Raffles City Wine Shop With a S$30 Bar Fee: Grand Cru

Grand Cru, Wine Concierge combines a fine wine shop and a wine bar in one unit of Raffles City, and that pairing is the reason to visit. The shop is at 252 North Bridge Road, #01-44B Raffles City, Singapore 179103, on the ground floor of the mall above City Hall MRT. You can browse the shelves, choose a bottle at retail price and drink it next door for a set fee. In the festive season, that makes it an easy place for a celebration drink as well as a place to buy gifts.

Grand Cru describes itself as a wine concierge, bringing top labels from Bordeaux to Burgundy and on to the New World. It is staffed by sommeliers and wine specialists, and the language on its own site is about service rather than discount shelves. You can ask for help choosing a single gift bottle, or work through a longer list with the staff for a dinner party or a corporate order.

The retail side keeps long hours, from 10am to 10pm every day. It also opens on public holidays except Chinese New Year, which is useful in late December when other shops have shorter hours. Christmas Day and New Year's Day are not on the list of closures.

The best feature is simple. Any bottle bought in the shop can be opened in the wine bar for a S$30 service fee per bottle on top of the retail price. That is far less than the mark-up most restaurants charge, so a good bottle costs much less here than on a wine list.

The bar side starts pouring at 12pm and takes last orders at 9pm. Its by-the-glass list is focused on Burgundy and is refreshed every couple of months, so regulars can try new wines through the year. The bar can also be booked for private events, which makes it a neat venue for a small office party or a birthday in December.

The numbers are easy to work out. The 2012 La Dame de Montrose at its offer price of S$89 costs S$119 to drink at the bar once the S$30 fee is added. The Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve comes to S$129. For a group of four, that is a mature Bordeaux or a good Champagne at around S$30 a head, which is a modest cost per person for a celebration drink in the middle of the city, with a sommelier on hand to open and pour.

The fee is the same whatever the bottle costs, so the saving grows with the price. For a special occasion, such as a Christmas Eve drink or a farewell before someone leaves Singapore for the holidays, a more expensive bottle opened here is much better value than one ordered from a restaurant list.

The shop has several bottles that suit the season. NV Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve in a gift box costs S$99, a rich, well-aged Champagne that looks the part as a present. For a grower Champagne, NV Françoise Bedel Brut Entre Ciel et Terre is S$145, made by a family estate in the Marne Valley that works biodynamically.

For red, 2012 La Dame de Montrose from Saint-Estèphe was on offer at S$89, down from a regular price of S$96. At 14 years old, it has the softness of a mature Bordeaux. For a top bottle, 2019 Château Trotanoy from Pomerol costs S$442, one of the most famous names on the Right Bank.

If you are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner in Singapore on 26 November, the shelves include a Californian option. 2016 Jonata Fenix costs S$157. Jonata is an estate in the Santa Ynez Valley in California, and Fenix is its Merlot-based red, a full, ripe wine for roast turkey with all the trimmings or a glazed ham.

It is also an easy bottle to try before committing. Buy it in the shop, pay the S$30 bar fee and open it with friends at the bar, then decide whether to take a second bottle home for the holiday.

Grand Cru runs events in its wine bar, and November is busy. Champagne & Caviar: The Meunier Perspective on Saturday 7 November 2026 is already sold out. Intimate Conversations with Dan Coward on Sunday 15 November costs from S$70 nett per person. Both take place in the bar itself, so the setting is small and close to the shelves, which makes it easy to buy a bottle you liked on the way out.

These events are small, and seats go quickly. Booking is done online through the shop's events page. If you miss one, the bar itself is a good place to taste on any day of the week.

The shop does not list a landline. For a large Christmas order, send your budget, the number of bottles and the delivery date by message, and the staff can put together a list for you to approve.

Raffles City is linked directly to City Hall MRT on the North-South and East-West lines, so you never need to step outside to reach it. From the mall, walk north across Bras Basah Road to Raffles Hotel, with its white colonial façade and courtyard. To the south, St Andrew's Cathedral sits on a green lawn beside the mall, with its white Gothic spire.

A few minutes further on, the National Gallery Singapore fills the former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings. Its rooftop has views over the Padang to Marina Bay, a fine place to watch the sun go down before a glass at the bar.

Grand Cru, Wine Concierge, 252 North Bridge Road, #01-44B Raffles City, Singapore 179103. Opening hours are Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm, and public holidays except Chinese New Year. The nearest MRT is City Hall. Bottles bought in the shop can be drunk in the bar for a S$30 fee per bottle. Dan Coward's evening on 15 November costs from S$70 nett.