Days Out: Berry Bros & Rudd

About 10 years ago, I was having a chat with a colleague at work who had a Cellar with Berry Bros and Rudd. Now I'm not really a fine wine man. I do like a "nice glass of wine", but I simply cannot remember all the millions of different grapes, regions, producers and link them back to what I remember enjoying. Yep, I have broad categories - but that's about it. I also can't quite see how I'd get 10 time more enjoyment from a £100 bottle of wine, over a £10 bottle of wine, even if it is a "100 pointer"

So, after that chat with my mate, I decided to set up an account with BBR, but I simply said to them - I will deposit some one each month on a standing order, and when you feel its right, you can buy/curate a wine collection for me. My aim was firstly as an alternative investment, and possibly with a view to drinking them in the future.

So forward 12 years, and I now have a fairly decent (in terms of quantity) number of wines stored with BBR, and frankly I've no idea what I've really got.

So I decided, given I have more time, to delve into it. I connected the chat who looks after my cellar and invited myself up to their London location.

Honestly, I had a great time. I spent 3 hours there with Chris, talking about what I have, what I should do with it, and also getting a tour. And that tour is impressive, given that BBR is the oldest wine merchants in Britain, founded in 1698, and the location on Pall Mall has been brilliantly preserved, but still operates as a working retail and storage location, with the Berry family wine estate still stored there.





So what did I learn on my little day trip
  • Wine is not necessarily a great financial investment. In the face of it, I've made ~20%, but that does not account for historic storage costs, commission to pay and so on. I think If I sold it all now I'd make on average about 3% ARR. 
  • However, the older (mature) wines are much better performers in terms of value, so my more youthful wines should hopefully start to increase and boost that figure. As long as I stop investing now.
  • I still don't really know what wines I actually really like from my cellar, so Chris is going to curate a 'tasting case' of representative wines from my cellar. I would appear to have a lot of Burgundy, and Bordeaux - so I need to know if I should sell, or drink !
  • I'm also now looking at this WSET course....might be a good knowledge investment to help me understand my wine investment
  • I own some Château Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux 2005 - that sounds cool don't it
  • They don't offer lunch :-(




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