Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Berry Bros & Rudd - London's oldest wine merchants




Berry Brothers & Rudd, London’s oldest wine shop (1698) holds a special place in my heart.  You’ll soon find out why.  Nope, not because of wine.

This wine shop caters to the world and has for about 315 years.  That alone is remarkable, but consider this:  It’s been at No. 3 James Street the whole time, selling first coffee and wine, then wine and spirits, as it does today.  Not that St James is the only location.  There’s one south of London, as well as Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

The store is so understated, you could walk right by without noticing.  Dark exterior, with window displays and foot high lettering across the front.  You may notice the famous (but smallish) sign of the coffee mill hanging out front.  Coffee mill?  For a wine shop?



Yes, the widow Bourne (first name lost in the mists) started out selling coffee and supplying various coffee shops up and down the street.  Coffee business lasted into the 19th Century. Besides the coffee shops that gradually disappeared, St James’s Palace, built by Henry VIII on the site of a leper hospital, is only 223 feet away.  It was the official royal residence until Queen Victoria’s time.

Step in the door at Berrys and look down.  The wide planks, fastened with hobnails have been there awhile.  So, I asked a clerk, “When was the last time these floors were polished?”

“I think the janitorial staff took care of that in the 19th Century.”

You’ll also note a lack of bottles, or at least not very many bottles.  You’ll have to go into some of the side rooms for that.  One small room dedicated to wine and another to spirits.  So, it’s a small operation in a small shop?  Not exactly.  In the cellars sit millions of dollars of potables.  Although, oddly enough, although Berrys is the oldest wine shop, it does not have the oldest cellar.  That honor belongs to the cellars of The Stafford London Kempinski Hotel, one of London’s premier hotels, about a stone’s throw away.  Cost runs to $400 a night for a cheap room.



As you would imagine, Berrys’ cellars also have a colorful history.  Exiled to London, Napoleon III and future Emperor of France (not to be confused with Napoleon Bonaparte) lived in one of Berrys cellars, now called the Napoleon Cellar, of course.

At Berrys, traditions die hard.  It was not until 2001 the shop displayed any bottles.  Now they’ve got about 2000 bottles on long shelves in a couple of rooms. How can a retailer get away with that?  Simple.  Only about 5% of Berrys business is retail.  Hard to explain to the average tourist who thinks long and hard about proudly buying a single bottle. 

Lots of fabulous cellars around the world get their wine from Berrys.  Restaurants, hotels, the Royal Family, collectors, old families who have made Berrys their go-to wine shop for decades, or even generations.  Don’t know for sure, but I suspect you’d quickly recognize the names of many of their customers.

Quick, who was the first British Monarch to buy wine from Berrys?  George III, of American Revolution fame.  1760.  Now Berrys holds two Royal Warrants, which mean they provide beverages to the Royal Family and are allowed to advertise that fact.

A little known secret about Berrys.  You and I step through the front door, have a scan or two, maybe inquire about this wine or that, have a look in the spirits room, and head back out on the street.  But, the serious oenophile will be invited into a back parlor and parked in a deep leather chair to discuss wine needs over a glass or two, of wine, sherry, or whiskey.  Lunch may be served.

Don’t have any idea of the most expensive bottle of wine here, but I’d guess the 1942 Chateau d’Yquem comes close at $2385 per.  Yquem is pronounced ee-keme.   Berrys is a wine merchant, meaning they buy and sell.  Sometimes the buying comes from estates, or recently uncovered one-of-a-kind items.  They also sell wine under their own label.

Not every wine is beyond your means and mine. Berrys also sells wines priced for the multitudes, some under $15.  If you want to check out all the offers, here’s the site:  http://www.bbr.com

Ever wonder why the Brits call red wine, claret?  In my case, only for about fifty years!  Back a few centuries, when part of what is now France belonged to England (12th Century), the main wine sources were inland vineyards, mostly sporting Malbec grapes, sometimes known as “Black Wine.”  But, English tastes went for lighter fare.  Bordeaux came into its own and since the wine was lighter, in both color and flavor, it was called claret.  Oenophiles and historians will shout and scream at the incompleteness of my all-too-brief description, bypassing hundreds of years and the bloody tug of war that led to final separation of the two countries.  Take it outside, ladies and gentlemen.  I’ve got wine to drink.

The Bordeaux Region is the red area in the lower left.

Perhaps you want to set up a corporate wine affair for a hundred fellow toilers.  Berrys can do that easily.  Big room downstairs.  Long oak tables.  Wine glasses the size of paint buckets.

But, why does Berrys tantalize and fascinate, and hold that special place in my heart?  Right beside Berry Brothers & Rudd, there’s a little alleyway called Pickering Place and named for William Pickering.  You see, the Widow Bourne’s daughter married William Pickering and they continued to run the business.  But before the Pickerings, the little alley and the area behind it was called Stroud’s Court.



Go ahead and step down the alley and checkout the courtyard.  This once was a din of inequity for gambling, bear baiting, and duels. Can’t believe a place like that carried my name! It was also home to the Legation of the Republic of Texas until Texas joined the Union in 1845.  Look for the plaque:


    TEXAS LEGATION
In this building was
the legation for the
ministers from the
Republic of Texas
to the
Court of St. James
1842-1845


You should know by now, there’s always more to London than the pedestrian view.  Only an old wine Merchant?  Think again. Find Berry Brothers & Rudd and you’ve found another historic paragraph in London’s fascinating story.  This Stroud will drink to that!






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