Wine List of the Week: Mezzogiorno by Francesco Mazzei
Set within London’s storied Corinthia, Mezzogiorno turns Francesco Mazzei’s southern Italian cooking into a restaurant of scale and belief. Does it work? “With authority,” writes Douglas Blyde.
Opened in 1885 as the Hotel Metropole, today’s Corinthia has lived several lives. In its late Victorian years it welcomed royalty, private clubs and London society. Requisitioned at the outbreak of the First World War, it was used by senior military figures, including Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, and Douglas Haig, then leading I Corps, before departure for France in 1914. It later spent decades as a government building, housing ministries, wartime MI9 activity, and subsequently Defence Intelligence offices. Sold by the Crown Estate in 2007, it reopened as a hotel in 2011, a redevelopment which attracted scrutiny for Libyan state-linked investment during the Gaddafi era – an issue of ownership rather than operation.
Today it hosts Mezzogiorno, a Southern Italian restaurant by Francesco Mazzei which turns his 2015 book of that name into a lived-in meal. The former Northall has been reworked with Baroque southern Italian cues by Afroditi Krassa (Savoy Grill, Perfectionists’ Cafe), set beneath eight-metre ceilings. Verdicts clustered quickly: TripAdvisor’s Rosy H found “Francesco himself the star of the show with an eye to everything”; while The Nudge landed the measure neatly: “A big space demands big flavours.”
Drinks
Overseen jointly by Martin Jezek and Stefano Barbarino, the wine list at Mezzogiorno by Francesco Mazzei is extensive and tightly organised, running to 61 pages. Jezek, Czech-born and Norwegian-speaking, began with an early internship at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool, before rising through the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, including close to two years in Prague and five at London’s Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. He joined Corinthia London in 2020 and assumed overall responsibility for the hotel’s wine programme in 2023, since when he has also hosted events including a Delamotte and Salon dinner in Kerridge’s private dining room. He is supported by Barbarino, whose career included Chez Bruce and sister restaurant, La Trompette, followed by Galvin at Windows, a group buying role with Chucs, and the Coravin Wine Bar pop-up. Sicilian-born on Christmas Day and mentored by Master Sommelier Laura Rhys of Gusbourne, Barbarino brings a measured, martial approach to service, shaped by an early ambition to join the army.
The list takes “Mezzogiorno” seriously, anchoring the cellar in Calabria and the deep south, with Cirò Rosso, Librandi 2023 (£55) setting the floor and bottles such as A’ Vita ‘Il Rosso’ 2022 (£85) restoring a region too often skipped. Sicily widens the arc, with Etna given true ballast: Graci Arcuria 2021 (£155), Pietradolce Archineri 2020 (£140) and Frank Cornelissen Munjebel Rosso CS 2016 (£170) read as dialects of altitude and lava.
From there, the list fans out with astonishing confidence, which Jecek says “speaks with the optimism of a few years back”. The sparkling section includes a deep library of Franciacorta, including 1980 Franciacorta Annamaria Clementi’ Zero Dosage (£850) from your correspondent’s birth year, through to Dom Pérignon’s upper reaches, notably 1992 P3 Brut (£4,150). There are epic Loire diversions, such as Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg du Clos Rougeard 2013 (£560); Burgundy moments which, in the company of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, almost read as restraint – 1989 Chambertin Clos de Bèze, Bouchard Père et Fils (£750); and Bordeaux with proper maturity, including La Mission Haut-Brion 1966 (£1,000). The USA appears with intent, Dunn Vineyards reaching to 2013 (£460), and the second vintage of Continuum (2006). Endings are handled with equal seriousness, from 1988 Marsala Superiore, Marco De Bartoli (£249 per 50cl) to 1945 Taylor’s (£900).
Magnums and double magnums are treated as a parallel narrative, with highlights such as the 2020 Riesling Ried Schütt Smaragd, Weingut Knoll, Wachau (3,000ml, £520). Taken whole, this is a cellar built to be read as much as drunk: southern Italian in its bones, international in its fluency, and ambitious enough to reward both grazing and deep study.
