The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Angel of Corbridge
The Angel of Corbridge is an ambitious Modern British pub whose kitchen travels far wider than its wine list. The wine programme rests on an accessible, honestly priced by-the-glass format — nearly every still wine in three sizes — rather than on the buying, which is generic and not built to meet the kitchen's heat and spice. It will most reward the casual diner who wants an affordable glass to suit each plate and is happy to follow this guide's steer rather than the list's, not the wine lover chasing a considered cellar.
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The Beaumont Hexham
Hexham, Northumberland
Hotel restaurant, British/grill
The Beaumont is the restaurant of a Northumberland hotel in Hexham, cooking modern British food around a charcoal Josper grill. Its wine programme is a well-organised, keenly priced merchant list that flexes intelligently across a menu running from raw shellfish to grilled red meat, with a generous by-the-glass offer and — rare for a hotel — a sweet and a fortified wine by the small glass for the cheese course. It will most reward the everyday wine lover who wants a dependable, well-explained glass to suit a varied table, rather than the collector chasing rare bottles.
Read the assessmentThe Lord Crewe
Bamburgh, Northumberland
Seafood-led hotel restaurant
The Lord Crewe is a seafood-led hotel dining room in Bamburgh, cooking its own coast — Craster kippers, Berwick crab, North Sea fish and lobster — in a classic British idiom. The wine programme is a broad hotel list, everyday at the foot and blue-chip at the top, with plenty of the high-acid unoaked whites its seafood wants and a genuine dessert corner, let down mainly by a published version that shows neither prices nor by-the-glass options. It will most reward the guest happy to ask for the full list on arrival and take the floor's steer, especially towards the crisp whites that answer the kitchen's smoked-fish plates.
Read the assessmentVercelli
Hexham, Northumberland
Modern Italian
Vercelli is a family-run modern Italian in central Hexham, cooking pizza, pasta, risotto and steaks alongside a cocktail bar. Its wine list is a compact, keenly priced commercial selection — Italy-led, with a fair by-the-glass spread and a Champagne by the half-bottle — that serves the food capably but is not built to answer its own hardest plates, with the cured-fish dishes and an absent dessert wine among the gaps. It will suit the everyday diner who wants a dependable glass with a good pizza, rather than the wine lover chasing a curated cellar.
Read the assessmentThe Victoria Hotel
Bamburgh, Northumberland
Hotel bar and brasserie
The Victoria Hotel is an all-day bar and brasserie in the centre of Bamburgh, cooking a wide, crowd-pleasing menu with a genuine eye on wine. The wine programme earns its place on communication and value — a clearly priced, well-noted house list, generous by the glass, with a suggested pairing printed against many dishes — held back only by its short reach and the absence of any sweet or fortified wine for pudding. It will most reward the everyday diner who wants to drink well without studying a list, and who takes the by-the-glass steer above towards an unoaked, high-acid white for the kitchen's oily-fish plates.
Read the assessment