New on Wine List Confidential: The Clove Club

Doyennes of the current fine dining scene, the right and focused wine list is full of small growers and wines of real interest in the grand space that is Shoreditch Town Hall.

One ponders the point of such a clearly lovingly assembled list, sourced, it would seem in some cases from merchants no longer in existence, at a restaurant at which a good number of guests may only opt for the standard or premium wine pairing anyway? For this is a huge list hovering, like a starved bee, over many colourful crops, such is the way of the wine lover who falls in love monthly with new territories, or indeed the buyer spoilt with the daily offer of free trade tastings unravelling in our capital. And, in terms of mark-ups, ‘bipolar’ occasionally comes to mind for listings seem to veer from the reasonable to outlandish. This is a document which shunts, with social idealism, the extremely natural producer now easily at home in Shoreditch alongside the more polished fare more likely in residence at Mayfair dining rooms.

In fizz terms, the arguably overly powerfully priced late harvest Champagne from puritanical Jaquesson clearly contrasts the kinder costing on the home-grown, Rubenesque sparkler from home of cricket, Hambledon. The same sort of unusual mark-ups may be found with a 10 year old Sancerre, albeit with good pedigree, which is positioned over the £200 mark and as such is likely, along with the £450 Terlaner, and £500 half of sweet German riesling, destined to haunt the restaurant’s cellars, deep in Shoreditch Old Town Hall, for years to come. Such inflation could cause this reviewer, who is not a fan of monetary masochism, to instead head for cover in the nearest, reasonably priced Muscadet – a safe haven of a region which more often than not is cutely eager to over deliver.

Considering the territories covered, from Croatia to Kazakhstan a contents page would certainly help the wine lover return mentally, to their fellow guests faster given the list as is rather engrossing and takes more time than the meal to digest.

Billing themselves, modestly, as a modern British restaurant, but delivering haute cuisine in actuality, The Clove Club in Shoreditch Town Hall takes the name of the original supper club which operated above The Ten Bells pub, bringing together founders, Daniel Willis, Isaac Mchale (ex The Ledbury) and Johnny Smith in 2010.

An ‘ambient’ tea pairing is, intriguingly, offered to accompany the tasting menu, dishes of which could include Cornish sardine sashimi with smoked sardine and whiskey broth, duck and ginger consommé with indefatigable, century old Madeira (que desperdício!), and apple tart Tatin.

To see the WLC position and scores for this review click here

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.