Sparkling
Prosecco Di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Frizzante, Veneto 2004 (Italy) £4 £18
A delicious, easy drinking, lightly sparkling prosecco; the palate is soft & clean with apple & quince fruit flavours & a naturally off dry finish.
Perrier Jouet N.V, Champagne £7 £35
Ruinart Rosé £45
Louis Roderer Premier Brut N.V, £60
Dom Perignon 1998 £125
Rosé & Chilled Red
Chateau Les Crostes, Provence 2004 (France) £4.4 £17.9
Orange flowers & geraniums! A classic, dry Provencal rosé that is perfect with practically anything.
Grapes: Cinsault, Grenache - organic
Henry Marionnet Gamay de Touraine, Loire 2004 (France) £4.2 £16.9
Full of restless bouncing energy with sweet, perfumed, red berry fruit on the nose, vibrant red cherry & blueberry fruit & lovely freshness on the palate.
Whites
Casa Azul Sauvignon Blanc, Curicó Valley 2005 (Chile) £3.7 £13.9
A delightful Sauvignon with a refreshing citrus lilt that goes well with fish & our lighter dishes.
Pinot Grigio Ca'Lunghetta, Delle Venezia 2005 (Italy) £4 £15.25
Very smooth and delicately flavoured of ripe apples & melons.
Good Hope Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch 2005 (South Africa) £4.1 £15.9
Honeysuckle & Greengages on this dry, delicately flavoured wine. Goes excellently well with fish, white meats & light pasta.
Picpoul de Pinet, Château de la Mirande, Languedoc 2005 (France) £4.4 £16.95
Salty-Savoury, crisp, refreshing & dry. Perfect with seafood.
Framingham Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough 2005 (New Zealand) £5.1 £20
Passion fruit & grapefruit abound in this vibrant Sauvignon from the Wairau valley, one of the best spots in Marlborough. The Framingham Estate was recently awarded‘Best New Zealand winery' at the International San Francisco wine competition.
Albarino Abadia San Campio, Rias Baixas, Galicia 2004 (Spain) £5.6 £23
A super chic, refreshing white from Spain's north Atlantic coast that is like a cross between Sancerre (tangy and aromatic), Greco di Tufo (exotic) & Gavi (light). Its captivating flavours of citrus, pineapple & mandarin make it a spirited aperitif & a good match with squid, scallops, mussels, crabs & clams.
Macon-Verze, Pouilly 2005 (France) £30
Grown using natural remedies & harvested by hand, this mini Pouilly has a lovely nose of honey, pear & apple.
Turckheim Pinot Gris Grand Cru, Alsace 2001 (France) £29
Swirling apricot, orange marmalade Grand Cru from the Alsace. Filled with orange-fleshed orchard fruit flavours with a viscous texture and cool stone minerality.
Sancerre "Cuvée D'Antan" Domaine Henri Bourgeois, Loire 2001 (France) £45
Made in "the old style" from 70-year-old south facing vines, harvested by hand & left in old wooden barrels for eighteen months. The wine fills the mouth with layer after layer of creamy fruit, a touch of breadiness from the lees & the terrior notes of truffle & warm stone.
Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru "Les Folatieres" Chateau Genot-Boulanger, Meursault 2003 (France) £60
A profoundly complex Burgundy with layers of spice, smoke, toast, honey & tobacco, fine citrus fruits & lingering flavours of cedar & clove, all beautifully harmonised.
Reds
Casa Azul Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley 2004 (Chile) £3.7 £13.9
Class Cabernet with hints of leaf and blackcurrant. Chilean Cabernet is often great value and tastes a bit like Bordeaux, just slightly softer. We re-tasted this red blind the other day and we thought just that. It's a great all-rounder with food as it is not too heavy.
Syrah Malbec, Cerro Punta Negra, Mendoza 2005 (Argentina) £3.9 £14.75
Powerful with rich plumy fruit and flavours of oak, clove, coffee, pepper & spice. A big lovely mouthful of fruit.
Grapes: Syrah (Shiraz), Malbec
Good Hope Shiraz, Stellenbosch 2005 (South Africa) £4.55 £17.65
Bursting with ripe blue & blackberry fruit, liquorice & peppery spice
Marcillac ‘Lo sang del Païs', Philippe Teulier, Marcillac 2004 (France) £4.9 £18.95
Juicy rustic French country red, forest fruits & cool earth. Endlessly drinkable.
Barbera D,Asti Superiore, F. Ille Trinchero, Piemonte 2001 (Italy) – Organic £5.1 £19.65
From 20-year-old vines and aged for 12 months in old wooden barrels, this is a fresh & fruity Barbera, sour, savoury and tasty.
Rioja Urbina Crianza, Rioja Alta 2001 (Spain) £5.2 £21
Mellow damson fruit with lovely soft oak. It is, perhaps, surprisingly light and, yet, so very smooth. Urbina's Crianza is a traditional unfiltered Rioja, aged for 12 months in American oak and is the type we all came to love, not like the gassy, fruity upstarts, also bottled under the Rioja label, which are bottled far too young.
Grape: Tempranillo, Graziano - organic
Murdoch James Pinot Noir, Martinborough 2004 (New Zealand) - Organic £25
A Superbly complex Pinot with black cherry & plum flavours with lovely colour and balanced acidity receiving merited praise in the Wine Spectator.
Grape: Pinot Noir (the red grape of Burgundy – which, at this price, just isn't happening)
Sarget De Gruaud-Lorose, Saint-Julien 1997 (France) £35
The second wine of Chateau Gruaud-Lorose at a corpse reviving price.
Luddite Shiraz, Stellenbosch, 2002 (South Africa) £40
Astonishing wine drenched with crème de cassis and more fruit flavours, utterly opulent and yet gratifyingly easy to drink. Made with real love from very low yields – no wonder this Shiraz has a cult following!
Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac 1999 (France) £60
"How I like claret! …It fills one's mouth with a gushing freshness, then goes down to cool & feverless; then, you do not feel it quarrelling with one's liver. No, ‘tis rather a peace-maker, & lies as quiet as it did in the grape. Then it is as fragrant as the Queen Bee, & the more ethereal part mounts into the brain, not assaulting the cerebral apartments, like a bully looking for his trull, & hurrying from door to door, bouncing against the wainscot, but rather walks like Aladdin about his enchanted palace, so gently that you do not feel his step."
John Keats (1795-1821)
Le Chambertin, Domaine Rossignol-Trapet, Gevrey-Chambertin 1999 (France) £75
"The first duty of wine is to be red… the second is to be a Burgundy"
Drenched with red berry fruit & well-tempered oakiness, some mineral notes & a warm leathery texture in the mouth.