Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Shop

The shop moved. Retail left No.3 St James's Street in mid-2017 for a purpose-built room around the corner at 63 Pall Mall, and the famous panelled building people walk into is now the head office and the tasting rooms (Berry Bros. & Rudd).

Why go

Because it still wins things that are decided by people going in and checking. In February 2025 the Drinks Retailing Awards named Berry Bros & Rudd Luxury Retailer of the Year, and the method is worth reading: "Lead by on-the-road judge Nigel Huddleston, the team conducted mystery shops as well as interviews with the finalists, before feeding back to a panel of expert judges made up of former buyers and suppliers" (Drinks Retailing). That is a judgment about how the business trades in 2025, which is the only kind that counts here.

Then in April 2026 their own No.3 Gin took Spirit of the Year at the International London Spirits Competition, with a Double Gold and 98 points, against entries from more than 30 countries. That competition scores on quality, value and packaging together, so a top prize there is one of the few outside reads anyone has on whether this house sells things worth the money (The Gin Guild).

The buying stands up too, and that is the part that matters for a merchant. As of July 2026 the shop was carrying 25 of the medal winners from the Decanter World Wine Awards, a competition where 254 judges tasted nearly 17,000 wines from 58 countries, and one of the 25 is a Best in Show, the 2016 Oremus Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos (Hot Dinners, a promoted feature, so read the stock as fact and the framing as advertising).

The shop works like a shop. Card-operated tasting machines let you drink before you commit, producers come in and pour for free, and a climate-controlled room at the back holds aged Bordeaux, mature Burgundy and Champagne. Underneath the old building, three floors of cellars run out towards the street with an 1843 tokaji in them, which the eighth-generation Berry who gave Londonist the tour called "a real unicorn wine" (Londonist).

Here is the honest half. No wine critic we can reach has written a verdict on this shop, or scored a single bottle of the Own Selection house label, and the one award the shop itself holds is named for luxury rather than for value. Four search shapes turned up banned aggregators and a paywalled buying list. That gap is why this sits where it sits.

Order this / avoid

• Buy: whatever is loaded in the tasting machines the day you go, because tasting first is the whole advantage of standing in the room. Then the Own Selection house label, and a bottle out of the fine wine room if the occasion justifies it. No.3 Gin if you make martinis.
• Avoid: Sundays and Mondays, when it is closed. Also avoid walking to No.3 St James's Street to buy anything. That has been the office since 2017.

What locals & experts say

• The Drinks Retailing Awards 2025, on the current business: "Berry Bros & Rudd took home the Luxury Retailer of the Year award." The category was decided after mystery shops and interviews in front of a panel of former buyers and suppliers, which makes it a read on today rather than a long-service medal. ref
• Pal Gleed, The Gin Guild, April 2026, on their own-label spirit: No.3 Gin achieved "the highest honour of Spirit of the Year, alongside a Double Gold Medal and an outstanding score of 98 points". On the competition's method: it judges "on three key pillars, quality, value, and packaging". ref
• Geordie Berry, then creative director, showing Londonist the cellars in 2017: "We were drinking a 1960 Mouton last night. It was still delicious." On the 1920s German bottles still drinking: "It's in imperial pints, it's four glasses, which is basically a good lunchtime size." That is the house talking about the house, so it is colour rather than endorsement. ref
• Catherine Hanly, Hot Dinners, July 2026, on what is actually on the shelves: "The St James wine merchant stocks 25 of this year's medal winners including a Best in Show winner; 2016 Oremus Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos from Hungary." The piece is labelled a promoted feature, so the stock count is the usable part and the enthusiasm is not. ref
• Nobody has reviewed it. Four plain-language searches were run on 1 August 2026 for a bylined wine critic on the current shop or the Own Selection range, and none exists in anything reachable. All 622 lines of the London industry-vote file were searched and no chef, bartender or sommelier has named this shop. The rung here rests on two awards and no criticism, and that is stated rather than papered over.

Good to know

• Where: 63 Pall Mall SW1Y 5HZ. Green Park is the tube.
• Sites: three, and they do different jobs. No.3 St James's Street is the 1698 building, head office and events rooms since retail left it in mid-2017. 63 Pall Mall is the Wine Shop, which is this entry. A dedicated Spirits Shop opened in 2024 with over 1,000 spirits lines, linked to the Pall Mall building. Nothing written about the other two applies here.
• Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 19:00, Saturday 10:00 to 18:00. Closed Sunday, Monday and bank holidays.
• Tasting: card-operated machines in the shop, complimentary producer tastings you can drop in on, and ticketed after-hours "Wine Shop Lates". There is also a wine school running WSET courses.
• Scale: the Basingstoke warehouse holds almost five million bottles stored for customers, and most of what is in the St James's cellars is not for sale.
• Money: the range runs from a few pounds to several thousand. This is the luxury end of the trade by the trade's own reckoning.
• Hygiene: the FSA register carries one entry for this business, FHRSID 412145, rating 5, inspected 22 March 2025, and it is registered at 3 St James's Street rather than at the Pall Mall shop. Searches on 63 Pall Mall and on SW1Y 5HZ both return nothing, so the clean rating is reported at the door it belongs to. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note for the row "Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Shop", so nothing is attributed to him. The master CSV line about the world's oldest wine merchant trading since 1698 is curation's wording, and under the institution rule that date is context rather than a reason to go.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth the detour, and the reason is not the year over the door. Trading since 1698 buys this shop exactly nothing under the institution rule, so the question is whether it is any good now. Two pieces of current evidence say the operation is: the Drinks Retailing Awards made it Luxury Retailer of the Year in February 2025, decided by mystery shoppers and interviews in front of a panel of former buyers and suppliers, and their own No.3 Gin took Spirit of the Year at the 2026 International London Spirits Competition with a Double Gold and 98 points, at a competition that judges value alongside quality. The buying holds up as well, which for a merchant is the whole job: as of July 2026 the shelves carried 25 medal winners from the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards, one of them a Best in Show. The shop itself is a working specialist rather than a museum: card-operated tasting machines so you sample before you buy, complimentary producer tastings, a climate-controlled fine wine room at the back for aged Bordeaux and mature Burgundy, and cellars three floors down holding an 1843 tokaji. What is missing is the half that would make it a destination. No wine critic we can reach has assessed the range or the Own Selection house label, no sommelier or chef in our vote file buys here on the record, and the one award the shop won is literally named for luxury. So the offer holds and the value case is unproven, and the rung says so. Go around the corner to Pall Mall, taste off the machines, and buy the thing you tasted.