The Wine Society

Origins at the International Exhibition, 1874

The Wine Society grew out of the International Exhibition of 1874, the last in a series of annual exhibitions promoting science and art. Food and wine formed part of the exhibition, and the brick-vaulted cellars of the Royal Albert Hall held wooden vats containing thousands of wines. Portugal and Spain supplied most of the exhibits, alongside wines from Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, California, Serbia and Greece.

A substantial quantity of Portuguese wine remained unseen and unsold after the exhibition. The disappointed exhibitors appealed through the Portuguese government to the British Foreign Office. To prevent the situation becoming a diplomatic incident, the Foreign Office asked Major General Henry Young Darracott Scott—the Royal Albert Hall’s architect and Secretary to the Great Exhibition Commission—to arrange large lunches at which the remaining wines could be presented. Scott enlisted George E. Scrivenor, a senior Board of Customs official, and ophthalmic surgeon R. Brudenell Carter to taste the barrels and select the best wines.

The lunches proved successful. Scott, Scrivenor and Carter ordered casks for themselves and divided the wine according to their requirements. On 4 August 1874, a committee met at the Royal Albert Hall and, at Scott’s suggestion, decided to form a co-operative company through which members could continue purchasing wine. Interest among lunch guests led to the constitution of a Friendly Society. The new organisation was formally known as The International Exhibition Co-operative Wine Society Limited.

The Society began with approximately 300 members and turnover of £618 in its first year. Working capital was advanced by members through debentures, an early form of collective funding. The founding commercial model was to sell wine and spirits at the lowest prices compatible with operating expenses and a prudent safety margin. Members received no financial benefit from sales, and no dividend was payable on their shares. The debenture debt was subsequently repaid in full; by the time Carter’s early history appeared, wine stocks were valued at £14,000.

The first purchases and founding principles, 1874–1880

The first purchase in August 1874 was Bucellas, then described as a medium-dry “Portuguese Hock” and sold for 1 shilling and 7 pence per bottle. The second order comprised 24 dozen bottles across eight Spanish wines, followed by Madeira, sherry and wines from Valencia and the Algarve. By 1876, the List contained 63 items, including Port, sherry, claret, Burgundy, German wine, Champagne and spirits. The surviving 1880 List also included wines from Australia, Greece and Hungary; later selections reached Asia Minor, Palestine and California.

The first AGM in February 1875 attracted 23 members. They established the Society’s formal Objects, including obtaining wines directly from growers in a pure, unadulterated state and, where possible, without added spirit. New wines were initially “tested” by the Committee. At a time when adulteration was common, external chemical analysis was considered to detect artificial colouring, plastering of sherry and fortification of supposedly natural wines.

Membership reached 1,000 by 1882. The operation began as a small club managed by unpaid enthusiasts, although the 1879 AGM approved an honorarium. By 1881 the staff appears to have comprised a cellarman and two assistants.

Early leadership and premises

Norman MacLeod, The MacLeod of MacLeod, served as the first Chairman. He worked at the South Kensington Museum and lived in London, despite Dunvegan Castle appearing as his formal address. He seldom attended Committee meetings; after his death, acting Chairman and Treasurer R. Brudenell Carter succeeded him. Carter was the principal figure guiding the Society through its first four decades.

Henry Scott became the first Treasurer. A Royal Engineer born in 1822, he designed the Royal Albert Hall and personally removed the final roof support in 1870 after ordering everyone else from the building, demonstrating his confidence in its unconventional dome. He later received a commission for the new South Kensington Museum but suffered declining health after his salary as Secretary to the Exhibition Commission was cut. He died in 1883.

After continued storage at the Royal Albert Hall was refused, wine was kept in the coal cellar beneath the Medical Society of London in Chandos Street, which also served as the first office. In January 1875 permission was granted to meet in the Albert Hall cellars while wine remained there. A later request in April 1896 to retain a small storage area was withdrawn that December.

Premises were subsequently leased in North Row, North Audley Street, Mayfair. In 1902 the Society took a 21-year lease on the Hills Place cellars at £200 per year. Construction of the London Palladium above those cellars in 1910 raised their average temperature; the Committee obtained compensation through a 10% rent reduction and a lease extension. Photographs of the cellars began appearing in Lists from 1911.

