going into a specialist shop and being met with floor to ceiling shelves of wine can seem daunting to many at first - but the guys here are excellent at finding out what you like and making suggestions if you're not sure. Every bottle on show has a colour-coded label below it, so you can easily see what price bracket it is as well as the actual price. Some have additional 'tasting notes' so you can find out more about them. Alongside the innumerable bottles of red, white, rosé, sparkling wine and Champagne they also stock various spirits, bottled beers, cordials and even Japanese sake). They regularly host tasting events in the shop - look out for these advertised on Twitter (@ReserveWinesUK) or sign up for their regular newsletter via email. There's something on their shelves to suit everyone, and they only sell quality produce from around the world. I know for a fact that they taste them all beforehand so you can be assured that they meet their seal of approval! Tip: Every bottle they sell is also available to buy via their website or over the phone. Tip: You can also find Reserve at Altrincham's Market House and Bents Garden & Home in Glazebury near Warrington.

There's nothing better than a good independent wine shop to serve the local vino buffs. I'm not…read morepretending to be any kind of connoisseur myself but it's obvious to anyone with a vague interest in wine that the Reserve Wine Shop is a smart choice if you're looking for something different. There's a great emphasis on family-owned wines and unusual labels here, which have obviously been painstakingly sourced and tested for quality. Amongst their favourites are Bouscasse, Pacherenc 'Brumaire' 06, Amirault, Bourgueil 05 and Mount Horrocks, Semillon 05. Beyond high quality wines, the shop also sells spirits, beers, and champagnes. A lot of the products are priced reasonably too, with special offers often posted on a blackboard outside.

Burton Roadites had previously been able to buy a few select bottles of decent ale from the…read morewonderful Reserve Wines, but the Road had really been crying out for a craft beer shop. Enter Simon and Rob! These two beer lovers have gone with an elegant, minimalist aesthetic for their shop front, embracing the scene's move away from old-school design and towards something far more stylish. But don't worry, lovers of rustic chic - they've got comforting wooden shelves and crates of German beer stacked around the place, striking a nice balance between tradition and sleek modernity. This balance is reflected in the beers they stock - you can pick up all of your old favourites, while also choosing from a range which would get the hearts of hop-fiend beer nerds racing. Brilliant British beer, local ale, hop forward Americana, German lager, Belgian beer, Welsh cider, sweet fruit-flavoured beer, homemade pies, cordials... There's something here for every palate. The Epicurean has only been open for a couple of weeks, but already it feels like it's been on the Road forever. They've already hosted a couple of Meet the Brewers, so keep an eye on their Twitter and Facebook for upcoming events. Simon and Rob really do care about providing people with great beer, and, as the sign says, if you particularly want something that they don't have, they'll do their best to get their hands on it. You can't say fairer than that. (For a more detailed write up, you can pop over to my beer blog for a previously published full post about The Epicurean: http://rowanmolyneux.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/new-beer-shop-epicurean.html)

If I was to win the lottery, the Epicurean would be what my garage would look like! No joke - the…read morewalls are absolutely rammed with some of the finest beers on offer in the Greater Manchester area and it's somewhere that's obviously been set up by craft beer heads on a mission to make the place totally awesome! The nice thing about this place is that they have the 'amazing but standard' selections from breweries on this and that side of the pond but also stock all the different special varieties of the brand. For instance there must have been about 7 different types of Sierra Nevada on offer and closer to home the same amount from breweries such as Buxton, First Chop and Thornbridge - while still loads of room for smaller more boutique breweries! Ok so craft beer is never going to be cheap (with the news that hops are starting to run out and farmers can't keep up with demand, it's probably never going to go down) but I don't see the prices at the Epicurean being any more expensive than similar stores in Mancunia (you can buy cases in store of more generic craft beers like Longboard if you're having a bbq etc and want to save some cash) I went for the Buxton Imperial Black IPA - £2.75 - well worth the purchase, super rich and super hoppy and the FCB from First Chop which is another favourite at the mo - pretty good for £2.40! My wife was also pretty happy with her Timmermans Framboise - so it ticked all the boxes for our quality boozy weekend :-) Next time I'm in West Didsbury, I'll be popping in and picking up a few special bottles to enjoy!

Carringtons is no place for Lambrini girls and Fosters fans, but if you appreciate fancy beer, wine…read moreand spirits, you'll love it! An award-winning off licence, it prides itself on offering things that are a little out of the ordinary. So you can expect to see a great mix of beers from tiny local breweries, as well as hard-to-find world beers, like New York's Brooklyn Lager and San Francisco's Anchor Steam Beer. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and are always willing to make recommendations. So if you take a trip to this boozy treasure trove, you could end up finding the beer of your dreams! I can't really comment on the range of wines and spirits available I'm all about the beer. But I'm confident that even the fussiest wine lover will be impressed! My only gripe with this place is that it closes far too early! Most days, they seem to shut about 7pm and they're closed all day Sunday. If they stayed open until 8 or 9pm, I'm sure they'd get loads more customers. I know I'd visit a lot more!

Healthy looking wine merchants on the approach to Didsbury Village…read more It wasn't that long ago that the place was to be purchased and transmogrified into yet another (and one can only presume) soulless bar. Thankfully, and for whatever reason (pressure group one imagines), this never happened and we still have this wonderful menagerie of booze. Not only do they stock a large range of wines (and I haven't yet managed to choose a dodgy wine, unlike what can happen at supermarkets with their constant 50% off deals) but they also sell a fascinating array of beers (majority of which are British Premium) and ciders and malt whiskeys. Always willing to make a suggestion on your behalf (try as I do, I still have an extremely limited knowledge of the vino) they'll work around your budget (which again is usually extremely limited!). Haven't been recommended a wine that's probably best off in the Balsamic vinegar section in Morrisons. From what I can gather, most of the wines are from within the 'old school EU'...which suits me fine. You just can't recreate the romance of a real corked French number can you? I must add that it's blinking cold in there (the interior resembles a Canadian lodge) and the guys who run are usually decked out in Arctic puffer jacketsbut I guess this is to keep the stock at a certain temperatureI should have asked, perhaps the boiler has never been fixed? There's a couple more Carringtons (one in Chorlton and one in North Manchester).

