There may be no more enjoyable place to buy whisky than the charmingly timeworn Berry Brothers & Rudd shop on St James Street in London. “Steeped in history and proud of it,” is how whisky ambassador Ronnie Cox describes the family-run firm, which dates back to 1698. The premises still boast a bevy of elderly accoutrements – including giant coffee scales, which centuries ago were also used to weigh customers, Lord Byron among others (according the leather-bound record books, the poet lost some weight between 1806 and 1811) – but it is the dedication to modern sensibilities that most impresses. Passing by Dickensian-era furniture with computer screens built in, customers enter the spirits room, where a selection of hundreds of whiskies awaits. An exclusive rather than an exhaustive array, both Cox, who’s a seventh-generation whisky specialist, and young enthusiast Rob Whitehead are extraordinarily able guides and advisers, offering equal parts anecdote and analysis. The house make, The Glenrothes, is a staple of many blended whiskies and pioneered bottling by vintage (rather than by age), while the Berry’s Own Selection single cask bottlings have twice earned the firm Whisky magazine’s influential Best Independent Bottler award. The merchant’s wine credentials are equally impressive, with more Masters of Wine on staff (five) than any other company and longstanding connections to vineyards around the globe. The underground tangle of passages stretches in all directions, with many offshoots leading to dusty warrens which store bottles for those whose grandparents and great-grandparents were also Berry Brothers customers. “We love dust,” says Cox, gesturing toward the bottles. “That’s how we’ve always been – we don’t have to be like everybody else.” And it’s a good thing, too: this is the sort of place that one hopes will live forever, continually reinventing itself. bbr.com

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