The wine list at Tate Modern

This review was first published in May 2000

The original Millbank Tate Gallery restaurant (Tate Britain, as it's now called) has long had a reputation for its lusciously textured wine list, amply stocked with good things and priced with uncommon restraint. I remember calling a couple of Christmases ago with two French friends and digging in (what else do you do with a Graves?) to a bottle of Haut-Bailly 1981. It proved so toothsome, so softly curranty, so full of milky grace, that we found ourselves at the end of a second bottle almost without realising it. This was the archetypal Tate Gallery drinking experience, I realised afterwards: an underrated older vintage, an insider's property, and just £30 or so to climb on board.

The list remains outstanding. Some 216 bottles and magnums, supplemented by a laudable 51 half-bottles and 17 wines by the glass: more or less perfect proportions, by my book. The current version is obviously approaching the end of its life, since the little black dots which denote out-of-stock wines are beginning to swarm. Interesting to note, in this connection, exactly what's proved most popular: Chardonnays from Mondavi and Chile's Casablanca, unsurprisingly, but also halves of Latour '55 and magnums of Croizet-Bages '61 (now there's a punt), along with bottles of La Lagune '66, Haut-Brion '70 and magnums of Beaucastel's Châteauneuf '88. The art-hungry obviously enjoy an old bottle.

Prices? The more you pay, the less you pay. Inexpensive wines weigh in at about three times their retail price (the London norm), yet some of the older curiosities are only modestly above and occasionally identical with what you would have to pay a broker to hunt them down for you. Talbot '89 at £39, for example, is listed at almost exactly what Corney and Barrow Broker Services (0207 251 4051) would want from you (which may be why it has now acquired a black dot). Buyer and sommelier Hamish Anderson says that the Tate actually buys and stores its fine wines, which restaurants seldom do nowadays; the mark-ups are based on original purchase price rather than current market value. Yum.

Wines by the glass are well-chosen, though that doesn't mean they're all superb. I was delighted to see the Chapelle de Cray Montlouis kicking off the whites (£3.75 for a generous 175ml); in the past I've greatly enjoyed this cleanly typical Loire white made by talented Briton Paul Boutinot. We tried Pierre Clement's 1998 Menetou-Salon (£4.70) and loved its subtly grassy delicacy and deft balance, like Sancerre in a minor key.

The 1996 Bourgogne Blanc Cuvée des Forgets from Partrick Javillier (£5.90) was taut, almost austere, just beginning to hint at walnut-butter richness. We hoped for a glass of the 1988 Château Canon-Moueix from Canon-Fronsac, but, alas, it was all gone, and the 1995 Château de la Cour from St Emilion (£5.90) was a dullish substitute; claret on auto-pilot. The arresting quality of the 1998 Château Grande Cassagne Syrah from Costières de Nîmes (£4.10) more than made up, though: this had classic Rh^TMne Syrah pungency, but was backed with more fat and depth than you're ever likely to find in Crozes-Hermitage or St Joseph. I doubt there's a better value red wine by the glass available in London.

All of these were served in fresh condition; the same couldn't be said, sadly, for the slightly tired and caramelly 1989 Château Coutet (£7 for a 125ml glass).

And the food? Asparagus bathing in hollandaise and an airy duck liver parfait were pleasant; raspberries served with thyme and crème chantilly for pudding proved improbably delicious. The main courses, though, were dismal: grilled cod was overcooked and oversalted, dry and dreary, served with a violent tomato and olive accompaniment; while a huge heap of risotto Prima Vera was claggy, sticky and slushy, at least 10 minutes the wrong side of al dente. There are no views to match those of Tate Modern, but Rex Whistler's mural The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats strikes a note of levity at one with the fumes of fine old wine.

The Tate Modern list

The Tate Modern's wine list is as simple as its Tate Britain counterpart's is complex. A mere 12 wines, all save one available by the glass or bottle (the exception, oddly, is Champagne). Nothing, save perhaps the Tasmanian Pinot Noir, shows any great daring, though a couple of the wines (a rich Californian Chardonnay from Hess and a light, trad claret from Moueix) are listed as exclusives. Prices are reasonable (only one still wine more than £20). Buyer Hamish Anderson tells me that the list's brevity is due to "printing problems"; it will soon swell to 18 wines (12 by the glass); the emphasis, as with the exhibits, will remain on the modern.

Portrait Gallery wine list

Portrait has a mid-length list (60 or so wines) with a generally French emphasis and a stiffer pricing policy than you find at the Tate. There are one or two clever selections (Champalou's Vouvray is always worth trying, and the Pibarnon Bandol is good, though, at £45, dissuasively expensive). A quartet of organic wines is welcome. There are also, though, signs of the worst kind of institutional buying: for the only 1995 Médoc on the list to be that of Croizet-Bages does not bode well, and selections like Moreau's Mâcon Rouge, or the Monteillet St-Joseph Blanc, look suspiciously like list-fillers. It's certainly not a patch on Tate Britain.

Tate Modern Restaurant
Bankside, SE1