We all have our prejudices and mine is judging establishments by their wine lists. At the moment I am looking for a place in Yorkshire to hold a wedding party, and this is proving a useful tool, enabling me to form the strongest opinions about the hospitality without stirring from London.
Let me explain. We hoped to find an upmarket pub-restaurant that would serve us midwinter mulled wine and delicious but simple food. In the entire Yorkshire Dales I managed to find just one place capable of seating 80. I asked the landlord if he would mind me choosing my own wine. "Oh," he said. "There'll be no need when you see our wine list. It's extremely good." And he faxed it through. It was short and bog-standard. A Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon here, a branded Aussie Shiraz there. Fine, probably, for this sort of pub, but what really killed my faith in his food was his confidence that one could not aspire to anything else. I thought his lamb would probably be brown all the way through and slightly dried out, lacking in love.
We moved on. When I told Grandma I wanted to get married in a pub, she suggested Ripley Castle. Fat chance. Ripley Castle offers food and wine packages, the cheapest of which is £83 per person for three courses and "as much wine as you can drink, poured until the sweet is served". In case you can't imagine anything less dismal than the kitchens racing to serve dessert so as to save on cellar bills, let me tell you what kind of wine this is. It's "Castle Label". We ruled Ripley out.
Solberge Hall Hotel, in Northallerton, had a more competent wine list: tasteful brands such as Georges Duboeuf and a house claret (Chateau de Terrefort Lescalle) that I know well and admire much. But dispiritingly, nothing cost more than £16.95. This list breathed safety; it seemed created for people who talk about "decent plonk". It lacked even a smidgen of elan. I thought Solberge Hall might feel thin and characterless, too.
We turned our sights to London and here I found quite the most curious wine list of all. The Lonsdale, a bar/restaurant in hip Notting Hill, has a wine list so fashionable it might become a historic document. It has a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, of course, because no metropolitan bar can be without this staple. It also offers two Viogniers, one from the south of France, the other from Australia. There's an ever-so-chic Saint-Chinian from that promising enclave in the Languedoc where heady reds are made from Carignan and Rhone grapes. There is a New Zealand Pinot Noir, a Bonarda from Argentina, a Chenin Blanc from the favourite holiday destination of the well-heeled London set (South Africa) a Riesling and three Italian whites.
Obviously I'm not going to have my wedding there, but I thought you ought to know what the trendsters are drinking.
