The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Castle Inn
We assessed The Castle Inn 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 Castle Inn is a seasonal gastropub in Bradford-on-Avon serving pub classics and small plates. Its short, mostly entry-level wine list covers the food competently, with a welcome by-the-glass and carafe range, but stays shallow and offers nothing sweet or fortified for its own dessert menu. It suits the pub-goer who wants a good-value glass with a decent plate, more than the drinker after depth or a wine to finish on.
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La Bobina
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Spanish tapas and sherry bar
La Bobina is a Spanish tapas and sherry bar on Marlborough high street where an almost wholly Spanish list is built to be poured a glass at a time. The wine programme earns its standing on a genuine shared idiom with the kitchen and on an unusually deep Jerez offer (seven Sherries by the glass that answer the hardest, saltiest plates the menu can throw at them), held back only by a thin sparkling range and no stated sustainability story. It will most reward the diner who comes to graze across many small plates and wants a considered glass, or a flight of Sherry, for each.
Read the assessmentDan's Restaurant
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Modern European / global-eclectic
Dan's Restaurant is an independent Marlborough kitchen whose menu crosses continents, backed by an unusually curious forty-bottle list that reaches from a Macedonian white to a Margaux. The wine programme earns its standing on that character and breadth (a buyer following genuine taste rather than filling categories), held back only by a bottle-only offer with no printed by-the-glass and no sweet or fortified wine to see the puddings home. It will most reward the curious drinker happy to choose a whole bottle and travel the list as widely as the menu travels the map.
Read the assessmentThe Marlborough Inn
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Modern British gastropub
The Marlborough is a Wiltshire country inn cooking confident modern-British gastropub food, with a short, sensible international wine list priced generously by the glass. The wine programme does its job competently and has a genuine local strength in its sparkling, but it is assembled to cover the menu rather than built to it, and it closes with a clear gap where a dessert or fortified wine should be. It will most reward the diner who wants a well-priced, well-explained glass beside a good pub plate rather than a list to explore for its own sake.
Read the assessment