A private wine appreciation club — cellar tours, vertical tastings, sommelier education, and the serious pleasure of vintage collecting.
Clos Velours was founded on three beliefs about how wine should be appreciated — slowly, deeply, and in excellent company.
Great wine cannot be rushed. We hold vertical tastings spanning decades, teaching members to understand how time transforms even the most humble grape into something transcendent.
Every bottle has a story — the soil, the season, the winemaker's decisions. Understanding a wine's context transforms drinking into a profound form of reading.
A great wine held alone is a private joy; shared among those who understand it, it becomes a conversation across centuries and continents.
The Clos Velours cellar is housed in an eighteenth-century château cave outside Saint-Émilion. 1,200 labels are held in perfect conditions — temperature, humidity, and vibration precisely controlled.
Members may visit the cellar by appointment, participate in barrel-tasting sessions during harvest, and access preferential pricing on selected bottles for their personal collections.
Our tasting programme spans five formats, each designed to develop a different dimension of vinous understanding.
Weekly blind tasting circles — training palate and memory simultaneously.
A single estate across multiple vintages — understanding time's role in wine.
Multiple estates from a single vintage — understanding terroir and appellation.
Annual Bordeaux visit — vineyard walks, barrel tastings, and winemaker dinners.
Annual gala tasting — 40 labels, full service, guest sommeliers from three-star restaurants.
Eight London wine merchants and collectors founded Clos Velours with an initial cellar of 80 labels and a shared conviction that fine wine deserved serious attention.
The club acquired its cave in Saint-Émilion — giving members direct access to Bordeaux producers and the ability to purchase en primeur.
The Clos Velours sommelier education programme launched in partnership with the Court of Master Sommeliers, providing structured wine education for members.
A milestone year — the cellar's 1,000th label entered storage: a Pétrus 1982 donated by a founding member to mark the occasion.
Launched a dedicated New World programme covering Napa Valley, Barossa, Mendoza, and Marlborough — expanding our members' vinous horizons beyond Europe.
Membership grants access to our Bordeaux cellar, the full tasting programme, sommelier education, and the monthly member allocation — six bottles at cellar cost price.