The Guide

How we assess

The Vinealto Guide assesses the wine at a restaurant: how well it suits the food, how it is chosen, how it is priced and how it is explained to you. Every entry is scored out of 100 against the same eleven points, set out below.

How an entry is made

We start from the restaurant's own published menu and wine list. Where we have visited, the entry says so. Each entry is evaluated with our own assessment software, working to the framework on this page, then read, corrected where needed and approved by a named member of our team before it is published. We keep a record of who approved which version. We are applying this to every existing entry during October 2026.

Each entry shows the month in which we assessed it.

At the time of writing

Menus and wine lists change, often without notice. Every entry describes the menu and wine list as they stood when we assessed them, and nothing in an entry claims to describe them as they are today. That is why we name styles of wine as well as bottles: a style still holds when a bottle changes.

If you find that something has changed, tell us. Every entry has a button to flag that the menu has changed, and you can always write to elise@vinealto.com.

Opinions and facts

Our scores and our judgements are our honest opinion, based on the facts in the entry. A restaurant can correct a fact at any time. Every entry stays in Beta until the restaurant has had the chance to do so, and once an entry is approved we write to the restaurant to ask it to tell us about anything that is wrong, or anything that changes. We correct facts promptly.

Scores and opinions are ours, and we do not change them on request. If you think an entry is unfair, tell us why and we will reply with our reasons. Our complaints procedure explains how.

The eleven points

Every restaurant is judged against what a serious wine list looks like in its own country, on the same eleven points.

Food-wine integration: How well the wines suit the food on this menu, and whether each makes the other better. It carries the most weight.
Buying philosophy: Whether the list is chosen with knowledge and a point of view, or merely assembled.
Value: Whether the prices are fair for the quality and care of the list, and whether you can drink well for what is charged.
List architecture: How the list is organised and how easy it is to find your way, including the range by the glass.
Customer communication: How clearly the menu and list help you choose: what is by the glass, any pairing notes, and the help available.
Regional diversity: The range of places the wines come from, judged against what suits this menu. A deliberate regional focus counts in its favour.
Sparkling and Champagne: The choice of sparkling wine at different prices, and how it works with the food.
Vintage policy: Whether vintages are shown and chosen with care, where that matters for the wines listed.
Sustainability and local: Provenance, local producers and careful farming, noted as facts, never as a ranking.
Fortified and dessert: Sweet and fortified wines suited to the menu and fairly priced, including small measures.
Accessibility: Help for anyone less confident with wine: honest entry-level choices and a welcoming approach.

How we keep the Guide independent

No restaurant pays for its assessment, its score or its place in the Guide.
Some restaurants use Vinealto for Business, our service that rebuilds wine lists and menus. Using it never influences how we apply our scoring, a word of an entry or where the entry appears, in either direction. A business customer does not see its entry before we publish it, and any change to its entry follows the same route as for every other restaurant.
When we name a wine you can buy, we name it on what is in the glass alone. We take no payment, entry fee, commission or affiliate money from any producer, importer or retailer whose wines we recommend. We may taste wines sent to us free of charge, but a sample never buys a recommendation.

Everything we receive from the trade is listed on Our independence.