49 48 Nº 40 4 V ALUL LUI TRAIAN be completely impossible to understand for anyone who isn’t familiar with the repertoire of producers. Nonetheless, it did challenge norms to such an extent that everything has been shaken up, including the conventional structure of the wine list. As a synthesis between natural wine and fine wine further emerges, there are now countless restaurants and bars taking different approaches. This is a positive trend overall, but without strict principles, further advice might be needed on today’s wine list landscape. To help you navigate, and to find out how such lists are put together at all, I spoke to the curators of four of the best wine lists in London. If we start at the lowest common W ine lists can be intimidating. They’re often confusing to those who aren’t well-versed in winespeak. While some diners prefer to rely on the sommelier or server to choose a bottle, others relish the challenge of selecting the perfect wine for the table. Crafting a comprehensive wine list involves significant logistical work and thoughtful consideration, making this task even more salient. The historical trend in the UK was to organise strictly according to geographical distinction; a structure that tends to appeal to wine nerds and them alone. The natural wine movement then arrived, but was initially so countercultural that a list would WO R D S J O E L H A RT I L LU ST R AT I O N S JA R R E D B R I G G S 51 50 Nº 40 4 V ALUL LUI TRAIAN But when the customer is still struggling, she’ll go a step further. “For the most part I try to ask guests about wines they have tried and enjoyed, or about their mood,” she says. “A lot can be gained by getting people to think more about taste than technicalities. Also I think assuring people that it is no crime to have little to no wine knowledge.” For Isa Bal, Sommelier and Owner of Trivet, and the 2024 winner of the IWSC Wine and Spirit Ambassador Award, there are other tricks you can use. “Let’s face it, for some people it will always be scary,” he says, “but there are things restaurants can do to make it less so.” His three tips are: “Use available visual content as much and as appropriately as you can. Communicate that help is at hand if needed. Remember it is not a monologue.” At Levan, the list itself does a lot of communicating already. “Since day one, we’ve always tried to make our wine list super accessible and under each wine we gaps for those with more exacting tastes.” For Bal, the aim of pleasing everyone might be too lofty a goal. “I don’t believe in having something for everyone,” he says. “A list with a character doesn’t have to be inclusive. On the contrary, I do like lists with a narrow focus. It just needs to be coherent with the place and evolve over the time with the guidance and feedback from the customers.” To ensure that balance, the key is to have “knowledgeable staff at hand”. Without this, it is better to “stick to well-known wines that don’t need much of an explanation,” he says. Arranged according to the historical development of wine—with wines from Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, and across the Levant in the early stages of the list— Trivet’s wine list is one of the most unique in London, so I asked Bal how he got to it. “It came from the idea that I wanted to create something that makes wine more interesting, and that can contribute to conversation both among the guests and also between us and guests,” he says. “Give some information, but don’t force it. I think we achieved that with highlighting the historic journey of wine through ages and places.” But that doesn’t mean it should try and be too didactic. “The place of education denominator, what should a total novice do when faced with the weight of a wine list? According to Audrey Annoh-Antwi, one of the sommeliers at winemaker’s club and restaurant Planque, there is one basic starting point. “Ask,” she says. “If you are curious about wine but unsure, we are here to help and steer you towards a wine that you will enjoy.” If you’re not much of an asker, and have a vague sense of what you like already, then there is another route. For Co-Owner and Director of Levan and Bar Levan Mark Gurney, the trick is to begin by looking for things you know you like, “which should normally be surrounded with like-minded wines,” he says. What if you’re still intimidated by the disparity in knowledge between yourself and the sommelier? How can a list avoid this? At Planque, Annoh-Antwi tells me, the “wine list is quite slim in its presentation,” which means “some of the intimidation is removed by it not being a very weighty lacquered tome.” have a little one or two liner describing what it tastes like and the vibe,” Gurney says. One example would be the Bodegas Terra Gauda, Abadía de San Campizo 2023 Albariño from Rías Baixas, Spain, which is described as “round and dry. Juicy lemons and sunshine with a delightful salty finish. Reminiscent of a day well spent at the beach.” The list is also curated according to three principles: price, style variation and weight. On price, “you need an entry level wine in the low 30s in red and white,” he says “and step it up gradually from there.” As “most people in our neck of the woods are hitting between £30-£50 a bottle,” he clarifies, meaning there is a necessity “to be strong in this zone across the colours.” Regarding style, his list is broken down into five sections for both white and red. There’s fresh & easy, textured & aromatic, wild & alive, savoury & salty (smokey for the reds), and rich & rounded. “This,” Gurney says, “loosely covers the major styles and allows people to navigate their way to something they will hopefully like.” Finally, there is weight. “The vast majority of people fall in one of two camps,” he remarks, “light or heavy... as long as you have these aspects covered, you’re usually all good. Then you can pepper some more unusual wines in the A lot can be gained by assuring people that it is no crime to have little to no wine knowledge J O E L H A R T U H I T L I S T 53 52 Nº 40 4 V ALUL LUI TRAIAN isn’t restaurant wine lists,” Bal says. “There’s no harm in including some information, but the primary purpose of a wine list is to tell the guests what you have in the cellar and what the cost is to them if they were to drink it there. Everything should be built around that.” Gurney agrees, “Education doesn’t seem to be the aim of the game. You have to know when to stop talking and let them enjoy themselves. This after all was dinner for two, not three.” As a general rule then, Bal says, “it doesn’t have to have a unique sense of personality, but it helps if it does.” Another London joint with a really unique approach is the Greek and Mediterranean restaurant OMA, which opened earlier this year with a list arranged according to proximity to the sea. It includes the sun-kissed shores and islands of Greece, the coastal regions and islands of Italy, France and Spain, and up through the green Atlantic shores of Spain, Portugal, France, and England, and down to coastal South Africa. Emily Acha Derrington, the wine director for OMA, AGORA, Manteca and SMOKESTAK, tells me, “rather than by country, the list is organised in sections: influenced by the sea (coastal), surrounded by the sea (islands) and further inland (wine regions not so coastal).” Within each section, the grouping is geographical, and begins with Greece. They also have focus pages on producers, and grapes, where they “shine a spotlight on wines we really think are different and worth it,” she says. Such focuses are becoming more common in general, with Orasay and Brunswick House providing two more examples. At OMA, the current grape profile is on the Greek red grape Xinomavro, which helps people to understand its diversity of styles, by including a zippy Blancs de Noirs among an array of red wines. “The Xinomavro page has created a huge amount of interest with guests, as there are several styles of Xinomavro from different areas in Greece that they can also try by-the-glass,” she says. To make it easier to navigate “there is an index at the start, so people can skip straight to their desired place if they prefer,” she confirms. For Derrington, “It’s not to say that a more traditional list structure is something I wouldn’t look at, but it depends on what the list is trying to convey.” At OMA, the aim is to celebrate “the journey, the experience and inspiration centered in Greece, but drawing influence from a wider geographical area.” This can be taken as a general rule. As she remarks, “when so much work goes into a restaurant’s design, the dishes, and the restaurant’s personality, that also creates an opportunity to breathe some creativity into the wine list and, at the end of the day, the wine list is as much part of the restaurant experience as the service style, or the food.” The wine list is as much part of the restaurant experience as the service style, or the food J O E L H A R T U H I T L I S T