EXCELLENT VINTAGE

Stevenage may not sit among vineyards, but it is home to the world’s oldest wine club with a unique approach

- Gillian Thornton

Sometimes in life, good things can come out of disaster. Just take The Wine Society. Today, the Stevenage-based organisation has more than 145,000 active members across the UK, all part of a unique co-operative that offers quality international wines at sensible prices. But the organisation may never have started at all if it hadn’t been for a forgotten shipment.

In 1874, Portuguese wine producers shipped vintages to London for an International Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall, but an oversight led to the bottles languishing deep in cellars beneath the venue. With Portuguese anger at not being showcased, a diplomatic incident looked inevitable. That was until Royal Albert Hall architect, Major-General Henry Scott and a renowned ophthalmic surgeon R. Brudenell Carter came up with a solution.

Together they set up a series of prestigious lunches with tastings of the Portuguese vintages. So successful were they, that the pair founded an organisation so wine lovers could try the best international wines at the fairest prices. Now, 146 years later, The International Exhibition Co-operative Wine Society still believes that good wine from around the world shouldn’t cost the earth.

‘Passion before profit’ is the society’s mantra. There are no external shareholders making demands and buyers are free to buy wines they believe in. And there are no fake discounts. Margins are low and profits put back into both lower prices and improved service for members.

‘Even back in the 1880s, we were selling wines from countries as diverse as Argentina and Syria,’ reveals public relations manager Ewan Murray. ‘One of the original objectives of The Wine Society was to introduce “wines hitherto unknown or but little known in this country”. And we’re still at it, with wines from Morocco, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Uruguay.’