It's relatively easy to cater the needs of the student population, but not so simple to achieve the…read morecult status that Gaff's has achieved. Living in Whitworth Park for 2 years my local off license was McColl's - it was accessible, it was cheap, it had decent opening hours - yet I never would've dreamed of buying a McColl's t-shirt! It is impossible to walk around Fallowfield without seeing a student in a white t-shirt with the red Gaff's logo plastered across the front. Any small corner shop in Fallowfield would be stupid not to stock cheap alcohol, fags, pot noodles and energy drinks. And there are many shops which do, but none which have seen the success and received the following that Gaff's has. Having never lived in Fallowfield I've only ever been into Gaff's a couple of times to pick up cut-price under-the-counter cigarettes for my Fallowfield friends. I'm disappointed to see that this is a service that they no longer provide. I have also heard rumours about the sale of illegal substances out the back, but they are all 'friend of a friend' rumours, so who knows? From the outside the shop looks pretty awful. It is plastered in posters for various clubnights with horrendous names such as Pout and Vodka Island, for which they sell tickets.

Gaff's is a Manchester Student fallowfield life establishment!! This is the first time I am…read morereviewing a corner shop and it will probably be my last. The only reason I mention this place is because of its legendary status in Fallowfield among students. You see this place operates for the sole purpose of making students life heavenly. It is open till late for all your late night needs, it is as reliable as your iPhone. You can buy tickets to all the big gigs in Manchester's nightclubs, dvds and beverages for those late night house parties. Absolute gem!!! In fact I urge you just to pop in if you're ever driving through fallowfield, even if it is for a carton of milk. You will realize that you walk out with more than you came in for, because you remembered you needed it, such is the fantastic variety of stuff on the counter. I love you Gaffs!!!!!!!!

There comes a time in every young adult's life when they realise they're simply not a student…read moreanymore, and your standard 3 for £12 plonk or multipack beer from Bargain Booze ain't going to cut it. You need something special. Why, you're a grown-up, you've a good job, you pay bills, you rent your own place, you're in a proper relationship and you're having people over. You want these people to have something a bit different to remember your soiree by. Well thank you Carringtons for shouldering that responsibility. Walking around this shop is like being six again and cooing over the Pick 'n' Mix at Woolworths, only this time you know how much everything costs because you're paying for it yourself. Yep, the rush of guilt from tugging on Mum's hand and whinging at her way back then comes soaring over again. Anyway, during my first introduction to Carringtons, I had a request that was both specific and vague in equal measure. I needed local beers, European beers, some nice Prosecco and a good gin. I had bugger all to worry about in the very capable hands of Rosco. He immediately packed up a couple of bottles of Prosecco into a box for me, took me round the shop pointing out some great beers, and when it came to the gin he said, 'Can you come tomorrow or do you need this for tonight? We've got a Brockmans delivery coming and that's great gin.' I was most certainly free the next day, and any yelper who made it to the Yelp Summer Stunner (http://vimeo.com/28057905) will know how amazing that is. Thanks to the introduction from Carringtons, we brought Brockmans to the Manchester masses! They've a spot in Didsbury Village too, and they're certainly the place to go if you love your Brewdog beers (I know several Mancunians who do). The service is great, the staff are knowledgeable and they love what they do. Can't say fairer than that for a great independent booze specialist!

If you're tired of smart price vodka and wine in cartons just labelled 'Australian Red Wine' then I…read morecan definitely recommend a trip to Carringtons. Stocking a range of boutique beers, handpicked wines and high-end spirits there is something here to suit all tastes. It may be a little bit pricey, as has been noted, but for that special occasion, gift or even a little treat for yourself (Just a couple of well-deserved bottles of Konig Ludwig Weissbier) Carringtons is perfect. The staff are knowledgeable about what they're selling - I know because I once worked at an off licence at home and I had absolutely no clue about what I was selling. I can sense the genuine opinion in their voice. They're not pushing three for twos or trying to make you buy lager by the case, they are happy to make recommendations according to your budget and personal taste. They run wine tastings and even a blog, how many branches of Threshers or Bargain Booze do you know that can say that.

It might have been before the hour of 9am that I first ventured into this Sainsbury's Local, a…read morerecent addition to Withington's little village, but good lord, even if I was totally compus mentus I'd have been baffled upon entry. A fierce competitor of Copson Street's Co-Op and the nearby One Stop, this little mini market has the thankless task of appealing to a mix of students, young professionals who just want to be on the cusp of Didsbury, locals and OAPs. Fair play. But it's so confusing! The space they've used is pretty, for sure (the above apartments look like they could be stunning), and the car park's kept clean as a whistle, but they've tried to ram as much as poss into one tiny box. Thus the aisles are incredibly narrow, and for some reason the charcoal-coloured flooring makes it feel really unusual and disorientating. I think this is merely years of associating supermarkets with pale patterned floors. Nevertheless I managed to find my three boxes of fresh juice for £4 and that saw me right. Given its size there's not the greatest variety; however if you're in need of something simple last minute it's certainly a contender. It's unlikely that I'd go out of my way to hit this Sainsbury's as opposed to the conscience-friendly Co-Op round the corner, but on a sleepy post-swim morning and being right on my bus route, I'll sure find it handy from time to time.