On the Brink of very cheap wine

Grape varieties? Couldn't care less. Wine regions? Rather be jogging. Vintages? Pass me that copy of the Fortean Times ... But when it comes to the price of wine in restaurants, wine drinkers care passionately about paying triple the odds for a bottle.

"I like this," said my guest, on first glancing at the wine list at Brinkley's. What caught his eye was the restaurant's own-label champagne at £8.50 a half-bottle and £15 a bottle. This is not a baited hook. The whole list follows suit: both white and red start at £7 a bottle; Pouilly-Fumè is £10.50 a bottle and Chablis £12.50; Fleurie is £11.50 a bottle and there are three classed-growth clarets for £35 or less.

Admittedly, 12.5 per cent service gets added, but these are still mark-ups you would normally only see in a Chinese restaurant in Aberystwyth. Instead, we were among the haute-bourgeoisie of SW10.

Nor are these dreggy selections. Brinkley's champagne was firm, deep-flavoured and resonant. We followed with a half of the 2000 Domaine de la Perriëre Sancerre (for £11.50 or £12.94 including service): it was pure, green-fleshed and invigorating. We then let rip, as prices encourage you to do, on a bottle of the 1994 Chateau Pontet-Canet, a classed-growth Pauillac which costs £35 here (£39.38 including service). It was soft at first sip, full-flavoured, with the meaty concentration one would expect from the next door neighbour of Mouton-Rothschild.

There are about 75 wines on the list, with plenty from both worlds and not a single dismal choice among them. So what are the drawbacks? Well, there isn't much wine advice on offer; all our South African waitress could tell us about the three Bordeaux we were contemplating was that "they're all Cabernet-Merlots".

The front area of Brinkley's is a relatively noisy bar called Chapter 11; we ate, though, in the restaurant at the back, which is a low-lit, plant-filled conservatory dominated by a statue of a naked young woman. The menu is short and international, without huge personality, yet three of our four dishes brought enough pleasure to more than justify the £6 or so asked for starters and £12 or so for main courses.

John Brinkley has six restaurants, each with the same wineprice policy; he also has a wine shop next to Brinkley's and its closest sister restaurant, the Wine Gallery. Wines in the restaurant are priced identically to those in the shop - slightly expensive for retail, but mouth-wateringly inexpensive when someone else is doing the washing-up.

Aside from the two in Hollywood Road (47 and 49), the others are Oratory (232-236 Brompton Road, SW3), Wine Factory (294 Westbourne Grove, W11), Union Cafè (96 Marylebone Lane, W1) and Joe's Brasserie (130 Wandsworth Bridge Road, SW6): ring 020 7351 1683 for opening times.

Wine list scores four out of five.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Brinkley's