I would like to personally thank everyone who has made this possible. 

It starts with family, if my parents hadn't been brave or mad enough to open the business in 1979 then we wouldn't be where we are now. To Cassie, my long suffering and inspirational partner and wife, thank you. Staff past and present, I think we can safely say, we have had some characters over the years, all have felt like they are family, rather than employees. And of course to any of you reading this, customers who have stuck with us over the years, and new customers who have found us for the first time, we genuinely appreciate you.

To those wine drinkers in Brighton, who have told us what a fantastic reputation and range we have, but have never managed to step through the front door of the shop, well there's a polite and impolite message! You can do it, us and other independents need your support, the high streets are starting to look a touch bleak out there, so come and have some fun and try some delicious wines.

One person who was not able to witness this Butler's milestone is my dad, Geoff Butler, who passed away a month ago. He put Butler's on the map, when there wasn't much on that map in Brighton, and I and the team have done our best to keep it going, and I'd say improve it.

If you met dad you might have known him as Geoff, Jeff (he hated that) Big Geoff, Jenkins, George, Jethro (he hated that too), Falstaff, the big man with the pipe, Fat Man (as named by our local Chinese take away) and probably some other noms de plume I have forgotten. He was a unit, I never saw him without a massive beard, in a time when they weren't so chi-chi, and he had a smoking pipe in his mouth pretty much at all times.

Dad was a great buyer of wines, he would find interesting stuff at the correct price. He would suggest that he was not a salesman, I would say the same about myself, yet we have managed to keep a retail business going for 45 years! Dad separated from mum almost 25 years ago I think, which was when I bought him out of the business, which ended our working relationship. As an aside, he started a business selling quite niche jazz records, and then another selling collectable smoking pipes, which he also restored. So I guess you could say he was a quiet entrepreneur.

What many people wouldn't have known, is that he lived with depression. One wouldn't necessarily have spotted it, as he was quite a charismatic in public. But he suffered with nerves, he was on antidepressants for most of my adult life, and there would be some dark days following an event, like a wine tasting, where he would not be able to function properly. Despite that, he and hopefully I, have brought colour to the wine world and the Brighton community.

On reflection, throughout Butler's history, I'm pretty sure we have approached work by saying "how can we serve our community, who can we meet and who can we have fun with?" Wine retail is not a good career choice if your goal is to make money, which is good as it has never been my pursuit, although I could do with less sleepless nights worrying about it. However I would say our history is rich in moments and experiences, we have definitely created a wealth of joyous and exciting memories.

I don't know what it is about Butler's, we aren't like a normal wine shop, I think we have a slightly different take on things, I would say, that we are definitely authentic to whatever the Butler's message is. So join me in raising a glass to the legacy dad left, and here's to creating more connections and more memories.