Sebastian Riley-Smith

Spear’s Review

Founded in 1986, Smith & Taylor was a pioneer in UK wine storage and management, with a reputation for having an eye for detail and providing the utmost care. Its technical mastery is unparalleled: the Chelsea Bridge cellars are fitted with ultra-modern air conditioning turbines and high-tech humidifiers to create the optimum conditions for stock. 

‘Clients want to centralise their wine holdings in one store, on one inventory, with one custodian and one line of accountability,’ says co-founder and managing director Sebastian Riley-Smith. Clients can access their stock and have it delivered to any location, and the firm can act as an intermediary between clients and the source of purchase. It also builds bespoke wine rooms, helps with cross-border shipping and has become adept at dealing with the outcomes of floods in subterranean residential cellars. 

When not running Smith & Taylor, Riley-Smith is a fixture in oenological media, having made a series of documentaries about wine and writing a regular column on the subject for Bloomberg Money.