Wine List of the Week: The Merry Harriers
Douglas Blyde follows in the footsteps of Louis de Bernieres and Dame Maggie Smith when he sups at quaint Surrey Hills gastropub, The Merry Harriers. It’s proof, he finds, that “the spirit of a true village inn can still thrive”.
The Merry Harriers, crouched in the fold of the Surrey Hills in Hambledon, whose famous former residents have included Louis de Bernieres, Damon Hill, Rick Parfitt and Dame Maggie Smith, is not merely a pub to anchor your week, but one by which locals have been known to plan their house moves. “A proper pub with rooms,” as The Telegraph put it – and, in the words of the Good Food Guide, one with “a menu that exhaustively lists all the kitchen’s and cellar’s local suppliers”.
Once the domain of the late Peter de Savary – hotelier, former Millwall chairman, and the man who brought llama trekking to the area – it is now in the hands of a young local duo: CODE 30 Under 30 chef, Sam Fiddian-Green, a protégé of Sally Clarke who trained at Ballymaloe, spent two years at the one-Michelin-star Harwood Arms, and in 2019 joined Paul Cunningham at the two-star Henne Kirkebby Kro in Denmark; and Alex Winch, a front-of-house natural who, before launching Hilltop Kitchen near Godalming, was restaurant manager at Portland, Fitzrovia, head sommelier at Perth WA’s fine-dining Wildflower, and most recently ran Smoke & Salt, a Brixton restaurant in a 40ft shipping container. Together, they’ve won over locals – including TripAdvisor’s elusive MandyM2 (“flippin brilliant!”) – as well as the Top 50 Gastropubs, all without losing the heartbeat of a proper village local.
Drinks
The wine list wears its Surrey allegiance with assurance while casting a net far wider. Local names lead with confidence: from Puttenham in Surrey, Greyfriars contributes the sparkling Fumé NV (£48), Rosé Reserve 2021 (£70), and still Yolande Pinot Gris-Chardonnay 2023 (£39). Crossing into West Sussex, Weybourne near Midhurst offers its Family Reserve 2018 (£85), while further east at Nutbourne, near Pulborough in the Horsham district of the South Downs, the Gladwin Brothers’ delivers Sussex Reserve Bacchus 2022 (£48), a wine Winch first championed over 12 years ago while working with them at The Shed, Notting Hill.
The list moves from the everyday to the celebratory – beginning at £5 for a 125ml pour of Les Petits Clément Merlot-Duras Rouge 2022, and from £27 per bottle for the 2022 Bergerie de la Bastide Blanc (Languedoc), to £148 for the 2012 López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rioja Reserva. Whites range from Château de la Mirande Picpoul de Pinet 2022 (£30) and Damien Pinon Vouvray Tuffo Sec 2020 (£48), to Domaine Belleville Rully 1er Cru Chapitre 2021 (£88).
Reds include Adegas Guímaro Mencía 2022 (£47), Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 2021 (£85), and Marcarini Barolo del Comune di La Morra 2019 (£105) with a firm favourite of the team being Château de Grand Pré Fleurie Cuvée Spaciale (£92), served in magnum. The sparkling line-up extends from local fizz to Vinícola Nulles Adenants Cava Brut Nature NV (£37), Bodegas Barbadillo Espumoso de Albariza Toto NV (£54), Champagne Maxime Blin Carte Blanche Extra Brut NV (£90), and Pol Roger Brut Réserve NV (£114). Sweet wines round things off with Emilio Hidalgo Pedro Ximénez (£52 half-bottle) and La Magenda Lapeyre Jurançon (£55/50cl).
Beyond wine, local beers come courtesy of Surrey Hills’ frothy Sheere Drop, and Tilford Brewery, joined by the Harriers’ own gluten-free, sustainable “festival” lager – green-apple bright, in collaboration with Brighton’s 360 Brewery, as bar manager David Bori (ex-The Victoria, Oxshott) notes. The Paddington, a signature Breakfast Negroni Sour built on Vann Lane Gin distilled next door at The Village Spirit Collective, is a house favourite, while Chimney Fire supplies world class, B Corp-certified coffee beans from just down the road. Add free corkage on Sundays from 4pm, and flexible dining spaces, including movable pendants, and you have a customer-friendly recipe.
