Terms

Who we are

Grand Couvert Ltd. is a private company keeping addresses in Paris and New York, seeing to dining, cellars and table commissions for a limited roll of member households. In these terms the company is called Grand Couvert, and you, together with your household, are called the member.

These terms govern membership, the use of grandcouvert.com, and everything Grand Couvert undertakes on a member's behalf.

Admission

Membership is by introduction from a member in good standing or from a house with which Grand Couvert works. The roll is limited to 220 households. Grand Couvert meets monthly to consider introductions and is under no obligation to give reasons for a decision either way.

Membership is held by a household and may not be lent, sold, assigned or exercised on behalf of a person who is not a member. An introduction may never be sold.

Dues

Dues are set annually per household, quoted on application, and payable in advance. They are not calculated by the evening, by the bottle, or as a share of what a member spends elsewhere.

Dues cover the attention of Grand Couvert. They do not cover what a member consumes: restaurant accounts, a chef's engagement, wine bought for the cellar, storage, commissions in porcelain, linen or print, travel and lodging are billed at cost to the member, with Grand Couvert's fee disclosed separately in every case.

Grand Couvert takes no commission, rebate, introduction fee or other consideration from any restaurant, chef, grower, house or maker. If a producer offers one, we decline it and tell the member that we did.

Reservations and evenings

Grand Couvert asks on a member's behalf; it does not own the tables it asks for. Every reservation, private room, chef's engagement and visit is subject to the house concerned, and nothing is confirmed until Grand Couvert writes to say so.

A table booked is a table kept. Where a member cannot attend, we ask to be told in good time so that the seat may be released with the courtesy the house is owed. Restaurants, chefs and private rooms impose their own cancellation terms; these are passed to the member unchanged, and Grand Couvert adds nothing to them.

Repeated failure to attend engagements made in a member's name damages relationships the whole roll depends upon, and is grounds for Grand Couvert to suspend the service.

The cellar

Wine bought on a member's instruction is the member's property from the moment it is paid for. Grand Couvert acts as agent, never as principal, and never sells a member a bottle from its own stock.

Bottles are held in bonded storage in Beaune and New Jersey, insured at replacement value against fire, flood and theft. Duty and tax fall due when a bottle leaves bond, and are the member's to pay.

Wine is an agricultural product and an uncertain investment. Grand Couvert gives its honest opinion of how a bottle will keep, but does not guarantee condition after release from bond, nor any future value. A cellar built with us is built to be drunk.

Commissions

Porcelain, linen, glass, letterpress and hand-drawn work are made to order by independent workshops. Proofs are approved by the member before a piece is made, and a commission approved in proof may not be cancelled once the workshop has begun.

Lead times are given honestly and are not guaranteed against the ordinary hazards of small workshops. Where a maker cannot deliver in time for an evening, Grand Couvert will say so at once and propose an alternative.

Confidence

Grand Couvert does not name a member to another member, nor disclose to a house who else is dining. Members are asked to extend the same courtesy: not to name one another, and not to identify the houses that receive them in published writing or photography.

Grand Couvert's correspondence, cellar plans, tasting notes and introductions are provided for the member's private use and may not be republished.

Suspension and resignation

A member may resign at any time by writing to Grand Couvert. Dues already paid for the current year are not refunded, and engagements already confirmed stand unless the houses concerned release them.

Grand Couvert may suspend or end a membership where dues fall unpaid, where confidence is broken, or where a member's conduct at a table would cost Grand Couvert a relationship it holds on behalf of every other member. Where this happens, Grand Couvert will say so plainly and in writing.

The limits of the house

Grand Couvert undertakes to act with the skill and care of a house that has done this since 1987. It does not warrant that any particular table can be had, that a kitchen will cook to its usual standard on a given night, or that a journey will be free of the ordinary misfortunes of travel.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law does not permit us to limit. Subject to that, Grand Couvert's liability in respect of any engagement is limited to the fees charged for it.

The website

grandcouvert.com is published for information. Its text, marks and drawings belong to Grand Couvert and may not be reproduced without permission. The member entrance is for members alone; passphrases are personal and must not be shared within or beyond a household.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising under them — save that nothing prevents a member resident in France or the United States from bringing proceedings in their own courts where the law gives them that right.