Have a good wine on the Wharf

Vinopolis, London's "City of Wine" sited between Borough Market and the famously tipsy (and hence temporarily uncrossable) Millennium Footbridge, should be just the place to go to find a first-class wine bar. Choice, stimulation, bottles of the unexpected, and good value to boot: if you can't locate them here, then the place isn't doing its job.

Happily, you will - in Wine Wharf, sited in Stoney Street, two corners from the main entrance, though it's also accessible from within the attraction provided you hang on to your ticket. The bar is sited on two floors, upstairs being a flop-out, sofa-strewn zone, while downstairs there are plenty of chunky wooden tables and chairs. All nice enough, save that the tables for two seem to have been constructed to a different specification to the chairs, with the result that only those in the final hours of starvation will actually be able to get their legs tucked beneath them. The lighting downstairs is a mite gloomy, too, as if to remind customers that the original Clink is only a minor infraction and a hundred yards away.

Never mind: the wine makes up. Hurrah: it's a great list. Hurrah: it's not overpriced. Hurrah: most of it is available in two sizes of glass (125ml or 175ml). There are also about 15 Champagnes available by the glass, too, ranging on the day I called from Nicolas Feuillatte Cuv?e XXI at £6.30 for a glass to a historic Dom P?rignon '79 at £23.50. You can buy some wines by the 250ml "quartino", and those who really want to get some tasting, as opposed to toping, done should have a go at one of the "wine flights". Each is constituted by five different wines, served in a set in measures of 50ml, together with a sheet of tasting notes with a little background information, too; prices for the total 250ml start at £6.75. You could also take off on a flight of 12 grappas, if you wanted, though manager Iain Peebles tells me that no one so far has been brave enough to try it. (Personally I'd rather fly to Birmingham.)

My brother and I decided that five small glasses between us was about right for lunch, and ordered a pleasingly pithy 1999 Riesling from Mount Horrocks in Australia's Clare Valley (much more rewarding than most Aussie Chards); the hauntingly musky 1999 Bergerac Ros? from Tour des Gendres; the brisk, untypically fresh-flavoured 1995 Rioja Reserva from Ondarre; a dark and mineral Ch?teauneuf-du-Pape, the 1997 Tinel; and a glass of Tokaji.

Two bottles were opened for us, but none of the other three wines tasted oxidised or tired: the staff use the Vac-u-Vin system assiduously. (The best reader's tip I've ever received, by the way, is to moisten your rubber Vac-u-Vin plug under the tap before you use it: not only does it improve the seal, but it also takes the sweat out of pumping. I apologise for writing this before the 9 o'clock watershed.)

There isn't a wide range of foods, but what is on offer does its job of helping squadrons of different wines down satisfactorily. We ate mildly diverting but low-inspiration tapas and an excellent bruschetta covered with gleaming, tongue-like aubergine slices and peppery rocket. With a couple of excellent coffees and a tip, the bill came to £38. Do ask for the full wine list, by the way, which is kept behind the bar; those lists scattered too sparsely about the tables are merely a selected r?sum? of what's on offer. Without the full list, for example, you'd never know that there's a brilliant range of six Manzanillas by the glass, or four Madeiras (including a 1954 vintage Boal, though it's perplexingly over-priced at £44.30 for a 75ml glass). A few qualms, then, but overall Wine Wharf is worth delaying the detox for.

Wine Wharf
Borough Market, 34 Stoney Street, SE1 9BU