The Wine Library, 23rd December

I wandered past The Wine Library on one of my many strolls around the city and of course I had to investigate what could be going on in there as soon as I got home. A Library of Wine sounded too good to ignore. It turns out it is a wine cellar and shop but it is also a restaurant of sorts during lunch where you can browse its wares, pick out a lovely bottle of wine (or two) and enjoy it with the all you can eat buffet luncheon they provide for only £20.

These are definitely the finer wines so don’t expect to pick up a bottle for the same price you’d get one for in Tesco. You’re still going to pay roughly restaurant-level prices (although I noticed a couple for around the £12 mark). But just imagine how much these would cost if you actually did order them in a restaurant and you can see this is a good-value way of wining while dining.

The food they provide is exactly the sort of thing you want to eat with wine. The table they lay out is festooned with cheeses and meats in charcuterie and ‘pate’ form, as well as plenty of bread and crackers to go with it, chutneys, fruit, dips and even quiche.

I believe they more or less always have the same thing, but when we went we tucked into a deeply flavoured venison terrine, a very fatty and moist pork belly rillete, plus several different cured meats. They also had duck liver pate which I didn’t try and a smoked mackerel mousse which I knew would be too fishy for me. The quiche that day was broccoli and they also had a lovely red pepper hummuslike dip.

Cheeses covered the range from hard to soft and were very, very smelly. In fact when you approach the Wine Library, the smell hits you before you’ve even fully opened the door. One cheese was particularly brutish on the nose, though not quite so strong when you ate it – it had a very intense tang to it, and was one of my favourites. Naturally I have now forgotten what it was. They also include the usual suspects: brie, and a blue cheese and a cheddar as well. We filled our plates and then went back for more! But just the once.

The wine we chose was a Chablis for £18 and making it last long enough to accompany the two plates of food we had was a challenge. Good wine really is such a joy to drink, none of that back of the throat acidity that makes you wince. It is worth splashing out on every now and then. Happily, in this instance, we didn’t have to.

Le Bouchon, 18th June

I have never before ventured to deepest, darkest Blackheath, so when I was invited to a blogger event at Le Bouchon wine bar there, I thought it was a good excuse to visit a part of London that I hadn’t seen before.

It was a lovely sunny day, perfect for sitting outside with a few glasses of wine and some cheese and charcuterie, which is what we did, in a very successful attempt to recreate a holiday feeling.

Blackheath is one of those areas of London that feels like its own little village (and it’s not on the tube line, which helps). Apparently it was dominated by chain places but quite a few independents like Le Bouchon have popped up, giving the place more character.

Le Bouchon was everything I expected a French wine bar to be – small enough to be intimate but big enough to accommodate people dropping by without a problem. Very tastefully decorated with a mix of high tables and stools, and lower tables and chairs, plus big windows that open onto the street and a few tables outside. Chalkboards with the day’s charcuterie and wine specials adorn the walls. We started with a crisp and refreshing champagne rose, and a couple of amuse bouches. I would say this was the weakest area as they were pretty standard offerings – salted mixed nuts, olives, bread and olive oil, sunblushed tomato (not in oil), cheese-stuffed semi-spicy red peppers (in oil), tapenade etc. I had the red peppers and the tapenade which came with a bag of bread and they were very nice but not anything to write home about.

Having said that, the owner’s stated aim for the food is ‘simple but delicious’ with the focus more on the wine (well, it is a wine bar). And so, this he has achieved.

We were then invited to choose three charcuterie and three cheeses. And this is where things got interesting. And also, incredibly filling. I don’t know if we were given more than usual because we were blogging about the place but I have never seen such generous portions of cheese on a plate in a restaurant before! The amount honestly added up to a proper meal and I was stuffed by the end of it!

I chose the venison saucisson, the walnut saucisson and the saucisson with the comte (I can never resist comte) and two other cheeses I hadn’t tried before – Secret and Le Bon Grivois. Well, the cheese stole the show for me. Even now I cannot decide which was my favourite. The creamy, just the right side of gooey Grivois, or the Secret – a tangy cheese that was soft but not runny. The Comte as always was delicious but not the star tonight, for a change. The board came with cornichons, grapes and also dried apricot which I really enjoyed with the comte. And we had plenty of bread to spread our cheese on.

I started off with a beautiful, dry yet slightly creamy Sancerre and then finished my evening with a red I hadn’t had before – Chichon, which I would say was medium-bodied with a bit of acidity to it, which was a welcome accompaniment to the fatty and rich cheeses and meat.

Demolished!

Le Bouchon is everything you would want from a local wine bar – and even on a Tuesday it was buzzy, yet retained a relaxed atmosphere. Blackheath is lucky to have it.

Find restaurant information on Zomato

The Remedy, 3rd June

Last week was London Wine Week – a wristband for £10 provided the excuse to go to a few places and drink some wines you might not otherwise have tried. I was very pleased to see that The Remedy was one of the bars participating as it had been on my List for some time. It seemed like a good place to kick things off, so after collecting our wristbands from Carnaby Street we took a stroll to Fitzrovia to find it.

