Amps Wine Merchants

I was recommended to try Amps by a friend, so I popped down the alley off the High Street and followed the signs, which took me round the back to this local wine merchants.

I was warned by said friend, who uses them regularly, that they could be a bit expensive but, in the event, was looking for an interesting bottle of whiskey, of which they had several. I prowled the shelves to see what they had in the wine line and the stock seems to be pretty wide, though there was no Oregon Pinot noir, a favourite of mine.

The two staff on duty were helpful and pleasant and obviously very happy to offer advice but happy with what I'd found, I made my purchase and left

I notice there is another branch at Oundle Wharf, from my trips to NVB's excellent Tap & Kitchen there. Smaller stock there but the young woman there was happy to help as well.

Two weeks ago we went in and spoke to a very helpful lady who advised on a lovely wine to have with lamb, done two bottles bought. They were wrapped in paper and put in to a bag and headed to me, lovely thank you very much great service we'll be back. However what a difference two weeks makes popped in on a Saturday to buy a bottle of the same wine. As we entered the shop we were alone and then a voice from the corner said hello. After about 10/12 minutes with no service of help I picked a bottle and went to the counter. After a minute or so a grumpy old man wearing yellow framed glasses came over "are you on our mailing list for offers" no I replied he then said that'llbe £12.50 and laid a bag on the counter for me to pick up I paid by card and collected my receipt. While I was doing this a lady came in the door that my wife knew and they started talking so I carried on looking around the shop. I spotted a basket with some bottles of Italian wine in. As I turned to my wife the grumpy old man was walking toward me I asked if this would go well with Lamb, " no you want a Rioca from Spain" ok thank you and I left. On the way home we talked about the service would I go back, no and that's a shame because the first time I went in it was great service. When I opened the bag I found that the bottle had not been wrapped either.
I think that they need a good sales person, one that would have taken my enquiry in to a sale and one that would have good my mailing details at the till point. Was it that I was only buying one bottle?? Or was it that I was wearing Jean's and trainers in a specialist wine store?? either way a great shop hidden out of the way. If you go in make sure you get the attention of the lady the service will be great.

We first visited AMPS just before lock down, tasted some good wines on offer and and a nice chat with the lady behind the till who suggested following them on Facebook to get the latest offers. We’ve since been buying from them during lockdown, wines are delivered within one or two days to Peterborough and the wines they suggest are always yummy! They recently delivered gifts of wine to nominated local Covid-19 heros which was lovely to see and lovely to read how the hero’s were contributing and how touched they were by the gift. Highly recommend and really enjoying supporting a local business. Plus they have quite imaginative/funny social media posts!

Love Amps. They have a great selection and they are really knowledgeable about all of the wine they have. They always give me great advice on what will go with a meal or what to gift to a friend.

Great selection of wines and more with price range to suit most.
Friendly staff on hand. Did not take any advice this time as knew what I wanted but will next time.

Really nice quaint shop with a great selection of wines. When we walked into the shop there was a young guy on his own serving a customer , as soon as he finished he approached us and asked if he could help.
Both me and my partner told him what type of wines we liked and he suggested a couple of white and reds which fitted what we was looking for , the guy was passionate and knowledge about both red and white wines which made it a nice experience

Will be definetly going back again to support this local business!

Very disappointed! We came here today hopeful of suggestions and advice on which wines to purchase. We walked through the door, I said hello and had a reluctant reply. From what I can tell there were three employees/owners in the store. Not one of them asked if we needed help or what we prefer.. Absolutely the worst customer service. We were there to stock up for the winter and they missed out big time on out custom. Will never step foot in there again.
Maybe it was my checked flannel shirt and converse boots that put you off? Big mistake.....big mistake.

A bit disappointing experience here. First attempt at buying a bottle and ordered a magnum of Champagne. They delivered a 750ml. They didn't realize it until after it had been delivered to my home and my wife had opened the box and thrown the shipping box out.

They now need to send me a replacement box, the replacement bottle, and collect the original incorrect bottle. No discount offered, no gesture other than an apology. I get mistakes happen, but now have to sit around for 2 additional deliveries and collections - not worth it.

Granted I have no purchasing history here but almost any other wine merchant would have offered a discount on the bottle itself or a complimentary bottle for my troubles. Won't be shopping here again - not worth the logistical errors.

EDIT: subsequent to this post the store did reach out and offered a very reasonable way of resolving the shipping issues. Impressed they went out of their way and would have to compliment the customer service at this point.