6 minute read
THE PERFECT PAIRING
The creation of an award-winning wine list is an enviable task but one that requires a great deal of dedication
The wine list at Northcote holds several accolades. It has held a Two Glasses Award with the most revered USA publication, the Wine Spectator since 2014, making Northcote one of only 16 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The list has also won a Special Award within the AA Guide for many years and has been singled out by the Portuguese Embassy for special recognition for the promotion of Portuguese wine, which was a love affair that started in the late 80s and has gone from strength to strength.
When Craig Bancroft started his journey at Northcote, the wine list then had some 80 bins in the listing. It was small and concise but did not have a sense of depth or choice for the growing and discerning wine drinkers that were visiting the restaurant. When the Michelin star arrived in 2000 it was clear the list needed to match the growing reputation to enhance the diners’ experience.
So, a plan was formed to focus on the goal of creating an award-winning list that offered value across the board, a selection that offered the best pairings to the menu and a library, in effect, that allowed Craig and the wine sommeliers to select wines by the glass to complement every dish created.
This project however had flaws and being based in Lancashire, meant that there were multiple suppliers needed with minimum ordering requirements. This proved a logistical nightmare as well as impractical. The minimum order requirements meant the investment was often not sustainable. To find a way round this challenge, Craig decided that having one specialist supplier would be the way forward. This needed to be someone with no minimum order requirements, a merchant that was nearby, but also had the enthusiasm, knowledge and financial ability to obtain and deliver any wine required in the world for the restaurant. Hence, the long-established partnership with the Wright Wine Company at Skipton began and, more importantly, the great relationship and trust developed between Craig and Julian Kaye, Managing Director of the Wright Wine Company.
The Wright Wine Company has been the main supplier to Northcote now for some 35 years, the transparency of the relationship and the clarity of the business requirements has meant that the relationship has grown ever stronger.
The building of the wine list to its revered position took a serious approach. A monthly meeting was put in place with the sommelier team, Nick Adams MW, Craig of course and Julian all in attendance. The list was built with a clear aim to create as many different stylist wines and grape varieties as possible from all over the world. They systematically tackled each region until they got the result that they wanted – and then started again! A list is never finished as there is always something new to consider such as up-and-coming growers, new trends and emerging nations.
This can be illustrated with the recent introduction of ‘orange wines’ from Georgia, a more robust list of English sparkling, the introduction of sake, wines from Greece and Cyprus and even speciality cider. The list is constantly revised and improved, the team has a passion for perfection and it is very clearly a labour of love. The list currently boasts 650 bin numbers from 23 countries. The aim of the list is to deliver to all guests a truly unique and memorable, overall dining experience with the wine being the welcome surprise.
The relationship between Craig and executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen is key in the design of the menus, so they can harmonise the wine choices with Lisa’s elegant and stylistically delicate dishes. Over the years they can be frank with each other and add or remove ingredients to get a wine to match 100 per cent on point or change the order of a menu to suit the guest’s journey. All the wine flights are designed, where possible, to take the guest on a geographical journey of the wine world and it makes for an exciting commentary from the sommeliers to move the palate from Spain to Italy and then off to the USA.
Where this deep-seated understanding of food and wine matching comes from is most aptly described as Craig’s understanding of food as much as wine – the two are inseparable and the Obsession festival really sees this come into its own. With the now incredible library of wines available, it allows the sommelier team and Craig to pair wines throughout Obsession that really enhance everybody’s experience.
It is quite a tricky process, with wines being chosen principally on paper from the 15 menus for the individual evenings, and then on the day Craig is fortunate enough, with the sommelier team, to taste the dishes with the visiting chef to ensure that
the match is correct. This is where the outstanding service of the Wright Wine Company really comes into play as once the team taste the menus, there are clearly decisions that need to be altered and they have the ability to choose a better match, return the original proposition and within 35 minutes one of the Wright Wine Company team will deliver it to Northcote to serve to their discerning audience on that particular night. Throughout Obsession, the rules are that they never repeat a wine and they try to ensure, where possible, on each evening that the wines all come from different countries and the grape varieties are different. The only time that this is an exception is, occasionally with dessert wines, when there is only one wine that will do regardless of its geography.
This wine educational background and the way that the list has been approached with the involvement of the wine supplier, the sommelier team and the senior kitchen team members has helped Northcote develop two Master Sommeliers in the last 10 years. Adam Pawlowski in 2014 represented the first Polish award and Tamas Cinzki in 2020, which was the first award to a Hungarian – and there has only been 269 Master Sommeliers, since their creation in 1969, in the world.
Northcote remains committed to wine education and continues in its quest to create exceptional sommelier service teams, where the focus is giving guests fabulous wine experiences across the board at all values, coupled with genuine hospitality. Hopefully, Northcote will develop yet another Master Sommelier in the future.
wineandwhiskey.co.uk
