The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Provender
We assessed Provender in July 2026 from the menu and wine list as they stood then. Dishes and bottles move on; how to drink well here changes far more slowly. We name bottles from the list we saw and say what to reach for by style, so the advice outlasts the list. Once you are seated, At the Table in the Vinealto app reads the list in front of you.
Provender is a Border town dining room cooking a seasonal modern Scottish and French menu from an excellent Scottish larder. Its wine programme earns its place on a broad, keenly-poured by-the-glass offer and a compact, intelligently chosen list that lets a table drink a glass to each course, let down only by the gaps a fuller list would close: no dessert or fortified wine for the puddings, and no printed pairings to point the way. It will most reward the diner who likes to drink by the glass across a meal and wants a considered, unfussy list to do it from.
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Burts Hotel
Melrose, Scottish Borders
Modern Scottish
Burts Hotel is a long-standing Borders coaching inn serving settled Scottish-French cooking across a bistro and a restaurant menu. Its wine programme earns its standing on a classic, merchant-supplied cellar with genuine claret and white-Burgundy depth and real maturity, let down by an absent by-the-glass offer and no dessert or fortified wine to close a meal. It will most reward the traditional drinker who wants a well-chosen bottle of Bordeaux or a crisp white with Scottish beef and fish, and is happy to drink by the bottle.
Read the assessmentThe Townhouse
Melrose, Scottish Borders
Modern British brasserie
The Townhouse is a Borders hotel brasserie and restaurant cooking a seasonal modern British menu from good Scottish produce across two rooms. Its wine programme is a traditional bottle list with a genuine and gently-priced Bordeaux heart, let down for a wine lover only by the lack of a by-the-glass offer and a little looseness in how it is kept. It will most reward the diner who is happy to choose a bottle for the table and knows to look to the clarets, where the list is at its most serious and its best value.
Read the assessment