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Wine List Confidential: Cloth

08 August 2024 By Douglas Blyde

Douglas Blyde comes to Cloth, one of London’s latest openings, and finds a “Bible” of a wine list, samples a “sadly hefty gazpacho”, and contemplates where next time he should bring earplugs.

The Guardian’s Grace Dent praised Cloth’s ambience, in which “behind a black-painted, olde worlde shop frontage…one could imagine Bagpuss sitting waiting for Emily”, while Sinéad Crann described the dining experience as “like being inside a very rich person’s house during a power outage” in The Infatuation.

Author of Steak: The Whole Story, Tim Hayward, praised the extraction of the kitchen team in Financial Times: “Chef Tom Hurst has worked at Brawn, The Marksman and Levan, and was head chef at Lasdun. That is some kind of pedigree and, having loved them all, I’d have followed the guy anywhere.”

Design

Cloth is brought to you by Hurst, and wine importer friends, Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth. Formerly the Bowling Bird, known for its Tuscan sausage and cavolo nero tart, and ebullient co-owner, John King, who had “something about him of the early Peter Langan” said Fay Maschler, Cloth abuts the only remaining house to predate the Great Fire. Attested by a blue plaque, the former home of Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, replete with library, which you can actually book, is above. A jostle of Victoria-era prints and canvases jostle on the avocado skin-coloured walls, while acoustics, not helped by the Pizza Express grade marble tables met by pew-like benches, are utterly exhausting. Beyond a frightening, full magnetic knife strip in the narrow corridor, the snug bar remains open between services for a Lion Brewery lager alongside a pickle plate.

Drinks

“Eau de vie” answered Butterworth when asked what was in the water carafe. Bound in a sort of chamois leather, around half of Cloth’s list is formed from bottles from Haynes’ Penzer Wines and Butterworth’s eponymous Benedict Butterworth – portfolios which are gradually merging. While the latter specialises in grower Champagnes, new-wave Bordeaux, as well as Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Loire, and Luxembourg, Penzer is more inclined towards Germany. Other bins are wholesomely sourced from wine industry friends, including Emile Wines, The Winery, Fingal Rock, Carte Blanche, Winemakers Club, and Raeburn.

Constantly in rotation, the blackboard selection of wines available by the Berry Bros. & Rudd branded Wine Merchant’s wine glass start at just £7/125ml for Guillaume Gonfrier’s cheerful “Bien A-Rosé” Bordeaux, ranging to the exciting target of Vincent Dauvissat 2008 “Séchet” at £53 via Coravin. And for non-drinkers, there is Aliénore Tapon’s vintage “Jus de Tapon” based on grand cru fruit from Saint Emilion at £9.

Eschewing Australia, while including only one New Zealander, the largely European “Bible” opens with large formats. Magnums begin with the Merlot-led Pif Rouge 2022 at £72, reaching to Patrick Jasmin’s wholly Syrah La Giroflaire Côte Rôtie 2017 at £480.

The ensuing sparkling selection defiantly eschews big brands with marketing budgets in favour of Piot-Sévillano’s Le Temps Pour Elle, Solera Pur Meunier Extra Brut NV from Champagne at £142, while more exploratory drinkers may delve into the landscape of Luxembourg in the form of the part oak bevelled 2008 Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling Melusiner Crémant 2008 from Domaine Kox (£115), or Bayridge Wines’ Col Fondo from Dorset (£73).

Standard-sized still bottles might include, at around twice-mark-up, the banging Bandol, Domaine Tempier 2018 (£85), what is a slightly jarringly mainstream American Chardonnay in the form of 2018 Ramey from Russian River Valley (£126), a mature Condrieu which proves beauty is not solely reserved for the young – Les Chaillots 2013, Yves Cuilleron (£127), the competitively priced, cult Italian Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, from Emidio Pepe, 2015 edition (£142), a Jura fighter from the great storm of 1987, being Laura Bourdy’s Côtes du Jura Chardonnay (£333), and a particularly good value duo, being Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet from 2006 by Nicolas Potel (£450), and Auguste Clape’s 1986 Cornas (£640). At the pinnacle, the team resorted to inflicting a £4,000 mark-up on their 1998 La Tâche from Domaine de la Romanée Conti (£8,658), ensuring, most likely, that no one ever buys it.

Dishes

Perhaps in his flat upstairs, John Betjeman wrote, “And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait because I have a luncheon date.” Onto the dishes, realised by Hurst on homely crockery this intensely busy Tuesday lunchtime, with wines not so much paired by Butterworth as presented ad hoc when he had a free hand. The experience began with the Fino-scented Piot-Sévillano’s Essence de Terroir. The Pinot Meunier-led Champagne was fermented, said Butterworth, “in enamel tanks” which immediately conjured thoughts of a bathroom. From “one of the last villages before Champagne,” said Butterworth, Domaine Céline Coté Bourgogne Tonnerre Barrique 2022 followed, harvested from vineyards “ploughed by a horse called Absinthe.” This was accompanied by flawless “overnight sourdough” with lavish South Downs butter.

“Who’s not a fritter man?” asked the restaurant’s patient publicist, Joel Porter, whom we dined with as neat salt cod fritters with a splurge of aioli arrived. Porter, it transpired, is romantically partnered with Jules Pearson. Not only the VP of Food and Beverage Development at the mighty Ennismore group, where she is responsible for nurturing food and drink concepts, Pearson is also co-founder of LondONtheinside and Sausage Press.

Starters ensued, including an unordered, beautifully bright melon, prosciutto and ajo blanco, grilled leeks gribiche with brown shrimps with an engaging, high acid line, and a section of bull’s heart tomato in a sadly hefty gazpacho.

From 16th century producer Jean Boudry a Arlay, 2018 Savagnin is imported by Haynes and proved a bit bold with its selfish, nutty, briny characteristics for this time of day, alongside the Cornish monkfish with Scottish langoustine bisque so good as to immediately outrank the other mains, which felt like consolation prizes. Adding to the joy of the dish were spectacular chips heightened by the gently rising heat of Espelette pepper. Featuring a puffed dandelion pappus on the label, which metamorphosed into a flock of birds, Butterworth returned to a wine from his vinous stable: the structured Domaine Dupré-Goujon 2019 Côte de Brouilly, L’Héronde. Given the awkward acoustics at Cloth, we heard something about “melancholic Dioralyte” in reference to its terroir. However, the wine of the meal proved to be the last drops of Haynes’ complete Santamaria Langhe Nebbiolo Frerot 2021 by Walter Viberti, a “declassified Barolo” said Butterworth, whose winery walls are the same terracotta colour as the label.

A perfect little pudding of beetroot-coloured cherries finished the meal, bookended by Champagne, in this case, the jolly, sweeter Champagne from fourth-generation Camille Marcel, whose winery unravels beneath her garage.

Last word

Despite challenging acoustics and leisurely service, Cloth is redeemed by its enticing and reasonably priced wine list and overall charm. We wonder if they will continue the £5 corkage on Mondays, given that, with Porter’s help, this modest restaurant has been so effectively spotlighted to receptive critics. Our favourite highlight in terms of coverage was Andy Lynes’ piece, “Cloth Didn’t Start The Fire,” on his “Smashed” Substack, sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” where he placed the restaurant in the timeline of significant openings over the years – part of a masterful takedown of a national critic who “creates and destroys the world around him with language on a moment-by-moment basis.” A return to savour more of Haynes and Butterworth’s vinous discoveries by candlelight, perhaps with earplugs in, is, therefore, an appealing prospect.