The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Art School
We assessed The Art School 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.
The Art School is Paul Askew's fine-dining restaurant in Liverpool, cooking an ambitious, produce-led modern British menu across prix fixe, tasting and vegan formats. Its wine programme is one of the most complete in the city: around 250 bins under a working sommelier, generous by the glass and by Coravin, and strong from grande marque Champagne right through to a full Sherry and Port tail. It will suit anyone who wants a serious cellar to explore over a special-occasion dinner, and who is happy to lean on the sommelier to get the best from it.
The full assessment — the wine programme, the pairings that lift a plate, and how the room reads for a wine lover — is for subscribers.
Subscribe for full access Already subscribed? Sign inMore in North West England
El Gato Negro Tapas
Liverpool, North West England
Modern Spanish tapas
El Gato Negro is a modern Spanish tapas restaurant on Castle Street, cooking classic and contemporary small plates for sharing. Its wine programme is small but genuinely wine-led: independently sourced with a Master of Wine, and strongest in a dry-to-sweet sherry range that partners the food better than any house pour. It will suit anyone who enjoys eating and drinking their way across a table, and who is glad of sherry done properly.
Read the assessmentAuberge Brasserie
Southport, North West England
French and English brasserie
Auberge Brasserie is an accessible French-and-English brasserie in Southport with a French-led list that runs from house pours to village Burgundy and cru Beaujolais. The programme matches the cooking well and provides for the menu's hardest cured-fish plates by the glass, even if it neither signposts those matches nor stretches to a fortified or a proper dessert shelf. It will most suit the diner who wants dependable French classics and a fair glass alongside a brasserie meal, rather than one hunting a cellar to explore.
Read the assessment