Slipping away for a weekend of fine dining with a stylish room to slink back to afterwards is one of life's great pleasures. But if you're a wine lover, that narrows the options somewhat. You want wine to be on an equal footing with the exciting food, which includes being offered interesting things to try by the glass, presented by someone passionate. And you want more of an overall wine experience to discover new things, to be among like-minded people. Well, we've found your tribe, at venues ranging from a six-room guest house with a wine cave on the Isle of Wight, to the smartest shepherd's hut you're ever likely to lay your head in, overlooking a row of vines in Devon. You're welcome...
BEST FOR SEA VIEWS
ISLE OF WIGHT
The Terrace Rooms & Wine
St Augustine Villa, Ventnor PO38 1TA
The moon shimmers on the water in Ventnor Bay as we sip Coates & Seely fizz from Hampshire under a glass-covered pergola at a stylishly restored Italianate mansion. The accompanying dish is a refined riff on island speciality crab on chips' -just-picked white crab meat on a potato terrine with pickled apple, and a crab and potato tortilla topped with a sea truffle and chicken glaze. This is the first of nine courses, each paired with a different wine plucked from the Wine Room, which lists both an 'In' and 'Out' price, handwritten on brown paper tags dangling from bottle necks, with mark-ups at half the industry average.
Denne historien er fra June 2023-utgaven av Decanter.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra June 2023-utgaven av Decanter.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
A Resource for the World? - Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation's borders
Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation’s borders
Great Cabernets of South America
Other varieties may hog the limelight across South America, but the world’s most popular grape for red wines has played a critical role in the continent's wine heritage. We trace Cabernet Sauvignon’s story here, and recommend 16 benchmark wines to try
PROVENCE by train and bike
With rail links to Paris, Nice, Marseilles and beyond, a vast network of cycle paths and quiet roads, and a plethora of historic wine estates, Provence is an ideal destination for an eco-friendly, car-free and carefree) holiday
IN THE MIX
These days most of the world’s vineyards are planted to just a single variety, but what happens when multiple varieties are planted, harvested and blended together?
Malvasia A BUYER'S GUIDE
If ever a grape was hard to pin down, it'd be Malvasia. Indeed it’s not even a single grape variety. In all of its many varied, and often completely unrelated guises, it has been the mainstay of popular wine styles across the centuries. Our expert takes a closer look...
RIBERA ADOPTS THE NEW OLD WAYS
It’s not so much a new direction for winemakers in Ribera del Duero, but a growing recognition that traditional methods and wine styles set aside by the previous generation can now provide a way ahead to revitalise the region
Roussanne around the world
Up for a challenge? For winemakers as much as wine drinkers, getting a handle on a mercurial grape such as Roussanne isn't easy. But wherever it's grown, when the balance is right, it truly repays the effort
Napa Cabernet 2021
There's a lot of excitement about this vintage, in which conditions were relatively calm and temperatures stable through summer. Ongoing drought reduced yields but intensified flavours, but it means quantities are down and you may need to act fast to secure top wines. Our Napa correspondent selects 60 great wines from more than 500 that he tasted, with many very high scores
10 reason to discover Uruguay
Squeezed between Brazil and Argentina on the Atlantic coast, Uruguay has mostly flown under the tourist radar - until now. Once dubbed 'the Switzerland of the Americas', it's a welcoming country that has much to offer the travelling wine lover
Leo Erazo
The old vines and special terroir of Itata, southern Chile, have beena source of inspiration for this intrepid winemaker. The 2023 fires were a setback, but his commitment to this ancient wine land is undiminished
