The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Barnaby's at the Vineyard
Barnaby's at the Vineyard is a Michelin-listed sharing-plates restaurant on a working Cornish vineyard, cooking Mediterranean and North African food. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation through a committed natural and low-intervention list — estate Cornish wines, a serious orange section and characterful bottles from Georgia to the Canaries, much of it by the glass — with the honest gap being no sweet or fortified wine to finish. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore natural wine by the glass against adventurous, spice-led food.
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Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling
Newquay, Cornwall
Modern British tasting-menu fine dining
Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling is a Michelin-starred, modern-British tasting-menu restaurant on the headland above Fistral Beach in Newquay. Its wine programme is one of the most serious in the South West — a deep, sommelier-curated cellar that runs from a friendly by-the-glass adventure to a genuine fine-and-rare collection, with an outstanding English sparkling showing and a dessert-and-fortified chapter to match. It will reward anyone who loves wine enough to explore it, from a curious drinker dipping a toe in by the glass to a collector chasing a mature Burgundy or a great Champagne.
Read the assessmentPaul Ainsworth at No.6
Padstow, Cornwall
Modern British fine dining
Paul Ainsworth at No.6 is a fine-dining restaurant in Padstow serving a short, curated à la carte of modern British cooking with a wine suggested against every dish. The wine programme is a genuinely serious one — a merchant-grade cellar of grower Champagne, Jura, top Riesling and deep Burgundy and Bordeaux, sorted by how the wines taste and matched to the food at the point the menu is read — held back on the browsable list only by the absence of any sweet or fortified wine. It will most reward the diner who comes to eat the tasting-led menu and treats the cellar, and the person who keeps it, as part of the experience.
Read the assessmentPintxo
Fowey, Cornwall
Spanish tapas and sherry bar
Pintxo is a small waterfront tapas bar whose sherry list is the reason for a wine lover to seek it out. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation in a narrow compass — the hardest plates on the menu, the salt-cured anchovies and sardines, are precisely the ones the by-the-glass flor sherries answer most completely, and the sweet sherries carry the pudding. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore sherry properly, glass by glass, against the food it was made for.
Read the assessmentCastaways
Mylor Bridge, Cornwall
Wine bar and restaurant, seasonal seafood
Castaways is a harbour wine bar and seafood kitchen at Mylor whose list is built, unusually well, for the food it serves. The wine programme earns its standing on that integration and on a generous four-size by-the-glass offer of the house and mid-range, with a bottle-only tier that climbs to Burgundy and Champagne, let down only by the absent sweet and fortified wines its puddings would welcome. It will most reward the drinker who wants to taste widely by the glass alongside good seafood, with the option to finish on something serious by the bottle.
Read the assessmentPrawn on the Lawn
Padstow, Cornwall
Seafood small plates
Prawn on the Lawn is a fishmonger and seafood small-plates restaurant on Duke Street in Padstow, cooking a daily catch-driven menu of raw, cured, grilled and Asian-dressed fish. Its wine programme earns its place by being built for that food — a compact, characterful list of high-acid Atlantic and coastal whites, orange wines for the aromatic plates and a by-the-glass Manzanilla for the oily fish — held back only by a near-absent sweet-and-fortified corner and the lack of a printed pairing against each dish. It will most reward the diner who comes for the seafood and lets the by-the-glass list lead, treating the counter and the person pouring as part of the meal.
Read the assessmentThe Mariners
Rock, Cornwall
Gastropub, British and seafood
The Mariners is Paul Ainsworth's easy-going Rock gastropub, sending out Cornish seafood, a proper grill and a Goan-spiced plate or two beside the Camel estuary. Its short, sensibly bought list leans on unoaked high-acid whites and a well-priced by-the-glass range that flatter the seafood and keep pace with the kitchen's heat, even if the pairing thinking is left to the drinker. It will suit anyone after a relaxed harbourside lunch who wants a well-chosen glass without ceremony, and who is happy to lean on the floor team for the final call.
Read the assessmentSamphire at The Old Quay House
Fowey, Cornwall
Coastal Cornish, small plates and mains
Samphire is a relaxed waterfront kitchen in Fowey serving Cornish produce and globally spiced sharing plates. The wine programme is a sound, mostly commercial list whose real strength is a Cornish and English sparkling offer that carries both the seafood and the heat, though the spicier plates and the sweeter end of the meal are underserved. It will most reward the diner who wants approachable, well-priced wine by the glass and is happy to let a good dry fizz lead the way.
Read the assessmentGRAZE
Newquay, Cornwall
Spanish and Mediterranean tapas
GRAZE is a casual Spanish and Mediterranean tapas bar in the middle of Newquay. Its wine programme is a short, sensibly Iberian, brand-led list that punches above its size on sherry and sparkling and sits genuinely close to the food, even if it stops short of a deep or fully guided cellar. It will suit a relaxed table that wants sherry by the glass with the jamón and a well-chosen Spanish white or red to graze through the plates, rather than anyone hunting a serious cellar.
Read the assessment