New on Wine List Confidential: 45 Jermyn St.

45 Jermyn St. doesn’t have one of London’s longest lists, and neither does it carry a hugely eclectic range, but it manages to be one of the capital’s best places to drink wine.

Curated by restaurant manager, David Nichter, previously of Villandry, the selection is littered with keenly-priced classics; the sort of names that have been edged out of trendier restaurants, but bring a smile to the face of anyone who loves wine.

There are plenty of options by the glass, carafe and magnum at the front of the list, while standard bottles are arranged by region – starting with Herefordshire – and finishing with Sherry. Within each area is a well-known, benchmark offering: for example, the house pour fizz is Louis Roederer Brut Premier, the New World Pinot offering hails from Au Bon Climat, the Rioja from Lopez de Heredia, the Chateauneuf-du-Pâpe from Beaucastel, and the rosé from Domaines Ott*. There’s even a selection of Château Musar, both white and red.

If there is a surprising element to the selection it is the handful of Hungarian wines, although this is explained by the fact Nichter comes from the nation. Indeed, one of the best value whites available by the glass, carafe and bottle is the Oremus Dry Frumint ‘Mandolás’.

Those with a bigger budget might be tempted by the Bâtard-Montrachet 2011 from Domaine de la Vougeraie or, for a red, the Haut-Brion 1999.

Nichter is happy for diners to bring their own wine, charging corkage at £15, and will waive it altogether for those who bring a bottle directly from the neighboring excellent wine shop at Fortnum & Mason, the department store that owns 45 Jermyn Street.

Like the wine, the food at 45 Jermyn St. is old-school, delicious and indulgent, featuring trolleys of caviar, flambéed beef Wellington, and flambéed banana Foster, as well as rice pudding – along with a spoiling selection of ice-cream cocktails if you are craving a final hit of alcohol and calories before leaving this cosseting environment tucked away among the tailors of Piccadilly.

To see the WLC position and scores for this review click here

Wine List Confidential, brought to you by the drinks business, is the first platform to rank London’s restaurants on the strength of their wine list alone, providing a comprehensive guide to the best restaurants in the capital for wine lovers.

Restaurants are graded on a 100-point scale based on five criteria: size, value, service, range and originality. For a full guide to London’s best wine lists visit winelistconfidential.com

the drinks business published the inaugural 2017 Wine List Confidential: One to Sixty-One guide last year. We are currently working on a new 2018 edition and are busy re-reviewing top-scoring restaurants and adding new entries to the database. Check back later in the year for final scoring and position of restaurants.