Best Looking List
Winner
Hide
Shortlist
Pied à Terre
Hide
Mãos
London Shell Co.
Last year’s Best Newcomer award recipient, Hide, once again impressed the judges in 2019. While the quality of wines listed is important, often the look and feel is just as important to the casual wine lover. A good looking wine list entices customers in, making them want to explore the list and discover some hidden gems. It should also reflect the restaurant itself, both its ethos the personality of the people who work there.
Judge’s described Hide’s winning tome as “quite different, with lovely attention to detail. It’s well laid out and not cluttered.”
Accessed via leather-wrapped tablets, the list devised by head sommelier, Dmytro Goncharuk, opens with the words, “a corkscrew, a glass, a memory”. The interactive format allows the list to be updated in real-time according to what is in stock in wine store Hedonism, to which the restaurant is connected.
To read the full review, please click here.
Best Hybrid Wine Bar / Merchant
Winner
Authentique
Shortlist
Bottles
Authentique
Quality Wines
With some well-established and also plenty of new faces appearing in this category, hybrid venues are really making their mark on the capital as venues adapt to the current market. Feedback shows that customers respond and engage with this informal way of learning about and tasting wines.
Judges plumped for Authentique’s list which they described as “really well done and beautifully curated,” with a wide-ranging Champagne selection from magnums.
Authentique, which doubles as both a wine bar and shop, aims to take guests on a “journey of Franco-fun,” through France and French-speaking countries including Algeria, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco and Switzerland.
The team comprises Alexandre Bal, former head of marketing for Nicolas UK and senior sales executive and buyer for Yapp Brothers, Amaury Levisalles, formerly of La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels, Mathieu Sevagen, formerly of Nicolas UK and Majestic, and Thomas Guidez.
To read the full review, please click here.
Best Sustainable List
Winner
Levan
Shortlist
Leroy
Levan
Fare
In another hotly contested category, Levan impressed the judges with its list that is ‘full of interesting information, well described, really makes you want to go there.”
Another judge added: “You need to tell stories to communicate sustainability and this list does it; tasting notes included.”
Levan imports many of the wines it lists itself, including a large selection of Jura wines, or “Jura varieties from around the world”.
Co-creator of Levan, Mark Gurney, told Wine List Confidential author Douglas Blyde: “I’m just as excited about discovering new young winemakers as I am about drinking old vintages of dusty Burgundy.”
To read the full review, please click here.
