The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Sotto Sotto
Sotto Sotto is a long-standing Italian restaurant in Bath with an all-Italian kitchen and an all-Italian list, strongest in its serious Piedmontese and Tuscan reds. The wine programme matches the food well and offers real depth at the top end, held back by a limited by-the-glass range and the complete absence of any sweet or fortified wine to finish on. It will most reward the drinker who loves Italian wine and wants to explore its regions across a proper Italian meal.
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Corkage
Bath, Somerset
Modern British small plates / wine bar
Corkage is a wine-led bar, restaurant and bottle shop in Bath where a merchant-grade, award-winning list is the reason to book and the kitchen cooks seasonal small plates to suit it. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — it answers the hardest things on the menu, the oily fish and the chilli-and-ferment plates, with exactly the right saline whites, Sherries and fresh low-tannin reds, and its Coravin and by-the-glass breadth put serious bottles within easy reach. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to explore widely by the glass and wants a kitchen and a cellar built around wine.
Read the assessmentThe Beckford Bottle Shop
Bath, Somerset
Wine bar / bottle shop with bistro small plates
The Beckford Bottle Shop is a Bath wine shop with a small bistro, where the whole three-hundred-bottle range is yours to drink in for a flat corkage and the kitchen cooks clean, seasonal boards and small plates to suit it. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation through sheer access and honest pricing — it can answer any plate on the menu, and meets the hardest of them, the cured fish and the asparagus, with exactly the right bone-dry saline whites. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to browse a great shelf and drink well without a restaurant markup.
Read the assessmentBeckford Canteen
Bath, Somerset
Modern British
Beckford Canteen is the all-day sister to Bath's Beckford Bottle Shop, a relaxed modern-British dining room with a thoughtful, style-led wine list generous by the glass and the carafe. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the list is built to match the seasonal kitchen, and it meets the hardest plates, the artichoke and the raw-tomato gazpacho, with exactly the right high-acid whites, sparkling and chilled reds. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to eat and drink well without ceremony and likes a list that makes exploring easy.
Read the assessmentThe Marlborough Tavern
Bath, Somerset
Gastropub
The Marlborough Tavern is a long-running Bath gastropub with two AA Rosettes, cooking generous, spice-forward pub food alongside a wine list far more serious than the setting suggests. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation for the money — a broad, well-bought list, strong by the glass and unusually complete in its fortified and sweet wines, that carries the fresh whites, sparkling and soft reds the spicier plates need. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to eat informally but drink seriously, and to explore a good list a glass at a time.
Read the assessmentBeckford Bottle Shop
Bath, Somerset
Wine bar bistro (British small plates, cheese and charcuterie)
Beckford Bottle Shop is a Bath wine merchant with a bistro attached, where the shelves are the list and a flat dine-in corkage makes a deep, fairly priced range drinkable at the table. The wine programme earns its standing on that honesty and on a characterful, glass-and-carafe-friendly buy that spans Croatia, Greece and Georgia as readily as France, let down only by a thin sparkling shelf and no sweet or fortified wine for the cheese. It will most reward the grazing wine lover who wants to drink widely by the glass, follow the shelves, and pay closer to shop than to restaurant prices.
Read the assessmentThe Circus
Bath, Somerset
Modern European
The Circus is a long-running modern-European restaurant near the Royal Crescent, cooking an ambitious, globe-trotting seasonal menu alongside a compact, thoughtfully chosen wine list. The wine programme earns its place through curation rather than depth — small growers, English wine and a real fortified-and-sweet corner by the glass — and it carries the right low-alcohol and low-tannin styles to meet the menu's trickier, spicier and umami-rich plates. It will most reward the curious drinker who values a short, personal list and enjoys eating adventurously.
Read the assessmentGoodfellows, Wells
Wells, Somerset
Modern European seafood specialist
Goodfellows is a Brixham-seafood specialist beside Wells Cathedral, cooking modern French-accented fish across an a la carte and a tasting menu. Its serious, France-deep wine list achieves real mutual elevation — built to the kitchen, strong on the Champagne and crisp whites the fish wants, and generous by the glass right through to Port and three sweet wines. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink properly with seafood and is happy to lean on a genuinely good list and the wine flight to lead the way.
Read the assessmentClayton's Kitchen
Bath, Somerset
Modern British
Clayton's Kitchen is a refined modern-British restaurant in Bath, cooking a seasonal, produce-led menu alongside a well-chosen, French-leaning wine list. The wine programme matches the food thoughtfully, with real depth in Burgundy, the Loire and Bordeaux, a generous by-the-glass and carafe range and dessert wine to finish, held back only by a premium price point and the finer bottles being bottle-only. It will most reward the drinker who enjoys a grown-up French-led list and wants to eat and drink carefully across a proper meal.
Read the assessment