Wines worth the detour

Margaret Hollis

@mhollis_books

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A list compiled, I confess, with rather more diligence than my late clerk ever applied to a brief: the merchants, bars and tasting-rooms about London where a glass of something properly considered may still be had, the Rioja usually included. I offer no apology for the occasional West End matinee being the true motive for the visit; the wine merely sweetens the interval.

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The list

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Wines worth the detour — 9 items
Name	Address	City	My take
1Hedonism Wines	3-7 Davies Street, London W1K 3LD	London	A cathedral to excess, admittedly, with bottles priced to make one's solicitor's instincts twitch; splendid, nonetheless, for an educational wander.
2The Sampler, South Kensington	35 Thurloe Place, London SW7 2HP	London	The self-service tasting machines spare one the indignity of committing to a bottle sight unseen; a civilised innovation, rare in retail these days.
3The Sampler, Islington	—	—	—
4Handford Wines	105 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LE	London	A proper neighbourhood merchant of the old school, where the Burgundy section rewards patience and the staff do not sigh if one lingers.
5Noble Rot Wine Bar & Restaurant	51 Lamb's Conduit Street, London WC1N 3NB	London	An award-winning list in a townhouse that has, I gather, served as bootmaker and surgery in former lives; the turbot pairs rather well with a good white Burgundy.
667 Pall Mall	67 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ES	London	A members' club for the seriously committed oenophile; one feels faintly underdressed without a decanting opinion ready to hand.
7Lea & Sandeman, Kensington	170 Kensington Church Street, London W8 4BN	London	Dependably good Rioja and claret without theatrics; the sort of shop one visits for a Tuesday bottle and leaves with three.
8Vagabond Wines, Fitzrovia	105 Charlotte Street, London W1T 4QP	London	A self-pour wine wall that strikes me as faintly futuristic, though I am assured it is now quite the done thing among the grandchildren's generation.
9Fortnum & Mason Wine Department	181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER	London	One goes nominally for the wine and emerges, inevitably, with a hamper; the Spanish selection is a good deal better than many expect.

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