The wine list at La Trompette

This review was first published in March 2001

Throwing a wine list together, you might imagine as you slither with the octopus of your own employment, ought to be the ideal job.

Cheery, red-faced men with clinking briefcases would form a queue, pulling out sample after sample; you'd try a few, pick the best, and do a deal. All that remains would be a bit of typing, a little finger ballet with the calculator, and the issue of corkscrews to your staff. Then watch the profits tumble in.

La Trompette's list, according to partner Nigel Platts-Martin, "started with a blank sheet; we had no reserves. We had to buy what was currently available. In the end we're using over 50 suppliers. I was going to list them all, but then I thought, why bother? The customers aren't going to be very interested." The list has around 250 wines; Platts-Martin (a genuine wine geek rather than a businessman for whom wine is just part of the turnover) says he and his staff tasted all but about 10 or so, and it took "thousands of hours. Finding good wines is easy; finding affordable good wines is far more challenging." The mark-up, even for the most expensive wines, never exceeds £25.

So has Platts-Martin met his own challenge? This is the point at which I always lament my own human frailties; perhaps the day is nearing when I can be genetically modified in order to process 10 times the amount of alcohol I am currently able to. The fact was that the four of us managed to clear two bottles and three glasses, or precisely two per cent of the entire list. Much remains to explore.

But much solicits exploration: this list is an appealing jungle full of well-chosen and unusual bottles. Since there are no written descriptions of any of the wines, I'd have to sequester myself away for a few days' hard drinking with Helena Hell, the Swedish sommelière: a prospect of manifold attractions. Hell is cheery, chatty and knowledgeable. I don't know if the wink as she pours wine into your glass is bestowed on all, but it works a treat.

Four of our five wines proved either good, interesting or both. Bravo for the 10 sherries by the glass: as I sipped 75ml of Valdespino's Inocente Fino (£2.50 plus 31p service), I knew once again that there truly isn't a better way to start a meal than with this mouthful of yeasty freshness. A 175ml glass of '98 Puligny-Montrachet from Paul Pernod (£11.25 including service) was judged sound though not outstanding; the '98 Sylvaner Réserve from Weinbach (£7.31 for 250ml) was better value, and the unusually ripe, lush style a talking point, though perhaps not ideal, in the end, for smoked haddock brandade. Platts-Martin has developed a recent passion for Italian wine, and Helena Hell fingered the '99 Dolcetto d'Alba from Sandrone (£30.94) as being just the job for Fay Maschler's thinly sliced rump of veal and my crisp pig's ears and sweetbreads with the fabled trompettes (de la mort, of course: they are night-black). It was plum-scented and satin-textured, with just the right squeeze of acidic asperity to set about the hugely rich challenge of what proved (disappointingly) to be breadcrumbed and deep-fried ear-matter rather than something shell-shaped with a bit of cartilaginous crunch to it.

The only wine disappointment was the over-elegant '98 Gigondas from Château de Trignon (£33.19); this great vintage, as well as my glycerous daube de boeuf, merited lusher tannins and beefier fruit. Perhaps we should have gone for some of the small-producer Australians Helena also suggested - but, gosh, they're all more expensive nowadays than the French or Italian alternatives. How times have changed. There is a splendid range of 17 dessert wines by the glass which I wanted to lay into with my pud, but I still had far to travel that night and was having trouble working out which way up to hold my A-Z. Next time, Helena, I promise.

Wine list scores 4 out of 5.

La Trompette
Devonshire Road, London, W4 2EU