Top chef opts for English wine list

Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens is to have an all-English wine list at the fish-and-chip restaurant he is opening next month.

The idea behind Tom’s Place, his third restaurant, is that it should be as environmentally friendly as possible. So along with the sustainable fish and the recycled furniture will be a short list of wines exclusively from England. This will help minimise their carbon impact as the bottles won’t have far to travel from the vineyards to the restaurant in London’s Cale Street.

The list will include wines from Nyetimber, Denbies, Balfour, Chapel Down and Brightwell Vineyard. The majority will be white, with grape varieties such as Bacchus and blends including the likes of Reichensteiner. The token red will be a Pinot Noir from Chapel Down.

Gearoid Devaney, Tom Aikens’ chief sommelier, told ThirtyFifty, ‘England has now got the quality of wines that we can show.’