Professionalisation, communication and security, 1905–1924

The first telephone, MAYFAIR 2582, was installed in 1905—about 20 years after a connection to the General Exchange was first considered. During its first year it handled 340 outgoing calls, 380 incoming calls and 800 calls to the cellar extension. The first typewriter arrived around 1910, although Committee minutes continued to be handwritten for many years.

In 1906 the Society first bought sparkling wine from Alfred Gratien, beginning a relationship that continued for more than a century. The 1913 List included educational material about wine, storage and service, as well as Carter’s account of the Society’s beginnings.

By approximately 1911, staffing had grown to a manager, foreman, three cellarmen, a 14-year-old boy and a charlady. The office team comprised a retired army officer, secretary, cashier and two clerks. After thefts from the delivery van in 1918, the carman was instructed to acquire a guard dog at the Society’s expense.

Membership reached 5,000 in 1922, after being temporarily closed during the First World War.

Interwar growth and the Second World War, 1922–1948

Membership doubled from 5,000 in 1922 to 10,000 in 1932. Albert Cable joined in 1926 at the age of 18 as a junior clerk, later moving into buying and ultimately becoming General Manager. His tasting ability and organisational work laid the foundations for a dedicated buying team.

Additional cellars were leased in Joiner Street beneath London Bridge Station in 1934, supplementing Hills Place. Membership was closed for seven years during the Second World War, and members were asked to reduce orders because of shortages. Even King Haakon VII of Norway, then resident in Britain, was refused admission under the wartime ban on new members.

In 1940 bombing around Oxford Street badly damaged the offices in Holles Street, Cavendish Square, destroying the earliest wine Lists and other records. Operations moved to a rented house in Woodville Gardens, Ealing. Wartime imports included bottles shipped under government licence. Alfred Gratien’s private Society cuvée was among the Champagnes commandeered during the German occupation of France; the producer still knows it as “Cuvée 33,” preserving its historic reference number.

Membership reopened in 1948, after which several thousand people joined each year. Growth slowed only temporarily when the share price rose to £5 in 1952. The offices returned to the central London area at Bulstrode Street in 1951.

New cellars and the move to Stevenage, 1955–1971

Albert Cable served as General Manager from 1955 to 1966. In 1959 the Society became a shareholder and tenant of St James’s Bond in Rotherhithe, which included a bottling plant. The cellars flooded during high spring and autumn tides, although the water did not enter the wine.

Operating from three London locations became costly, impractical and restrictive. Edmund Penning-Rowsell, who had joined in 1940, entered the Committee in 1959 and became Chairman in 1964. He revitalised management, finances and member communications, expanded the breadth and quality of the range and drove the search for purpose-built premises.

A New Towns Commission grant enabled the 1965 move to Stevenage. Stevenage Corporation constructed temperature-controlled bonded and duty-paid warehouses, a bottling line and an office block to the Society’s specifications. The buildings cost £180,000 and were supplied on a 60-year lease, providing employment for about 70 people. Many London employees relocated. More than one million bottles were moved from the old London cellars into the above-ground Stevenage facility over a single weekend.

The Hamer family, responsible for transport since 1912, continued making deliveries within 80 km of Stevenage. The Society acquired that business in 1971 and introduced its own red delivery vans, serving London, south-east England and railway terminals. Interest-free member loans helped finance new vintages and building work during a financially difficult post-war period.

Centenary and expansion, 1974–1989

The 55,000th share was issued during the 1974 centenary year. Under head buyer John McLusky, who served from 1974 to 1985, the buying team strengthened its inexpensive-wine selection, introducing litre carafes, a broader French Country section and larger Rhône, Loire and Alsace ranges.

The Society was among the first merchants to offer Bordeaux en primeur, beginning with the 1975 vintage. This gave members early access to sought-after wines and strengthened cash flow. Members’ Reserves, a private storage service providing controlled cellaring conditions, also began in 1975.

The buyers made their first visit to Italy in 1982, after which the first Society’s Chianti Classico was shipped from Minuccio Cappelli’s Montagliari estate. The first Newsletter appeared in 1983.

A long-needed cellar extension was completed in 1981. In 1983, member funding enabled the freehold of the Stevenage property to be purchased for £1,025,000. A further 2.02 ha behind the existing property was bought in 1984. Participating members were repaid, and the contribution was commemorated in a glass engraving by Bryant Fedden.

