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Wine List Confidential: Cail Bruich

04 November 2024 By Douglas Blyde

On a visit to Glasgow, Douglas Blyde embarks on a “world tour of wine” under the guidance of head sommelier Oliver Hart-Wilson, encountering an “over-performing” Marlborough Chardonnay and discovering why “anything goes with British food”.

“Lorna McKee’s food was genuinely exciting in a city that often plays it burger-and-pizza safe,” wrote Marina O’Loughlin in The Times. “Her background is suitably stellar,” she added. “12 years working with the late, hugely lauded – and Michelined – Andrew Fairlie, of Gleneagles.” Indeed, Michelin, who awarded the venue a rare star in Glasgow, highlighted a mastery of sauces, “be it a creamy truffle and brown butter emulsion or a rich bisque enhanced by XO and chilli”, while the AA crowned Cail Bruich Scottish Restaurant of the Year.

Design

Close to the Botanical Gardens, Cail Bruich’s understated primer-grey façade conceals a tribute to Scottish craftsmanship. Hand-hewn oak panels meet rugged brick, while the pièce de resistance – a chef’s table made from 1940s Macallan staves – pays homage to whisky heritage. The open kitchen, framed by a partition of glowing dark spirits shielding discreet wine fridges, is lined in vertical tiles. Symmetrical Riedel stemware stations gleam in the otherwise art-free dining room, where the focus is purely on the craft unfolding before you.

Drinks

Formerly of Sketch and Brown’s Hotel, Mayfair, where he oversaw the entire wine programme, head sommelier, Oliver Hart-Wilson now calls the Loch Lomond distillery his neighbour. At Cail Bruich, he curates a list celebrating “ambassadors for their region” – winemakers who, like Hart-Wilson, have a true “love of their craft.” Entry-level wines by the glass are led by Famille Perrin, including a breezy Luberon Rosé at £9 per 125ml, though their more exclusive parcellaire wines are oddly absent. For celebratory moments, there’s Krug Grande Cuvée 172ème Édition (£65) – a nod to the restaurant’s status as a Krug Ambassade. Chef McKee even once paired Grande Cuvée 169ème with a tribute to the humble onion. Krug posters line the corridor, with empties standing sentinel above the entrance, saluting diners’ effervescent indulgences.

In between these extremes, you’ll encounter choices such as the Ried Rosengartl Wiener Gemischter Satz 2022 by Fritz Wieninger, a torchbearer for the “New Vienna” movement (£20), or the plush Restless River Main Road & Dignity Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 from Hemel-en-Aarde (£34). For a blind tasting dare, Golden Valley Ice Wine 2021 from China’s Chateau Changyu (£26 per 75ml) is a wine Hart-Wilson discovered during his Brown’s days. Meanwhile, Penfolds’ eleventh-ever release of Great Grandfather “Rare Tawny” is treated like a spirit, with just 50ml setting you back £40.

Bottles start at £38 for the Colombard-led Côtes de Gascogne, Duffour Père & Fils, a paysan pour which Tom Gilbey claims is “a dead ringer for a zippy Sauvignon Blanc.” At the opposite spectrum, Salon Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 2002 could be yours for a cool £3,400. However, with an optimistic mark-up of £2,100, you might want to reconsider – three and a half bottles of Krug 2008 could be yours for the same cost as the profit (including service).

Other notable bins include the 2015 Armenia ArmAs Karmrahyut (£55), and showing Hart-Wilson’s “penchant” for Canada, the lithe Benjamin Bridge Rosé from former lawyers-turned-winemakers in Nova Scotia (£65). Also on offer is Grace Winery’s limpid Hishiyama Private Reserve koshu from Yamanashi (£75), and the 2016 Irancy Les Mazelots from Domaine Goisot (£100), inspired by a taste of Dauvissat’s own. Other highlights are Haut-Bailly II 2020 (£150), the rare Franco-American Cahors, Crocus 2011 (£225), and the “somewhat rugged”, said Parker, Château Palmer 1988 (£800).

If wine isn’t quite enough, the cocktail menu tempts with a caviar Martini, and black truffle Amaretto Sour.

