To Leith's list, the laurels
Nick Tarayan, managing director of Leith's restaurant in London's Notting Hill, whispered to me over lunch recently: "I've got something really exciting to tell you… we won the AA wine award."
This is the second year of the guidebook's wine award. The first went to John Hoskins MW for his wine list at the Old Bridge hotel, Huntingdon. "This year the final decision was quite difficult," admits the AA's chief hotel inspector David Young. "We had close to 1,000 entries, but we chose Leith's as the overall winner for the individuality of the list." The other two regional winners are Edinburgh's Atrium restaurant, and the Fairyhill hotel and restaurant in the Gower Peninsula, Wales.
Tarayan couldn't be more pleased - Leith's celebrated its 30th birthday on 4 October. No mean feat for a restaurant these days, and one achieved through a level of consistency in executive chef/co-owner Alex Floyd's food, now in the hands of head chef Alastair Ross, and the ever-developing wine list. The Michelin guide recognises its consistency, too - it has awarded Leith's a star for the past five years.
The wine list is Tarayan's baby. He built it up from the French-heavy cellar that existed until the late 1980s. "The only other foreign wine Leith's had when I took over as managing director in 1987 were three German wines and some port," he remembers.
"I set about searching for wines that match the robust style of Leith's food," he says - a task Tarayan believes that many restaurants overlook.
Californian wines are a particular favourite, as is Spain - he raves about the little-known Priorato, and he loves Albari¤o - the country's north-west white jewel. "I get through cases of the stuff," he claims. "And the list has to be fun. You have to respect the fact that some people just want to sit down with a bottle of wine and relax. I hate snobbishness in wine - just because we are Michelin-starred, customers shouldn't feel they have to go for a smart, white Burgundy."
Instead, he'll offer Niebaum-Coppola Bianco, made by US film-maker Francis Ford Coppola. Here's how Tarayan describes the 1998 on the list: "Not exactly a godfather of a wine - this white has sweetly-scented fruit reminiscent, according to Coppola, of his earliest childhood memories. What he was doing drinking such a luscious, round, weighty white with a lovely crisp aftertaste, is anyone's guess."
But before you follow suit, bear in mind that Tarayan spends about an hour a day on the list, even though he has the help of his sommelier Simon Green. And he attends, on average, three tastings a week. "It's the only way - the wine trade changes every week," he says. "It's a labour of love - but it's a lot of fun too." n
by Fiona Sims
