Ask Mario: a free monthly newsletter full food, restaurant & chef news etc - June 2006: The Devonshire Arms Burlington Restaurant by Neville Blech

The Devonshire Arms Burlington Restaurant by Neville Blech This is one of the most serious and imposing wine lists we have ever come across. Over 2,000 wines are listed, with over 1,300 being of at least 4-star quality and almost another 400 of 3-star quality. The sheer volume of the list can be daunting, so a selection of the less expensive wines are grouped together at the beginning of the list as a shortcut. But it would be a pity to stop there, as there are many hidden gems within the main body of the list, some at quite affordable prices: there are 63 4-star and 5-star wines at £50 or less (including 5 at under £30) and 57 3-star wines at £30 or less (including 4 under £20) so you have got 120 quality wines to play with, which is more than some establishments. What we like, too, are the 128 choices in small formats (half-bottles or 50cl), of which almost 100 are of 3-star quality or above. There are 13 dry wines by the glass and 5 of these are quality wines. The list opens with the selection of wines by the glass. If you are fairly abstemious you could do a lot worse than going for 125ml of the 3-star Gravitas Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand at £5.60 (£7.50 for 175ml) followed by a glass of the 4-star Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel at £7.50 for 125ml or £10.50 for 175ml. The ‘'House white wines and sparkling' section offers 11 vintages of Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs and only 2 Champagnes! The House wines are then divided into price bands, whites from £14.25, then from £18.50, then from £25, then from £40, with Pazo de Señoráns Albariño 2003 at £19.50 looking to be good value here. House reds are banded as from £13.50, from £18.50, from £25 and from £40. Château de Beaucastel 1999 is 5-star quality at £40. There follows a page of 1997 clarets and a page of 2000 red Burgundies, minor vintages in their respective regions that represent exceptional drinking value. Clos Fourtet 1997 is a steal at £45 in an establishment of this class, as is the Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers 2000 at £47.50. The list then swings on to the selection of small formats - included therein is an impressive selection of Alsace wines from Trimbach, but what caught our eye was the 3-star Jurançon Camin Larredya Selection des Terrasses 2001 - a 50cl bottle at £20. The Champagne section lists anybody who is anybody, from NV House Champagnes, of which Billecart - Salmon at £33.50 is the best quality, to a magnum of Taittinger Comtesde Champagne 1991 - a super 5-star wine and good value at £175.50. Laurent - Perrier NV Ultra Brut at £45 looks good value, too. Chablis always seems to produce good value and here a magnum of Louis Michel's 4-star 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre in the excellent 1999 vintage is well priced at £62.50. A long list of white Burgundies from the Côte d' Or includes some of the top producers - Comtes Lafon, Coche-Dury, Domaine Ramonet and Domaine Leflaive being especially well represented with a range of vintages and wines. There are so many good wines here at all prices, but Patrick Javillier's Meursault les Tillets Cuvée Speciale 2001 at £49.75 looks to be the best value and Bâtard - Montrachet 1999 from Domaine Leflaive is also good value for a super 5-star wine from an excellent vintage at £165, although probably not yet ready to drink. The list continues with white wines from Bordeaux, both sweet and dry. There are 11 vintages of Château d' Yquem going back to 1947 at £1,455, but Château Filhot from the excellent 1996 vintage is more affordably priced at £41. In the dry whites, Pavillon Blanc de Château Margaux 1997 at £67.50 should be drinking well now. The Alsace section is dominated by wines from Trimbach, Hugel and Zind - Humbrecht, but Riesling Harth Cuvée Caroline 1999 from Domaine Schoffit looks excellent value at £29, whilst an impressive range of magnums from Zind - Humbrecht has their Riesling Clos Hauserer Vendange Tardive from the legendary 1983 vintage, which at £166 is one of the least expensive. The white Loire section has impressive ranges from Moulin Touchais and Huët, but Nicolas Joly's straight Savennières 2001 at £38.75 probably represents the best value here. There is nothing that can be called outstanding value for money in the white Rhône section, but for seekers of rare wines with deep pockets, why not try a half-bottle of Jean-Louis Chave's extraordinary Hermitage Vin de Paille 1990 at £250? There's a lot better value in the white wine section from the Languedoc, with Domaine de l' Hortus 2001 at £27.50 looking the best bet. The small selection of Italian whites has Capitel Foscarino 2000 from Anselmi at £21.50 and the Spanish whites includes Pazo de Señoráns 2001 Albariño at £26.50, but you would be better off to go for the 2003 vintage which is listed in the House wines section at the beginning of the list at £19.50. Mulderbosch Chardonnay 1999 at £19.50 is by far and away the best value white in the South African section. The best price/quality