The wine list at Deca

Excitement: that's what we're after. The last two fullscoring wine lists I have come across, those of Lola's and The Greenhouse, both had it in different ways. Most wines chosen from those lists would splash flavour over you, which is what the street-weary need when they sit down at a restaurant table. Your mouth returns to life, and the world begins to appeal once more.

Did it happen at Deca? It didn't. The 2000 Chablis from Tremblay (at £7.59 a glass, including service) was green and sappy, as it should be, but short and ungenerous, as too much Chablis is; a glass of dry Muscat from the Frontignan co-operative (not cheap at £6.75) was scented and round-contoured, but simple. Both sound enough, in sum, but without the divine madness of the great.

This is true for the entire list, which is full of safety-belt choices: Mondavi, Catena, Banfi, Pio Cesare, Leeuwin, Valdivieso, and French wines from Ladoucette, Jaboulet, Trimbach, Peraldi, Couly-Dutheil. There are inspired growers, such as Cuilleron and Font Sane, but not many.

So what did we drink? As it was going to be an expensive evening, we hunted around for something red and curious at the bottom end of the list. All the wines have oneword descriptions which left us hesitating between the "interesting" Uruguayan Tannat of Preludio at £22.50 a bottle including service, the "smooth" Mas Cremat Roussillon at £23.63 a bottle, and the "dense" Argentinian Malbec Reserva from Terrazas at £27 a bottle.

Our waitress handed the decision to manager Jean-Luc Cirard ("decisive") who advised (with lamb noisettes and veal kidneys in mustard sauce) the Argentinian Malbec. Was it "dense"? Not really. It was an oakfragrant, softly balanced, warmly curranty red wine totally lacking in divine madness and finally, yes, "boring"; we never finished it.

We spoke to sommelier Olivier Caraes (who seemed "thoughtful") and he said the Mas Cremat was, in fact, "inconsistent" and destined to be de-listed while the Tannat was "softer" than the French versions, which didn't sound so promising either.

You could, resources allowing, buy yourself some glory: Leflaive's '97 B?tard-Montrachet is a mere £348.75 including service and Petrus '83 is £928.13; both are officially declared "divine". If money were no object, I'd check out the '96 Clos du Vougeot of unhinged former pastry-chef Dominique Laurent (£191.25), whose bottles I have always found compelling (though, disconcertingly, the listword here is "refined"). For ordinary folk, however, I suspect the evening's excitement is on the plates rather than in the glasses.

Wine list scores 2 out of 5.

Deca
23Conduit Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 2XS