W L
THE CURIOUS QUAFFER ELIXIR OXTON A few weeks back (prior to the Coronavirus situation), the Wirral welcomed a new restaurant into its midst when ‘Elixir’ opened its doors in Oxton Village. In what used to be the Courtyard, but now under different ownership and management, we can now find another smart little place to visit in a village that is becoming something of a food ‘hot spot’ on the peninsula.
The Wine...
For me the task was, as always, to assess the Elixir wine list. Equally, again as always, it would not be right to do so without considering the food. After all, assessing a restaurants wine list does, by necessity, involve seeing how well the wine on offer matches the food on offer.
In the lead up to its opening I paid a visit to the then, unopened, ‘Elixir’ where I was afforded a sneak preview of the restaurants wine list. The purpose of the visit? Simply to see if it was any good, if it was worth returning for a tasting of some of the wines and, thus, was it potentially worth writing about. The question was answered by the fact that a week later a number of us descended on Elixir and set about tasting a decent number, and a fair selection, of the wines on offer.
The Food... The food is based on the concept of ‘something for everyone’. The main menu consists of some twenty three dishes, with sides, ‘nibbles’ (described as ‘while you waits’) and desserts too. All of these dishes are available as small plates, with eleven available as larger plates too. When the restaurant talks about small plates, think tapas, but not necessarily Spanish in design or origin. The larger plates are for those who simply want more of the same thing. There is a good mixture of meat, fish and vegan food on offer. The menu is not only one that, therefore, genuinely does have ‘something for everyone’, but is a menu designed for sharing. It is a clever little menu and suited the eleven or so of us who went to try it out. This allowed us to sample a very large proportion of the food on offer. Quality wise – excellent. Presentation – excellent too. For me the pick of the food was the ‘pulled ham hock, toasted croutes, pea puree, salt and pepper crackling’; ‘tempura fish tacos, warm flatbreads, avocado mash, fresh tomato aioli’; ‘slow cooked shoulder of lamb, caramelised onions and redcurrant jelly’.
34 wirrallife.com
So much for the food. What about the wine? In many ways a menu containing the volume and variety of food on offer at Elixir can present its own problems when it comes to wine and wine selection. Is there enough wine on the list to match all the food? Is there enough variety on offer to do the trick?
On the wine list at Elixir we find ten white wines and ten red wines (together with six bottles of champagne/ sparkling wine and two bottles of rose). It is not, therefore, what one would call a small wine list with little or no choice; but by the same token it is not a wine list of great length. The question, whatever the size of a wine list though, is simple. Does it do its job? Its job is to offer quality, range and value, not only as a stand-alone item in its own right, but as part of a package with the food. The Whites... The ten white wines constitute: (i) a sauvignon blanc from Chile; (ii) a pinot grigio from Italy; (iii) a chardonnay - semillon blend from Australia; (iv) a feteasca from Romania; (v) a white Rioja from Spain; (vi) a fiano form Puglia; (vii) a picpoul from the Languedoc; (viii) a blend of indigenous white grapes (primarily codeja) from the Douro; (ix) an albarino from Rias Baxas, and; (x) a Sancerre from the Loire valley. In all, seven different countries represented and a wide range of grape varieties and blends.
