Members’ club 67 Pall Mall opens

A new members’ club hoping to make fine wine more accessible by removing restaurant-style mark-ups has opened in London.

An artist’s drawing of the club that features on its website (Photo: 67 Pall Mall)

67 Pall Mall, first covered by The Drinks Business in April, will aim to help its members discover new wines from around the world, while attempting to keep them all reasonably priced.

“Essentially, I got fed up of being mugged by punitive London mark-ups on fine wine,” said Grant Ashton, founder and CEO.

Membership of the club will cost £1,000 a year with an additional £1,000 joining fee, but provides access to wines without the mark up many restaurants apply.

By May of this year, 67 Pall Mall had already received over 1,000 applications for membership.

“Like a lot of people, I’d stopped drinking seriously good wine in restaurants,” said Mr Ashton.

“I was no longer prepared to pay the egregious, nonsensical prices that were being asked.”

Thousands of bottles will be kept in the club’s ‘Wine Library’, a temperature and humidity controlled display.

The club will stock a further 500 wines available by the glass, with vintages available from regions as varied as California, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and even Japan.

To keep track of the wines 67 Pall Mall will have a list available on iPads, which will feature critics’ scores, winemakers’ notes, and tasting notes.

“Our list will be multifaceted, both curated and comprehensive,” said Ronan Sayburn MS, the club’s sommelier.

“It will include wines at their peak, wines that represent great value for money, wines that are unique, unusual in their production, the location they come from or just fun interesting wines.”

Along with access to rare wines and specially paired food, members will also be invited to exclusive events, talks, tastings and dinners with châteaux owners, winemakers, and industry experts.