Dishes
Raised in a Calabrian family of pastry and ice-cream makers, Mazzei came to London via The Dorchester, before senior roles with Corbin & King. A long collaboration with Alan Yau widened his range. The chic, minimalist L’Anima, designed by Claudio Silvestrin, became a reference point of its moment, frequented by the late Bloomberg restaurant writer, Richard Vines and by wine suppliers such as Andrew Johnson (now of WoodWinters). Fiume and Sartoria followed with D&D, along with a six-month residency at the Corinthia group’s Maltese outpost. Few London chefs think so fluently with wine. A regular presence at Vinitaly, Mazzei treats ingredients often labelled awkward for pairing – artichokes, bitter citrus, vinegar-led sauces – as elements to be handled rather than avoided.
From table 502, the room reveals its workings. The kitchen pass is in view, which itself faces the pasta counter, with the grappa trolley dangerously temptingly close, and above, on the mezzanine, a bank of six EuroCaves are set beneath the terracotta-coloured ceiling, where guests pause over Franciacorta while choosing their bottle. The floor is guided by Sharon Wightman, Restaurant Director, whose long friendship and working relationship with Mazzei brings an open, direct warmth which suits the room’s southern register.
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Tonight’s pairings were handled by Friuli-born, Mattia Tromba, Assistant Head Sommelier, formerly of Hide and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester. He proved willing to take risks and, importantly, to name them.
The opening dish, plated on Puglian Nicola Fasano ceramics, being carciofi e puntarelle – artichokes, chicory shoots, fennel, root vegetables and blood orange – was the most persuasive plate of the evening, healthy without self-denial. It found a natural partner in Benanti Contrada Cavaliere 2022, from half-century-old Carricante vines on Etna, the wine’s edge steadying the dish’s bitterness.
Then grilled Scottish langoustines, sweet and plump, though our guest noted the visible digestive tract on a tail – a small lapse in an otherwise assured course. It was paired with Mire, a limpid orange wine made by one of Mazzei’s four brothers, Piero at Azienda Agricola Carlomagno in Calabria from Malvasia and Trebbiano.
Pasta arrived as tonnarelli cacio e pepe, perfectly undercooked, glossy and tensile, and handmade tortelli of ricotta and burrata, dressed with brown butter and sage and finished with 25-year-old Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (Del Duca). Here, Moscato d’Asti (Vajra) proved genuinely startling a pairing, its faint sweetness no doubt intended to embellish the richness of the pastas, though in practice resetting the table. Tromba had prefaced the match by admitting he had never attempted it before – a disclosure which rarely inspires confidence.
Zia Maria’s polpetta followed: a formidable meatball with scamorza concealed at its core, set in a fiercely spiced tomato sauce. Mazzei’s authority with heat is long established, to the point he is often credited with bringing ’nduja into wider British use, not least through his Calabrese collaboration with Pizza Express. Alongside it, the acidity of 2020 Barolo Margheria, Massolino, stood firm. On the pass, The King’s Porchetta rested under the lights, its crackling a deep gold – a glimpse of central Italian tradition being held back, and one we would happily return to release.
Dessert arrived as a Neapolitan babà, soaked with Strega, the saffron-hued liqueur from Benevento made with a complex weave of herbs and spices, and the increasingly legendary massive Marsala tiramisu, spooned lavishly. It was chased by Specogna Picolit 2021 from Friuli Venezia Giulia, a rare listing in London, the wine’s lift suiting the sponge better than a heavier sweet wine would have done. The close came from the grappa trolley, with the barrel-aged expression from San Leonardo poured as a considered full stop.
Last sip
Mezzogiorno resists fashion. Its authority comes from belief: in the breadth of the south, in wine as a co-author of the meal, and in the idea that a room of this scale can feel inhabited rather than imposed. Mazzei cooks with assurance rather than display, most persuasive when bitterness, acidity, fat and heat are allowed to work in tension, and when wine is treated as a counterpart rather than a concession. Under Jezek and Barbarino, the cellar is ambitious yet legible, encouraging guests to read, roam and commit. Pairings are not smoothed into agreement; they are attempted in the open, sometimes convincingly, sometimes not, and they reveal a programme still finding its edges.
Best for:
- Italy, France, and the USA
- Francesco’s kitchen table
- The Velvet by Salvatore Calabrese bar nextdoor
Value: 95, Size: 98, Range: 98, Originality: 96, Experience: 94; Total: 96.2
Mezzogiorno by Francesco Mazzei – Corinthia Hotel, 10a Northumberland Ave, London, WC2N 5AE; 020 7930 8181; restaurants.london@corinthia.com; corinthia.com
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