Vinoteca at King's Cross
I don’t usually consider enthusing about a wine bar within
the remit of this blog, but there are exceptions to every rule – and one is the
new Vinoteca at King's Cross. I’ve
visited the other Vinoteca, in Farringdon, Beak Street, Marble Arch and
Chiswick, for tastings, drinks and dinner, and have always enjoyed them, so was
curious to see what they have done at Kings Cross. Another reason possibly for not writing
about Vinoteca is the lack of Languedoc wines on their list – they do have a
couple, but only a couple, but there are so many other tempting things. It
is always good to drink outside one’s comfort zone from time to time, and
Vinoteca’s ever changing wine list by the glass certainly offered plenty of
interest and temptation. So first we
checked out a couple of glasses of fizz, their house champagne from Renard
Barnier and the 209 Gran Reserva Cava
from Juve y Camps.
A week earlier in the Farringdon Vinoteca, I did enjoy a
glass of white Corbières from the coop of Rocbère, but on this occasion it was a delicious
Santorini, a sappy mineral Assyrtiko from a new producer Karamalengos that
tempted. The manager at the King's Cross
Vinoteca, Gus Gluck has worked a vintage on Santorini, and is particularly
enthusiastic about the island’s wines. And then we tried David Ramonteu’s
Dada. David’s father, Henri at Domaine
Cauhape was one of the pioneers of the renaissance of Jurançon, and David went off
to New Zealand, for a stage, and met
a girl, and is currently making wine there.
He has no vineyards, but buys grapes, and for Dada they are an
intriguing blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Viognier and Gewürztraminer. Even though Viognier and Gewurztraminer are
pretty powerful flavours, neither variety dominated the blend.
Vinoteca is open from 7 a.m on weekdays, and 9 a.m. at the
weekend, so it occured to my tasting / drinking buddy that if you were travelling to the Languedoc by
train, you could set yourself up for the journey with breakfast, as Vinoteca is very
conveniently situated for the Eurostar, and in their small shop, which replicates
the wine bar list, you could buy a bottle to go with the picnic lunch that you might enjoy en
route. It is almost tempts me to take the
train rather than the plane!
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