Professional wine storage in London?

[chrisnorth]

Having recently moved to London, I am considering moving over part of my wine cellar (currently in professional storage in NYC) to London, as there is a goodly part that is ripe for drinking.

I have asked around a bit in London about where to store wine professionally, and have been very confused by the answers I've received. There seem to be a range of storage options ranging from storage facilities run by wine retailers such as Berry Bros (but then from what I've heard one can only store wine purchased from that same retailer in the cellar, unless you buy a lot of wine from them in which case they'll let you store your other wine too) to third-party facilities such as London Bond.

What I'd love to hear is feedback from someone with direct experience with storing wine in London. The research I've done has left me thinking that many of these options are expensive and sometimes cumbersome. There seem to be a lot of potential hidden charges, limited ability to access wine by the bottle instead of by the case, lack of online database access to inventory information, etc.

I have some experience in NY but am considering changing cellars -- but will put that in a separate post.

Thanks in advance,

Chris