Scotch list
The town of Kingussie, between the Monadhliath Mountains and the River Spey in the Scottish Highlands, is not the first place you would look for a hotel restaurant with a wine list boasting more than 400 references, which cover the whole world and run from a 1989 Valdepeñas Reserva at £9.75 to a magnum of Château Palmer 1949 at £875.
You might think such riches are on offer at some kind of mega-eatery, but all this wine is for a 28-seat restaurant.
Tony and Ruth Hadley opened The Cross on 29 July 1983 in Kingussie High Street, but four years ago they moved to their present premises, a tweed mill built in the 1880s that has been tastefully converted into a hotel with nine bedrooms and an airy, attractive restaurant. Ruth runs the kitchen, while Tony handles the front of house.
"The bulk of our customers come from the central belt," explains Tony. "There are a million people in the Strathclyde region, and only 500,000 in the whole of the Highlands. Kingussie has about 1,800 people, so we can't exist on local trade. Local people see us as a special occasion venue - golden weddings, for instance. We also get a lot of visitors from England during the traditional summer holiday, and increasingly for an extra week's holiday between May and October."
The Cross also attracts overseas visitors, mainly from Europe and the USA but also a few from Japan. The area offers outdoor pursuits such as walking, fishing, shooting, golf, gliding and sailing. Skiing in the Cairngorms is just a short drive away in winter. Within a few minutes' walk of The Cross, you are on the hills, surrounded by grouse and mountain hares.
"We have three ages in our customer profile," says Tony Hadley. "Dinkies, from mid twenties to early thirties; baby-boomers, the fortysomethings; and retired folk. But the common thread is that they are all interested in food and wine.
"I totally object to mediocrity. I don't want to list boring old wines. I look for interesting, even offbeat, unusual wines," he adds.
Hadley finds that wine drinkers are much more adventurous and knowledgeable than they used to be. "But we do cater for the less adventurous," he adds quickly. He does this by suggesting wines to go with the menu, which changes every day. Typically he will suggest six wines - three white, three red.
"About 70% of the customers choose from the recommendations," he says. "I used to give everyone the wine list. They would look at it for half an hour and then ask me to suggest a wine. It was all delaying the free flow of the evening."
So what criteria does he use when suggesting wines for the menu? "Obviously, the most important consideration is that they have to go with the food," he says. "I like to suggest wines in a range of prices. I'm not going to recommend a series of £50 wines. I choose two at the cheap end, £12.50 to £14, two between £15 and £16, and two between £19 and £30. I also want a range of styles, and not all from the same country. Finally I want to suggest interesting wines, something provocative. I want people to experiment."
Hadley sees "broadening people's horizons" as an important part of his role.
He uses dozens of suppliers, looking first for quality and then price. "I'm searching for the best deal for my customers," he says. "I apply an 85% mark-up. If I buy a wine for £10, it will be £18.50 on the list. But I fine-tune the mark-up. For the cheapest wines, the mark-up may be a little more and the more expensive wines will have slightly less."
Staying at The Cross just after Christmas, there were real bargains to be had because there were wines that had been on the list for a while and had not commensurately increased in price - yet another example of how restaurants can sell more and better wine if using sensible mark-ups.
Wines are listed by countries and regions and, in the newer countries, by grape variety. Apart from brief introductions to regions, there are no tasting notes. "Being a small, intimate restaurant, we always have the time to discuss wines to suit your palate and pocket, but most importantly to complement your meal," the list explains.
South Africa is one of Hadley's current enthusiasms. The new list has 40 South African wines, including some fortifieds. "The best wines only cost you £20," he says. "Look at the 1994 Cabernet from Vredendal on the list at £13.50. This producer makes more wine than the whole of New Zealand! There are stupendous wines at terrific prices."
Canada is another interest, especially wines from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. "Chile, I am sure, will get better and better," Hadley says.
Conversely, he says: "It has been very difficult selling wines from Italy." From a list of estate-bottled Valpolicellas, Barolos, Amarones and several vintages of Brunello di Montalcino, the selection has been brutally cut to four, making Italy the most poorly represented of the major wine areas. "But I want to try again with Italy," says Hadley. "Starting in a small way… No promises, just wait and see."
Although France still has a dominant position on the list, Hadley has not bought any French wine since the country restarted its nuclear test programme in the Pacific. "How long this policy will continue, I don't know," he says, "but they haven't said sorry. Terroir is an important concept for the French but they were prepared to damage the earth. Maybe I am cynical, but they didn't test in the Loire or Entre-Deux-Mers. If it had gone wrong, who would have suffered? Competitors such as New Zealand, Australia and California."
Hadley enjoys talking, and wine is a passion he is happy to share. Speaking of the way the list has developed, he says: "It has all been a gradual change and we have progressed with our customers.
"When we first opened, we had a list of 40 wines. I remember we had a couple staying with us who always drank Asti Spumante, and we ran out over a weekend. So on the Sunday night I suggested something else. On Monday evening I had new supplies of Asti, but they wanted me to suggest something else instead.
"They are still coming to us 14 years later," he adds. "Three or four years after the Asti incident, they were running a Friday lunchtime wine club!"
