STEP BACK IN TIME

BERRY BROS. & RUDD

London.  Love it or hate it, no-one ever fails to agree there are so many things to discover in this huge, most ancient of cities.  Its very streets are paved with history; down every alley you feel you are treading - perhaps - where Lord Byron, or the Duke of Wellington, or Laurence Olivier once strode.

And if you happen to be close to St James’s Palace, in the very heart of London, you wouldn’t be far wrong.  At No.3 St James Street there is a shop that has been there, running the same business (selling fine wines) for nearly three hundred years, and nearly all of those years owned by the same family.  It’s called Berry Bros. & Rudd, and it rates as one of the most successful family businesses of all time.

The Family Business

Let us enter this venerable institution.  Through the dark, almost black wooden doors of St James Street on finds a wooden floor uneven with age.  The paneled walls are dark with the patina of time.  To the left are two great weighing beams, dating back to the time when the shop sold coffee as part of its merchandise.  Beside it are shelves of ledgers registering the weights of ... people!  There are bottles everywhere, each with their own magnificent history; prints and drawings and the invoices of the noteworthy occupy places along walls where they have hung for decades, if not centuries.

Just how has one family managed to succeed in the competitive, fast moving liquor retail business, along the way gaining a reputation as one of the great wine merchants of the world?  The answer, of course, is so simple as to be complicated.  It goes back to the very origins, in 1698, of this small grocery which began life selling spice, tobacco, snuff, teas and coffee.  It is supposed that the shop sold wine too, back then, but no-one is sure.

A Royal Connection

One of the early ingredients of success was undoubtedly the nearness of Royalty.  A few years earlier Henry VIII had converted an old hospital into a love nest for his then wife, Ann Boleyn.  This was to become St James’s Palace, a much frequented residence of English kings and queens, and then the aristocracy after the Palace of Whitehall burnt down.  The connection with royalty has been more or less continuous ever since (Berry Bros. & Rudd received the Royal Warrant in 1903); it appears to have been an especially cozy relationship during the reign of George III, when the shop enjoyed the patronage of the Royal Dukes, George’s sons.  It was during George’s reign that Berry Bros. first supplied the British Royal Family.  Today Berry Bros. & Rudd supplies a number of own label wines to Prince Charles with his label “Highgrove”.  A Sauvignon Sec, a Vin Monsseux and a Claret.  (These wines are also sold by BBR and a percentage of the sales go to Prince Charles’s charities).

Another element is simply time itself, and the traditions which have been allowed to flourish as a result.  The massive pair of weighing beams were first used to weigh the rich and famous in 1765.  The books listing the weight of every famous person ( and there have been more than a few) who has crossed that threshold to buy wine are impressive: Beau Brummell, Charles Lamb, Napoleon III, Gertrude Lawrence, Osbert Sitwell, the Aga Khan, the French Rothschilds, Evelyn Waugh, Michael Redgrave, Pitt the Younger (the ‘Bottomless Pit’ as he was known), Lord Byron ... Kings, queens, writers poets, politicians, architects, actors - the list is a Who’s Who throughout two centuries.

A Royal Connection

But perhaps the greatest recipe for success is the way in which Berry Bros. & Rudd began doing business and have continued doing business.  Throughout the years seven generations of the Berry family - the Rudds since 1920 - have always understood that wine is meant to be enjoyed, and that all the wine knowledge in the world can be distilled into one simple questions: “It is good to drink?”  So, knowing your product does count for something.  By way of example - in 1933 the entire wine world drew a breath when Charles Walter Berry tasted that year’s Châteaux Beycherelle - and bought the total crop: 84,000 bottles.  He followed this up by buying one third of each of the vintage of Châteaux Rausan-Ségla, Cheval Blanc, and d’Yquem - knowing, what, how and when to buy - and with what panache!  It is precisely that sort of knowledge, conviction and taste that has forged Berry Bros. & Rudd’s reputation as the discerning wine seller.

However, perhaps just as important is the manner in which customers are treated.  Sales staff stand at high, Dickensian desks, while customers discuss their wine requirements seated in original wheelback Windsor chairs.  They are able to peruse the various books and lists of what is available.  Any wine requested for appraisal is sent for immediately.  A runner is dispatched to fetch it: the shop at No.3 in fact rests over its own vast cellars which run two levels deep, under St James Street and the buildings around No.3.  The cellars hold around 4,000 cases.  Berry Bros. & Rudd also has a modern temperature controlled warehouse in Basingstoke, which holds 210,000 cases.

Moving With The Times

Today Berry Bros. & Rudd has lost none of the Olde World charm - although it has moved with the times.  In 1994 the firm became the first specialist wine merchant to open a Duty Free shop in a major international airport - Terminal 3 at London’s Heathrow.  And it is one of the oldest firms to venture onto the modern miracle, the Internet; there to offer its comprehensive array of the world’s finest wines to the world.  The firm sends wine anywhere, and there are quite a few customers who live in New Zealand.  It selects wines from very important wine making areas in the world, and currently has 12 New Zealand wines on its lists, with prices ranging from 6.85 to 29.75 Sterling.  Last year the firm sold 1500 cases of New Zealand wine, which included its own specially selected New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Celebrating 300 Years

Berry Bros. & Rudd celebrates its 300th anniversary this year - not bad for a company which remains privately owned.  The company has built its reputation selling fine wines and spirits to customers throughout the world.  It own Cutty Sark, one of the world’s most successful premium Scotch whiskies.  It has strong relationship with many French producers, in fact many wine producers everywhere.  John Rudd, the current Chairman, said recently the families were proud of the traditions of quality and service they have maintained over the past 300 years.  “We are also looking forward to the challengers of the next century and beyond.”

With the record, you would have to agree with him.

Berry Bros. & Rudd specially selected wines and Cutty Sark Scots Whisky distributed in New Zealand by Heaven Hill Distilleries (NZ) Ltd.  

Official Berry Bros. and Rudd web-site www.bbr.com

Send mail to brittonmj@clear.net.nz with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: December 05, 2008