VINEALTO™
English
English More languages coming soon

← Back to the Guide

The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers

The Duncombe Arms

81/100
  • Ellastone, Staffordshire
  • Modern British gastropub
  • By the glass
  • premium
  • Beta
What's this?

These are confidence labels — how sure we are that what we publish still reflects the restaurant's current practice. They are not a judgement on the restaurant; the wine and cooking are scored separately, out of 100.

  • Beta — assessed and scored, but we are still confirming some details (such as the current wine list), so it is published with that caveat.
  • No label — a fully confirmed entry.
  • In development — not yet a review; it appears so you can see where coverage is coming.

Some restaurants change their menus often, and we cannot always keep pace. Even so, our review stands as a point-in-time assessment — it can help you decide whether to visit, and it sets out the principles of pairing wine here, which should serve you whatever is on the list when you go. If things have moved on, the Vinealto pairing app can give you up-to-date advice on the spot.

The Duncombe Arms is a polished modern-British dining pub in rural Staffordshire whose wine list would not look out of place in a serious city restaurant. Its wine programme does something rare — it prints a considered by-the-glass match beneath every course and backs it with a deep, well-travelled cellar and an unusually generous by-the-glass range — so the food and the wine genuinely lift each other. It will reward anyone from a curious first-timer following the printed pairings to a Bordeaux lover heading straight for the Cellar Selection.

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

More in Staffordshire

58/100 Beta

The Upper House

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

Modern British hotel restaurant

The Upper House is a family-run hotel restaurant at Barlaston serving a generous, seasonal all-day menu on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent. Its wine list is a considered, award-badged selection with genuine by-the-glass breadth and sound, oak-aware answers to the kitchen's cured-fish and spiced plates, let down only by an absent dessert-and-fortified corner. It will suit a relaxed diner who values a well-chosen glass and easy access over the depth of a specialist cellar.

  • By the glass
  • ££ (mains £14–£19; glasses £6.50–£12.50; bottles £27–£90)
Read the assessment

Back to the Guide