The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Margo
Margo is a Merchant City sharing-plates restaurant, Bib Gourmand for its cooking, with a wine list far more serious than the format suggests. The programme earns its standing on a genuinely curated, low-intervention-leaning cellar with real grower-Champagne and Jura depth, poured generously by the glass and fairly priced, let down only by the absence of dry Sherry and of any printed pairing for the harder plates. It will most reward the diner who likes to drink across a varied table from high-acid whites and chilled reds, and who is happy to ask the floor for the right glass against the spicier dishes.
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63 Tay Street
Perth, Scotland
Modern Scottish fine dining
63 Tay Street is a long-established Modern Scottish fine-dining restaurant in Perth, serving seasonal set and tasting menus built on named Scottish produce. Its wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a bespoke wine is chosen, explained and poured against every course, drawn from a wide-ranging, personally curated list with a full fortified and dessert tail and a generous by-the-glass offer. It will most reward the diner who wants the pairing done properly, either by taking the flight and trusting the house or by drinking by the glass through a list that rewards curiosity.
Read the assessmentUnalome by Graeme Cheevers
Glasgow, Scotland
Modern Scottish
Unalome by Graeme Cheevers is a Michelin one-star Finnieston dining room serving precise modern Scottish tasting menus with a current of Japanese seasoning. The wine programme matches the kitchen at its own level — a merchant-grade cellar with real vintage depth, an exceptionally complete by-the-glass and by-the-measure offer across every style, and two pairing-flight tiers that answer the menu's hardest plates fluently. It will most reward the wine lover who wants a serious cellar to explore at a tasting-menu table, and who values being able to drink grand bottles by the glass as much as by the bottle.
Read the assessmentCail Bruich
Glasgow, Scotland
Modern Scottish tasting menu
Cail Bruich is a Michelin-starred modern Scottish tasting-menu restaurant in Glasgow's West End, cooking tightly around Scottish provenance. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a merchant-grade, mature-vintage cellar bought in real harmony with the kitchen, with by-the-glass depth across every style, an exceptional sweet-and-fortified corner, and two pairing flights, one a serious rare-and-old-wine tier, that carry the integration through the meal. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink seriously alongside ambitious cooking and is happy to let a deep, well-led list, or its pairing, set the pace.
Read the assessmentHaar
St Andrews, Scotland
Modern Scottish seafood, restaurant with rooms
Haar is a chef's restaurant with rooms by the Old Course, cooking modern Scottish seafood with a bold Asian accent. Its wine programme is the genuine article — an intelligent by-the-glass range and a fine-wine and vintage-Champagne cellar of real depth, unusually well equipped for the kitchen's smoked fish and spice. It will suit the wine lover who wants to drink seriously, whether by the accessible glass or from a benchmark bottle for an occasion.
Read the assessmentThe Wine Press
Dundee, Scotland
Wine bar, small plates
The Wine Press is a Dundee wine-merchant's bar, matching a menu of small plates, patés, charcuterie and cheese to a list drawn from a cellar that has been trading since 1874. The buying is genuinely curated and unusually generous by the glass — a wide printed shortlist plus a rotating self-serve premium selection — so almost any plate can be met glass for glass, and the merchant model keeps the pricing honest. It will suit the curious drinker who likes to graze and explore a glass at a time, and anyone who would rather buy good wine at close to shop price than pay a restaurant's mark-up.
Read the assessmentOx and Finch
Glasgow, Scotland
Contemporary Mediterranean small plates
Ox and Finch is a Michelin Bib Gourmand small-plates restaurant in Glasgow's West End, cooking bright, Mediterranean-influenced sharing food. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation through an independent, almost entirely low-intervention list bought to suit that food, with a wide by-the-glass offer that lets a table match a fresh, suited glass to each plate as it arrives. It will most reward the curious drinker who enjoys natural and organic wines and likes to graze across both food and list rather than commit to a single bottle.
Read the assessmentAmuse by Kevin Dalgleish
Aberdeen, Scotland
Modern European fine dining
Amuse by Kevin Dalgleish is a modern-European fine-dining basement in Aberdeen with a cellar far deeper than its size would suggest. The wine programme earns its standing on a merchant-grade range and an unusually generous by-the-glass that lets each refined plate find its match, held back only by an absent printed pairing steer and a classic-fortified range kept mostly to a spoken offer. It will most reward the diner who comes for a serious dinner and wants to drink a considered glass with every course rather than commit to one bottle.
Read the assessmentCelentano's
Glasgow, Scotland
Modern Italian-influenced small plates
Celentano's is a Scottish Restaurant of the Year, an Italian-influenced small-plates kitchen newly reopened on Bath Street in central Glasgow. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation through a low-intervention, indigenous-led list, organised by style and poured by the glass, carafe and keg, that is built to range alongside grazing food. It will most reward the curious drinker who enjoys natural wines and lesser-known grapes and likes to graze across both food and list rather than commit to a single bottle.
Read the assessment