Amuse-bouches: The latest restaurant news bites

In restaurant news this week: Dining out in the UK is predicted to fall by over a third in September, London wine bar Top Cuvée gets ready to open a shop, and a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist prepares to open a West African restaurant in October. 

head sommelier

New scores for 2020 to be published in May

Unfiltered: Charlie Blightman, Noble Rot

Charlie Blightman, head sommelier at Noble Rot wine bar and restaurant in Bloomsbury, tells WLC about meeting Beastie Boy Mike D, why he’s proud to be a sommelier in London and a dramatic incident with a bowl of soup.

In focus: London sommeliers that make wine

Mirroring the trend of chefs growing ingredients on their own patches of land, a clutch of sommeliers in London are making their own wines in Europe and beyond, to give them something special to sell.

Unfiltered: Nicola Perrone, Orrery

Italian-born Nicola Perrone, head sommelier at French neighbourhood restaurant Orrery in Marylebone, explains how his wine list is “his baby” and reveals that the one wine he can’t get along with hails from his motherland.