Dishes

Meaning “eat well” in Gaelic, Cail Bruich delivers on its promise with enviable flair. In 2021, just five months after taking the helm, Lorna McKee, present on our visit, secured Glasgow’s first Michelin star since Gordon Ramsay’s Amaryllis shuttered in 2004. Formerly sous chef at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, and crowned “Champion of Champions” on Great British Menu in 2019, McKee doesn’t cater to vegan, dairy-free, or “FODMAP”-friendly palates – you’d have as much luck finding a haggis salad at a juice bar.

Dinner opened with a gougère gushing with Old Winchester, followed by an artistic presentation of Isle of Mull crab, spiced squash mousse, and a nuanced brown butter dashi. The dish, textured with sunflower seeds and puffed rice, was paired by Hart-Wilson with the over-performing Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2022. “To tie umami, nuttiness, and citrus together,” he said. He also reminisced about falling in love with the producer’s barrel-raised Grüner Veltliner.

“Anything goes with British food,” Hart-Wilson declared, introducing Kanaan Riesling 2022 from Ningxia – “a love letter to Germany” by the winery’s memorable founder, Crazy Fang, who spent a decade there. The Riesling accompanied West Coast lobster, delicately poached in butter beneath a rich bisque blanket. With heritage carrots diced as if lifted from a Ginsters pasty, and XO, the beauty of the lobster was, alas, obscured. The Riesling, though fragrant, also seemed overshadowed – a leftover sip of the Chardonnay proved a superior match. “Let’s ignore the fact the wine comes from China, and the XO from Hong Kong,” noted Hart-Wilson.

Then came northerly Scrabster turbot, translucent and exquisite, with lightly pickled celeriac, mushroom of the moment, hen of the woods, and Italian truffle. Airy bread kissed with chives lent a touch akin to executive garlic bread to the affair. Hart-Wilson matched this with the complex 2020 Marmajuelo from Bodegas Vinatigo, Tenerife, describing it as “a passion project by Juan [Jesús] who rescued the variety.” Though the wine’s brackish, porcini, and posh Wine Gum scents were captivating, it struggled against McKee’s volume eleven saucing.

The star savoury turn came with salt-matured Devon duck, behaving as if wild with its deep, gamey flavour. Served as tender pink breast slices paired with a savoury, meatloaf-style sausage, the dish was complemented by supple onion shells and a perfectly balanced foie gras sauce. Hart-Wilson’s choice: Crystallum’s 2023 Single Vineyard Mabalel Pinot Noir. With the vineyard sitting on “Crocodile’s Lair” – once an actual lair of a people-eating beast, said Hart-Wilson – the wine’s story was anything but conventional. The pairing, though, felt too safe a bet.

Finally, the meal’s pinnacle point: a lemon curd honeycomb with fig leaf, bergamot, and salted milk ice cream, dressed at table with Perthshire heather honey. The Morandé late harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from Colchagua was the perfect partner. “A jewel of Latin America,” Hart-Wilson enthused, with “every conceivable citrus fruit under the sun,” its dazzling tropical notes “which put lesser Sauternes to shame” tangoed joyfully with the dessert, closing the meal on a high.

If savoury pairings had been shuffled, perhaps some matches might have sung louder, though McKee’s mastery of flavour, and Hart-Wilson’s impassioned world tour of wine, kept us captivated.

Last word

We booked Cail Bruich as a corrective to the horror stories swirling about our hotel restaurant – a design pile-up with tales of its “cold and burnt” burger lounging in “soggy” bread. Emerging from the refined, flavour-driven narrative of Cail Bruich, where, led by Simon McAtamney, the front-of-house team operates with cohesion and guests dress the part, we couldn’t help but chuckle as we strolled past the raucous Òran Mór bar next-door, then a phone booth being impressively scaled by a vocal young woman, Glasgow’s vibrant contrasts on full display.

When in “The Dear Green Place”, make time for Cail Bruich – not just for the food, but the conversation. Hart-Wilson’s enthusiasm for wine’s stories rather than technicalities is reason enough. Afterwards, explore the group: Bar Brett, where the mushroom XO linguini of Colin Anderson (formerly of Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road) might meet cultish orange wines from Australia, or Shucks in Hyndland, where George Petaloudis wows with crab crumpets and whole fish with an oyster martini.