5 for great wine

10 April 2012
Fay Maschler

THE WINE GALLERY, 49 Hollywood Road, SW10 (020 7352 7572) £32.

This is part of the small restaurant group - including Oratory in Brompton Road, SW3, Wine Factory in Westbourne Grove, W11, and Joe's Brasserie in Wandsworth Bridge Road, SW6 - owned by Brinkley's Wines, where the unthinkable happens: wines are sold at retail price. The list is longest here, with ambitious French bottles which, anyway, go best with simple food.

CELLAR GASCON, 59 West Smithfield, EC1 (020 7796 0600) £30.

Hang out here exploring the burgeoning wines of south-west France and choosing small plates of food that suits them because they grew up together. Friendly staff let you run a tab and after some foie gras, saucissons, cassoulet, cheeses and wines, it is time to explore the Armagnacs. Club Gascon, the parent restaurant, branches out to Chelsea next month.

WINE WHARF AT VINOPOLIS, Stoney Street, Borough Market, SE1 (020 7940 8335) £30.

In the same complex as the wine museum and the restaurant Cantina Vinopolis, this attractive bar with open kitchen is a great

place to roam the world, vinously speaking. There are wines from countries you didn't even know made wine and more than 50 are offered by the glass. If you get lost, staff give informed guidance.

THE CRESCENT, 99 Fulham Road, SW3 (020 7225 2244) £30.

Matthew Jukes - he'd love you to call him Jukesy - has composed the wine list at this address not far from Bibendum, where he also advises. Make the most of his discoveries of the lesser-known producers who are making spiffing wines. Open all day, eat just a sandwich or one of the hot specials posted on a blackboard.

PAVILION, Finsbury Circus Gardens, EC2 (020 7628 8224) £30.

Rather quaintly, the site also serves as clubhouse for the City of London Bowling Club, a green oasis not far from Liverpool Street station. The bar is on the ground floor, the dining room in the basement. The wine list, sorted by grape variety, is helpfully annotated. Most bottles can be sampled by the glass, encouraging serious after-work study.

Prices above indicate the cost of a snack with fine wine for one.

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