Wine Bar Review: The Remedy

I got very excited when I found out that The Remedy had opened in Fitzrovia (www.theremedylondon.com). The three friends who set it up – David, Renato and Dany – used to work together at Terroirs, another London wine bar that I like but which is tied to buying wines from their parent company, the wine merchant Les Caves de Pyrene. So the thought of these guys opening a wine bar that was unrestricted in what it could offer wine-wise, but with a similar ethos (the wine is top priority, the food just a delicious accompaniment) all sounded pretty much perfect.

We went there for lunch and were met by the very charming David, who is the epitome of a fun (not snobby/judgemental) wine fanatic, and he helped suggest what wines we should try. I said we wanted to be wowed by something we hadn’t tasted before, and boy were we in for a treat. It being a beautiful sunny day (only last week, sob!) we stuck to the white and orange wines (more on that shortly) and we quickly picked up on the true theme of this wine list – every single glass we tried was deliciously unique, evidently hand crafted by very small wineries, some a little off-the-wall but all were sublime.

From the white wines we tried, our favourite was by far the Salvaje Blanco from Granada, a Sauvignon Blanc planted on Spain’s highest vineyards which tasted of bitter orange and almonds. Another deliciously different Sauvignon Blanc we tried was the Quartz, Les Cailloux du Paradis from the Loire Valley which was NOTHING like other Loire Sauvignons I have tried and all the better for it – I mistook it for a dry Riesling when we tried it blind! Wonderful stuff.

image taken from http://www.theremedylondon.com/

 

I mentioned Orange wines earlier, and no doubt a few of you are thinking, “What the hell is she on about?!” Orange wines are hugely fashionable in London at the moment, so named because of their colour rather than their contents. Basically they are white wines made using the same methods as red wine: the skins are left for a prolonged period, producing tannins and leaving the wine spicier, herbier and drier than most. Once you get past the surprising appearance, these wines are an absolute wonder and are delicious with food. At The Remedy, we tried Don Chisciotte Fiano from Campania in Southern Italy which I thought was gorgeous, full of spicy citrus and herb flavours (we actually got to compare the 2013 and the 2010, I personally preferred the younger wine with its hint of spritz on the finish). Then David let us taste Alec Klinec’s Rebula (aka Ribolla grape) from Slovenia which was wonderfully full-bodied and spicy with a lovely hint of honey. Amazing.

If you’ve never tried orange wines or natural wines before, this is the place to go. They have one of those brilliant toys, the Coravin, which means they can open lots of different bottles for you to try, and they also change their wine list weekly. You may have read some bad press about natural  wines in the past, but I can assure you that none of the ones we tried tasted faulty because these guys understand the importance of leaving their customers wanting to try more. This is an area of wine that I am still learning about myself and I’m enjoying every sip.

Happy Swigging!