A VIEW WITH GLASS

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The view from the restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery is spectacular, but what about the quality of the wine list? Tim Atkin, the Wine-List Inspector, orders away ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Summer 2010

Is there a better public view of the centre of London than the vista from the rooftop restaurant of the National Portrait Gallery? To paraphrase the late football manager Brian Clough, it is surely in the top one. Sit at a coveted window table and some of London’s greatest landmarks lie before you: Big Ben, Nelson’s Column, Westminster Abbey. No wonder tourists are so keen to take photographs through the wide picture windows.

Sedentary sightseeing isn’t the only reason to visit Portrait Restaurant, especially for lunch at the weekend. The atmosphere is relaxed, the “new British” food tasty and well priced, the décor modern and gentle on the eye. There are even a handful of portraits to get you in the mood for a tour of the gallery. Laurence Olivier, Virginia Woolf and the novelist Sarah Waters stare down at you from the walls.

The wine list, like the food, is handled by the catering company Searcy, which also runs the restaurants at St Pancras Grand and the Royal Opera House. All too often large groups of this kind tend to make predictable, risk-free wine choices based on economics rather than quality. But I’m pleased to report that that is not the case here. It’s a good sign that the selection and layout of the wine list have been left entirely to the restaurant manager, Anthony Swaby.

Portrait Restaurant’s list has many virtues. The first is brevity. There are just over 100 bins in total, presented on two sides of stylish A3 card. I would argue that this is more than enough for most diners, including wine-lovers. Nobody needs an over-sized cellar full of too many similar bottles from the same region.

The second thing I like about the list is the way it is set out. Sparkling wine and Champagne have their own section, divided by style and producer. Then come the whites, split between “fresh”, “round”, “aromatic” and “one-offs”. Rosé and chilled reds are next, including an intriguing section entitled “grown-up”, followed by reds (“spice”, “elegant”, “perfumed” and “one-offs”) and, last of all, “dessert wine and stickys” [sic]. This is as clear and as logical a short list as I have seen.

There are no notes on the wines, but each sub-section gets a sentence of introduction. These contain the odd anomaly—I’m not sure I’d describe Chilean or Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon as elegant—but the headings are useful and accurate, and there’s a key to identify organic and bio-dynamic wines.

The layout would count for nothing if the wines weren’t up to much. We drank two whites, a red and, as advised by Anthony Swaby, a dry fizz with dessert. The whites were the unoaked, pear-and-ginger-spice-like 2007 Pinot Bianco Quercus, Goriska Brda from Slovenia (£5.95) and the fuller, fatter, honey and straw-scented 2008 Pecorino Offida, Le Merlattaie, Ciu Ciu, Marche (£7.75) from Italy. The red was the spicy, savoury, mature 2004 Murdoch James Syrah, Saleyard Vineyard, Martinborough (£7.30), which underlined the quality of this variety in New Zealand, while the bubbly was the dry, elegant, palate-cleansing English Balfour Brut Rosé (£10.95), poured over a redcurrant sorbet.

It’s good to see a selection that features comparatively unknown grape varieties, such as Lagrein, Trousseau, Touriga Nacional, Cabernet Franc, as well as the usual varietal suspects. You can tell a restaurant is taking risks when it chooses not to list a Sancerre, a Chablis, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Grigio—the default choices of many diners—but offers such diversity. Not to mention eight different Pinot Noirs.

Another plus point is the number of wines by the glass (28). Given the quality, value and adventurousness of the list, why stick to a single bottle when you could try smaller measures of three or four? This was my first visit to Portrait, but it won’t be my last. Given that members of the National Portrait Gallery get 10% off their bill, and that annual membership costs only £35, I’ve already paid my money. Let’s hope I get a table by the window.

IN THE BIN
Number of wines   110
By the glass   28
Under £30   35
Over £100   1
Best value   2007 Pinot Bianco Quercus, Goriska Brda, Slovenia (£23.50)
Worst value   2006 Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay Bourgogne (£79.50)
Gluggability •••••
Expense account adjuster* •••••
Sauvignon de Touraine index   3.03 **

* Probability that the next-door table are paying with the company’s money
** The 2008 Sauvignon de Touraine, Domaine Guy Allion sells for £24.25 at Portrait and £7.99 retail at Les Caves de Pyrène.

Portrait Restaurant National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2; + 44 (0)20 7312 2490

(Tim Atkin is a Master of Wine. His last Wine Inspector column for Intelligent Life was about the Ming Court in Hong Kong.)