Wedgwood the Restaurant has clinched the Wine Award at the SLTN Awards – in the same week it was named in the Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants.
The SLTN Awards recognises the best of Scotland’s licensed trade, with Wedgwood beating Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow and The Horseshoe in Eddleston to take the top spot.
Lisa Wedgwood, who runs the Canongate restaurant alongside husband Paul, claimed the secret of their success was a wine list which was as “varied as possible”.
Lisa said: “We have our classic styles such as Chablis, Bordeaux and other wines that you’d expect to see, such as a New Zealand Sauvignon and an Australian Shiraz. But then we also go for wines which are that little bit different – lesser known varietals from obscure countries. We have a lovely red from Bulgaria and two hugely popular Romanian wines.”
The restaurant stocks more than 100 wines from all over the world ranging from under £20 a bottle to £90. But Lisa stressed that the perfect wine wasn't necessarily the most expensive – depending on personal taste, the dish it is chosen to accompany and even with whom the customer is eating.
“A good wine is one that you enjoy from the first taste to the last sip,” she said.
“We like to work with small independent wineries, and we have been very lucky to have met a lot of the wine producers at the restaurant or at their own winery.
“The time, love and effort it takes some of these small producers to make their final wine is amazing; we love to showcase these wines.
“We work very closely with our wine suppliers. They know what we like and the wine producers we like to represent and whenever they come across anything new, they bring it to us to try.
“It’s always great to meet the producer face to face and hear them talk about their wine, it makes us just as excited to then share the wine with our guests at the restaurant.
“Whenever we travel abroad we will always try to incorporate a visit to a winery and try the local wines.”
Chef patron Paul Wedgwood added: “We put a lot of care and time into sourcing the very best wines to match our food, so we’ll be cracking open a bottle of something fizzy from the cellar to celebrate.”
From the white wine selection, a Pinot Grigio from Romania cost as little as £19 per bottle. But for those with a bit more cash to spend can pay between £70 and £90 for a Cote de Beaune Chardonnay. A Rose or sweet wine can cost anything from £21 a bottle to £34. A bottle of Shiraz from the Barossa region of Australia is £24, a Tempranillo from Rioja £16 and a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley in California costs £90.