It is very unassuming from the outside with a sign that’s barely noticeable. At the same time it sort of looks the part, and therefore stands out from its neighbours.

Inside it is simple and relaxed. A banquette lines one side, or you can choose to sit at the bar, or at a couple of high tables. They have a menu of six or seven meats, the same number of cheeses and just a few other dishes, and before 7pm, little did we know, it’s 50% off food! We decided to get a selection of five charcuterie and five cheeses, which the chef selects for you in order to give you a breadth of tastes, or in the cases of the cheese, a range of strengths.

I know I won’t remember exactly which meats we had but they were all pretty nice, and I was especially taken with the pancetta which had what seemed to be a fennel seed crumb, which really gave it a kick. And to think, I wouldn’t have ordered that one were it up to me.

The cheese selection was superb. They were all cow cheeses apart from one which was ewe’s milk, and most of them were from the same region as they had held a special event with cheeses from that area the week before. The mildest was a creamy but not soft cheese with a layer of ash in the middle, then you progressed through the hard ewe’s milk cheese to a comte, a blue cheese that looked very blue but was pleasingly mellow, up to a cheese so tangy it made my eyes water and my mouth pucker. It was amazing. The bread was served with a very grassy olive oil.

We had five wines to choose from for the London Wine Week £5 deal – a Veneto merlot, a dry Riesling, another red and two rosés. Alison wanted to try the Riesling as she had fond memories of the one time she had a Riesling and liked it. For me, it had to be red wine to go with the cheese. It was quite full-bodied and juicy and soft, and I liked it so much I had another. Alison’s Riesling was as good as she’d hoped, with a sweetness that seemed to come from a fruity background and wasn’t at all cloying like sweeter wines can be. And then she got even more adventurous with a rose before having the merlot I’d had, while it was my turn to have the Riesling.

Our waiter for the evening was perfectly charming, explaining the types of cheese and meats when they arrived, and basically ensuring we felt well looked after. The Remedy doesn’t have quite the same panache as Sager and Wilde but it is a very friendly wine bar, with a neighbourhood feel to it. Something about it, perhaps the light, decor and small veranda almost seemed Mediterranean, making you feel like you’re on holiday when inside. A little gem.

We then stopped into the Newman Street Tavern, a bit of a gastropub in the area for another couple of reds (the £5 whites had sold out) before rounding off the evening with a sherry digestif from the ever lovely Salt Yard. 

Tower Hill memorial, 14th February

Nothing says romance like reminding yourself of all the poor souls who gave their lives for the war effort.

Admittedly, it wasn't our first choice of plans. We were supposed to go to the Tower of London, but after an extended and slightly boozy lunch at the Bull and Last, we didn't get there until 4, which is exactly when they stop letting anyone in. What a ridiculous closing time! Fortunately, I remembered I had wanted to take a peek at this memorial, and it was just over the road.

The memorial is to commemorate those sailors of ships and fishing vessels that lost their lives at sea during the war, ending in a watery grave. It is actually two memorials- one for WW1 and another behind it for WW2.

The one for the First World War looks a bit like a crypt. It has a long corridor and all the walls and pillars are engraved with the names of the dead sailors.

The second one is more like a little garden, again the walls are inscribed with the names of those lost, but interspersed with reliefs of mythical sea dwelling creatures. It's very pretty, and quite a nice place to stop for a moment if you're that way inclined.

I had passed the memorial countless times, but its quite unobtrusive and you are naturally drawn to look at the Tower, which overshadows it. Next time you're in the area, give it some attention.

Now, I know the Bull and Last isn't on my List, but while I'm here I might as well say a few words about it. 

It is superb. A gastropub in the true sense of the word, in that it feels like a proper pub, and serves stupendous food. We outdid ourselves in our gluttony. We shared the best charcuterie board, ever. It consisted of: duck rillette, duck prosciutto, chicken liver pate, hamhock terrine, and pig's head. All this was accompanied by cornichons, pickled grapes, some lovely toasted bread, tartar sauce, onion chutney and kumquat chutney! We left nary a crumb.

For the main meal I had wagyu beef pie with the butteriest mashed potato you ever did see. Literally had a pool of butter on the top. Stephen had the ox cheek and lentils. The ox cheek required no more than the side of a fork to cut it.

And also, I'm almost ashamed to admit, we got a side of chips. We'd heard they rivalled those at the Fat Duck and as we're not going there any time soon thought we'd better try these. They're ridiculous. Each chip is about a quarter of a potato, but they've managed to make them both crispy and soft inside. Well, for the most part. We did find one that was a little undercooked.

We wanted to get dessert as well, but what with the alcohol (ringwood ale for him, deliciously cloying saam cabernet sauvignon for me) there just wasn't any room. Very sad.