The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Bell Inn
The Bell Inn is a village gastropub near Stratford serving a broad, family-friendly menu with real care over local sourcing. Its wine programme is more thoughtful than the format suggests — a genuinely helpful flavour-profile grouping and a quiet organic thread — but it is held back by a list that shows neither prices nor by-the-glass options, which leaves the value unassessable and the ordering harder than it should be. It will most reward the pub-goer who wants a well-chosen, easy-to-navigate bottle with a varied meal, and would reward everyone more once the prices are on the page.
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Bower House
Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire
Modern British restaurant with rooms
Bower House is a Modern British restaurant with rooms in a Warwickshire market town whose wine list is far more serious than its setting would suggest. The programme earns its standing on breadth, on a Coravin and by-the-glass offer that puts fine and mature bottles within reach, and on a Champagne and sweet-and-fortified depth rare outside the cities, held just short of the top only by the absence of printed pairing at the table. It will most reward the curious diner who wants a genuinely good list in the country and is happy to lead the conversation with the floor.
Read the assessmentThe One Elm
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Modern British
The One Elm is an all-day Peach Pubs dining pub in the middle of Stratford-upon-Avon, cooking an ambitious modern-British menu from sharing plates to dry-aged steaks. Its wine programme earns a strong standing on a broad, well-structured group list poured almost entirely by the glass, a good sparkling range down to a Sussex fizz and an unusually complete sweet-and-fortified tail, held back only by absent vintages and no pairing printed against the food. It will most reward the diner who wants to drink well by the glass across a varied table without studying a list, trying a small pour before settling on a bottle.
Read the assessmentWildes
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Modern small plates, boards and grills; wine and Champagne bar
Wildes is a wine and Champagne bar with a casual kitchen, where a hundred-plus style-banded list and a dedicated house-Champagne programme are the reason to go. Its real strength is the generous by-the-glass offer across every band, which lets you drink seriously alongside heat-forward small plates and grills, even if the food never quite reaches for the list's fine tier and there is nothing sweet or fortified for pudding. It will suit the wine lover who wants grande marque Champagne and grand cru bottles by the glass in a relaxed room, and does not mind a menu built for sharing over fine dining.
Read the assessmentGrace and Vine
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Spanish-inspired small plates and pintxos
Grace and Vine is a small, wine-led Spanish small-plates room where the list, not the kitchen, is the reason to book. Its almost-entirely-by-the-glass natural and organic wines, poured in four formats down to the carafe, make exploring easy and turn a grazing menu into a run of matches, held back only by the lack of anything sweet or fortified for pudding. It will suit the curious drinker who wants to try natural wine by the glass alongside good Spanish small plates and does not mind buying without vintages on the page.
Read the assessmentLoxleys Restaurant and Wine Bar
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Modern British
Loxleys is an ambitious modern British restaurant and wine bar in the middle of Stratford-upon-Avon, cooking across oysters, chargrilled Hereford beef and a spread of spiced and seafood plates. The wine programme earns its place on a genuinely helpful taste-band structure, a sound regional spread and a small-format sweet-and-fortified tail, held back by a table list that runs by the bottle only, prints no vintages and leaves the hardest plates without a dedicated pour. It will most reward the theatre-goer who wants a list they can navigate by taste and a kitchen with the range to match a crisp white or a savoury red.
Read the assessmentVynes of Kenilworth
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Wine bar and small plates
Vynes is an independent Kenilworth wine bar serving small plates and a short, personally-chosen wine list. Its strength is an approachable by-the-glass range with real character at the top end, held back by clear gaps — no sparkling and nothing sweet or fortified — that leave some of its own food unmatched. It will suit the drinker who wants a relaxed glass or two across a few plates and is happy to lean on the by-the-glass whites and reds rather than the full run of a cellar.
Read the assessmentThe Vintner
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Modern British and European bistro
The Vintner is a long-standing all-day bistro and wine bar a short walk from the theatres, serving dependable local cooking from breakfast to dinner. Its wine programme is a compact, fairly-priced list whose real strength is that every bottle can be poured by the glass and whose real weakness is a total absence of dessert and fortified wine, though it covers the fish-forward plates with sensible stocked choices. It suits a pre-theatre or family table that wants a good glass matched to whatever each person is eating, rather than a cellar to explore.
Read the assessment