The wine list at Racine

This review was published in July 2002

Two guests joined me for dinner at Racine, one of them my friend Croesus.

"I've found a bargain," he said, on opening the wine list. His knowledge of these matters being more than transitory, I listened up.

Croesus had spotted the 1997 Meursault-Perrières of Coche-Dury at a mere £140, which he estimated to be about £30 below retail value.

The kind soul immediately offered to treat us. Coche-Dury is a supernova in the white burgundy firmament, and his bottles are uncommon on the wine lists of neighbourhood restaurants. Perhaps, though, Brompton Road is no common neighbourhood.

Co-owner Eric Garnier gets an annual allocation of six bottles of the Perrières, so if you're interested, hurry along - there are five left. There is also a plain Coche-Dury Meursault '97 on the list at £85. Our Perrières was gratifyingly rich, oat-textured and mouthfilling, though refreshing. I was struck by how profoundly unvarietal this great Chardonnay was. In an ideal world, it would have slept on for a further 10 cellar years.

It was nourishing enough on its own, and a fine match for our starters, particularly the best of them: a rough-textured, indulgently robust patè de foie de volaille.

What else? There's lots of Bordeaux, but most of it is modest in quality and not cheap. The 1997 second wine of Angludet at £32 minus service, for example, is uncharitable and de Sales (the '95 at £47 plus service) is generally the Pomerol of last choice. The £58 minus service for a '78 Brane-Cantenac might look a bargain - until you taste how thin, reedy and disappointing it is.

We went for a bottle of what we felt would be the best-value claret on the list, the 1998 Fougas Maldoror, a try-harder Cotes du Bourg at £28.13, including service. It was exuberant, generous, almost fiery, and went well with tender rabbit and moist skate.

I also tried a vivid and spicy Cotes du Rhone, the 1999 Clos de la Mure (£19.69 a bottle, including service); it was a better buy than the more expensive yet slightly dryer Chateau Yot, Cotes du Castillon (£21.94). Eric Garnier kindly gave us a taste of Coche-Dury's red 1998 Monthelie (£47.25): all light-fingered grace and perfumed aerial teasing.

There are a few good New World alternatives (like the unoaked Norton Malbec at £16.31, including service) but this is really a list for picky, savvy Francophiles.

Wine list scores 3 out of 5.