Tell us about the moment you first became interested in wine
I can’t say that there was one epiphanic moment when I became a wine lover. I suppose it started with my parents - they definitely showed me the joys of travel and good food and drink from a young age and from then on my interest just grew the more I was exposed to it. I used hospitality work to travel from when I left home all through my 20s and had the good fortune to work in some great places with good lists and some really talented people all over the world. I just tried to absorb all the knowledge I could, I never set out with the intent of making a career of it.
Describe your wine list at Cardinal
They are first and foremost, wines that I love to drink, vibrant and full of life, but also wines that make sense alongside our food offering. Why go to the lengths of seeking out a well-reared piece of meat and regeneratively farmed produce to then wash it down with a wine that has been chemically fertilised, sprayed with pesticides, filtered through various animal parts and then pumped full of sulphites? We prefer to work with producers who are making their wines more consciously - living with the land rather than on it and enriching their communities and the environments they cultivate.
Over the course of your career, have you had any wine-related disasters?
Fortunately no professional ones I can think of, but in the early stages of dating an ex-girlfriend I did once have to drink a bottle of very corked Albariño to spare her feelings. It was awful, I can still taste it.
Name your top three restaurant wine lists
Yard in Paris, Noble Rot in London and Timberyard here in Edinburgh.
Who do you most respect in the wine world?
Winemakers who are not born into a wine family or the wine world. Where possible I always try to tell the stories behind the wines I pour and the people that make them and I find myself regularly talking about this person or that person who used to work in IT or as a wedding photographer or didn’t make their first wine until the age of 60. I think those of us that work in the service side of the wine industry (and I’m guilty of this) highly romanticise the idea of just packing it all in, buying a few acres somewhere sunny and spending our days making wine.
What’s the most interesting wine you’ve come across recently?
Soki Soki - a Zibbibo from Tanca Nica on the island of Pantelleria (off the coast of southern Italy). The climate and environment there yields a wine unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before, so cool.
What are the three most overused tasting notes?
“Funky”, “tension” and “sense of place”.
What’s the best value wine on your list at the moment?
We have a Chardonnay from Strekov in Slovakia. It’s such a wonderfully unique expression of such a common grape that for me stands up to any good Burgundy, but with nothing near the price tag.
What is your ultimate food and drink match?
I love a dirty martini with oysters.
Old World or New World?
Not that there aren’t New World wines that I love, but Old World every time.
What is your pet hate when it comes to wine service in other restaurants?
The pretentiousness and elitism that seems to surround wine is still far too common. The job of a sommelier is to service the guest, making sure whatever they drink, they enjoy. Too many lord their knowledge or status over people, scoffing or looking down their noses when someone says they like a Marlborough sauvignon.
Who is your favourite producer right now?
Amor Per La Terra. It’s a Catalan-based project with the goal of showcasing the efforts of tradition-lead local grape farmers and protecting the land. It’s such a great cooperative that does so much good and gives so much back, whilst also making some seriously good wines in the process.
As a general manager, what question do you most get asked by customers?
As a newly-opened restaurant, at the moment it’s probably “how’s it been going?”, but I’d say generally I’m often asked about the differences between organic, natural and biodynamic wines.
Which wine producing region or country is underrated at the moment?
The Canary Islands for sure. I think when you say somewhere like Tenerife or Lanzarote to someone they’re just seen as all-inclusive holiday destinations full of booze-fuelled Brits on stag and hen parties, but there are some astoundingly good wines being produced there.
It’s your last meal and you can have a bottle of any wine in the world. What is it and why?
Give me Peking duck with a bottle of 1999 Morgon Côte du Py from Jean Foillard and I die a happy man.