Sebastian Payne MW recruited Marcel Orford-Williams in 1986, expanding the buying team as the international wine market became broader and more diverse. Wine Without Fuss was introduced in 1988, inspired by Australian wine-club subscriptions and intended both to smooth warehouse demand and introduce members to unfamiliar wines. It later grew to more than 7,000 regular subscribers.

A new £4.5 million warehouse, offices, Cellar Showroom and Members’ Room opened in 1989. A Celebration range created for the opening proved successful and became permanent; it was renamed the Exhibition range for the Society’s 125th anniversary and the new millennium.

International reach and digital transformation, 1992–2021

Toby Morrhall joined the buying team in 1992. On the day European trade barriers were lifted in 1993, The Wine Society became the first British wine merchant to open a collection facility in France. Falling visitor numbers eventually led to its closure in 2016.

A new operating and warehouse system was introduced in 2000. In 2001 the first website launched as a fully transactional, real-time service, described as a wine-industry first. That year also saw the construction of Warehouse 3, the launch of Vintage Cellar Plan for members building collections for maturation, and the debut of Wine Champions. Originally called The Wine Open, Wine Champions was devised by Sebastian Payne MW and selected wines through extensive blind tastings by the buying team.

Joanna Locke MW joined the buying team in 2004. Land bought in 2007 enabled Warehouse 4 to be constructed; at the time it was the tallest building of its type in Europe and received recognition for sustainable construction. The SocietyGrapevine blog and presences on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were launched in 2009. Tim Sykes joined the buying team in 2012 and Sarah Knowles MW in 2014. Instagram followed in 2016 and the member Community platform in 2017.

The website was rebuilt during the Covid-19 lockdowns and relaunched in 2021. The pandemic accelerated virtual tastings, videos, live streams and online AGM participation, connecting members with buyers and growers regardless of location.

Sustainability, Warehouse 5 and the 150th anniversary, 2022–2024

The first formal sustainability plan launched in 2022. Its programme joined direct operational reductions with work on packaging, supplier standards, human rights, biodiversity, climate resilience and emissions throughout the wine supply chain.

Warehouse 5 was completed in 2022. The building increased total storage capacity by 25% to 18 million bottles and brought the Stevenage complex to five warehouses. Its red frontage distinguishes it from the older grey buildings beside the East Coast Main Line.

In 2024 The Wine Society marked its 150th anniversary. The Generation Series interpreted four periods—1874–1924, 1924–1974, 1974–2024 and a future-facing 2024–2074 selection—through limited-edition collaborative bottlings. Anniversary events reached more than 12,000 members and guests at over 60 locations, including four Exhibition Weekends, seven simultaneous Celebration Lunches and 39 walkaround tastings and dinners.

The Wine Society’s operating philosophy is rooted in mutual ownership. It exists for the benefit of its members, each of whom owns one share, rather than to maximise returns to external investors. Its founding model rejected dividends on shares and sought to sell wine at the lowest sustainable price, retaining only the margin necessary for operating costs and financial security.

Authenticity has been a stated concern since the earliest Objects, which called for direct purchasing from growers and pure, unadulterated wines. Modern buyers are instructed to choose wines they believe members will enjoy, including unfamiliar regions, rare parcels and unconventional styles, and to work only with producers whose integrity matches the Society’s standards. Long-term grower relationships, independent expert selection, everyday pricing and service to members take precedence over buying purely to meet a predetermined price point.

Sustainability is treated as part of long-term business resilience. The strategy covers climate, environment, ethical sourcing, people and collaborative action. The Society aims for the most ethical and environmentally sustainable wine supply chain in the world by 2030 and net-zero emissions across operations and supply chain by 2040. Its approach combines direct operational reductions with supplier support, minimum labour and environmental standards, packaging reform, human-rights due diligence, biodiversity investment and practical climate-adaptation work.

The current low-intervention perspective is framed as “high attention, low intervention”: restraint in the cellar must be supported by skilled observation, traceability, responsible production, appropriate packaging and fair treatment of everyone involved in growing and making wine. Certification is useful but not treated as the sole measure, since small producers may follow rigorous practices without being able to bear certification costs.