The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Nest at The Feathers
We assessed The Nest at The Feathers in July 2026 and this review is based on the food menu and wine list at the time of the review. As menus and wine lists change, we name styles in order for the information to remain more useful as menus change. If things have slipped you can use the Vinealto Dining app including accessing an up to date reading using 'At the Table' from the wine list in front of you in the restaurant. How we assess
The Nest is the dining room of a Woodstock townhouse hotel, cooking a seasonal Modern European menu of good British produce. The wine programme reaches well beyond the setting, a deep, wide cellar closing on a serious sweet-and-fortified shelf, with a by-the-glass shortlist that runs across every colour and answers the menu's hardest plates without forcing a bottle. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes a great list to explore by the glass and does not mind reaching for the fine bins when the occasion is worth it.
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Cherwell Boathouse
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Modern European riverside fine dining
The Cherwell Boathouse is a riverside restaurant in north Oxford with seasonal modern European cooking. Its long, deep wine list offers mature Burgundy and Bordeaux at fair prices, an inventive shortlist by the glass and outstanding sweet and fortified wines. It will delight anyone who loves older wine and wants to drink it without paying collector prices.
Read the assessmentPompette
Oxford, Oxfordshire
French bistro, low-intervention wine-led
Pompette is a French bistro in Summertown with Alsace roots and a menu that follows the seasons. Its list is personal and deep in Alsace, the Loire and the Jura, with 25 table wines by the glass, carafes on every still wine poured that way and an excellent run of sweet wines by the small glass. It suits anyone who loves French cooking and wants to explore wine with plenty of help along the way.
Read the assessmentOXTWO
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Small plates and charcoal cooking, wine bar
OXTWO is an all day wine bar and small plates restaurant in Summertown, north Oxford, with a menu that travels from Spain to Thailand. Its list of more than two hundred wines pours 33 by the glass plus fourteen sweet and fortified glasses, with fair prices and real depth of age. It suits wine lovers who want to explore, whether by the glass or with a mature bottle from the fine list.
Read the assessmentNo.1 Ship Street
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Modern British brasserie, seafood and dry-aged beef
No.1 Ship Street is an independent Oxford brasserie cooking seafood, steaks and classics in the city centre. Its wide, well priced list pours fifteen table wines and every sweet and fortified wine by the glass, with fine mature bottles. It suits diners who want a polished brasserie meal with a list that rewards curiosity.
Read the assessmentArbequina
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Spanish small plates, natural wine
Arbequina is a lively Spanish small plates restaurant on Cowley Road in Oxford. Its short list is organic, biodynamic or natural throughout, almost every wine comes by the glass or carafe, and seven dry Sherries make it a natural home for tapas. It suits diners who like to graze and drink by the glass.
Read the assessmentOrwells
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Modern British fine dining
Orwells is a country restaurant near Henley on Thames serving creative, seasonal British cooking as an à la carte or a tasting menu. Its cellar list is deep and impressive, especially in Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux, but outside the flights only sweet wines come by the glass. It suits a table happy to share good bottles, or anyone taking the tasting menu with its wine flight.
Read the assessmentGees
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Modern British and Mediterranean, wood-fired
Gees is a long running Oxford neighbourhood restaurant cooking modern British food with a Mediterranean and Asian accent. Its compact list covers the seafood well, with good wines by the glass and carafe and a strong run of Sherry, Port and sweet wines in small measures. It suits diners who want a sound glass with dinner more than those hunting rare bottles.
Read the assessmentThe Crooked Billet
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Modern British dining pub
The Crooked Billet is a long-running Chilterns dining pub whose seasonal kitchen leans on day-boat fish, local game and grass-grazed beef. Its France-anchored list (grand-marque Champagne, cru Beaujolais, a little serious Burgundy and Rhône and a genuinely local traditional-method sparkling) carries the crisp unoaked whites and gentle reds the food needs, let down only by the absence of any steer from the list to the plate. It will suit a table that enjoys ordering for itself and wants a broad, dependable list with a few real highlights, rather than one hoping to be led course by course.
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