The Artisan Wine & Spirit Co is Salisbury’s only independent wine and spirit merchant, serving wine lovers in the local community and across the country.
With a truly exciting range of over nearly 500 wines, over 100 spirits as well as vermouths, liqueurs and craft beers and ciders, we’ve created a haven for those seeking the best quality and value for money wines from artisan producers across the world. As well as individuals, Artisan also supplies pubs, bars and restaurants.
Fifty combined years of knowledge and experience is too much not to share. From the shop in Salisbury we’ll help you discover the wines that you’ll want to drink over and over again.
Artisan by name, artisan by nature, to share the best wines and spirits out there.
We deliver amazing wines to wine lovers looking for the ultimate in quality and value for money. All our bottles are selected from artisan producers who share this ethos with us.
Liz Coombes
Liz’s father probably wonders why he let her taste some of his Valpolicella when she was 9. The result is now that she’s spent more than half her life in the wine trade rather than becoming something useful like a doctor. But she considers making people happy with great wine to be extremely worthwhile and rewarding.
When she isn’t in the shop or hunting out new wines with Simon, she can be found attached to her oven because the other thing that makes people happy is cake. Half wine merchant, half baker, it’s a funny hybrid but one that means she has a lot of friends.
Her skills don’t end in the kitchen though. Liz has also accumulated 30 years’ worth (ouch) of wine knowledge and experience, as a wine buyer for both a major retailer and some premium importers before specialising in exports for New Zealand wineries.
Somehow she also managed to use that precious time pre-children to study to Master of Wine level.
Thom Fowler
Thom has always had a fascination when it comes to trying new things. He’s also always had a fascination with food and drink. When he discovered a passion for selling wines it was a lightbulb moment.
His mission in life is to share his passion and knowledge of booze with others in an accessible and fun manner, allowing people to find joy in trying something new and learning things along the way.
Asking him to pick his favourite wine is like asking him to pick a favourite child… It depends on the day.
When he’s not in the shop he’ll be spending time with the family or trying to keep fit by running (when he can be bothered).
Liz set up AWSCo in May 2021 with her friend Simon – they’d been in the wine trade for 25 years at the time and spent the last few months of lockdown planning furiously.
Months of tasting, painting, building shelves and counters paid off and the result was a thriving little shop that almost immediately started to win awards, the first being Newcomer of the Year at the national Drinks Retailing Awards in 2022. This was quickly followed by runner-up South West Wine Merchant of the Year in the International Wine Challenge and then Wine Buyer of the Year at the Wine Buyers Awards in 2023 before winning Best Wine & Beer Specialist in Wiltshire in Muddy Stilettos 2024. What does 2025 hold??
These days Artisan is run by Liz & Thom and, aside from being Salisbury’s only indepedent wine and spirits shop, the business is also at the heart of the city’s community, continuing to make people happy with wine (other alcoholic drinks are available). You’ll often find people enjoying a glass of something lovely in the sunny window and it’s the camaraderie amongst customers that make Artisan a great place to visit.
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