Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 6064

…how to show the difference

June Wadsack of the splendid Three Lions free house pub and restaurant in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, has sent me her latest wine list. Where better to demonstrate the strengths both of German and Alsace wine? Inspired by her German husband who masterminds the menu at the Three Lions, she has a long list of German wines from the Rhine as well as the Mosel - Kabinett, Sp„tlese, Auslese Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein (including a 1975 Trockenbeerenauslese Rul„nder, from Baumann, a snip at £55).

The German wines, uncharacteristically are at the front of the wine list. Alsace comes next. And there are some beauties there too. Among a number of FE Trimbach's superb wines there is, for example, a Gewrztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre 1986 at £30. If there is any left I would like to try it five years on, though I'd settle for it right now.

This is a restaurant wine list to conjure with. Choices from Italy, the Loire, the Rhône, Bordeaux and Burgundy, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa and Australia in particular suggest a demanding palate. It is without question the work of enthusiasts. On very few restaurant wine lists do you find four vintages of Penfold's mighty Grange Hermitage, for example.

Such an imposing perspective makes the strength of the German and Alsace sections particularly notable.