Wine: Wine from Warrington

There's a new kid on the off-licence block

If you've been ambling down your high street lately, you may have noticed a change for the better at the local off-licence. Thresher's flagship Bottoms Up stores, Oddbins Fine Wine stores and Victoria Wine Cellars are all part of the improvements. To tackle the supermarkets' insatiable appetite for customers, the Nineties offie is fighting back: better in tune with its location, with more space, improved range, discounts aplenty, and an ambience in which customers feel relaxed enough to browse.

But is there room for yet another new contestant in wine trade Monopoly? Nader Haghighi thinks so. Haghighi has been chosen by Greenalls, of Vladivar vodka fame, in Warrington, to drag its dreary Northern-based off-licence chain out of the 19th century and into the 21st. In the 15 months since he left Thresher, Haghighi has set about his task with zest, opening stores here, refurbishing there.

Haghighi was born in Shiraz, central Iran, in 1958, and he discovered customer care as a nine-year-old, selling sweets, cigarettes, tissues, belts and chewing gum from a kiosk after school. "I was a retailing prodigy," he says. Escaping the excesses of the revolution in 1979, he fled to England, was granted refugee status, did a stint as a kitchen porter at Pizzaland, then shot from shop assistant to operations director at Thresher in just six years. "I learned to drink for business, not pleasure," says Haghighi.

Only the visually-challenged could fail to notice a remarkable resemblance between the new-look Greenalls Cellars and the present Thresher set-up. As in the Thresher pyramid, Greenalls Cellars comprises a base of shops (390 Cellar 5 outlets) which carry the core range. Then come Berkeley Wines (45) with a bigger range and a more formal, Wine Rack-like appearance. At the top of the pyramid, there are13 Wine Cellar shops, which will carry Haghighi's pride and joy, the full range of 650 wines.

Trotting round the newly converted Wine Cellar in the Cheshire village of Lymm, Haghighi beams with pleasure at the relaxed modern shopping environment, with its piped Paco Pena, chilled Ben & Jerry's, and limed wooden shelves at a jaunty angle to accommodate the slightly tilting bottles. This is no local offie, but a serious modern wine merchant, festooned with crates, half-barrels and little blackboards announcing prices. The feeling of studied anarchy is re-inforced by Chris Burke's wacky, Steadmanesque cover for the Wine Cellar list. Only the double yellow lines outside detract from the convenience angle (how do you get a case of wine into the car?).

How does the new-look list stack up? A year ago, there were 250 wines in the range. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Kevin Wilson, a canny buyer recruited from Scotland's William Low, and David Vaughan, 150 wines have been cherry-picked and gerrymandered into place. The Oddbins-meets- Bottoms-Up wine list rounds up all the usual suspects, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, and so on. Spain and Portugal are well represented, but France and Italy will need more attention if they are to match the best in the high street. And with the stitching still showing, the result as yet lacks a strong identity of its own.

Prices are on the high side, especially as Greenalls' heartland is the Northeast and Midlands, regions not best known for putting wine at the top of the shopping list. Out of an impressive151 Australian, Chilean and New Zealand wines, only 21 cost less than pounds 4. Window dressing is a necessary part of the exercise, but the key to success will be performance. The hard part is yet to come: quality in the pounds 2.99 to pounds 3.99 range and the right mix of pounds 4 to pounds 8 wines.

With a first Wine Cellar already open in Epsom and plans for more, Greenalls is now starting to spread its tentacles South. Will Haghighi persuade his masters to sink their beer money into one of the smaller independent high street chains, such as Davisons or Unwins? "What makes you think I'll target the small boys?" says Haghighi, tongue only half in cheek. Whatever the answer, you can be sure that if Nader Haghighi gets the green light to invade the South in numbers, there will be a lot of that red stuff - and we're not talking claret here - on the pavement

Greenalls top ten

Bucklow Hill White 1994 pounds 3.69 (all stores). Aromatic, lemon-zesty Penfolds- derived riesling grapes keep this Australian white fresh

Chardonnay del Piemonte, Alasia 1994 pounds 4.99 (WC and BW). Meadow-fresh, unoaked, but New World-influenced north Italian chardonnay made by the daddy of flying winemakers, Martin Shaw

Ironstone Semillon Chardonnay 1994 pounds 5.99 (WC and BW). From Western Australia, this is a dry white with grassy aromas reminiscent of sauvignon and mouthwatering, tropical grapefruit on the palate

Chateau Thieuley Cuvee Francois Courselle 1993 pounds 8.99 (WC only). A smoky oak, Graves-style white Bordeaux with a fresh, grapefruity twist of sauvignon blanc

Grenache, Peter Lehmann 1994 pounds 3.99 (WC and BW). Juicily robust strawberry- fruity, Aussie would-be beaujolais from the bear of the Barossa

Hardy's Bankside Shiraz 1992 pounds 5.75 (WC and BW). Robust Aussie shiraz with a touch of mint and succulent fruit

Navarra Crianza Guelbenzu 1991 pounds 5.99 (WC and BW) Lots of oak and smooth, modern, oak-wrapped Spain-meets-Bordeaux blend of tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon and merlot

Pinot Noir Garnet, Saintsbury 1993 pounds 8.99 (WC only). Appealing strawberryish pinot noir from the Carneros-based Saintsbury winery

Gloria Ferrer Brut, pounds 11.49 (WC and BW). Richly fruity, pinot noir-based California fizz from Spanish giant Freixenet

Ariston Brut, pounds 14.99 (WC and BW). The white goods in question, Wine Cellar's exclusive champagne, comes with a youthful, aperitif-style sparkle of fruit