The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Haven Bar and Restaurant
We assessed The Haven Bar and Restaurant in July 2026 and this review is based on the food menu and wine list at the time of the review. As menus and wine lists change, we name styles in order for the information to remain more useful as menus change. If things have slipped you can use the Vinealto Dining app including accessing an up to date reading using 'At the Table' from the wine list in front of you in the restaurant. How we assess
The Haven is a waterfront seafood-and-grill restaurant in Lymington with a sensibly bought, fish-first wine list that reaches from honest house glasses to a few serious bottles. The wine programme earns its place on that seafood fluency and on a genuine small-format dessert and Port offer, held back only by by-the-glass choice confined to the house tier and no pairing guidance on the menu. It will most reward the diner who comes for the fish and wants a crisp, well-priced white chosen to suit it without having to work a list.
The full assessment of the wine programme, the pairings and how to get the best experience is for members. Make a free account to read five full entries.
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Samphire at Stanwell House
Lymington, Hampshire
Seafood / modern British
Samphire is the restaurant of Stanwell House on Lymington High Street, with a menu that leans towards fish. Its list of about seventy wines is well organised by style, strong on Hampshire sparkling wine and Champagne and fairly priced, though it prints almost no vintages. It suits diners who want a good fish supper and a glass or bottle of something from Hampshire.
Read the assessmentPulpo Negro
New Alresford, Hampshire
Spanish tapas
Pulpo Negro is a Spanish tapas restaurant in New Alresford, cooking jamón, seafood and fire grilled meat with a weekly changing menu. Its list is Spanish to the core, with 15 wines and eight Sherries and Ports by the glass, a strong organic thread and a fine run of old Rioja. It suits anyone who wants to eat and drink the way Spain does, Sherry included.
Read the assessmentBlue Jasmine Wine and Tapasía
Southampton, Hampshire
Pan-Asian
Blue Jasmine is a marina restaurant in Southampton serving Asian small plates for sharing. Its ambitious list of 88 wines is built around the spice, with sweeter wines flagged for the heat, notes on every bottle and twenty two wines by the glass, though prices run high. It suits wine lovers who want a serious bottle with spiced food and are happy to pay for it.
Read the assessmentThe Bell Inn
New Alresford, Hampshire
Modern British
The Bell Inn is a classic Hampshire inn cooking a seasonal modern British menu at unfussy prices. The wine programme is broad and genuinely well-rounded for a village inn, strongest in the corners most inns neglect (Sherry and Port by the glass, a real sweet-wine shelf, a local sparkling and vintages stated throughout) with a sensible answer for each of the harder plates. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to graze across a list by the glass and appreciates a proper fortified and sweet-wine finish.
Read the assessmentThe Greyhound on the Test
Stockbridge, Hampshire
Modern British
The Greyhound on the Test is a chalk-stream restaurant-with-rooms in Stockbridge cooking a local, seasonal modern British menu. Its wine programme earns its place on a well-judged commercial list with two real strengths for a wine lover (a spread of high-acid coastal whites that answer the seafood and cured-fish cooking, and an unusually deep seam of genuinely local Hampshire sparkling), held back only by the gaps a fuller list would close, chiefly a dry Sherry and an off-dry white for the hardest plates. It will most reward the diner who comes for the river-valley cooking and wants a considered glass of something crisp or local to go with it.
Read the assessment1086 Wine Bar and Charcuterie
Botley, Hampshire
Wine bar / charcuterie and cheese
1086 Wine Bar and Charcuterie is a Hampshire wine bar where you build your own board of cheese and cured meat to go with a list of around sixty wines. Its list is laid out around the cheeses each wine suits and pours 25 wines by the glass, though it offers nothing sweet or fortified for the blue cheeses and the chocolate platter. It will suit a relaxed evening of good cheese and a well chosen glass more than a wine lover hunting for rare bottles.
Read the assessmentLayton's at The Leckford Hutt
Stockbridge, Hampshire
Modern British small plates
Layton's is a relaxed, chef led restaurant on the edge of Stockbridge serving small and large plates with a strong line in Cornish fish. Its well judged merchant list pours 23 wines by the glass or carafe at fair prices, with Champagne and sweet wines by the glass too. It will suit friends who want to share plates and keep the wine choices simple.
Read the assessmentPorters Wine and Charcuterie
Southampton, Hampshire
Wine bar and charcuterie
Porters is a share-and-graze wine-and-charcuterie bar in Southampton where British farmhouse cheeses and cured meats meet a sommelier-curated list. The wine programme does its best work through a broad by-the-glass range and a genuinely useful Coravin fine-wine tier, let down by one telling gap for a cheese bar, with no sweet or fortified wine for the blue cheeses. It will most reward the grazing table that likes to drink widely by the glass and to try a grand bottle a glass at a time.
Read the assessment