New on Wine List Confidential: Neo Bistro

Expect, within the bricky room, with hints of stained glass and dangly filament lights, Orange Sekt from Moravia, Luxembourgeoise Riesling, Moroccan Syrah, German Dornfelder and a rendition of Alella which is one of Spain’s smallest wine regions – as well as late harvest Chardonnay from Austria – offered drink in or  take away. Beers, meanwhile, may include Burning Sky’s Session IPA from East Sussex and Railway Porter from Hackney as well as bold brews from Germany.

According to the charismatic, John Cannon, Neo’s wine buyer and operations manager (he formatively, also opened the original Roganic), the bravely concise (two page) list pulls strong focus on producers using minimum intervention, ‘making wine in a similar way to the way we work with our food – showcasing the produce, or in this case, terroir and grape.’ Cannon adds that he and his team endeavour to stay away from the word ‘organic’.

At the West End Modern British dining room, previously The Woodstock Tavern, ‘organic’ can sometimes bring a negative connotation within certain clientele, he says, ‘especially in Mayfair!’ Cannon instead prefers to say ‘if the juice is good, the juice is good, try with us something that you normally wouldn’t have tried before and let’s make new experiences.’

Expect, within the bricky room, with hints of stained glass and dangly filament lights, Orange Sekt from Moravia, Luxembourgeoise Riesling, Moroccan Syrah, German Dornfelder and a rendition of Alella which is one of Spain’s smallest wine regions – as well as late harvest Chardonnay from Austria – offered drink in or  take away. Beers, meanwhile, may include Burning Sky’s Session IPA from East Sussex and Railway Porter from Hackney as well as bold brews from Germany.

From the kitchen overseen by Mark Jarvis of Farringdon’s Anglo and Alex Harper, formerly of the Harwood Arms in Fulham, try a selection of snacks to share, including venison sausage and truffle custard tart with hazelnut before moving onto, ordered from the blackboard, a quail kebab with quince and chestnut, and duck with lentils and cranberry mustard, or bavette with ancho pepper and mole bone marrow (meaty fare is taken seriously here). Culminate with a sharply, mouth watering citrus tart with almond and mascarpone or expertly raised cheeses from La Fromagerie.

Wine List Confidential, brought to you by the drinks business, is the first platform to rank London’s restaurants on the strength of their wine list alone, providing a comprehensive guide to the best restaurants in the capital for wine lovers.

Restaurants are graded on a 100-point scale based on five criteria: size, value, service, range and originality. For a full guide to London’s best wine lists visit winelistconfidential.com

the drinks business published the inaugural 2017 Wine List Confidential: One to Sixty-One guide last year. We are currently working on a new 2018 edition and are busy re-reviewing top-scoring restaurants and adding new entries to the database. Check back later in the year for final scoring and position of restaurants.