Jonathan Ray takes a look at the exciting new developments
at Berry Bros & Rudd's famous shop in St James's Wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd ain't what it used to be: it's better. I worked for the company several years ago, and when I returned there recently to rent a temporary office I was struck by how much had changed. Long considered old-fashioned and somewhat stuffy, Berrys seems to have bypassed the 20th century altogether, leaping straight from the 19th into the 21st.
Berrys has been selling wines and spirits from the same premises in the shadow of St James's Palace for over 300 years, having been established in 1698 during the reign of William III. It is still owned by the Berrys and the Rudds — the eighth generation Berry is now working in the business. The fact that it has survived so long is testament to its success at adapting to suit the changing times.
When I worked for the company, there was a certain resistance from the hierarchy to meddling with the status quo. To those of us well down the pecking order, it seemed as if the directors' credo was that all change was to be deplored, especially change for the better. The sales staff in the ancient shop sat at partners' desks and wrote longhand orders in quadruplicate, whether they were from St James's swells dropping in to buy a bottle of port for the evening, or from retired colonels telephoning from the shires to stock up on Good Ordinary Claret. The usual response from the boardroom to any suggested improvements was 'Why? We've never done that before'.
I remember one afternoon doing some idle database research and discovering that the most common customers' address, by far, was 'The Old Rectory', which conjured up all too easily the image of a typical patron. It was felt by some that Ben-vs had become rather complacent about its client base, cushioned as it was from financial reality by ownership of the whisky brand Cutty Sark. But without appealing to the younger wine-lo:vers, the company risked being left behind when their colonels retired finally to the great officers' mess in the sky.
But times have changed, and Berrys has moved on in dramatic fashion, spreading its wings far beyond the courtly confines of St James's Street. The company has opened two shops in Heathrow, a shop in Dublin and a fine wine club in Hong Kong; it runs a heavily oversubscribed wine school and uses its elegantly converted cellars for entertaining customers with tastings, producer-dinners and wine-themed evenings; and, most crucially, it has pioneered selling wine on the Internet via a ground-breaking website. All these developments have been remarkably successful, managing to attract a wider range of customers without ignoring the retired colonels, in much the same way that the perfect best-man's speech entertains the groom's sozzled chums without giving granny the vapours.
Traditionalists won't be surprised to hear that the company was awarded the accolade of Bordeaux Specialist, as well as Wine Vsiebsite of the Year, at last week's International Wine Challenge Awards. When asked about these changes, marketing director Simon Berry smiles and quotes from Lampedusa's The Leopard, 'Everything must change, so that everything can remain the same'.
But the changes don't stop there: new customers drawn to Benys via the website or the Heathrow shops are now flocking to 3 St James's Street, and the company has been quick to capitalise on this interest by unveiling a new-look shop which cleverly marries the antique with the modern. Three rooms which flank the unchanged centre of No. 3 St James's Street have been turned into a Wine Shop, a Champagne Room and a Still Room. Notoriously, Berrys has never displayed any bottles, but now, for the first time, people can walk in off the street and browse along rows of bottles in the Wine Shop, picking whatever takes their fancy — a bottle of Berrys' Riesling to drink in the park with a Fret a Manger sandwich, perhaps, or a cru classe claret for dinner. Alternatively, they can visit the neighbouring Champagne Room, which carries 73 different lines, ranging from half-bottles of Berrys' United Kingdom Cuvee to Nebuchadnezzars of Pol Roger; or the Still Room, which is dedicated to Calvados, old cognacs, armagnacs and whiskies. The main shop, however, remains untouched, and despite its slightly forbidding air, it is hoped that customers will feel able to use it for relaxed consultations about the rest of Berrys' list which ranges from £3.95 for a bottle of house red or white to £7,995 for a magnum of 1928 Ch. Petrus or for discussing wines to lay down, wines for a party or planning a tasting.
Unchanged for centuries, the shop was in danger of becoming a museum, an empty reminder of different days, and in adapting No. 3 so sensitively, Ben-ys has shown proper respect for its past while keeping its eyes fixed firmly on its future. There have been several missed opportunities, though, such as failing to develop an area dedicated to stocking current wine books (other than a small bookstrewn table in the Champagne Room) and the latest editions of Wine, Decanter and Wine Spectator, alongside a selection of accessories, such as the odd corkscrew or decanter, the addition of which really would turn Berrys into the ultimate one-stop wine emporium.
Nevertheless, by managing to walk the fine line between old and new, there can be little doubt that Berry Bros & Rudd will still be flourishing when William V comes to the throne. You never know: by then they might even have opened that wine bar for which many of us old soaks have long been clamouring.
BERRY BROS & RUDD, 3 St James's Street, London, SW1A lEG. Tel: 020 7396 9600. Fax: 020 7396 961J. londonshop Orders Office. Tel: 0870 900 4300. Fax: 0870 900 4301 ordersq_taibr.com
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