Wine & drinks
Menu and wine pairings
As our guests pre-book and pre-order, which achieves our sustainability and zero waste, menus are sent out in advance and usually include a matched wine suggestion for the main elements. We suggest reasonably priced wines and sometimes a more luxurious wine as well. It's just a suggestion and you are free to choose whatever you want. We offer some very nice wines by the glass and we have the Coravin system and aeration. On the tasting menus we also offer a tailored wine flight for groups.
We use fine stemware mostly from Riedel, but have other fine glassware available for special tastings, including Schott Zwiesel, Alto, Jancis Robinson and Josephinenhütte. We also have fine cut lead crystal John Jenkins stemware which is photogenic for wedding celebrations.
Our list - over 200 wines in stock
We don't publish our list online. It's always subject to change as wines do sell out and very fine wines which we sourced, often many years ago en primeur, have limited stocks of different vintages in our cellar. We regularly visit new vineyards & suppliers, and refine our offering after tastings. As lifelong fine wine enthusiasts we curate the list entirely ourselves and don't offer wines / producers that we have not tasted. We don't aim to cover the entire world, but rather focus on regions and styles that we love. We currently stock over 200 wines, including a range of champagnes, very fine Sugrue and Herbert Hall English wines, and other sparkling wines such as Crèmante, plus around twenty dessert wines.
Because of our owner's German roots, where her extended family owns a vineyard in the Mosel region, we specialise in German Rieslings from the best producers, whom we visit regularly; invariably family businesses with exclusive wines. We also specialise in fine Bordeaux and Burgundy as lifelong collectors. Our list covers a wide price range, from inexpensive, through to high end such as Ch. Margaux, Palmer, Latour, Lafite and Petrus. We also carry what some enthusiasts regard as cult wines such as Ch. Musar, plus some exceptionally fine English wines from multi award winning Dermot & Ana Sugrue.
We work too with Tim Fletcher, who owns Rodney Fletcher Vintners in Horsmonden, literally 5 minutes away from us in the Kentish weald. Tim has a huge range and for example supplies our house champagne, fine Shiraz, French Cotes du Rhônes and accessible Bordeaux & Burgundies, as well as our most local wine, Herbert Hall sparkling, made in Marden, two villages away.
Low & no-alcohol wine
We carry a small range of low (under 0.5% ABV) & no alcohol white, red & sparkling wines suitable for drivers & even children. We find at family events for example that (well behaved!) children can take part in the toasts and celebrations, and enjoy participating in the adult experience with a glass of zero alcohol sparkling wine.
Bring Your Own (BYO) policy
We are pleased to allow BYO. Corkage starts at £25 plus service for 75cl still wines. We don't allow BYO for wines we already stock, so please notify us in advance what you intend to bring. We require please one purchase of wine from us if you choose to BYO. Zero or low alcohol doesn't count for this but half bottles including dessert wines & half bottles of champagne do. Please see our Terms & Conditions link on the booking page for our full policy, which applies to all wines and drinks.
Cocktails & aperitifs
We offer a small range of cocktails for pre-meal drinks, including non-alcoholic. We stock several gins, malts & whiskies, vodkas etc along with a small range of sherries, ports, armagnacs & cognacs. Please note we are a fine dining restaurant not a bar and so our cocktail range is not huge.
Beer, lager, soft drinks & juices
We carry a range of craft beers, including a Session, IPA and Köln German style brewed in the excellent Tonbridge Brewery, only 2 miles away in the village of East Peckham - as local as it can get, and why we have partnered with them along with the fact that their quality is superb. We stock low or no alcohol beer too. In season we make our own apple juice from trees in our orchard. We wash & juice apples the day we pick them. Juice may be either fresh during the picking season or pasteurised in house otherwise. No sulphites or preservatives are added to this natural organic product, except a little vitamin C to aid clarification. We make special organic health drinks & smoothies and foraged elderflower cordials for our guests sometimes as an addition to our menus. We stock quality waters in glass bottles, both still & sparking. This includes Eifel still & sparkling water that we bring from Germany - so although that includes transport miles, as we go to Germany frequently there is no additional carbon footprint. We return empty bottles & crates where they are sterilised and re-used, which is greener than the more energy intensive British system.
Tea & Coffee
We have fine "Shi Bui" teas: Japanese for "simple yet complex". The quality this small family business, based in Edinburgh, provide is superior & consistent. Tea must be fresh and carefully handled by the importer and that's exactly what we get from Shi Bui. We sometimes offer premium Japanese loose leaf tea, imported directly from Yumoni in Japan and make in the traditional Japanese way. Because we have to import directly to get the quality we require, supply can be a little erratic. It includes a premium green matcha when available of the quality we seek.
We primarily serve single origin freshly roasted coffee beans. We partner with a small local roastery, Bean Smitten, near Bewl Water at Flimwell in Kent, not far from us and where we charge our electric vehicles. We carry a selection of styles and types, and use our copper double boiler Italian Rocket espresso machine to make totally fresh perfect coffee, ground to order for each cup. We're fanatical about quality.
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