New on Wine List Confidential: Oxo Tower Restaurant

Oxo Tower Restaurant – Wine List Confidential Score: 89.4

Impressive setting, impressive wine list – Oxo Tower Restaurant

A whopper of a selection which will be familiar to anyone who has popped into the excellent Harvey Nichols wine shop in Knightsbridge.

Some good value is to be had with the Harvey Nichols branded wines, which include a Grüner Veltliner and a ‘Plan de Dieu’ from the Rhône. A great buying team ensures the list here is consistently tip-top and worthy of exploration.

The Coravin selection has particular appeal if you feel inclined to dabble in the fine wine offering but don’t want to haemorrhage money – this isn’t a cheap list. No fewer than 30 listings are available in 75ml or 125ml measures by the device. Castillo Ygay 2007 (£34 for 125ml) and Charbonnière Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2009 from magnum (£17) stand out among the reds.

There’s a hell of a lot of Chamapagne here, often mature vintage stuff, with plenty in magnum format too (there’s a big mag selection generally, in fact). Bolly, DP, Krug and Cristal all get generous coverage for free-spending bubbly lovers; Harvey Nicks’ own-label OXO Champagne is also perfectly serviceable, and priced at just £62. There’s a lot of love for English sparkling producers besides. Hambledon Premiere Cuvée would be worth a pop.

Harvey Nicks’ ‘Britalia’ campaign to big up high-end Italian products, including wine, dictates that you’ll see plenty of good gear spanning most Italian regions. Unsurprisingly Piemonte and Tuscany get the most coverage, but Sicily is not far behind, with the excellent Cerasuolo di Vittoria from COS (£63, or £130 for magnum) and Passopisciaro’s equally excellent Etna Rosso (£90) both winking seductively from this section of the list.

Along with the nearby Tate Modern Switch House restaurant, one of the sharpest lists you’ll find on the South Bank.

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

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