Wine List Confidential Awards 2019: The winners

London’s leading wine list review service, Wine List Confidential, revealed its top 100 restaurants for 2019 with the release of its latest guide and an award ceremony celebrating the diversity of the capital’s wine offering.

The capital’s top sommeliers and restaurant staff attended the awards ceremony on Monday 20 May at the London Wine Fair.

As well as this year’s awards, the occasion marked the launch of the Wine List Confidential 2019 guide, which provides reviews of the top 100 restaurants, bars, clubs and pubs for wine lovers in London, each rated for value, size, range, originality and service.

Meanwhile, a top panel of judges including FT drinks correspondent Alice Lascelles, Evening Standard drinks writer Douglas Blyde, the drinks business editor Lucy Shaw, and famed food instagrammer Clerkenwell Boy deliberated over a wide selection of London’s wine lists for the WLC Awards.

As well as awards for best service, best value, most original list, and best overall, this year new categories were added in order to recognise the talent behind the lists, including two awards for sommeliers: Rising Star and Sommelier of the Year.

2019 also witnessed a new restaurant grab the top spot, with the head sommelier also picking up the gong for Sommelier of the Year.

Commenting on this year’s competition, Lucy Shaw, editor of the drinks business, who chaired the judges, said: “This year the competition for spots on the list is more intense than ever, and we’ve also seen some great variety with hybrid wine bar / merchants, micro lists, sustainable wines and many new and original offerings.

“London is one of the world’s great cities for wine lovers, and we hope the 2019 guide will encourage people to explore some of these excellent wine lists.”

For the full results for this year’s awards, please click through. To see the top 100 wine lists and complete reviews of each, please visit www.winelistconfidential.com

Best-By-The-Glass Offering 

Winner

67 Pall Mall

Shortlist 

67 Pall Mall
Oswald’s
Les 100 de Taillevent

Best for Champagne

Winner

The Greenhouse

Shortlist

The Greenhouse
Annabel’s
Mere
Texture

Best Micro List 

Winner

Top Cuvée

Shortlist

10 Greek Street
Top Cuvée
Little Duck The Picklery

Best English Wine List 

Winner

The Coral Room

Shortlist

The Coral Room
Simpson’s in the Strand

Best Looking List

Winner

Hide

Shortlist

Pied à Terre
Hide
Mãos
London Shell Co.

Best Hybrid Wine Bar / Merchant

Winner

Authentique

Shortlist

Bottles
Authentique
Quality Wines

Best Sustainable List  

Winner

Levan

Shortlist

Leroy
Levan
Fare

Best Iberian Wine List

Winner

Bar Douro

Shortlist

Bar Douro
Ametsa with Arzak Instruction

Best Italian Wine List

Winner

The River Café

Shortlist

Margot
The River Café
Caractère
Locanda Locatelli
Bocca di Luppo

Rising Star

Winner

Melody Wong (Yopo)

Shortlist

Melody Wong (Yopo)
Lorenzo Abussi (Rüya)
Emma Underwood (Darby’s)
Lucy Ward (Gridiron)

Sommelier of the Year

Winner

Kelvin McCabe (Frog by Adam Handling)

Shortlist

Xavier Rousset MS (Cabotte)
Giovanni Ferlito MCA (The Ritz)
Kelvin McCabe (Frog by Adam Handling)
Stefan Neumann MS (Dinner by Heston)
Katie Exton (Lorne)
Oliver Christie (The Clove Club)

Most distributed red wine, in association with Wine Picker

Winner

Sassicaia

Most distributed white wine, in association with Wine Picker

Winner

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Best Value List

Winner 

Rex Whistler

Best for Service

Winner

Mãos

Most original 

Winner

Diogenes The Dog

Wine List of the Year

Winner

Frog by Adam Handling

Adam Handling’s Frog in Covent Garden was the top-rated restaurant overall with an average of 98.4/100 on the guide’s key measures of value, service, range and originality.

Author of the guide, Douglas Blyde, described Frog’s list as “an exhilarating, democratic, innovatively compiled offering.”