Hotel Du Vin Wine dinner

fabby evening with Jason Bouren woops no Busby! and the superb Christopher Delalonde

Hotel Du Vin has changed over the years from the original concept from Gerard Basset whose idea of offering a variety of top class wines with simple food which began the operation with a couple of hotels in 1994. Since then it has blossomed in to a larger business with three outlets in Scotland and the most recent one to open in St Andrews. It has retained the good wine idea and uses top class wine merchant Bancroft wines as one of their suppliers. The food is bistro style and the atmosphere very relaxed. Those that remember the St Andrews Golf hotel are in for a lovely surprise, spick and span and friendly staff! They are fortunate to have Christopher Delalonde at the helm who is one of those people who has forgotten more about his special subject than I will ever know – wine! Former Piper – Heidseick Champagne sommelier of the year A Master Sommelier whose skills as a host are also impeccable. St. Andrews is indeed blessed to have such a man

On my visit for a wine tasting dinner which was held in their intimate Macallan Boardroom with whisky still life’s on the walls and spectacular views over the west sands, we had a tasting presented by Jason Busby from Bancroft wines whose quiet knowledge of his subject has come from years of experience and from also making wine, which for this writer was most interesting as you can imagine! “Chateau Largo” will declare its first vintage later this year. It was a Rioja evening and we began with a delicious light white to drink with a simple canapé of chicken liver parfait. Jason descriptions and explanations were most enlightening and bodes well for future events I had never had a single vineyard Rioja before and this was superb but you can always recognise a good wine as it continues to develop in the glass and under Christopher’s careful chilling warming and decanting as appropriate we had a real viniferous experience, matched with contrasting textures and flavours from the kitchen. My favourite was probably the 2007 reserva which not only developed with each mouthful but responded to each dish in a different way. If this kind of quality of wine and information sets a bench mark then there will be many more excellent evenings to enjoy at the Hotel Du Vin St Andrews.

They plan also to focus on wine events and hold a wine tasting every Friday with canapés for just £19 and with Christopher to guide you, you could ask for no better wine experience, unique indeed to St Andrews. – Seek it out