Wine List Confidential Awards 2018 in pictures

At the London Wine Fair last week, The Wine List Confidential stand played host to a ceremony dedicated to celebrating the very best sommeliers and wine-focused restaurants in the capital.

Hosted for the first time at the Wine List Confidential stand at the London Wine Fair, attendees were offered a glass of dry Furmint courtesy of Disznókő, as the Wine List Confidential team announced the winners of 2018’s awards, ranked according to the quality of their wine list.

The awards, and Wine List Confidential 2018 top 100, were kindly supported by the Portuguese Cork Association, along with AXA Millésimes, through their brands, Disznókő (Tokaji), Quinta do Noval (Port) and Pichon Baron (Pauillac). We would also like to thank cork producer Amorim for supplying the cork frames for the awards certificates. Click here to read more about Wine List Confidential.

Here, we provide a pictorial round up, celebrating the restaurants that won big in 2018.

Douglas Blyde, WLC’s chief reviewer and content editor researched and assessed hundreds of restaurants across London to determine our top 100. Analysing the wine offering at each venue individually, Blyde was able to award a score for originality, service, value, size and range, which was then aggregated into a an overall score to rank them into a definitive order, while condensing the most pertinent points about their wine offer into a concise review. It means visitors to winelistconfidential.com are able to quickly and easily refer to a restaurant in London to find its rank and overarching themes, helping to match wine lovers with a restaurant to suit their taste, mood and wallet.

London’s Highest Riser – The Ritz

Hannah Tovey, head of the London Wine Fair, presents Matteo Furlan, head sommelier at The Ritz, who work alongside Giovanni Ferlito, head of wine and beverage, at the hotel, with the award for London’s Highest Riser. This award is bestowed upon a restaurant deemed to have made the most significant improvements to its wine list over the past year, with Ferlito having added a surprising number of ‘hipster’ wines to this bastion of traditional dining and drinking, refreshing its offer and making it one of the best restaurants in London to drink wine.

London’s Restaurant of the Year – Bonhams

Head sommelier Charlotte Logan-Jones picks up the award for London’s Restaurant of the Year on behalf of Bonhams, which the team felt offered the ultimate wine experience, alongside a stunning menu. “Benefitting from the expertise of two Masters of Wine, and a brilliant head sommelier, this is the place to drink accessibly-priced, expertly-chosen fine wines, with, it should be stressed, outstanding food,” said the drinks business’ editor in chief Patrick Schmitt MW.

London’s Best Wine List for Value – Hunan

While unable to collect their award in person, this year’s award for London’s Best Wine List for Value was received by a long-established Pimlico dining room that boasts a brilliant drinks list, offering “fine wine at a fair price” – Hunan. Guests to Chef Peng’s Taiwanese restaurant, whose wine list is maintained by his son Michael, can expect a substantial collection of wines that at any time may include Manzanilla En Rama ‘I Think’ (Equipo Navazos), Billecart-Salmon Rosé Champagne, Mas de Daumas Gassac, Joseph Phelps’ Insignia, and Ornellaia – and at resolutely fair mark ups. 

London’s Best Restaurant for Service – Seven Park Place

Seven Park Place won this year’s award for service, scoring a near-perfect 99.5 on the service scale. Here, sommelier Gonzalo Rodriguez Diaz (right) has created a five-star, residential wine destination, paying particular attention to the quality of the staff, glassware and many other elements that directly affect the serving of wine.

London’s Best Restaurant for Originality

London newcomer Duddell’s picked up the award for London’s best restaurant for originality, an award that celebrates a list that stood out for being both brilliant and different, as well as challenging our idea of how a wine list should be constructed. Head sommelier, Konrad Tadeusz Lassota interprets and codes his wine list according to “a fivefold conceptual scheme found in traditional Chinese thought”’, and uses headings such as Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth to segment the wines.

London’s Best Newcomer – Hide

Receiving the award for Best Newcomer, in association with AXA Millésimes, the group that owns Pichon Baron, was Hide in Mayfair, one of the most hotly anticipated openings of the year. The restaurant is a collaboration between Evgeny Chichvarkin and Tatiana Fokina, minds behind wine lover’s playground Hedonism Wines, along with decorated chef, Ollie Dabbous (a protégé of Raymond Blanc), and mixologist, Oskar Kinberg, with the wines overseen by head sommelier Piotr Pietras. It contains an incredible selection of gems from 1889 Yquem to Pétrus 1949, and access to 6000 wines at nearby Hedonism’s wine shop.

Rising Star 2018 – Piotr Pietrs

Continuing Hide’s winning streak, the restaurant’s director of wine Piotr Pietras (not pictured here) was presented with this year’s Rising Star award by Carlos de Jesus (right), head of marketing and communications of cork producer Amorim, who kindly sponsored this award. The award was picked up on behalf of Piotr by Hide’s head sommelier Hans Weinefalk Larsson (left).

Sommelier of the Year – Jan Konetzki

The hotly contested Sommelier of the Year award – given in association with Quinta do Noval – was awarded to a trailblazing sommelier who this year took up a post with one of London’s newest and most exciting wine-focused restaurants, hotel and private members’ club – Ten Trinity Square Private Club. Born in Germany, Jan Konetzki (left) rose to prominence in the London restaurant scene at fine dining icon, Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road, taking up the position of wine director at Le Dame de Pic London and also of Ten Trinity Square Private Club, with a list curated in partnership with Chateau Latour, hence the impressive sips on pour.

London’s Best Wine List – 67 Pall Mall

Capping off this year Wine List Confidential 2018 Awards, and proving it’s still the best in the capital, 67 Pall Mall took home the top award for London’s Best Wine List. Retaining its number one position for a second year, with growing competition 67 Pall Mall this year upped its game, with a major revision and expansion to its wine offering at the start of this year helping it to remain at its peak and secure its position as London’s best wine list. The private members’ club offers as many as 800 wines by the glass, all served by Coravin into spotless Zalto stemware, while its wider list runs to over 4,000 bottles – this really is the best place to drink wine in London, and perhaps the planet.