A wine list this long can read as a challenge. It isn’t meant to. Here is how ours is put together, what to drink with what, and the handful of bottles worth knowing about before you sit down.
The list in one paragraph
Around 260 bins. It starts at £27 a bottle and finishes at a 2019 Mouton-Rothschild, which tells you the range but not much else. In between: Burgundy in unusual depth for a restaurant this size, classed-growth Bordeaux going back to 2007, Châteauneuf-du-Pape in six vintages, and the longest Italian section on the Island — Barolo, Barbaresco, four Brunelli and a run of Super Tuscans. English sparkling sits alongside Champagne rather than beneath it.
Start by the glass
The by-the-glass list is the part we would point you at first, and it is deliberately long. Fifty-four wines, three measures each, from a £6 glass of southern French white through to Bollinger Rosé at £25. It means a table of four eating four different things can each drink something that suits, and it means you can try a Sancerre before committing to the bottle.
Some of what we would pour on a given evening:
- Wiston Estate Brut, £16 — Sussex sparkling, and the glass we hand people who assume English wine is a novelty.
- Mas Saint Laurent Picpoul de Pinet, £9.50 — the Solent oyster wine. Minerally, citrus, no oak.
- Chablis, Domaine Tremblay, £15 — for the fish stew, the monkfish, anything with butter in it.
- Archivio Aglianico, £10 — southern Italian, warm and smooth, and the one to have with the grill.
- Château Filhot, Sauternes, £19 — with the cheese, or with the lemon parfait.
What to drink with what
We don’t believe in rules about this, but a few pairings come up so often that they may as well be written down.
- Native oystersPicpoul, Muscadet or Champagne. Something with acid and salt. The Mas Saint Laurent Picpoul is the house answer; the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine is the connoisseur’s.
- The grillRhône, Rioja or a Super Tuscan. A 32oz tomahawk wants structure: Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Viña Ardanza Reserva, or if it’s an occasion, Sassicaia.
- Fish stew and musselsWhite Burgundy or Albariño. Chablis for the buttery end, Veiga Naúm Albariño for the lighter one.
- Afternoon teaEnglish sparkling. Wiston Estate Brut is on the tea menu for a reason: the acidity handles the clotted cream.
- Cheese and puddingsSauternes, Tokaji or port. The Château Filhot with blue cheese; Kopke’s 1996 colheita with anything chocolate.
Where the list goes deep
Burgundy
Chablis and Montagny at the approachable end, then Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet from Blain-Gagnard and Leflaive. In reds, Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-St-Georges, Pommard, Vosne-Romanée. It is the section our floor team get asked about most, and the one where the mark-ups are gentlest relative to what the bottles cost us.
Bordeaux
From a £46 Entre-deux-Mers to first growth. Château Batailley, La Lagune, d’Issan, Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Langoa Barton back to 2007, Figeac 2010. If you are marking something, this is where to look.
Italy
The longest section. Four Barolos from Giacomo Fenocchio and Roagna, Barbaresco from Produttori and Gaja, five Brunelli, and the Tuscan coast: Ornellaia, Sassicaia in five vintages, Tignanello, Flaccianello. A Jeroboam of Fenocchio Bussia for a table that means it.
England
Wiston Estate Brut and Rosé from Sussex, Fitz, Folc English Rosé. An island restaurant serving English fizz is not a gimmick — it is the local answer to Champagne, and on a terrace in July it wins.
Three things worth knowing
Decant early. Anything with age gets opened when you order it, not when the main arrives. If you have booked a Barolo or an older Bordeaux, tell us when you book and it will be open and waiting.
Magnums are better value than they look. A magnum of Viña Ardanza or AIX rosé costs less per glass than two bottles and makes a table feel like an occasion. There are Jeroboams too, if the table is long enough.
The cellar holds more than the list. Vintages sell out and new bins arrive faster than any list can keep up with. If there is something you are after, ask.
Drinking it properly: Wine Evenings
A few times a year we give the list a night of its own. Seven courses from the kitchen, a five-wine flight, a guest host who tells you the story behind each pour, and thirty-six seats on communal tables in The Cellar. The last one, Fruits of the Sea with the writer and broadcaster Helena Nicklin, sold out before it was announced publicly.
Dates go to the list a month before they go public. Join it here.
Where to read the list
The whole cellar list is published on the site, by the glass and by the bottle, with prices. Come and drink from it Thursday to Sunday: the bar and terrace serve from 9am to 10pm, and the dining room from noon.