Australian white is Knappstein's Lenswood Sauvignon Blanc 2002 at £24.50, while for the curious, the Chardonnay and Roussanne Nantua les Deux 2001 from Giaconda may be worth a look, even at the relatively high price tag of £45. It is good to note that Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2004 is only £29.50 on a list of this calibre, whilst Alpha Domus 1999 Oaked Chardonnay at £22.50 represents the best value in the New Zealand white section. There is a large selection of top quality whites from North America, but hidden among the famous names is the Lynmar Russian River Chardonnay 2000 - 4-star quality at only £36.50. At the other extreme, who is going to be the one who takes up the single bottle of Three Sisters - Sea Ridge Meadow Chardonnay 1999 from Helen Turley's Marcassin Vineyard at £425? South American whites don't really thrill although there are downmarket choices at under £20. German whites are difficult to assess - it depends a lot on individual tastes - for quaffing value the best seems to be the Erdener Treppchen Auslese 1990 from Robert Eymael at £39.25, although we would be at a loss to suggest what you would eat with it. The red sections starts off with a listing of 302 bins of clarets, in all shapes and sizes including 84 in large formats of up to a Salmanazar (9 litres). There are runs of several vintages of all the first growth wines and if you are feeling really flush and are prepared to risk your money by choosing a very mature claret, then look no further than amagnum of Château Lafite-Rothschild 1870 at £10,000. However, for ordinary mortals the Léoville-las-Cases 1981 at £63 is probably a risk well worth taking. It's not the greatest vintage, but it's not a bad one at all and a château of this calibre should be able to provide fine drinking. In Burgundy, too, there are great runs from top producers including Leroy and DRC, but the pick of the bunch for us for price and quality is the Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne - Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brulées 1995 at £55, which should be drinking beautifully now. So should Romanée-Conti 1990, but that's £4,000! In the Rhône, again, there are runs from the great producers, both north and south, but value stands out with Auguste Clape's Cornas 1999 at £50, even if itmay be a little too young to drink. In this case, you may consider Jamet's Côte-Rôtie 1994 at £60, which should be drinking very well now. Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence figure with some good value wines, notably two wines from Domaine Canet Valette in Saint-Chinian - the Mille et Une Nuits 1999 blend of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault, wonderfully priced at £21, and the outstanding Maghani 1999, a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre at £35. Italian reds follow with a marvellous selection of wines from Tuscany, with most of the top names and runs of vintages in the Antinori top wines. The Piedmont selection is very much dominated by the wines from Angelo Gaja although the small number of other wines are very good. Surprisingly, there is only one wine from outside these regions. Best value here would seem to be Luciano Sandrone's Nebbiolo Valmaggiore 1999 at £42.50. The Spanish section, as one would suspect, is dominated by the wines from Vega Sicilia and there are lots of vintages in lots of sizes at pretty steep prices. For the more down to earth, Bodegas Mauro's Viño de Mesa 1998 is a better bet at £36, whilst in Portugal, the 4-star Vinha Maria Teresa 1998 from Quinta do Crasto is also good value at £47 the bottle or £94 the magnum. In South Africa, the impressive Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 1999 stands out at £49.50 in a short selection, but Australian reds have a better showing with, of course, a range of vintages of Penfolds Grange and Henschke's Hill of Grace. For a less exalted Shiraz, you could do a lot worse than to plump for the Blue Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2000 at £24. The California section is very impressive, with 7 vintages of Harlan Estate and 6 vintages of Screaming Eagle at fairly stratospheric prices. In our quest for value we did find buried amongst the 3- (and 4-) figure prices in this section, 3 wines of outstanding value, all from Cline Cellars - Ancient Vines Mourvèdre and Carignan 1997, both at £24, and the single-vineyard Small Berry Vineyard Mourvèdre 1998- 4-star value at £29.50. The quality of the South American section is still evolving, although there is a selection from Catena - at a price. Dessert wines from Austria and Hungary are pretty much from Willi Opitz and The Royal Tokaji Company, but the Oremus Late Harvest Furmint 2000 at £18.50 for a 50cl bottle looks good value for money. The list concludes with a selection of fine vintage ports, with Warre's 1983 at £75 being the least expensive Neville's Best Buy: Cline Cellars Small Berry Vineyard Mourvèdre 1998 at £29.50 Recommendations: 1995 Dom. Jean Grivot Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brulées at £55 1999 Boekenhoutskloof Syrah at £49.50 2000 Dom. Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers at £47.50