Nestled modestly among the cigar emporia, hat-polishers, wealth managers and pheasant pluckers of London’s St. James’s Street is the UK’s fanciest bottle shop: Berry Brothers & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine and spirits business.
Behind BBR’s ancient mullioned arches are wood-panelled showrooms and, for the privileged few, a glimpse of the company’s labyrinth of cobweb-festooned cellars, which pre-date the construction of Buckingham Palace and are stuffed with vast reserves of unfathomably posh wines.
Yet despite the tweed-encrusted cliches, Berry’s Reserve Spirits Brands team is headed by a pair of earthy Scotsmen, Doug McIvor and Jonny McMillan. The no-nonsense Northerners have recently relaunched Berry Bros’ Classic Range of Scotch whiskies, a quartet of marvellous malts that showcase their blending skills and mastery of cask selection.
Berry Bros & Rudd’s Classic Range blended malt whiskies are the perfect mix of luxury, tradition and innovation, and are deliberately stylistically diverse, meaning that there’s something to suit every whisky fan. But best of all are the remarkably down-to-earth prices, with each of these excellent malt whiskies representing uncommon value in defiance of their aristocratic origins.
