Wine List

SPARKLING
Cava Brut Reserva Albet I Noya (VG) £19.50
Classic yeasty biscuity nose and dry refreshing citrus fruit acidity with buttery fruit, nuts
and almonds, finishing with real finesse. Good alternative to cheap champagne.

WHITE
Can Vendrell Chardonnay Xarel.lo Albet I Noya Penedès (VG) £12.50
Crisp, dry and generously fruity blend of the classic Chardonnay grape and an indigenous £3.50 per glass
Spanish variety contributing refreshingly tangy peachy flavours and acidity. Good with
salmon and other fish dishes, omelettes, quiches and creamy pasta.

Picpoul de Pinet Château de Petit Roubié Côteaux de Languedoc (V) £13.50
Classy elegant wine with crisp flinty lime and green apple flavours. A savoury mineral edge
makes it absolutely essential for any Mediterranean style fish dish.

Organic Terroir Chardonnay Sonop Wine Farm Paarl South Africa (VG) £14.75
Plenty of persistent ripe grapefruit, apples, lime and other tropical fruit and floral characters with
pleasing creaminess, wood spice and sweet oak vanilla. Good with chicken or pork dishes.

Pinot Grigio Mont’albano Friuli Grave (VG) £15.50
Brilliant crisp and fragrant dry white from the cooler north-east of Italy. Newly-cut grass aromas
become flintier with ground clove and rose characters emerging in the lively zesty finish.
Try with seafood salads, light pastas and grilled or barbecued fish.

RED
Rosso dell’Umbria
Villa Conversino di Filippo (VG) £12.50
Vibrant red from Central Italy with deliciously clean cherry and crushed cranberry flavours £3.50 per glass
and rich layers of soft, smooth plummy fruit. Perfect with pasta and Italian cuisine.

Château Richard Bergerac Rouge (VG) £13.75
Blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon with long-lasting ripe bramble
and black cherry aromas and flavours from a leading organic winemaker. A good partner
for duck, lamb and wild mushrooms.

Organic Terroir Pinotage Sonop Wine Farm Paarl (VG) £15.50
Rich purple colour with deliciously concentrated black stone fruit and a secondary layer of
liquorice, delicate chocolate, warm spices and vanilla. Enjoy with game or Highland beef.

Perseus Rioja Bodegas Ruiz Jimenez (VG) £15.75
Vibrant sweet-berried fruits, lots of vanilla oak, great balance and a long, creamily
smooth finish – all the hallmarks of a classic Rioja! Great with grilled lamb and hard cheeses.

DESSERT
Château Richard Saussignac Tradition (VG) 50 cl £7.50 per glass
Gloriously opulent with bouquet of acacia and honey, intensely full-bodied with zippy
balancing acidity. Stunning with Roquefort cheese and foie gras as well as puddings.

All wines listed are certified as being produced from organically-grown grapes.
VG indicates that no animal products are used in the winemaking process and they are therefore suitable for both vegetarians and vegans.
V means that animal products such as organic casein (millk protein) or egg white may have been used to clarify the wine and therefore it is not acceptable for vegans.

What are Organic Wines?

Wine is the fermented juice of freshly gathered wine grapes. Organic wines are made from wine grapes grown organically without the use of man-made fungicides, pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers. They look and smell like ‘normal’ wines and contain alcohol like ‘normal’ wines.

The long-term effects of ingesting small traces of the 240 man-made compounds that have so far been found in non-organic wines is not known. However there is growing conviction that by avoiding such compounds you get more authentic-tasting wine, risk fewer allergic reactions and may suffer fewer hangovers.

Increasing numbers of wine-growers world-wide are adopting organic practices because they agree that respect for the soil is paramount. Good organic practice respects the environment and promotes biodiversity and sustainability. Only vines growing in a living soil full of worms and bacteria can extract from it a maximum of mineral elements, without which vines are unable to mature and remain disease-resistant. Nor are they likely to produce a complex wine.

Organic growers improve soil structure and fertility by adding organic compost in winter and sowing cover crops such as peas, barley, flowers and herbs between the rows of vines in spring. Cover crops bring colour to the landscape when they flower and create biodiversity by bringing beneficial insects into the vineyard. These “beneficials” help to control pests like vine spiders and weevils naturally, rather than chemically. This approach - ‘treat the cause, not the symptom‘ - contrasts sharply with conventional viticultural methods that draw the vines into a vicious circle of chemical dependence because their defences have not been built up naturally.

Of course organic vineyards are not spray-free. Natural biodegradable sprays are used if problems occur, as are biological controls such as planned releases of ladybirds that eat vine aphids. Other permitted treatments include the use of salts (copper sulphate) and elemental (not man-made) sulphur to control mildew.

Is it really organic?

The term ‘organic’ is legally defined, so in order to describe or sell a wine as organic, the vineyard must have been inspected by a recognised organic certification body. Furthermore, organic wines must identify the name of the certification body on the bottle label (examples include Ecocert, Nature et Progrès or Terre et Vie from France, or The Soil Association in the UK). This allows those thinking of buying organic to check whether a vineyard claiming to be organic really is certified as such.

Consumers can then have confidence that no chemical fertilisers or pesticides have been used on the vines of producers holding certification for their wines.