Dishes
What astonished about Fiddian-Green’s Michelin-grade opening snacks and starters was that they came from a kitchen scarcely larger than one of the inn’s modest bedrooms, if the fire plan is to be believed. A Maldon oyster with pickled celery, horseradish, and Sapling vodka and spiced tomato was paired by Winch with Wabi Sabi Chenin Blanc from Holder Wines, part of Reg Holder’s Dorper range created in 2016 with viticulturist, Etienne Terblanche to echo the idea of a Burgundian “village” wine. Its apple-bright freshness not only cut through the richness but, when it met the oyster and spiced tomato, released a fleeting note of curry leaf. A molten-yolk Scotch egg with gentle homemade brown sauce followed, offering sheer comfort.
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Well-travelled bread, with its satisfying, treacle-scented crust, begun in Brighton and finished here in Hambledon, was best slathered with butter spun through an ice-cream machine. Starters ranged from ripe Nutbourne tomatoes – whole, and as a sprightly granita – with goat’s curd and Hilltop lovage, to a particularly flavoursome gazpacho of Brixham crab and Sussex red peppers. The standout was a special of impeccable, cured stone bass with a delicate truffle dressing, sea purslane, and crisp shallot rings. These met Greyfriars Sparkling Rosé Reserve 2021, curiously devoid of a discernible rosé hue. Now in its eleventh release, it blends 92% Pinot Noir with “a dash” of Pinot Meunier, from an estate whose prosperity came from oil and gas – a reminder of just how recently England decided to take wine seriously.
It being a sunny Sunday, a Trenchmore Farm topside of beef to share arrived on a vast oval plate – served pink, each slice ribboned with luscious fat – with horseradish cream, beef-fat roast potatoes, buttered greens, roast roots, monumental Yorkshire puddings, glossy gravy, and, showing continued kitchen skill, a cheffie croquette spilling molten bubble and squeak which we could have happily eaten by the half dozen. Finch set two reds against it: the Lalande Villeneuve Médoc 2018, a claret in parade boots; and the Domaine du Valbrun Bois Vain 2023 Saumur-Champigny, freer and looser, Cabernet Franc in a linen shirt, supple red fruit, cracked pepper and a whiff of Loire chalk.
Finally, Winch echoed the almond notes in a banded trifle of Sussex cherry with Amaretto by pouring César Florido’s Moscatel Dorado – a golden, floral Jerez Moscatel alive with orange blossom, jasmine, honeyed raisins and apricot. A Sussex trio followed: Lord London, the bell-shaped cow’s milk cheese; Golden Cross, a log of goat’s cheese with a lemon-bright; and the brilliantly named, Blue Clouds, Chris Heyes’ soft, Gorgonzola-like blue from Balcombe. Served at room temperature with thick, brittle homemade crackers, they met Nutbourne’s Sussex Reserve still Bacchus, flinty with stone fruit and lime. “Back to where it began for me,” he said.
Last Sip
The Merry Harriers has worn its centuries with ease, a 16th-century inn still sewn into the fabric of Hambledon life. Under Fiddian-Green and Winch, it remains both pub and haven – where pint pétanque, meat raffles and live music in the garden coexist with Chenin-pepped oysters and Jerez-kissed trifle. The bar still hums with locals who would rather not drink anywhere else, while its fifteen rooms and Shepherd’s Huts draw outsiders close.
Even the logo, uncannily Snoopy-like, signals an easy charm – and with dogs as warmly welcomed as their owners, the place seems to smile back at every wagging tail. Even with immense demands on it, including multiple private parties on this bank holiday Sunday, the kitchen and team delivered – while also greeting new arrivals checking in upstairs, checking on regulars propped at bar stools and even finding time to track down the owners of a classic VW Beetle whose headlights had been left aglow. Proof, if it were needed, that the spirit of a true village inn can still thrive.
Best for:
- Free corkage Sundays (4pm on)
- Shepherd’s Huts
- Recording room private dining room
Value: 97, Size: 88, Range: 92, Originality: 94, Experience: 94; Total: 93
The Merry Harriers – Hambledon Road, Godalming GU8 4DR; 01428 682883; enquiries@merryharriers.com; merryharriers.com
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