New on Wine List Confidential: Villandry

Villandry – Wine List Confidential Score: 89.6

There’s more than enough to keep you entertained throughout the course of an afternoon or evening on this energetic little list, with new wave South Africa something of a speciality and high-quality bottlings from start to finish.

There are two branches of Villandry – St James and Great Portland Street. This is a review of St James, which has the bigger wine list of the two.

Effervescent South African sommelier Monique Ziervogel showcases the very best of her country, with Cape Point, Adi Badenhorst, Lismore, Crystallum, Radford Dale, Hamilton Russell, Delaire Graff and JH Meyer all represented.

She is evidently keen to push the minimal-intervention producers too – Thierry Germain, Pierre Breton, Marco de Bartoli, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Tom Shobbrook all make welcome appearances.

The by-the-glass offering of around 30, including around eight by Coravin (eg, AA Badenhorst Cinsault 2014, Liger-Belair Nuits-St-Georges 2009), is generous, while regular monthly winemaker dinner events yield up a discounted ‘Wine of the Month’ section on the list.

Recent dinners have taken advantage of somm Ziervogel’s SA connections – Adi Badenhorst, Pieter Walser of Blank Bottle and Samantha O’Keefe of Lismore.

Interestingly, the Great Portland Street branch of Villandry has just made a big splash with seven of OW Loeb’s wines on tap, making it one of the biggest WOT venues in London.

All very enterprising, all very lekker.

To view the full Villandry Wine List Confidential entry, including individual category scores and wine recommendations, click here.

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