The wine list at La Rascasse

This review was published in May 2002

Shaky openings are nothing new in the restaurant world, but it has been a struggle to attempt to review the Rascasse wine list. It wasn't finalised on the nervy night Fay and I ate there, and I was discouraged from returning home with a copy.

When I rung a few days later, the new list had apparently been destroyed by a computer virus, but a version could be posted to me by the weekend. But they forgot to post it. The list and I were finally reunited on Monday. Worth the wait?

Yes: it glistens with good bottles. Even if you eliminate everything which costs more than £50 a bottle, as most of us immediately do, there is still a fair choice, and not just from France: Italy, California, South Africa and Australia are all solidly stashed.

This is the surprising place to come if you love the great rieslings of Germany: I do not recall having seen a range of 21 on any other London restaurant list, and the Halbtrocken or Kabinett categories are perfect for a light summer lunch. So what did we drink on our mild spring evening?

Our wine waiter (a quietly spoken Ecuadorean called Rafael Castro) told me that we could have whatever we wanted by the glass.

This seemed uncannily flexible - until I discovered later that Richard Weiss, absent that night, was head sommelier. Weiss had taken over from John Gilchrist at 1837 at Brown's Hotel, the restaurant which first pioneered the concept of having the whole list available by the glass.

We immediately commanded four white aperitif wines, two from Alsace (a disappointing Pinot Auxerrois from Josmeyer and a superbly sappy, concentrated Pinot Blanc "Kientzheim" from Blanck) and two from the Loire (Ladoucette's pale and limpid Pouilly-Fumè and the much more richly flavoured, riper Cuvèe GC Sancerre from Jean-Max Roger). These pleased, as did the lordly gesture of trying whatever we fancied.

For the reds the challenge was to find something worth drinking for £25; in general you'll need £35 per bottle to begin to enjoy the freedom of the list here. Our first try was the 1998 Marcillac Cuvèe Vieilles Vignes of Domaine du Cros, a lovely gut-warming glassful of the French countryside, full of iron and stones.

The second, different in style though no less pleasurable, was the svelte 1999 Lirac "La Dame Rousse" of Domaine de la Mordorèe, all creamy, silky tannins and fugues of quiet fruit. Rafael gave us a taste of the '96 Juranáon Quintessence from Henri Ramonteu at Cauhapè, a sweet white of exquisitely embroidered flavours (as they should be at £110 the half).

The new version of the list tells customers that "60 per cent" is available by the glass (the cheapest 60 per cent, one assumes: it is not specified). You are encouraged to give the wine staff a budget, and they will then pour you a variety of appropriately modest or grand wines to accompany what you choose to eat. Next time we will.

Wine list scores four out of five.

La Rascasse
50a Berkeley Street, W1